3 Secrets to Making 2024 Your Best Year Yet with Julie Voris

Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet: Unlocking 3 Secrets with Julie Voris

Hey there, friend. Welcome to the Crank It Up podcast. Today, we are talking about three secrets to making 2024 your best year yet.

And if you’re anything like me, you want 2024 to be different in all the best possible ways from 2023. And today, we are talking about three ways that I believe you can make that happen.

We’re sitting here in the JV house with my Stanley tumbler full of water, two dogs next to me. Hopefully, they will stay asleep during this podcast, and I’m gonna share some thoughts and some ideas around how we can make 2024 our best year yet.

Before we start, I wanted to share a story with you about the idea of setting goals, which is so appropriate, so timely for right now. Because I remember the first time someone actually asked me to set goals and to write them down and put them out into the universe.

Now growing up, of course, you probably know my parents were much older, they had me when they were in their forties, and I knew that they had expectations of me.

Really, they had standards. Right? And they believed in my potential, and they had an insane desire for me to have a good life.

I say all that even amongst the baggage that we all carry, the generational baggage that we carry, the trauma that we have, the junk that our parents pass along to us.

Your parents, probably very much like mine, kinda did the best they could with what they had. And, yes, we’ve gotta untangle some of that now.

However, my parents really believed in my potential, and they really did have a desire for me to have a good life. Even if that didn’t exactly look like what I would define a good life would be, they did have that desire. Yet I never actually wrote down goals.

That was never part again, I don’t know about your household, but we were not sitting around the kitchen table you know, taking out a piece of paper and writing down goals.

And so the 1st time that someone asked me to write down my goals, I was a brand new fitness master trainer for a woman named Chalene Johnson, who has created several incredible group exercise formats.

And in true Chalene Johnson fashion, the training that I was at, this fitness training that I was at actually focused as much on personal growth as it did on the correct form and correct technique for the formats that we would be training in, Chalene asked us to write down our top 10 goals, and she wanted them to be both personal and professional.

And here’s the key. She wanted us to write them down without limits or boundaries. Now as usual, she was right. The first three or four that I wrote down and I bet you would find this to be true as well. The first three or four were pretty easy.

And then after that, I really had to force myself to take off my limiting beliefs. I had to put my vision casting goggles on… that was hard.

It’s really hard to get past those first 3 or 4 without the stories that you’re telling yourself kind of imposing themselves on this list. This list that truly is in your control. Right?

Well, when we finished with these 10 goals, we gave them to her and she held on to them, and she mailed them back to us a year later. This practice was both very freeing and also super scary. And I think setting big goals usually is both. Well, I continue this practice now.

I don’t mail my goals, you know, back to me, but I did continue this practice. And a few years later, I was challenged by another mentor of mine to think even bigger. And this time, he asked me to write goals now and for my life 5 years from now.

So, yes, thinking bigger and putting those vision casting goggles back on, but also kind of thinking within a timeline. Right? And that’s also scary and freeing to think about where you could be in five years and also know that that’s actually in your control.

To know how much of that is simply a choice made today. It’s a little crazy when I think about it to think about how the simple act of writing out my goals, both now and with the future mindset, is still very freeing and also very scary.

So what if, for just a bit of time today, you are present now so that you can create a limitless future.

[00:05:06]:
It will be both scary and freeing to think about these three habits that might help you make this a really amazing year. But that’s okay because I think the best goals kind of make us pee our pants a little bit, and they make us dream even bigger.

I have a sticker on my laptop that I look at every day that says dream big, and it’s just a reminder to me that probably whatever goals I’m setting are not big enough that we truly are limitless.

So I hope we can take that vibe into 2024 and be present just for a few minutes, and then be present when you maybe you do some journaling, some writing down a little bit later, and know that the choices and the habits that we have today actually do create our future.

Okay. Let’s get into it. So three secrets to making 2024 your best year yet.

1 – Personal Growth Can Be Simple And Convenient

Here is number 1. This will not be shocking to you. Number 1, personal growth. Now why is personal growth number one?

Because any and all growth in your life comes from personal growth. You will not grow anything else. You will not grow business. You will not grow relationships. You will not grow anything in your life until you tap into and grow yourself.

Okay. Awesome. JV, that’s cool. How do I get personal growth in my life? Now one of the easiest ways for me, which if we are friends at all on Instagram, you see me post about it. I’ve been posting about it for two years, actually, for two whole years.

Whether you may have seen that or not, I’ve been posting about this for two years, and that is Growth Day, a really simple app that I use every single day, literally.

That’s what makes it so awesome because for personal growth to work, it needs to happen consistently. But here’s what personal growth is not or it doesn’t have to be, I should say.

Personal growth doesn’t have to be you taking yourself to the library or the bookstore and rustling around finding some 400 page dusty old book written by someone 60 years ago that no longer feels relevant today and sludging your way through it and wondering why you don’t feel or think any differently.

It’s just not perhaps as relevant today as something that is simple, something that is sustainable, something that is convenient, and that can happen every day no matter what.

So no matter where I am in the world, whether I’m in California, whether I’m in Hong Kong, whether I’m it does not matter. Whether I’m home, I have an app that I can press play on for personal growth every single day.

And in terms of just resolutions in general or goals for your new year in general, where humans get twisted in everything in everything, we all think, myself included, we all think that to make change, it has to be these ginormous sweeping overhauls of our life and that it has to happen soon.

We know. Really, if I ask you this, you know… we already know that change truly happens from the small habits that we choose to do every single day.

So could we, in 2024, let go of this mindset of personal growth being drudgery, of personal growth being hard and so time consuming and dusty and irrelevant.

[00:09:01]:
Can we instead embrace personal growth being super convenient, really simple, and something that we can do every single day, and the cumulative effects of that practice every single day is what will help us grow.

And, yes, we’re going to hear some of the same concepts repeated over and over again.

Finding sources of personal growth: podcasts, books, high vibe conversations, trainings, webinars, conferences, live performances, and travel

• You might listen to a podcast, you might listen to a book.
• You might listen to, as I do, Growth Day, Daily Fire, an app, whatever it might be.
• You might listen to a speaker.
• You might hear a webinar.
• You might go to a conference and you will hear the same concepts talked about over and over and over.

Why? Because they work.

So I welcome that because repetition creates mastery. So the more often I hear a concept, the more validity and truthfulness it has to me. If lots of people are saying x y z, it starts to become something that I go, okay, so lots of different people are saying this.

This is something I need to pay attention to. That’s why personal growth is the key. It’s the key. It is the absolute key to your growth and anything else in 2024.

[00:10:08]:
It will be the key that unlocks a different and better 2024, especially when you gather it from lots of different sources.

Again, back to the, maybe you listen to Growth Day like I do every day, and you’re listening to podcasts, and you’re listening or reading some books, and you’re in high vibe conversations with friends, and you’re listening to trainings or webinars and you’re going to conferences and you’re just seeking it out wherever you are all day long.

Because almost anything can be personal growth when you take it in and it affects you personally and causes you to think and feel differently, that’s when growth happens. This is kind of a fun fact. Maybe it’s a hot take.

I even consider going to musical theater, personal growth. I consider seeing live performances personal growth. I consider traveling personal growth because I really believe anything that makes me feel and think differently is a catalyst for growth.

So I like hearing from lots of different voices. Again, getting those concepts reiterated to me because that really helps me understand this is something that’s valid. This is something that I need to pay attention to.

This is something that is truthful. This is something that could cause growth in my life.

Making personal growth a daily nonnegotiable habit

I believe the number one way we will make 2024 different in all the best ways possible from 2023 is by making personal growth a daily nonnegotiable habit by letting go of the mindset that it has to be sitting down for 6 hours reading this 400 page book that doesn’t even feel relevant anymore.

No. Instead, getting tools and resources in our life that are simple, that are convenient, that are sustainable, that make personal growth so easy to do on the daily.

They make personal growth just the obvious choice. And then when we do it every day, that’s when we start to feel the results. That is number 1.

2 – Creating Intentional Habits

Okay. Tip number 2 or secret number 2. Again, this will not be shocking to you. This could not be more on brand, and that is your habits. Listen.

[00:12:33]:
Habits are nothing but choices. Someone said to me it was actually a family member said to me or I overheard. I don’t think she said it directly to me. She said it to someone. It got back to me, of course.

They said, oh, it’s just so easy for Julie because she leads a charmed life. What? If by a charmed life, you mean putting a stake in the ground and working my you know what off to create my life on purpose with purpose, then, yeah, I guess that’s charmed. But what that is actually are choices and habits.

Develop intentional habits as nonnegotiables in your daily routine

For whatever reason, I understood very early on that the choices I make today affect my life tomorrow. I don’t know if it was because I had older parents. Chances are it was because I had older siblings, one of which made some not so great choices.

And, you know, sometimes people are put in our lives for us to learn what not to do. Right? And I had a pretty inherent understanding that choices and habits that I made today affect my life tomorrow.

It’s why I’m so passionate about habits because I really wanna shorten that learning curve for you.

And I think, again, people rely so heavily on discipline and motivation when instead, if we swap that out for habits, I get asked all the time if I love getting up early.

You love getting up at 5AM- what’s it about 5AM? Do you love getting up at 5AM? I don’t love getting up at 5 AM.

I love how it makes me feel. So 5 AM is my habit. I literally put no thought to it, there’s no emotional attachment to that whatsoever.

And I have habits in place so that probably for the first, oh gosh, five to six hours of my day, I already know what I’m doing.

There’s no decision fatigue whatsoever. I have designed a set of habits that I step right into, that are choices I make today to help me create the future I want tomorrow. That’s all habits are. They are choices we make today to help create the future tomorrow.

[00:14:50]:
They do not take talent. You are not lucky. You do not have to have exceptional discipline or motivation. You just have to detach emotion from them and step into a set of operating practices that become habits that move your life forward.

The Power of Daily Habits: Change truly happens from the small habits that we choose to do every single day.

Chances are that if 2023, at least partly, had some goals that you didn’t quite get to, had some dreams that maybe you didn’t make enough progress on. You know, for you, you want to make more progress on those dreams. You want to get closer to those goals. It is likely due to habits.

It probably has very little to do with your talents, has very little to do with your luck, has very little to do with your self discipline or whether you are motivated or whether you’re inspired.

It likely has everything to do with your habits. And either you didn’t tap into those habits that would move the needle on your goals and dreams enough, they were sort of happenstance.

Therefore, they’re not really habits. They’re just kind of whenever you feel like it, or you don’t have the correct habits it’s to move the needle on the goals and dreams.

Again, none of that has anything to do with luck or talent. It just has to do with being self aware and being self reflective and taking a look back and going, okay. I wanted to make more progress on my goals and dreams.

I didn’t. Let me take a look at my habits, which are completely in my control. I get to make those choices, and let me see if I need to change some, if I need to lean into some harder, whatever the case might be.

It will always be your habits that move the needle on your goals and dreams. And here’s what I know.

The sooner we accept that an extraordinary life and we’re all capable of an extraordinary life.

The sooner we accept that an extraordinary life takes intentional effort, aka habits, and persistent, consistent action, aka habits, especially when it’s not convenient, the sooner we get to create that extraordinary life.

Let me say that one more time.

The sooner we accept that an extraordinary life takes intentional effort and persistent, consistent action, especially when it’s not convenient, the sooner we can create that life.

No luck, no charmed life, no motivation required, simply habits, very strongly and deeply connected to our goals and dreams. That, I believe, is the second secret to making 2024 different from 2023.

3 – The Power of Supportive Community

Tip number three or secret number three to making 2024 your best year yet is this… community. The power of community is so real, getting into the right rooms, having higher vibe conversations with women who are your hype squad, who are cheering for you, with humans who support your goals and dreams.

You know, the most beautiful thing about being in a community, the right community, when you know it’s the right community, and you’re talking about your goals and dreams, and you could say the most outlandish goal.

You could say the most outlandish dream, something so off the wall that other people be like, what? You could be like, I want to buy a llama farm. And if you’re in the right community, that community will be like, yes, girl. Yes. Let’s go, and we’ll cheer you on.

Other communities, other conversations that you might be in are not quite so hyped.

Right? They’re not quite so positive. And I think one of the keys to making 2024 different is getting intentional about the community.

I think there’s a shift happening, honestly. It’s been a hard three years and amidst it’s this hard and amidst these challenges of life that we’ve had over the past three years, I think there’s a shift happening.

There’s a renewed hope and a different energy that, quite honestly, I haven’t felt for a while. And I think it’s women specifically connecting more and more with the idea of collaboration.

Truly understanding that being an island, siloing yourself is literally the opposite of creating an extraordinary life.

Advantages of surrounding oneself with a community that challenges, inspires, and holds one accountable

[00:20:57]:
When you silo yourself and think that you’ve gotta figure it out all on your own, when you silo yourself and honestly think you know it all, that’s a recipe for a very unextraordinary year.

I think it’s a recipe for a very unextraordinary life. There is such power in linking arms with other women, this powerful female male force I mean, my goodness.

We saw it in the summer of 2023 with the Swifties coming together and the year of the Barbie movie and Beyonce and just women coming out in droves and supporting each other and hyping each other and just being kind to each other, that’s a powerful force.

And to silo yourself from that, to say that you don’t know where communities exist that will support you is frankly giving your power over to someone else because it’s 2023, 2024. And you have the Internet at your fingertips.

You can absolutely start searching. You’ve got social media platforms at your fingertips, there is no excuse anymore to say you can’t find communities that will support your goals.

I think more and more women are understanding that if they will stop resisting the new and start amplifying what is… if they’ll stop resisting this urge to wait for the perfect moment and instead start amplifying what is.

If they’ll stop resisting just stop resisting, period, it starts stepping into the now.

Start stepping into choices and habits. And if they will be surrounded by other women who get that and who want to do that too and amplifying that, well, now we’re turning what is into what could be, and that’s next level stuff.

You have to get uncomfortable to create something epic, and I think you have to get around other people who support getting uncomfortable. And I’ll be very honest with you. Very often, that’s not your family, and that’s okay.

[00:23:11]:
You know, on a little bit of a tangential note, often people will say, well, my spouse is my best friend. That’s fantastic. But in Michelle Obama’s book, The Light We Carry, which is I just cannot recommend that book enough. It’s so good.

She has an amazing chapter where she talks about how we have to stop expecting our spouse or our significant other to be everything to us, to be everything to us.

She talks very eloquently and at length about how much she still needs her girlfriends and these kitchen table conversations that are different from conversations she might have with her spouse because one human being should not be everything, should not play all the roles.

That’s just too much for one person. So while your spouse is an important person in your life, they might not be sometimes the person who gets and supports your dreams right out of the gate.

The Importance of Relationships Outside of Marriage: “We have to stop expecting our spouse or our significant other to be everything to us, to be everything to us. 1 human being should not be everything, should not play all the roles. That’s just too much for 1 person.”

[00:24:08]:
That’s just honest. That’s just honest. And if you want 2024 to be different from 2023, one of the pieces that I believe you need to tap into at a higher level that you just seek out at a higher level is community.

I believe there are women all over the world who know it’s time to make a change. I believe there are women all over the world who are ready to make a change. I believe communities exist, and if they don’t, someone has to start them.

And instead of saying, well, someone ought to do something about that, what if the someone was you? And if you don’t find a community in existence that fits what you wanted, what if you just created it?

Because I’m telling you, in the worlds of field of dreams, if you build it, they will come. I believe one of the keys to making 2024 different from 2023 in all the best ways possible will be the community that you seek out, possibly the community that you create, the community that you immerse yourself in.

And within that community, the level of conversations that you’re having. If you’re having conversations solely about school pickup, the latest episode of The Bachelor, and what you’re eating for lunch, that’s not going to be the community that moves the needle on your goals and dreams.

Just being honest. I said what I said. Seek out a community that challenges you, that inspires you, that holds you accountable, and then don’t get mad when they hold you accountable.

If you come into a community and say, listen this is what I wanna do with this one amazing life that I have on this planet, and then you stop showing up. Don’t get mad at your community because if it’s the right one, they will hold you accountable.

Let’s embrace personal growth, intentional habits, and a supportive community to create the positive change we seek!

We get one shot at this life. This is it. And I think the people that we surround ourselves with are so key to leveling up 2024.

And so my friend, I think it comes back to this. I believe too many humans believe life has to be hard. I believe too many humans, women especially, make life, especially transitions into new chapters, harder than it has to be.

And how do I know this? Because I am one of these women that sometimes makes life harder than it has to be. And on my life’s quest it is literally my life’s quest to get better in some way every single day.

I think these three pieces, these three secrets, these three life hacks, if you will, are the keys to leveling up.

1. Personal growth
2. Habits
3. Community

Nothing that takes talent, nothing that takes luck, everything that simply takes choice. I think there are women… I believe there are women, there are humans, I know that I’m talking to my women out there in this world.

I believe there are women who are ready to pivot, who are tired of the last three years and ready for new things, who are ready to push their pace a little bit, who are ready for a positive community, and are kinda tired of being in your own way.

Like, do you feel me on that? You’re kinda tired of just being in your own way.

Why do I believe that? I’m raising my hand because I am one. That’s why I’m on a life’s quest to level up. It’s why I believe in the power of personal growth.

It’s why I believe in the power of habits, and it’s why I believe in the power of community.

These three keys will change your life. And if you want 2024 to be different than 2023, and I believe you do or you would not have listed listened this far into the podcast, if you will take these three simple concepts into your life, do some assessment, some reflection around them, and then make some tactical plans to tap into all three of these.

How can you tap into the power of personal growth?

How can you shift, recalibrate, adjust some of your habits to move the needle on your goals and dreams?

How can you seek out a leveled up community?

If you put tactical plans in place for those three concepts, I believe you will change your year. And if you change your year, well, my friend, you can change your life. That’s what I believe.

So I hope you are on this journey with me to crank up this year. I truly believe 2024 can be a game changer for all of us. It’s time. We’re all feeling that. So let’s tap into these habits, these secrets, these mindsets, let’s get after 2024 because after all, we hold the pen.

We write the chapter. So let’s make it a good one.