Mid-Year Reflections: Realign & Refocus On Your Purpose

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Are you on track to achieve your goals this year? Join me in a special episode as we reflect on the importance of evaluating our lives at the midpoint of the year, using the Oola wheel as a powerful assessment tool.

Discover the essential process of personal transformation and why commitment and accountability are key to reaching your goals. Plus, I introduce Oola's Digital Lifestyle Framework, an online platform designed to support you in having less stress, more balance and a life of purpose.

Links mentioned in this episode:
🔗 Oola Digital Lifestyle Framework
🔗 Free Oola Wheel Assessment

As always, thank you for listening to We All Have Something.  If you wish to connect with Rick beyond the podcast:
Website: www.CoachRickSchwartz.com
YouTube: @RickSchwartz
Instagram: @Coach_Rick_Schwartz
Facebook Page:  @CoachRickSchwartz
TikTok: @Coach_Rick_Schwartz

***If you are having any thoughts of self harm and need someone to reach out to please call: 1-800-273- TALK (8255)
Or use the new 988 number for calling or texting for support.


Episode Music "Inspiration Corporate" by Sandra Inspiration Music
Music rights purchased through AudioJungle.

Nothing in this podcast should be taken as therapy, medical or mental health care. Topics discussed on this podcast reflect the personal experiences of the host and guests of We All Have Something and are not intended to, nor should they, replace the services of medical care, mental health care or therapy.

If you are having thoughts of self harm or ending your life, please call or text 988 - Help is available 24/7.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:22

Hello you, beautiful listeners. This is a special episode. If we all have something. It's not special in a sense. It's coming out in a different day, or early, or in addition to other normal episodes. It's still coming out on a Wednesday. This episode is special. I'm gonna start from the bottom, work my way up. Okay, so at the bottom. This is episode 17 of this season, so we're chugging right along, loving that. We're just pumping these out. You guys are showing up and listening. This is episode 80 in total for this podcast across the three seasons, so that's kind of fun. It's a nice round number. You know the eight to zero, nice and round. Then get this. This episode comes out the end of June. I believe it's gonna be June 28th when this will drop and be live, and a few days later It's July 2nd.

Speaker 1: 1:05

I Know right and you're like Rick, what? what is July 2nd special? Well, july 2nd Marks the unofficial halfway point of 2023. Now, depending upon where you look at it, some people say it's technically the end of July 1st. Some people say it's technically the beginning of July 2nd. I'm just gonna land on July 2nd because, even if it is the end of July, 1st marks a halfway point. When you wake up, when you're functional. Next It's gonna be July 2nd, so let's start there, shall we?

Speaker 1: 1:35

I'm Rick Schwartz, life coach, public speaker and all-around curious guy. My curiosity, my life and the lives of the many people I have worked with have taught me time and time again that there are challenges to overcome and successes to celebrate. You're listening to we all have something a podcast about the human experience, a podcast about celebrating our authentic self. So let's get started. You know I appreciate you being here and I want to give you the best episode ever. We are going to jump into the meat potatoes of this episode in just a moment, but right now I have to do a shout-out to two of our latest Supporters. Now, if you want to become a supporter of the podcast, what this does? it allows me to keep things ad-free. I know as a consumer of podcasts, in the middle of a conversation to add something pops in, it can be a little jarring. So I'm happy to keep these episodes ad-free for you, and that happens Thanks to our supporters. So I want to do a big shout-out to Jason, a he's coming at us from Arizona. He's a supporter now. And also Cheryl didn't want to give her last name, cheryl, from Massachusetts. I appreciate you so much.

Speaker 1: 2:44

If you would like to join our supporters and be a part of the supporting community of this Podcast, all you have to do is look for the link down below in the show notes or episode notes, wherever you listen to this podcast. They're all down there just one little link to click on to become a supporter. It's super simple and it really helps out. Now, what you get return is obviously a personalized email from me, because, it's honest, i write it. There'll be typos and everything I promise because I'm dyslexic, but you'll also get two stickers to stick on your water bottle, your car, wherever you want to put, a cool sticker That just shows your supporter of the podcast, my way of saying thank you, and then, as you notice, i'll mention your name on the air if you want, but you don't have to. It's up to you at your permission.

Speaker 1: 3:20

So, without further delay, let's jump into this episode, and this one is super important. This is so timely. We're coming up at the midpoint of the year and I really, really can't stress enough How important it is for us to stop at this point and really evaluate where we are. What are we doing? How are we doing? This, of course, is an extension of what I do as a coach. Every year, twice a year, i sit down and really evaluate what I am doing, sometimes more than twice a year. Honestly, i did it. I did it back in March as well. Now I have mentioned it before on this podcast multiple times. You know I'm certified through Oula. You know if you're a former client of mine or current client of mine, we talk about the Oula wheel. We've talked about the Oula wheel here.

Speaker 1: 4:00

It's an assessment to give you a snapshot as to where you are in life with your fitness, your finance, your family, your field, your faith, your friends and your fun. Those seven key areas all I'm sorry, i went fast. I'm excited about this episode your fitness, your finances, your family relationships And that could be chosen family, birth, family or all the above field. Which is your career, what you do, what you do with your life. Now That doesn't mean if you are a stay-at-home parent or your caretaker elsewhere. It doesn't mean you don't have a career. That's still a part of your career or field as we look at it.

Speaker 1: 4:29

And your faith, your spirituality Where are you with that? and it's about you and your spirituality, not what everyone else is telling you your spirituality should be? and your friends? How's your friend circle, your friend group? and fun Are you purposely setting aside some time for fun, or at least acknowledging When you do something fun and stop for a moment and appreciate that? of course, it goes much deeper than that when we talk about maintaining the balance. But going back to the wheel, the idea of the wheel, the assessment that goes along with it, it gives you the opportunity to take a snapshot as to where you are right now, and this time of year is really important.

Speaker 1: 5:02

When we start the new year, we start our goals, we have our habits in place, we know our action steps, we got a plan, we got a path, we're gonna go, we're gonna do the things and many of us start out really strong. A lot of people are done within the first week of trying because change is hard and challenging and difficult and unsettling and it's different, so we don't like it. It's our nature to not want change. Many people actually will last a month and a half, some even further, will make it as far as the beginning of March before they kind of peter out on this stuff. A lot of people who are involved with Oula. A lot of people who use the Oula framework for themselves even experience these lulls sometime. Many of us in this Oula community, we go all the way to the finish line. We may not get to the end of the year and finish and reach all of our goals we set for the year, but we've done a lot. We've done a lot and sometimes I will tell you this as someone who has not reached some goals.

Speaker 1: 5:57

A lot of times, the biggest value in the goals you haven't met is what you experienced and learned on the way, what you found out about yourself along the way. The process and your growth along the way was more valuable than whether you reached that goal or not. But the fact that you stayed with it, kept working with it and learned along the way, there's the value. So why now? Why mid-year? Well, a mid-year review, the middle of the year, is an opportunity to go.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Am I really being honest with myself? Am I really maintaining and working towards my goals? I set for myself The promises I made to me at the beginning of the year. Am I holding true to that? Am I showing myself the integrity and the discipline I promised myself that I would? And if not, why? Let's reevaluate. Let's be honest with this. It's not meant to punish you. Oh, i didn't do it, i suck, i'm horrible, i can't do it, i quit. I don't want that. I don't want that. Nobody wants that. What we want is to have an honest conversation about why maybe you aren't performing as well as you thought. Maybe you set your goals and your standards a bit higher and real life kicked in and said, nah, not today, not like that. It's going to take you longer and that's okay, that's absolutely okay. But let's talk about it. Let's be honest with ourselves. Let's take this assessment.

Speaker 1: 7:08

The reality is, change can be hard and we can get hyped up and excited and surround ourselves with people who've got us hyped up and excited about doing things, but the fact that we are purposely changing things in our life, our brain actually is like eh, extra effort, do you really want to? Are you sure? Because this we know. We know how this will go if we don't do it, if we just keep doing the status quo. I mean, yeah, you're not happy with the status quo and you feel out of bounds, but it's predictable. You know what it's going to feel like because you've been doing this for long enough now and feel out of sorts. Long enough. It's completely predictable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're unhappy, but come on, you can do. You can just keep doing the same stuff, right? So yeah, change is hard. But here's the thing change is very simple. In fact it's so simple.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Some people look at it and go, eh, i don't know, there's probably something to hide around the corner. There's got to be something more to it. I'm not seeing that's going to make it more difficult and challenging, so I'm going to avoid it because it just it looks too easy. Now, creating change in your life is not as simple as a single line. But here's the thing when you have the thought or the idea or you recognize, you wake up one day and you're like I'm a little disgusted with how I'm living my life, i'm out of sorts, i'm not quite in my values, i don't feel balanced and things feel off. You get that idea. You get that idea that things just aren't right and you move into getting that idea to start. You start to think about it, you start to visualize yourself as to how you really want your life to be.

Speaker 1: 8:29

And when we start that visualization process in our mind, it's hard to let go. Our brain doesn't know if we actually saw it and experienced it or if we're just thinking about it. So then we start to get feelings around it. We start to feel like I need to do something. I need to take action, but I'm not sure what. And that's where a lot of people stall out. A lot of people stall out around the feelings because they're not sure where to go. They may even go as far as the next step, which is creating that plan. You start to create a plan of I'm going to read this book, i'm going to listen to this podcast, i'm going to watch these videos, i'm going to take some classes online from the self-help person, and I like this quote. I'm going to follow what this person is saying. Start learning more about it. That sometimes will be where people stall out is in the doing. They're just going to keep doing. I'll put into practice these things soon, but I'm just going to keep doing for right now. Somewhere along that idea of creating a plan, of taking action, that's where people start to come to me. Rick, i've been reading about this thing. I've been feeling this way. I've been following your Instagram for a while. I was checking out your YouTube video on this. Your latest podcast episode really resonated with me, and I wanted to reach out At that point.

Speaker 1: 9:37

When I start to work with somebody, we talk a lot about where you are now versus where you want to be. All right, let's do it. I take it a step further, though, and I start to ask you about your habits, your behaviors. How do you think you got to where you are, that you feel unaligned with your values? What were the things that occurred? Now, it might be a big life event. It might be a series of big life events. It might be that one thing led to another that made you believe a certain thing about yourself, even though, deep down inside, you really would rather have alignment with your values and who you are and feel more balanced in life and have less stress and feel that you're stepping in line with your purpose.

Speaker 1: 10:18

We start to then look at how we can disassemble some of these habits that guide you down the path you don't want to be on and start to rebuild habits that start to give you results to where you want to go. Now notice I didn't say we're going to build habits to get you there. First thing we have to do is start building the habits to get you on the path to start going that direction. That is more important sometimes than actually how are you going to reach the goal itself. That said, once we have the commitment to enact on these habits and start making them part of our routines, we have created a new direction for your lifestyle. Eating better can be a lifestyle or it can be a one time event. Exercise can be a lifestyle or a one time event. The idea behind creating habits that are starting to put you in the direction of where you want to go with life This is a lifestyle we're talking about, and once you start really stepping into these habits and routines and you start doing these things, you start to notice change. Pretty cool. Here's the reality of it, though.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Often, we look at this concept of the process of going from idea to actually changing our life. This is what I just walked you through. Essentially, we look at that and we go okay, well, i got the idea, i want the change. I know what the changes I want. Let's go there now.

Speaker 1: 11:40

The analogy that I often use is climbing Mount Everest, but it can be any grand or big process, but I think the idea of climbing a mountain. And if climbing a mountain is something you can wrap your head around, then please think of something in your life that takes time to happen. Maybe you cook right, maybe you make a lovely homemade lasagna. Do you just go to the grocery store, pick up the ingredients, come home and now you have nice hot lasagna waiting for you? No, it's a process. It's a multi-step process that anywhere along the way, you could have just go well, i don't have lasagna yet, so I'm not going to do it. The Mount Everest analogy is like you fly all the way over the Himalayas. You get the base camp. You're like well, i'm not at the top yet. I'm fine, i just quit, i'm not going to do it.

Speaker 1: 12:20

It's a process. This is the same thing for you in changing your lifestyle, changing your habits, changing the direction you're going to go through life. It is a process that requires commitment on your part and the ability to have accountability with you. Now, as a coach, of course, i walk you through this. As a coach, i take your hand and walk you through this process, asking you questions along the way that allow you to reflect, check your perspective, check your values, and we make a system for you. That is personalized to you.

Speaker 1: 12:54

It's not about how do we get to the goal right away. It's really like, okay, what is the goal? but now here's what it's about. What are the action steps? you take An example might be someone's like well, i need to be healthier. So one of the things I'm going to do is my goal is to drink water every day. All right, so if you don't drink water on Tuesday, did you miss your goal? Now, how do you feel about yourself? Because you didn't hit your goal on Tuesday and you missed Friday as well? So what are action steps we can do? that's going to start bringing you towards that. Let's have the goal be drinking water every day for a week the first week and then for two weeks And then what are your action steps to get you to that goal? When we look at it as action steps, we recognize it's a process, it's a commitment, it's a lifestyle. This time of year is so important for us too.

Speaker 1: 13:39

Even if you have not formally put together goals and commitments to yourself, maybe you're a casual listener of the podcast, or maybe someone sent us to you like, hey, you should listen to this And you've never done this process before. That I'm talking about, where we talk about action, steps and goals and habits and the seven key areas of life and the Oula framework. That's awesome, that's fine. If you've never done it before, i wanna stress to you right now. Now is the time to take the assessment. There's a free online assessment. I'll put the link down in the show notes. There's a free online assessment you can do. The only thing you have to give up is your email. It goes to me. No one else is gonna spam you And I will simply email you back saying, hey, i noticed you took the assessment. Let me know if you have any follow up questions, and that's it. I'm not gonna keep throwing stuff at you. I'm not gonna keep trying to do anything. I just wanna make sure you understood it And if there's any questions or if there's any other thoughts you have on it, you and I can converse on that.

Speaker 1: 14:26

I also wanna address something that Oula is doing, that I think some people look at me. Some people ask me like Rick, why are you telling me this When I coach people, my coaching, my one-on-one coaching, where you and I work together one hour every week for 12 weeks straight and we can take a break, if you need a vacation, but you know what I mean. For some people it's cost prohibitive And I understand that. I have an expertise, i have a lot of knowledge I bring to the table and a lot of work we do together in the time it takes, and I should get paid for that, like anybody getting paid for anything they do and they do well. However, i understand for some people who need coaching, who need this kind of work to grab onto and to look at and to change their life, it can be cost prohibitive. Oula has recently done something that is shaking up the coaching industry And you know, you hear all these disruptors in the tech world. Oula's becoming a disruptor in the coaching world.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Here's the thing Oula is now offering. Well, they have been offering for a while. They have what is called the Lifestyle Framework Online. This is a subscription. It's 47 bucks a month. It is ridiculously cheap when you think about everything that goes on here. The Oula Lifestyle Framework is basically their signature program. This is this.

Speaker 1: 15:41

All started with two guys going around telling people. They then wrote a book and the book took off and now they're doing more And then they got coaching certification going on and all that stuff, dave and Troy. Their goal is to change the world in a positive way And that's why I wanted to get certified through their program. That's why Oula really stuck to me, because it's about impact. It's about the ripple effect. You know we talk about that a lot Their signature program that they've now created a digital platform, and I was part of the group that got to get eyes on it early and test some things out.

Speaker 1: 16:09

It has been evolving and changing over the last year and a half And I haven't said a lot about it. Now my clients know about it And former clients I got a lot of former clients that use it. But I am going to start pushing this a lot more now, i think, because I've been getting feedback that some people really need coaching and it's cost prohibitive, and I'll even offer up like okay, well, let's talk for an hour or just let me give you some ideas on some things, but this, at $47 a month, is not cost prohibitive And it's an online e-learning platform that learns you and becomes customized to you Very much like having a digital coach. So I'm going to read right here. It's so cool how they put this.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Basically, their setting up is when you are out of balance, not growing and lacking purpose, everything suffers The seven key areas we've talked about. Something is going to suffer in your fitness, your finances, your family, your career, your faith or spirituality, your friendship and your fun. You know things need to change And, like when I went down that list, from idea to actually creating change, it's a process, but sometimes in fact, most times people get stuck in that part of creating a plan. They can visualize it, they can see it, They kind of know what they want, but outside of feeling that they don't know where to start, and maybe they'll start consuming a lot of content online that makes them feel good and inspirational quotes. This is where to start. If you find yourself at that point in the process. This is where you start, so what you do is you go in there and you sign up for it.

Speaker 1: 17:36

You complete the online assessment And this is the OOLA wheel And this time, though, what is doing the program is understanding where you scored on that. You will then receive detailed, personalized report revealing your current life balance. You'll then be guided along a step-by-step path. It is customized from your report. This is not a standard digital textbook that you're going through like everybody else. This reflects directly on how your report came through on the assessment. This will help you grow in all seven areas of life. Everything is custom to fit for you and where you are Helps you create goals, helps you decide when and how you're going to use this. There's an area then for, of course, getting your action steps in place, and it's very true, of course, when it comes to accountability. Your journey through this balance, through this growth, through finding your purpose, works best with a guide at your side And the OOLA program.

Speaker 1: 18:31

You have different options. You can be prompted to stay on track with a personal automated digital tracker. You can opt in for additional support, if you want, from a certified coach. So, even from within the digital platform, if you need to tap on a coach, there's an option to get in touch with a coach. It doesn't mean you're signing up for the full nine to 12 weeks of one-on-one coaching. This means you're tapping and say, hey, i need a little extra guidance here. It's really awesome how they're allowing you to customize for your needs when you need them And, of course, the OOLA framework and everything else with it. It really offers up the opportunity for you to have a clear picture of you and what's been going on for you and where you want to go and how you're going to do this.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Now, what's included? when you sign up for this, you get the Design My Life blueprint. Of course, it's all self-paced. The breakthrough experience, which is one time a month for 12 weeks. So that means you're getting videos and content within the digital platform from Dave and Troy that has been customized for where you are in life. You have your personal path, which is one time a month, personalized coaching, my Daily Tracker, which is basically an opportunity for you to track how you're doing on your action steps and where you are with your goals, and you get to move your goals around as you complete them. There's little badges. It's pretty awesome. And here's the other thing It's not that you just sign up for it and now you're doing the self-paced tracker and you've got the digital platform and you're getting videos and other content. There's bonus personal development with quarterly summits. You get invited to live zooms. That are these online quarterly summits at Dave and Troy Hold the founders of this program. You get to attend that And in that, you get to meet other people in the community as well. It's all Zoom. It's pretty awesome If you wanted to go to a live event though.

Speaker 1: 20:05

I go to the live event every year. It's called Ulapalooza. I know it sounds kind of silly, but it's really awesome. It's life-changing. It's an opportunity for you to sit down with like-minded people. It's actually let me rephrase that You get to sit down with a very diverse group of people who are all in the same heart space of wanting to improve their lives and also improve the lives of others, and I have seen some amazing, amazing things happen there. You have priority access to Ulapalooza. If you want to go to it.

Speaker 1: 20:32

This is me telling you yes, you can come to me as a coach and I'd be happy to coach you. In fact, i've got what? starting next month Yeah, we're sort of starting in July. I've got two slots open for new clients, because I've got some clients that are rolling into accountability now, which means I'll meet with them once a month instead of every week. So I got two slots open.

Speaker 1: 20:52

If you want to do one-on-one coaching, absolutely. But here's the other deal If one-on-one coaching isn't where you are right now and it's cost-prohibitive for some reason, this is your best bet. This is how you're going to change your life. This is, hands down, the best program I've seen at this price point. This is coming from someone who has read all the Lewis Howells books and the Jay Shetty books and Mel Robbins books and all the other coaches and lifestyle influencers on how to balance your life, and you can go that route, absolutely. They've got podcasts, they've got videos, they've got programs, they've got books. You can spend all the money you want on that and whatever makes you feel good.

Speaker 1: 21:28

I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I'm telling you this. At 47 bucks a month, this is really an amazing opportunity for you to start taking control of your life, to start living a life in balance, with less stress and more purpose. It's self-guided. You have to lean on your ability to have some integrity for yourself, but again, within the digital framework, if you're feeling like I don't know, i'm kind of lost in this, you can spend a little bit extra and tap in and get some sessions with a coach. You can do texting only with a coach. It's an actual, certified coach, not an AI chatbot Or you could even do some video conferencing with a coach too, if you wanted. There's a lot of different options in there If you're interested but you're not sure, feel free to reach out to me. I'll be happy to tell you more about this. I'll put some links down in the show notes as well, but this is the time of year to do it. This is the time of year to do it.

Speaker 1: 22:18

We are halfway through the year. Where are you? What have you accomplished versus what did you want to accomplish? And let's be honest with ourselves. Let's be honest with ourselves as to where we are versus where we want to be, and the Oolo Accelerators are a great way to go down this. I'm going to go right down the list.

Speaker 1: 22:33

Use gratitude right now. Have some gratitude for what you've been through, for what you have set yourself up, that you wanted to accomplish this year. And if you look at that and go, yeah, i dropped the ball three months ago, right, good luck, i'm not doing it this year. Have some gratitude for the fact that you started, that you put that on your list, that you wrote that down, that that's what you wanted to do. Have gratitude that you are only halfway through the year. You are not done. Here's the thing. You've got to show up. You've got to do it. You've got to be patient And if you started. Have gratitude for that. Give yourself some love.

Speaker 1: 23:02

By the way, one of the big things I've been tripping on the last couple of years self-love. I've talked about on the podcast. I've posted about it plenty on social media. Do you love yourself? Can you look in the mirror and truly love the person? looking back at you, can you look yourself in the eye and truly feel love for that person? We're halfway through the year.

Speaker 1: 23:21

If you're at a point where you can't look in the mirror and love that person, start working on that. Ask for help. Start working on that. It's important. Get some discipline. Start finding a way to exercise your discipline muscle. Maybe that means finding someone to help keep you accountable. But let's start working on getting back in the direction, to be the person you want to be, to live the life you want to live. That's integrity right there. That's integrity right there. Get your integrity fired up. Let's do this. Show yourself. Show up for yourself with integrity.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Lean into your passion. Passion is a great accelerator. Sometimes passion can blind us, though. Sometimes we're so passionate about something we don't realize the other parts of our life are suffering. I've been there and I've helped a lot of people through that as well. Where they've followed their passion for so many years, all the other areas of life have just kind of faded away, kind of crumbled on them, and so they needed to work on getting them back in balance, and that's understandable. But your passion is a great driver.

Speaker 1: 24:18

Have some humility. If you messed up, you messed up, admit it, it's okay. It's okay if you messed up. Maybe you even screwed up big time It happens. Have some humility. You're human. Give yourself some grace. It's okay. You're still here. There's still time.

Speaker 1: 24:35

We're going to wrap that up with wisdom. Use some wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Wisdom comes from going through things. Wisdom comes from listening to those who have experience, listening to those who have gone through things. Find people in your circle, network. Find the wisdom. Use the wisdom you have been granted. Recognize it for what it is.

Speaker 1: 24:57

Remember all of this takes time. It's baby steps or, as we call them, action steps. What's important is you keep showing up. If you feel that well, i'm in the middle of the year, rick, and a few months ago I stopped showing up, it's time to show up for you again. Be patient, be consistent. Whatever it is you need to or want to work on, to be more congruent with your values, to be the person you promised yourself you would be, to have the life you promised yourself you would have. Show up, keep showing up, be patient and be consistent. We're going to wrap this episode up.

Speaker 1: 25:29

Like I said, all the links are down below. If you're interested in signing up for the digital platform, it is a great opportunity of 47 bucks a month to start taking control of your life, to start really evaluating where you are versus where you want to be, and then start working on getting there. And if you want to learn more about my coaching directly and what I offer along with the Oula program, go to my website, coachrickschwarzcom. You can also find me on social media, coach Rick Schwartz. Just search that just about anywhere YouTube, facebook, instagram, all the stuff.

Speaker 1: 26:00

And, as always, i want to say thank you for being here, thank you for listening and thank you for sharing this podcast. If you haven't subscribed already, i urge you to do so. Season three, which we're in the middle of right now, is going to continue on probably until September, if not later, as it tends to do, as I get more guests on the show And, of course, if anything in this episode is something that's resonated with you or you know somebody that it would resonate with or might gain something from listening to it. Please share. That's how this podcast grows and it's how we're going to change the world, making sure you subscribe, leave yourself a review and share this podcast. All right, thank you all so much for being here. You know I do appreciate it. Have a good one everybody.