Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 107 Transcript

Suzie Price: [00:00:00]

Today's episode is part two in sharing Top Mind, Body, Spirit Products and Ideas for Creating a Wake Up Eager 2024. Tune in today and you're going to hear from a former police chief who's now an organizational development consultant. You're going to hear from a director of human resources for construction company, and you're going to hear from me, and we're all going to share what we're focusing on for our well-being in 2024, and I can't wait to share it with you. It's going to be so much fun. Thanks for being here, Michael. Hit it.

Intro/Outro: [00:00:33]
Welcome to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast, a show designed for leaders, trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development. Each episode is packed full with insider tips, best practices, expert interviews and inspiration. Please welcome the host to his helping leaders, trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price.

Suzie Price: [00:01:03]
Hi, my name is Suzie Price and you're listening to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast, where we cover everything related to helping senior leaders and internal and external consultants create a high commitment, low drama, wake up eager workforce. That's what we want, right? High commitment. High commitment means, I wake up and I want to be here. I wake up and I'm doing things that matter to me. I wake up and I do things that use my strengths. I'm a good fit for my job. And because I feel that way and most of my team feels that way, we don't have much drama because we're all focused on the work and having a great life. And people who are able to use their strengths on the job are six times more likely to say they're committed to the work, and they're three times more likely to say they have a high quality life. And so that's what we focus on here. We want to bring that to every place we touch and every person we meet who is interested in the same thing. We want to help people make good decisions about their people and about themselves. We want a wake up eager workforce. We want a wake up eager world. We want wake up eager teams. We want wake up eager leaders.

Suzie Price: [00:02:06]
We want a wake up eager you. So we focus on that here in the podcast, and we're continuing on this series of Top Mind, Body and Spirit Ideas and Products For a Wake Up Eager 2024. For the show notes our beautiful producer, Kayla is working with her team and creating show notes and creating a transcript and grabbing all the links and putting this all together. So we really, really appreciate Kayla Wells and her company, K Wells Companies, for the work she does in producing this podcast. You can find the show notes at pricelessprofessional.com/mindbodyspirit2024. In part one go back and see that you go use that. Use that link pricelessprofessional.com/mindbodyspirit2024. If you haven't listened to part one, you heard Catherine Foster, who is a brand strategist at Treadaway Design. You heard Dr. Stephen Middleton, a former professor of constitutional history, and you heard, Shaunna Adinolfi, the global support advisor at TTI Success Insights. They all share their top mind, body, spirit, ideas and thoughts for 2024. Today a former police Sergeant, Lieutenant Chief of Police, before moving into consulting, will speak. And the director of HR for construction company will share. So in part one I talked about taking stock of 2023. Did you do that yet? Go back and listen to that. It's a start of part one.

Suzie Price: [00:03:40]
If you did take stock and you got an aha, or you had maybe a different way that you do your review, that might help others, I'd love to hear from you. Or if you get any kind of aha from these episodes or any of our episodes, leave us a message speakpipe.com/WakeUpEagerWorkforce. It's an easy audio tool. You just push a button, speak and it'll come straight to us, and we can use it on future episodes or answer any questions or share your insights. Okay, so we're going to jump in with our first share. First, I want to remind you what the Wake Up Eager Way is. It's a commitment to make daily choices that promote a sense of ease and well-being, so that we bring our best self to whatever we're doing. That's the focus. We're taking care of ourselves. We're looking after ourselves, bringing the best of who we are to what we do. It's a journey. It's not straightforward. It's a crooked line a lot of times up, down, backwards and sideways. But if we continually focus on this and make a commitment to this and realize that we have control over us bringing our best selves by the decisions that we make and how we choose to spend our time, that squiggly line that goes up, down and around, inches forward and goes forward.

Suzie Price: [00:04:50]
Before you know it, you'll be very far ahead just by the steps that you take every day. And we need to focus on all three aspects in trying to find balance in how we think, what we do, and how we feel. If we're over concentrated in any one of those, we can get out of balance. If we're under concentrated in any one of those areas, we can get out of balance. So are we balanced and what are we doing and what do we need to focus on or want to focus on now, as opposed to what we did last year? So let's hear from Mica Lunt. He is, as I've shared already, a little bit about his background, but he's he currently the Principal and Chief Operations Officer of T2L Professional. He was the chief of police and then moved into consulting. He's a proven leader. He's a very dynamic and you'll hear that in his conversations. He's got a diversified educational, experiential background in both the public and private sectors. He has a Master's degree in Psychology. Very smart man, very capable. I watched him facilitate a city council meeting. Just fantastic. He's very skilled and very, very caring and very thoughtful. So let's listen to Mica and what he's focused on this year.

Mica Lunt: [00:06:01]
Hello there Wake Up Eager listeners, I want to say first, thanks a bunch to Suzie for putting this together. I think this is a great way to take like-minded folks that have found things that are successful for them and just share it in a way that benefits us all. So thanks a bunch, Suzie, for putting this together. And without any further ado, these are the things that I use to feed the mind, body and spirit in 2024. On the mental and the the spiritual side of things, I'm a podcast guy, so I have four podcasts that I keep in my library. I'm not super, super devoted to any of them to where I don't miss an episode or anything like that, but what I do is I look at my day and if I'm going to work out or I'm going to go for a run, or I'm going to do something like that, then I'll pick one of these episodes. The two at the top are the ones that I've been listening to for the longest period of time are just incredibly beneficial to me personally, professionally, the whole nine yards.

Mica Lunt: [00:07:40]
Simon Sinek has been doing a bit of optimism for a long time. Probably one of the best things that I like about his episodes is they're incredibly broad. You really never know who he's going to talk to or who he's going to interview, and there's always some really great perspectives on there that that I think pervade kind of business life and personal life. So I really, really enjoy his episodes. There are more and more ads now, everybody wants to have their name attached to Simon Sinek, but it's a great show. I found a lot of value from that. And then Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak. He and Bonnie provide such an incredible library of resources for leaders at really any level. And they have hundreds and hundreds of episodes. Their show notes are fantastic, and they provide access to a library of resources for free within the podcast and within their website that you can go to. I really like their episodes. And one of the things that they do is if you're listening to an episode and one of them is particularly fantastic.

Mica Lunt: [00:09:01]
They'll always say for similar episodes, go to episode 123 or 257 or whatever the case may be. They really catalog their content in a really great way. And then the last two are newer for me that I found. One is The 2% by Eric Partaker. One of the things that I like about Eric Partaker and his work is he does a great job of digesting a lot of information and putting it together in pretty concise formats. And then What Drives You by Kevin Miller really gets at the deep motivations of people and why they are ultimately able to achieve success and persevere through difficulties and things like that. So those are the podcasts that I have on deck. I know not everybody is a podcast person, but for me, the way that I utilize them is if I'm up to it mentally and I can devote time to listening, then I'll turn one of those on while I'm working out or I'm doing something like that. And if something really catches my ear, then I go back and dive deeper into that content. Prayer is important to me. I was born and raised as as a Christian, actually Catholic. I don't practice Catholicism on on a routine basis now, but do very much still identify as a Christian.

Mica Lunt: [00:10:44]
And prayer is important. I try to have that strong relationship with God and ask how I'm supposed to handle certain things. Thank him for all of the blessings that he has offered to me and to my family. And I really try to come to him for guidance in prayer and give him praise for the blessings that I've experienced and just the overall trajectory that he has put me on in life, because I would have never predicted that it would take the turns and twists that it has. But he's always been there with me 100% of the way through the most challenging times. And I couldn't have done it without him. So that's a very important aspect. Switching over to the the physical side, I really want to highlight the app Shred. That's the app that I use to work out. One of the things that I really like about the Shred App is that your profile is obviously unique to you. And if you have equipment at home or you use a gym that you go to regularly, you can set up workout programs based upon the equipment that you have access to.

Mica Lunt: [00:12:20]
So if you've got a pretty small home gym, don't have a whole lot of equipment, but you have some things you can set that up as a profile. And then when you say, okay, I want to do a workout, it'll put together a program for you. It's got different kinds of programs that can be pulled up from strength training to body building to just general fitness and endurance. It has cardio recommendations as well. So it's a great way to get some consistent programming and kind of take the thinking out of it a little bit. I've had some great results by utilizing it and so I really appreciate that. The other thing for me is I travel a lot. And I generally stay at the same kind of hotels, things like that. And so I've put together another gym profile that's like the hotel gym and then it even has another profile where you can just do body weight exercises and so on. So the Shred App very, very flexible in terms of both, what equipment is available to you and in terms of the kind of workout program or workout regimen that you want to personally embark on. You can set all your workouts for different time amounts... 30 minutes, an hour, hour and a half, and so on.

Mica Lunt: [00:13:50]
So really pleased with with that. Then you got some pictures there, so on the physical side with Shred and exercise, I generally do that obviously multiple times per week, hopefully daily, but it's rare that I actually have every single day of a week taken up with working out. But on the top right photo, that's photo of my wife and I in the outdoors, up in the Pacific Northwest on a hike. We love to travel. We love to be outside, and we love to hike. So being in nature is a great way for for me to do that. And whether I'm in a metropolitan area when I'm traveling or I'm here at home and I can get out and take time to go out and be outside, that is is very helpful to me. Bottom right you can see photos of my two dogs. They're enjoying some pup cups from Starbucks. And when I'm, when I am home they bring a tremendous amount of joy and value to life. Back over to the spiritual side, I really think that sometimes our four legged kids as I call them, are voices of God sometimes.

Mica Lunt: [00:15:24]
They just bring me a tremendous amount of value. And I try to find different ways to do cool things with them. Maybe we go for a walk in a new area, or we try to learn some new tricks, some new obedience type stuff. But that journey is very rewarding for me. The other picture there is with my dad and I. That's actually Christmas Day of this past Christmas in '23, just a few weeks ago now. And we're out fishing. And fishing is a great hobby for both of us and my mom. Anytime that we can get out in the outdoors, being on the water, fishing, spending that quality family time together is what we do. It's tough to make time for these kinds of things. That example there on on Christmas Day, we did not intend to go fishing on Christmas Day, the weather worked out, and the way that the day unfolded, we were just able to do it. And we seized that opportunity right then and there to go and do it. We had a great time.

Mica Lunt: [00:16:41]
Lots of times for me as a very busy professional, I get caught up in my agendas, caught up in time schedules and things like that. And they're important, right? I mean, you've got commitments, you've got deadlines, but sometimes you just kind of have to seize the moment and enjoy what's going on in the day. So if there's one overall recommendation that I'd like to leave behind is that you absolutely can schedule out your self-care stuff, right? Mental, spiritual, physical. Maybe there's a show that you really want to watch, things like that. You can schedule that time into your calendar. But I think, and what's helpful to me is, that you also have to have things set aside so that you can quickly add in some of those activities when that time presents itself. And you have to have that as an everyday priority. What am I doing for myself? What am I doing to help recharge so that we can stay at our top game for our families, our friends, our professions, our jobs, and everybody that depends on us. So hopefully that's helpful. Again, Suzie, thank you very much for putting this together. Always a pleasure to be a part of the Wake Up Eager community, and here's to a great 2024.

Suzie Price: [00:18:15]
Well as a result of Mica's sharing, I have a few new podcasts I'm going to check out. I'm always looking for things to listen to, so I'd like some of his professional development type focused areas that are also personal development. I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts about nutrition because that's a hobby of mine. So I liked some of the podcasts that he mentioned. I'm going to tune in to some of those as I drive back and forth to Atlanta from up in the North Georgia mountains, where we're living now. And I really related to his appreciation of his four legged kids. I have two of them who are mostly quiet under my desk and sometimes give us a bark or two, Walter and Oliver. So yes, they add so much joy to our lives. I so much agree with that. And I 100%, 100,000% say schedule out your personal stuff. Yes, yes and yes. You've got to schedule time for you. No one else is going to do that. Nobody's going to find time for you to take your vacation. Nobody else is going to find time for you to get good sleep. Nobody else is going to make sure you eat healthy so you're not living in hospitals. Nobody else is going to move your body for you. That's you taking care of you, and you are worth that. So you have to schedule that. And sometimes it's challenging, but you find little ways to do it so that you aren't last in the scheme of things.

Suzie Price: [00:19:32]
You are first because you bring you to everything you do, and people are counting on you to bring the best part of you to what you do. So find ways to do that, do a little bit at a time and it will grow if it's not as strong as you want. But scheduling it out is a key secret that smart people do, and you're smart, so do that if you're not already doing it.

Suzie Price: [00:19:53]
I recently did a podcast interview with Mica. When you go to the show notes, you will see a link to that episode there. Notes for this episode are pricelessprofessional.com/mindbodyspirit2024. And that is all one word lowercase. All right. I had a discussion with Kate Bakon. She is the director of HR for Fulcrum Construction. This is a little bit different. She didn't just record anything. She and I got on a conversation together where she shared and talked about her focus areas for mind, body, spirit. She's very thoughtful. She's a very good client and a long time friend, and she's one of those friends that if you need anything, she's going to be there for you. And so I just appreciate her a lot and you're going to enjoy what she shares. Let's listen in. All right Kate, thank you for being here. Appreciate you sharing your wisdom and and ideas today.

Kate Bakon: [00:20:50]
You're very welcome. I am excited to do this. As I shared with you earlier, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to really sit and think about what I wanted to do for myself in the three categories of body, mind and spirit for 2024. And so it's like a commitment to myself. And because I know you, I have just signed you up as an accountability partner.

Suzie Price: [00:21:18]
Happily. We always help each other out.

Kate Bakon: [00:21:23]
We do, we do.

Suzie Price: [00:21:24]
Yeah. There's nothing like taking an exercise or taking some time and then sharing it with someone. And in this case our entire listening audience. So that's very brave of you and kind of you to be supportive of the podcast. Tell everybody a little bit about you. You and I go way back, but a little bit about your professional life and anything personal that you want to share.

Kate Bakon: [00:21:46]
I've had more careers than a cat has nine lives. Started out in accounting and finance and then went into real estate development. Not developing myself, but working for one property management, worked for a mortgage company, did underwriting for a bank, dabbled in life coaching, was a financial manager of a church. I even did a little stint in there as a wedding photographer and a nanny. So I feel like at this point in my life, I've done a little bit of it all, and now where I am in the last eight years, I've been an HR director for a construction company, so I've had a very rich and varied professional life.

Suzie Price: [00:22:24]
Yes, you have, yes you have. And you've been at Fulcrum for how long now?

Kate Bakon: [00:22:28]
It will be nine years in March.

Suzie Price: [00:22:31]
Wow. Time flies. I remember when you started there. We appreciate you at Fulcrum being a client of Priceless Professional Development, and mostly I appreciate you for being a great friend and colleague. I love your background. You bring all of that interest to everything you do. The analytical side, creative side. You bring all of that everywhere you go. It's what makes you you.

Kate Bakon: [00:22:59]
It's been a great ride for sure, and I will say that this role in particular is probably my favorite. The detail and the legal part of it, the laws is not my favorite, we talk about that a lot, but I definitely am drawn to the professional development of others and the people component, helping to drive culture. And yeah, it's been good.

Suzie Price: [00:23:26]
Some of the things so many people that listen, we always talk about the Assessment results on what you're Motivators are, and so I'll just share I know you won't mind, but Kate is brilliant, and she's also a very much a High Social Altruistic, so she gives service to people. She's very much her own version of Mother Teresa. That's why this role. I mean, you're just such such a good service minded. I mean, if I ever needed anything, I know you'd be there in a minute, because you're just so service minded and care about people so deeply. And then the other piece that you bring that I'm not very good at, so I always appreciate your perspective, is the High Aesthetic. You see the big picture. I compartmentalize things and you see the big picture and you catch some nuances and use your intuition and so I just always value that in you. So the High Aesthetic and High Social Altruistic are beautiful things that you bring to this world.

Kate Bakon: [00:24:24]
Thank you. And I appreciate you for the Theoretical side because I know when I need a knowledge expert on a topic that I know you're interested in. You're my go to girl. Because I know you're going to know it all.

Suzie Price: [00:24:38]
And I always pull myself back not to share too much, but here's a few things... I try to not overwhelm anybody, especially you, with too much info. Okay, so I know you've given some great thought to this. I'm so interested to hear what some of your mind body, spirit, focus areas are for 2024. Start where you'd like.

Kate Bakon: [00:25:03]
So I have it in body, mind and spirit. So let's start with body first. And I know that you and I have had lots of conversations around these. It's a big thing in January for Dry January. I'm not much of a drinker. I was certainly in younger years of my life, but for me, I really resonate with being sugar sober. My addiction is not drugs, it's not alcohol, it's not food in general, but it is sugar. It is my drug of choice, and as I have matured and aged, I am very aware of how that affects me. And so for the body part of my plan for 2024, it is to be sugar sober and what I'm doing is I have cut out sugar for the month of January. My intention for it to be an ongoing thing. But we'll start small, we'll start with January.

Suzie Price: [00:26:04]
One step at a time.

Kate Bakon: [00:26:06]
Yep. I'm upping my hydration. So I'm drinking a lot of water, drinking my weight in water every day. My weight translated into ounces per day, and probably the most important component. And I'm walking. I've committed to walk at least 20 minutes a day. I'm keeping a journal. I've always had a journal going, but this is going to be a journal of what I'm doing for myself. And then at the end of the day, how did the day go and how did I feel? Because I know that, and it also relates to the mind and the spirit stuff too, but is to really let it sink in for me what my practice is, how that impacts my life. So, like, how do I really feel when I've OD'd on sugar? I feel really great in the moment, but what do I feel like later? What's my sleep quality like? Having that measure of how is what I'm doing really affecting my life and being able to tweak it, right? Oh yeah. Okay. Certain foods aren't really great for me. They don't help the sleep quality the same with caffeine or alcohol or whatever.

Suzie Price: [00:27:23]
That's great. That is great. And the 20 minutes a day, how will you get that in? Because I know some people are thinking, and are in a similar situation where they have a decent commute and you work long days. Are you going to do that at lunchtime or in the morning or what are you thinking right now?

Kate Bakon: [00:27:40]
Yeah, lunch. But I've also given myself permission to just fit it in whenever I can. We have like an interior hallway in this building, and sometimes I just grab my phone and just walk in the hallway for 20 minutes.

Suzie Price: [00:27:53]
That's great.

Kate Bakon: [00:27:54]
We're on the fourth floor, so I'll walk the stairs a couple of times. So, you know it doesn't have to be hard.

Suzie Price: [00:28:02]
Yay, I like that.

Kate Bakon: [00:28:04]
I kind of prefer to have the walking be silent. But if I feel like I can't fit it in, then I'll just do it while I'm on a phone call. I'll take my phone with me outdoors, in the parking lot or in the hallway and just talk on the phone. Conduct a call with someone that I can be a little bit mobile and be moving at the same time.

Suzie Price: [00:28:26]
That's a smart idea. You could schedule it. Other people that are listening, you know, listeners could say, hey, I'm going to have a walking meeting right? And squeeze it in that way. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Kate Bakon: [00:28:36]
I have actually had walking meetings where I meet face to face with somebody at the river and go for a walk. It doesn't work out often, but when it does, it's a beautiful thing, right? We get to conduct business, we're out in nature and we're moving.

Suzie Price: [00:28:51]
Yes! I love that, I love that. Anything else around body?

Kate Bakon: [00:28:54]
No, I'm trying to keep it simple because if I do too much then I'm not apt to do it. So that's why when I first was doing this list for you, I was like, okay, I'm going to do 30 minutes a day. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? If you do 30 minutes, that's great, but promise yourself you'll do 20. The journal is to keep me, not so much keep me honest, but really to remind me of the effects so that if I go off the rails and I do have a handful of 2 or 3 or 4 cookies. So how did it make me feel? How did my day go? How did the walk impact me?

Suzie Price: [00:29:36]
I like it. Making a commitment to journal every day is like taking time to think and taking time to tune in to yourself, which is amazing! That's awesome. And then when you write it down, sometimes things come out that you haven't even thought of that come out as opposed to just running around in your head, and then you see it and you're like, ah, like you said, making the connection.

Kate Bakon: [00:30:00]
Those little aha moments!

Suzie Price: [00:30:02]
Yeah. Yeah. We like those, we like those.

Kate Bakon: [00:30:05]
We do. Well that's how I learn. I know not everybody does, but when I can really make that connection that's like oh huh. You turned your cell phone off at 8:00 and you slept better. Mm. Right? But we don't always want to admit that those things are really correlated. But when you can see it in black and white, it's like, oh, yeah, I left my phone out in the living room. I didn't bring it in the bedroom. I shut it off and oh, by the way, I had less mind chatter in the middle of the night.

Suzie Price: [00:30:41]
And it's kind of like what you're talking about too, is like, what's going to make me feel better? That's what you're doing. You're committing to you feeling better every day.

Kate Bakon: [00:30:50]
The second half of 2023 was not a great year for me. And there was a lot of stress and family issues. It's hard sometimes when you're in that to really be able to tease apart, why don't I feel good? Right? You want to think that the anxiety is around, say, A, but when you're really paying attention, it's like, okay, yes, I was upset, so I'm eating all kinds of not good food, and then I don't feel good and I'm not sleeping, and I'm blaming A. When really A only has a small part of it. It's really all these other components, and we don't always tease them out. It's fabulous how we know things, but we don't act on them is I know how my body, mind and spirit practices, when they're solid, it's like I can handle almost anything. And when they're not, then it doesn't take much to get me off my center. Right?

Suzie Price: [00:32:00]
Very wise. We bring ourselves to everything we do, but you know, when they're midst of life that's what happens. But like, what you're talking about is okay, let me rebalance.

Kate Bakon: [00:32:12]
That's a great way to say that. Rebalance. Yes. So yes, we're rebalancing 2020 for the year of the rebalance.

Suzie Price: [00:32:19]
The year of the rebalance. Yes. You know what's so funny is none of this is like a college degree. You know, we've got our degree and it's on the wall. But none of this is that, it's a continual effort. Positive effort is what I would say. Even though effort sounds like a continual focus, a continual readjusting, a continual rebalancing. And we have to be okay with that and not judge ourselves because it isn't a college degree. It's not done.

Kate Bakon: [00:32:44]
It's a continuous learning spectrum, right? Continuum. You're always learning and adjusting or hopefully you are. I mean, we both know people in our lives that have not done that, and we have seen up close and personal what it looks like when you don't embrace continual learning and improvement. And I know this is true for you too. It's and me, it's a non-negotiable. Not learning and improving is just non-negotiable. I feel like I took a big break from it last year. So step stepping up my game in 2024.

Suzie Price: [00:33:20]
Awesome. It sounds great. You're inspiring me. Where are we going next, missy?

Kate Bakon: [00:33:27]
Let's talk about the mind. I actually have done a fair amount of this this year, but it's reading good things, right? Reading a good book, having a good book going, reading in inspirational information or inspirational books and quotes. It's about if I'm going to watch TV, it's making it something good for my soul, something that's going to make me feel good or learn something. Watching things or reading things that are upsetting doesn't do anything for me. I'm somewhat of an empath, and I absorb negative energy from lots of places, and I have to be really careful. So for me, it's being being mindful, no pun intended, about what I put into my body and my mind. So what am I reading? What am I watching? Who am I spending time with? Right? Being careful about surrounding myself with people that are not just like-minded because we need to have varying inputs of opinions and styles and personalities, but being careful not to have a lot of negativism in my life. Negativity. Reading, minimizing screen time. We talked about that a little bit before, but as part of this program, I've committed to being off my phone and my computer by 8:30 and my nothing electronic comes into my bedroom.

Suzie Price: [00:34:59]
Ah. Very good. I like that hard set. Can't mess around with that. I mean, it's very clear.

Kate Bakon: [00:35:05]
I actually had to buy myself a clock because I was using my phone as my alarm clock and telling time.

Suzie Price: [00:35:14]
How about that?

Kate Bakon: [00:35:16]
I had to buy myself a little cheapy alarm clock.

Suzie Price: [00:35:19]
It sounds like it's helping already because you made a comment earlier about sleeping better.

Kate Bakon: [00:35:24]
I am sleeping better.

Suzie Price: [00:35:26]
That's great.

Kate Bakon: [00:35:27]
And then the last thing, which is I think some people might consider this to be a body thing, but for me, it's a definitely a mind thing. I'm doing breathing exercises. There's a gentleman named Wim Hof. Do you know Wim Hof?

Suzie Price: [00:35:43]
I've heard of him.

Kate Bakon: [00:35:43]
He has breathing exercises. He's also really into cold plunges, cold showers and, the benefits of cold. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the cold. I know that it works. I know you know that I spent a fair amount of time up at my family's lake home up in the northeast in the fall. And I was swimming every day up until mid-October. And the water temperatures were around 60 at the end. I can tell you that it's really good. And so I'm toying with the idea of that, but I'm definitely doing the breathing exercises in the morning.

Suzie Price: [00:36:24]
What kind of exercises are they? Are they certain pattern of breathing or what?

Kate Bakon: [00:36:28]
It's a certain pattern of breathing. Breathing where there's no pause in between the in and the out. And then you get to a certain point and you hold your breath and you hold your breath for a certain period of time, and then you take a recovery breath. I'm probably not giving enough explanation around it. I just know it's one of those things that, for whatever reason, it helps quiet my mind.

Suzie Price: [00:36:51]
So are you finding yourself doing that at night or during the day or in the morning? Or what are you doing?

Kate Bakon: [00:36:57]
I'm committing to doing it in the morning. If I remember, I'm doing it at night too. The other part I know is true for me, when I'm stressed, I don't breathe. I actually have a little sticky note on my computer that says breathe.

Suzie Price: [00:37:18]
What happens when we don't breathe? We're not thinking clear. We lose oxygen to our brain. You know everything. But yeah, I think everybody does that when they get stressed and we can't think as clear. That's great.

Kate Bakon: [00:37:31]
It's amazing what happens if you just stop and take three deep breaths? Just three breaths. When my father quit smoking, a year later he had a heart attack. And one of the things that my sister and I pieced together was he stopped breathing because even though you were breathing in smoke, I mean, think about it. Pick up something and as if you're going to smoke on it. And so he actually taught himself to use a pencil or something, as if he was smoking because it encouraged oxygen in his body. So I think of this Wim Hof thing as being something similar. It's like I'm teaching myself. I'm reminding myself to breathe.

Suzie Price: [00:38:21]
Making a pattern so it's automatic. If your tendency is to to hold your breath, then you're just you're going to just get in the habit of it and have it be every part of your life. That's great.

Kate Bakon: [00:38:30]
Here's what's interesting. I've been doing this breathing thing for a while, and when I wake up in the middle of the night, I find sometimes that I'm already in a really deep, long, steady breathing pattern, which is unusual for me. And if I've done the breathing exercise at night when I wake up, I'm not anxious and I'm already in a really deep pattern of breathing, so I don't know. It's all a big experiment, right? I'm just experimenting with my life and with these little tricks to see how they impact me.

Suzie Price: [00:39:06]
But, you know, all big things are little things, or they start with little things. And this is not a little thing. You have to breathe. I love that you're experimenting like you are. But it sounds like you're already getting great benefit.

Kate Bakon: [00:39:21]
So those are my those are my mind things.

Suzie Price: [00:39:25]
Awesome. What's next.

Kate Bakon: [00:39:27]
Spirit. As you know, I have a really strong meditation practice. I've been meditating in a group for over 20 years. That part of my practice has been really consistent. My daily practice kind of ebbs and flows. For 2024, I promised myself meditating in the morning and meditating at night, and sometimes that's quiet and sometimes it is guided.

Suzie Price: [00:39:50]
If people aren't used to meditating or are curious about what your practice is going to be in 2024 about how long? And then when you say sometimes it's quiet, sometimes it's guided, talk a little bit about both of those. So timing and those things.

Kate Bakon: [00:40:05]
I strive for 30 minutes, a 30 minute meditation in the morning. Often I'm too tired at night to do 30. And if I can do 15 that's good. But I will say, even if all I can do is bow in to my meditation, I will do that. It's the intention of connecting for me. So the quiet, I think I prefer quiet. For me it's a nice way to start the day. I'll turn on the fireplace in my room and just sit there, sitting up in bed, wrapped up in an extra blanket and just sit. I'll set an alarm for 30 minutes. If I wake up and my mind is particularly chatty, then I will do a guided meditation and I use an app on my Apple phone called Insight Timer, and they have way more meditation links. Tons of options. I have a couple of favorites, but I've been exploring others. I usually try to find someone who has a really soothing voice and has a message that resonates, and I'm quick to change it if I don't like it. A little bit of a creature of habit.

Suzie Price: [00:41:25]
When I think of meditation, my mind is always about okay, quieting my mind. And this one mantra I'll say is, this is a time for no thought. This is a time for no thought, and that works for me. But like you say, everybody's got their own thing. Is there anything you say to yourself or any kind of breath pattern when you're sitting there, when you aren't doing a guided and you have your blanket around you, anything you do or say or think or feel.

Kate Bakon: [00:41:50]
I just remind myself that I am connected, I am safe, I am connected, and I am lovable. And so that's my little mantra. Okay, you are safe, you are connected and you are lovable.

Suzie Price: [00:42:01]
Nice. Yeah. And you mentioned bowing in. I know what that means, but describe a little bit about what that means for you.

Kate Bakon: [00:42:08]
For me, it's just setting the intention. It's like many of us have a spiritual connection to some form of the divine, whatever that may look like for your viewers. For me, the bowing in is a sort of a form of reverence. It's me bowing in to the divine, but it's also a reverence for myself. I am signaling that I am taking this time for myself to connect, to connect with the divine, to connect with myself. Right? If we believe that there is a divine that resides in each of us, then not only are we bowing to whatever external connection we have, but we're bowing to our own divinity, which for me is really quite holy. That resonates with me to be connecting my holiness with the holiness of of the universe.

Suzie Price: [00:43:04]
Lovely. Love it. Perfect. Anything else about meditation that would be helpful to share? Or that you that is on your heart, I guess.

Kate Bakon: [00:43:11]
If there's anybody who's even considering it? Don't judge yourself. There's no perfect way to do meditation. Often when I meditate, there is a ticker tape, a voice in my head that's running in the background. Most of the time, that's just the way I am. And I've learned to not listen to the voice. But don't try and make it go away. Continue to focus on my breathing and on my connection. And it doesn't matter what's running up in here. It doesn't have to be long. I think sometimes people assume 30 minutes. I've been practicing for a long time, and when I meditate in a group, we often will sit for 90 minutes without moving. But that's 20 years of practice when I first started, and even when I get out of sorts at home, sometimes all I can do is five minutes and I applaud myself for doing that. That's a good thing.

Suzie Price: [00:44:15]
That's good guidance in regard to no judgment zone with this because the whole idea is to connect, not disconnect. And if we're judging. Oh I can't, you know, like okay that's not really what we're doing here. You can do it.

Kate Bakon: [00:44:31]
I certainly did plenty of that. I did plenty of that where I was judging myself. And it's like this needs to be a no judgement zone. You're right. I like what you said there, a no judgement zone.

Suzie Price: [00:44:40]
For the goal minded folks who are listening, how do you benefit from your practice and how does it help you in your life?

Kate Bakon: [00:44:50]
We talked about that I'm going to be journaling and I'm doing it because I want physical evidence, but I already know if I spend five, ten, 15, 20, 30 minutes in meditation and later that day I'll be like, wow, today was a really good day. And it's like, okay, so why is today different than yesterday? And it's like often the only thing that I can say was different is that I meditated today and I didn't yesterday. This is not something that you can figure out with your mind. You can't say my day was better because of meditation and then figure it out. It just is.

Suzie Price: [00:45:32]
What I always think of is it changes my essence. It changes my vibe. It changes my presence to be a better version or the best version of self or something. I bring that vibe with me more if that tank is full, my meditation tank or my quiet tank or my alignment tank or whatever you want to call it. That's awesome. Great. Yeah. Anything else?

Kate Bakon: [00:45:58]
I guess it's just if anyone's considering it, just be gentle with themselves and and try it. Give yourself permission, even if it's only for 2 or 3 minutes, to just sit quietly with yourself and and see and then see how your day goes.

Suzie Price: [00:46:13]
Make that correlation or connection like you were saying, did it make a difference and what difference did it make? It could be subtle. Might be a big thing.

Kate Bakon: [00:46:21]
The journaling helps that because then if you're marking down at the end of the day how your day went, then you're more likely to notice. Was there a shift in your conversations? Was there a shift in your attention? Were you less anxious? Were you more present for the people around you?

Suzie Price: [00:46:39]
That's wonderful. All right. What else are we thinking about around spirit?

Kate Bakon: [00:46:42]
Grounding. For me, it's part of the walking. The walking helps me ground. I need to be out in nature. I live in a place where I have a fabulous view out my back porch, which is helpful, but I really need to go walk outside. I need to be in nature. And so I've promised to do at least a couple of the walks a week, either down by the river or in the woods.

Suzie Price: [00:47:07]
So I want to put a pin in this one and make sure everybody hears that, because I know so many people over the many, many years I've been doing this and many, many people that I've talked to who have High Aesthetic as their top driver. And I think you scored it passionate. I don't remember now, but something close to that as a pretty strong driver. If you have Aesthetic as one of your drivers, which is this idea or feeling of I am inspired by, I feel better when my gas tank is full, when I have balance and harmony, I can focus on the big picture and intuition, and use my intuition. You need to be in nature and I can't tell you how many times I've talked to very stressed out leaders who are slaying the beasts at work, and they're High Aesthetic. And I'll say, when's the last time you've been outside? And you never can make the point strong enough for them to hear it. But it's like everything you're looking for is probably in that walk in the woods. If you're High Aesthetic everybody can benefit. I love living in the mountains. My Aesthetic is not very high and it feeds my soul. But if you are highest. You need, like what Kate said, I need to be in nature and I'm going to do more of that. Kudos to you. That's grounding for you.

Kate Bakon: [00:48:20]
It is grounding for me. I'll share this other tip that I've started this year, which is I have a grounding mat, I sleep on a grounding mat, it's plugged into the ground in an outlet. And the idea is that I have, even though I live on the third floor of a concrete and steel building, I have connected myself to the earth while I sleep.

Suzie Price: [00:48:42]
Oh, interesting. I didn't know you had a grounding mat.

Kate Bakon: [00:48:44]
I do. I've been sleeping on it for about a year and I do think it makes a difference.

Suzie Price: [00:48:49]
Huh? The Theoretical part of me is like. Mm. Wonder why that works? I won't go down that rabbit hole. All we know is that it's working for you.

Kate Bakon: [00:48:59]
I'll send you a link so you can read it. It's all part of why people talk about spending time in the forest, they call it forest bathing. You know why some people feel it's really important to put your bare feet on the ground every day? I know someone that goes out. She's actually a neighbor. She goes out and actually leans up against trees, right? To really connect herself. She'll just go sit out there and maybe do a standing meditation for 10 or 15 minutes outdoors. All just little tricks of the trade, right? That's wonderful. I have just one more thing under my spirit. And I know this will tickle you a little bit because you know me. Is that the third thing is fun.

Kate Bakon: [00:49:52]
I'm promising myself at least one small adventure every month, whether that's a weekend away or it's driving into the city and walking the Beltline or going to the Botanical Gardens or going to a museum, or maybe go to a comedy show, just some fun and emphasis on the f-u-n adventure for the month.

Suzie Price: [00:50:15]
Yay! That's another thing that's important to the High Aesthetic is experiences. It could be travel and you used to travel a lot. You did a lot of diving and went to all these places and stuff. So this will be another version of that, pulling more of that in your life, because I know you're very focused on work and other things. So this is great. This is fantastic.

Kate Bakon: [00:50:41]
Thank you very much for inviting me to do this and for inspiring or encouraging me to actually think about this, because I had been thinking about it, but not in a structured way. And just thinking about it and having this conversation has really solidified it in my mind that I'm going to do it, that I will commit to it, and I will continually be tweaking it and reminding myself how important it is, because it is really, really important.

Suzie Price: [00:51:12]
Everything you've talked about are things that as you talked about them, you could tell it makes you feel good to talk about it, and when that happens, that's your thing. We have such a busy life, all of us, and if we can't focus on something enough to ingrain it into our being, which is kind of what you're talking about, the fact that you thought about it a little bit more and then you wrote it down, and then now you shared it. That's how we rewire things and create habits. A lot of the things we do personally to change them or realign them, we have to do these kind of things. So everybody listening, if you have not made your list yet, this is Kate's invite for you to make a list too and share it with somebody.

Kate Bakon: [00:52:00]
Yes you're right, the sharing. The sharing is important. Maybe we inspire someone else to do it, but I think at the very least, it's like you're committing it to yourself when you talk about it out loud.

Suzie Price: [00:52:12]
That's the most important part, is committing it to yourself. But you were kind enough to take your busy schedule and share it with us here at the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast. So thank you so much.

Kate Bakon: [00:52:23]
You're so welcome.

Suzie Price: [00:52:24]
All right. Thank you Kate.

Kate Bakon: [00:52:25]
Thank you Suzie.

Suzie Price: [00:52:27]
No, I didn't share her background or bio because we did it at the beginning of our discussion. She has been the director of HR for Fulcrum for the last eight years and has a multi interdisciplinary background. She's done a lot of different things. And as we talked, could you see her beautiful strengths and her interest in serving others and creating balance in her life? It showed up in everything she shared. As I've talked about other people and their top Motivators, Kate's top Motivators are High Aesthetic and High Social Altruistic. So you could see that and I could feel that in her style. She's a very people oriented, service oriented person. And it's a wonderful thing to have somebody like that in human resources as well. It's also very, very smart. She's good to ask for advice and ask questions. So I really related to her talking about journaling more. We've heard that from several people. Catherine talked about it. Shaunna talked about it. I find that is a life saver for me. I really appreciate Kate's commitment to her meditation practice and the breathing exercises that she's doing every day. So lots of wonderful content and intention. And I thought it was great at the end of the episode when we stopped recording. This is something that she shared, and I want to share it with you because it has relevance maybe to you.

Suzie Price: [00:53:54]
But here's what Kate shared. I had no idea how well formulated my ideas were until I started to speak them. I've been kind of chatting with myself on the way to and from work for the last few days, and I had scribbled down my little notes. She held up a notepad. There weren't a lot of notes on there, but little notes. You could see them. But I wasn't clear. I didn't get really clear until I actually spoke it. The speaking, made things very clear. So I want to thank you for that so much. I'm so glad I did this. So a lesson to us all. Speaking makes it clear for most of us. So I want to ask you, who are you going to share your goals and objectives with for 2024? Who are you going to speak them with? Talk to a family member. Talk to your dog. Talk to your good friend or call us. Tell me what you're focused on and we'll share it on a future episode. Or I'll just listen and you can verbalize it, and I won't share it if you tell me not to share it. But speakpipe.com/WakeUpEagerWorkforce five minute segments that come right to me. Share your thoughts. Speaking makes things clearer. I like that, you know we we focus so much on the Assessments.

Suzie Price: [00:54:58]
And it's not about the Assessment. It's about the Assessments highlighting individual strengths and helping people see their goodness. And that how we all have different types of goodness or different. We're all good, but we have different strengths that we're good at. And to understand those different strengths through the language of the Assessment so that we can appreciate diversity and and differences. And so that's why I liked what she shared so much. It's one of the values of holding conversations where people share their favorite takeaways from their Assessment. We do that sometimes in team building where you go around the room and say, okay, this is what I liked. It said this about this and this area, and this is why it matters to me. When we speak it and share it, we start to feel it and own it. So take advantage of that. We do that in team sessions. We do that in triad sessions where somebody and their manager are sharing or we've got a new leader, assimilation. And and people are sharing with the new leader about what they how they want to be managed. And it all comes from the Assessment. When we speak it, we start to own it and we start to understand it better and it becomes a part of us. And it is one way to ingrain something and make it and own it. We can always say the words, but words don't really teach.

Suzie Price: [00:56:09]
It's the doing and it's the life experience. And so speaking it is a good thing. So I encourage you to do that. Want to hear who you're going to share it with? I want you to be thinking about that. And you can also let us know at speakpipe.com/WakeUpEagerWorkforce. So we're going to close with some of my thoughts for 2024. I talked a little bit about reflection process on 2023 and how important that is. And I don't usually share. I think it's a private thing, but I will share just a little bit about my reflection. I have to say 2023 was my best year ever. Of course every year has ups and downs, but overall, when I look at the big picture, I had a really good balance of personal and professional. I woke up eager more last year than ever before. I was laser focused and it was interesting. Then the TriMetrix Assessment and when you get the coaching report, there's one section that that measures how balanced is your thinking? So are you focusing on the doing the the being and the thinking equally, or are they a little bit out of balance? It tells you that so that you know what your level of decision making for yourself and for others and in the world. And it also talks about shows this concentration index.

Suzie Price: [00:57:21]
So how focused are you when you're working and how or how scattered are you. And same thing for the personal life. And my review revealed that I was focused and I managed distractions very well in both areas. I wasn't scattered, I used to be more scattered in the internal self view. So it's happy to see that not only on the assessment but in my review. And I believe that I've come to believe this, that life is a happy life as a string of happy moments. It's not all the big things. What gets to the big things are happy moments. So making that choice, you know, those daily choices of things that bring ease and well-being so that we bring our best matters. And so this is a lot of what I'm going to share. Our mind habits that have helped. Me have happy moments every day. Almost every day. Pretty regular. More regular than ever in my life. At age 59. It's a miracle to me to feel so good. I'm going to continue to make time every day to think. I've always done that. I do more and more of it. So the thinking is, maybe I'm walking my dogs and I'm enjoying the walking the dogs and letting thoughts run through my mind in the morning. So I always sit down and write. I use my day one app on my iPad.

Suzie Price: [00:58:41]
We've got little categories there, file notes there and such that's effective for me. Do it in the morning. I do it in the evening before I go to bed. When I'm walking my dogs, I think I just make that time to think. And if you feel like you're rushed all the time, which I that would be my natural tendency and what I did for so many years. I don't have time not to take time to think and to just align. So do that. Think about what you're going to do before you're going to do it, and find time to do that a little bit more every day. And what's helped me the most is knowing what my priorities are each week and each day. So on the weekend, I always take time on Sunday to look ahead. What's going to happen this week? What's most important because you know, if everything's important, then nothing's important. So what is it that's most important right now and this week? So what's important personally and professionally. And I make a note of it and I put it on my I'll tell you what tool I use in a minute. And every evening before I go to bed, I do the same thing on the. So I know what the week's going to look like. Now I want to know what am I going to do the next day? So before I go to bed, I have a list of six.

Suzie Price: [00:59:45]
I've talked about that for years. What must be done today? What am I willing to do today? Not 25 things, but six things that I absolutely will do. When you put that kind of structure on it, it forces you to focus instead of doing a million things that scattered, you do six things really well that really mattered because you prioritize them. And I like doing it the night before becoming because you're coming fresh off of a day that has momentum. And so I want to wake up eager, literally. I want to put my feet on the floor and know what my plan is for the day. Now, that day may change, but at least when I wake up, I have a plan. It causes me to have less anxiety. My family has a history of anxiety and this has helped me learn to manage that. I'm not fretting and worrying because I have a plan. I know where I'm going. So the mental structure framework that has helped me the most around all of this is the book Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen. Game changer! That along with Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less what getting things done is does is helps me think about what are the tactics, what are the strategies daily on getting things done. And there's processes and procedures and things that he teaches.

Suzie Price: [01:00:58]
He says that your brain is a terrible storage cabinet, and you need to find ways to organize all the things going on in your life. No wonder we all are anxious, right? No wonder. I mean, the world is moving fast, so how do we move with it and in control of it as opposed to it running us? So that book, the minute I read that and just applied a few of the things, it made a difference. And from everything from how to manage your email to paperwork and the stuff that comes in to people and demands, it's just an excellent book. Best seller for many, many years. Another one of those, you read it again and read it again. I'll do an episode on that in the future. And then the online tool that is become my brain so that it's become my filing cabinet is a tool called Get It Done App, Get It Done App. It is my brain. It saves me from myself on a daily basis. It is. It goes with the Getting Things Done framework. They're not affiliated. And there's other apps that are, go with the Getting Things Done app. But for whatever reason, the Getting Things Done book, the Get It Done app helps me. I have a million ideas and I can go down a lot of rabbit holes. So how do I stay focused? Why did I stay so focused this year in 2023? Of course, that's been coming over time, but it's because I read that book, Getting Things Done ten years ago.

Suzie Price: [01:02:17]
And again, the Day One App is my iPad brain in regard to putting thoughts down, putting ideas down, just thinking things through. So do things that pull you forward to keep you the prepaid of what's next. So it's not upon you that you've thought about it in advance. I also another mind habit is to take my TriMetrix Assessment again on a regular basis, and the TriMetrix part that I look at because my Motivators and my DISC style don't change. But the part that measures personal skills and that measures is used with the Axiology and the DNA, which measures how you think, feel and make decisions and your current skill set. I can clear my mind and not think about what I know about the science. You know, not really try to cheat it because it's really hard to cheat anyway, but really think how I think it really tells me how I'm doing. Um, and that's how I saw that, you know, I was more focused. Those are things I'm going to continue to do. Body habits that help me every day. Help me have happy moments every day. Reflection is the first thing you know. We talked about every night, so we did it for every year.

Suzie Price: [01:03:24]
But every night I think about I spend some time very quickly in my Day One App, I think about how did the day go? What went well, what do I appreciate? I think forward a little bit. What are my meals going to be? What are my workouts going to be? What did I eat during the day? How did I do? Did I meet my objectives. So that's kind of I that's a reflection is a big piece. So it helps me with my body habits, continually assess how I'm doing, not beat myself up. But I got to reflect I got to measure. I got to look at it some way. The biggest thing too around body is 80% of feeling well is your nutrition 80%. A lot of times I've had that flipped in the past where I thought, well, okay, if I just work, I will just work out a lot if I ate crappy. But you can't out or out work a crappy diet. I've always been a nutritionist, nutritional hobbyist, studied all the all the ways to eat, and tried them all because I think I'm a little bit of a researcher and the one that I've been doing the past couple years that has me feeling the healthiest has me 100% feeling like my high school self is something called the Nutritarian way of eating. And it's really just really eating healthy. And it's a program by Doctor Fuhrman.

Suzie Price: [01:04:41]
I did a podcast with a 93 year old who has followed this way of eating since he was 70, and I just think he's interesting. And then Dr. Steven Middleton also knows Dr. Fuhrman and has interviewed him and follows that. So anyway, very interesting. You can check out the show notes to get the links to some of that information. But best thing for me, whole food plant based, the way he lays it out is very clear. And it's it's been amazing. Blood work is amazing. All of it's great. Podcasts that I like to listen to? There's EattoLive.com podcast. That's Doctor Fuhrman and his daughter talking about the Nutritarian diet and or way of living and then plantstrong.com. I like that. Then richroll.com he has some interesting things. And there's some two guys from Ireland that I find interesting called the Happy Pair Podcast. All of those kind of fit into that same diet lifestyle of talking about fitness has always been important to me. I'm a big fan of the Peloton, and the way the Peloton works for me is the Power Zone training, and it works because Power Zone is all about metrics. So if you're not familiar with Power Zone Training, go check out pzpack.com, they set up challenges and you do the challenges.

Suzie Price: [01:06:06]
That has been what's helped me. So you like I'm in an eight week challenge right now and there's three rides a week and there's other people riding and you see them on there and you check it off. It's that whole measurement thing that pulls you forward or pulls me forward. Oh, my team needs me. I don't really know my team, but there's a plan and I committed to it. And so I did more minutes on the peloton this year than ever, and my plan in 2024 is do the same thing and do more because they track it. Peloton is really good about giving these blue dots for every time you work out. So in my mind, sometimes I think, uh, maybe I won't do that. Oh yes, I will, because I need to do my training program with these people at Power Zone, and I want to get that blue dot. It's so funny how those little things, you know, what you don't measure, you can't manage. And if you measure it, it pulls you forward. My other favorite, uh, fitness person I've worked out with her for 20 years. kathe.com. She has an app. It's on the Roku app. And hundreds of classes and rotations, and she's amazing. I went and met her in person this year. That was one kind of bucket list personal thing. That was amazing. She's just a great instructor.

Suzie Price: [01:07:16]
It's hard, it's good. And with this way of eating now, I'm able to do her workouts as though I was 20 years ago. Better. Even. So, it's really amazing to me. I have a little calendar in my gym. I have a gym at my house, a calendar where I list everything I do so I can look back through the calendar. And that's another thing that pulls me forward is the calendar. Like I need to go if even if I'm not going to work out that day, I want to go down and write down on the calendar. Today was a rest day and I put a heart around it. I've been alcohol free for several years. I just did an episode with a guy who follows This Naked Mind, which is a great book about going alcohol free. If you're considering Dry January or if you're sober curious, go listen to that episode. You'll see it on the show notes, but that has made a huge difference in my mind and my energy. And then lastly, the other part of body is sleep. There's some great Peloton sleep meditation. So, you know, not only does Peloton have the bike, but they have all these other extra things. But the favorite sleep meditations are with Ross Rayburn and this very crazy, I've been willing wanting to share this with somebody, so I'll share it with you guys because, you know, you don't want to just random say, hey, you should listen to this podcast, but it's called sleepwithme.com.

Suzie Price: [01:08:33]
It's the craziest thing, but it totally works. This guy tells boring stories and they put you to sleep, but the way he does it is so humorous and but humorous in a very sleepy way. It's just hard to describe. But he's got millions of views. He's been around for like ten years. So check it out. You'll think it's crazy, but tell me if you don't listen to sleepwithme.com and you don't say. Okay. I felt totally asleep, I fell asleep. So anyway, so all of that is body stuff. You can tell I'm excited about all of those things, but those are the things that are really helping me feel my best. Spirit habits that have helped me have happy moments every day. Again, back to that Day One App, in regard to making lists of appreciation, if I get stuck, I make a list of things I appreciate, and usually if I just stay on the things I appreciate and get off the topic I'm stuck about, the answers come to me. Gets you out of the way of yourself, gets you off resistance and thinking things put you kind of in the flow. The balancing out my personal life has been a game changer in regard to spirit, having more happy moments. Not letting more people in, inviting them in, prioritizing that, and then now seeing the benefit of that and how much more rich my life feels.

Suzie Price: [01:09:48]
Making that a priority is amazing. Doing things that align with my top interests from the Workplace Motivators Report. And just saying, well, that's just me. That's what I like to do. This is how I do things, and I want that for you. I want you to look at your Workplace Motivators Report. I want you to see what your motivators are and realize those are things that put gas in your tank. They are your gifts. They are nature nurture. You came in with these things. Follow those things and goodness will come from it. Your heart will be full and you'll be being yourself and you'll be adding so much value. And lastly, the spirit thing that helps me around others is trying to understand where they're coming from, instead of trying to change anybody. I'm still not great at this. I'm getting better at it, but staying curious to other people's perspectives. And so to me, the tools help me with that a lot because I now understand it. If they're different from me, then I understand more about who they are and enjoying who they are, loving the people where they are with no attachment. If they get me or if they do what I do.

Suzie Price: [01:10:51]
Just enjoying the differences and the diversity. So that is a wrap for Mind, Body, Spirit Ideas and Products for 2024. I want to thank Catherine, Steven, Shauna, Mica, and Kate for taking time out of their busy schedules to think about this and to share it. I want to thank you for tuning in. We got kicked back started in 2023 with the podcast. We got more good stuff to come to get the show notes and all the links and the transcript for what what we covered today go to pricelessprofessional.com/mindbodyspirit2024. If you enjoyed today's episode, leave us a review. If you don't know how to do that, go to pricelessprofessional.com/review. If you do leave a review, take a moment, send me a note and I'll send you a complimentary assessment link for the Workplace Motivators Assessment. All right. So I'm going to close with this mantra. And I think it's a good one. And it's it's adopted by me. But it's from abrahamhicks.com. And that is a speaker that I've listened to for a really long time that talks about alignment and energy. So here is a great mantra. And you might even want to write this down. And I think at some point in my life I've written this down and said it every morning when I woke up.

Suzie Price: [01:10:51]
Today I will think, focus and talk more about what is going well than about what is going wrong. Today as I look for, find and speak about the good in every situation, I'll notice how much better I feel. Today as I manage my focus, I will feel empowered, eager, there's our favorite word eager, ease and well-being. And as I genuinely feel better, I'll be a better benefit to my family, my employees, my coworkers, and everyone I interact with. Today is going to be a great day.

Suzie Price: [01:12:50]
So let's just speak that into action every day. Maybe we'll make sure that's in the show notes so you can easily copy it. But remember, your inspiration and happiness inspires others and is a gift you can bring to the world. And it all begins with making more decisions and remembering that you know our happiness and well-being is our most important job. Nobody else is going to bring us this happiness or this inspiration. They're not going to help us take care of ourselves, or learn more, or become more of who we are, or we have to do that. We can, of course, collaborate with others, but it starts with you putting you first, knowing that it matters. It matters that you feel good. Use your strengths. Remember that a happy life is a string of happy moments, and remember that waking up eager is a commitment to make daily choices that promote a sense of ease and well-being, so that we bring our best self to whatever we're doing. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you on the next episode. Take care.

Intro/Outro: [01:14:01]
This episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast was brought to you by priceless professional development. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to pricelessprofessional.com to gain access to more professional development resources.