Are you ready to make 2025 one of your best years yet? Business advisor Michelle Broadbent discusses how to set yourself up for a productive, successful and fulfilling year ahead - from reframing New Year's resolutions to creating a life that's authentic to you.
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Hey there, and welcome to Extra Healthy Ish. Yes, you have tuned into the Big Sister podcast to Healthy Ish from Body and Soul. I'm your host, Felicity Harley. Now, are you ready to make twenty twenty five your best year yet? Now? I know we're not there. There are a few weeks, there's a bit of chaos, there is Christmas. But we want to help you feel inspired. Now. I'm joined by business advisor and strategist, or as many call her, wingwoman, Michelle Broadbent, to discuss how to set yourself up for a productive, successful, and fulfilling year ahead. Michelle, thanks for joining us on Extra Healthy Ish. How are you?
I'm pretty good. I am sliding into the festive season. Yeah, this is the busiest time of year me right now. So but I'm feeling good and I'm really happy to be here talking to you today.
How do you stay extra healthy during this time?
I look for the pockets, like I am being, I'm realistic. I'm pretty protective of my time. So I make sure that you know the important things that are in my calendar. And if it's not in my calendar, it doesn't happen. And then when I've got those little windows of time for myself. I just try and get those pockets of joy, whether it is just you know, walking out the front door and going for a walk by myself, like with nobody else, with no dog on the lead, nothing like that, Like just having that time when I'm in the nothing box, you know, when there's like nothing going on in my head. It doesn't happen very often, but particularly if I am you know, if the kids are driving me crazy, or if I'm stuck on a work problem or something like that. Just having got circuit breakers. So it's looking for those circuit breakers throughout my day because realistically, I'm not spending two hours in a day spar having a massage and aquation. You're not, sadly.
Not, Maybe put that on your list for.
We are Santa. That's that's a request.
It's amazing how the simple, humble walk can be so rejuvenating for refocusing and re energizing. And a wise woman by the name of Emma Murray once said to me that, well, she's got a slogan that motion changes emotion, and I live by that. It's so true. Just get outside and go for a walk.
Yeah, motion absolutely for me to like dancing, like movie, like just like putting on a really great song and I'm like, you know, like everyone else is completely obsessed with a wicked soundtrack at the moment, and just listening to music really resets me as well.
Yeah, oh wicked. I saw that on the weekend. It is wicked literally in the sense of the word. Now talk to us about well use resolutions, but you don't like this particular term. How should we approach the new year?
Yeah, so look, don't I don't hate it, like I think you're the ones do like you do you? But I think this sort of myth that come the first of January, we can become this completely different person, and that we should become this completely different person, you know, quit sugar, run ten kilometers, overhaul your wardrobe, you know, ditch your partner whatever. I feel like that's just so much pressure, And what inevitably happens is that people go so hard on the first of January and then by and I think it's the twenty second of January is the official date of the year when everyone abandons all of their news resolutions and you know, just basically give up and not even a month into the year. So what I prefer people focus on is actually like a vision for the state that you want to be in come the end of the year. So when I work with my clients, we create a vision for like the December twenty twenty five vision, how do you want to feel at the end of the year, and then reverse enginey that. So it's like, all the activity that you do throughout the year is what is going to get you to feeling that way, to being that person. But you need to start with a really clear idea of what that is, otherwise you end up following someone else's path to success. And I'm using the air quotes here because what does that even mean?
How can we get really clear about we want, what we want and how we want to feel? I mean, I love that term, and I love the well. I love the fact that you hook it on the feeling, not what it looks like, it's how you feel in December twenty twenty five. How can we get more in touch with that?
And that's that's a great question because often the women that I work with, by the time they come to me, they have completely lost sight of what it is that they want. It's almost like they've built these lives and businesses that are according to somebody else's blueprint. So it is really like and I have done this is a lot. This isn't just like a flippant like you know, flick a switch and it's going to happen. It requires a lot of internal reflection around you know, first of all, taking that snapshot of how life is right now, like how has your year been, what's been happening, and what is like what has led you to be feeling the way that you're feeling right now in December twenty twenty four, and what are we going to stop doing? What are we going to start doing? But actually getting clear on like it's just sort of removing all of the noise, and that's hard to do it this time of year. That's why I like to do this stuff, you know, when when I'm on a break, like not when I'm sitting in front of my laptop in my office. That's that's not where all the best ideas come from. But it's tapping right back into your self and for women, and you know, all the roles and responsibilities that we have ourselves can be buried under there, right and it's really hard for often it's like looking for guidance. So It could be you know, working with a coach perhaps, or there's so much available at the moment around that sort of visioning and planning for the new year. So you know, perhaps it isn't something that you can do or by yourself. You may need someone to help you or support you with that.
You've got a great well something you wrote. I'll call it a quote off your website that I grabbed and it says, map your path to success with more joy and less sacrifice. I mean, hello, yes, please, how do we do this?
How do we do it? It's again coming back starting from that vision success. What is success for you? So I work with a lot of women in business who are following this this blueprint that someone invented that you know, a successful business owner earns a million dollars a year and they wake up at five in the morning and they meditate and then they run ten kilometers and then they do a coal plunge and then they make, you know, a nutritious breakfast for their gorgeously beautifully groomed children and women clad children, yest women plad Yes, yes exactly, But it's that it's that like, who really lives their life like that? And do you really want to live your life like that. So a lot of the work that I do is helping women like get back in touch with what it is that they want and help them map the pathway to their version of success, what this is for them, And I work with all sorts of you know, work with women who, yes, they do run the multimillion dollar bususinesses, but I also work with women who work four days a week and have a dat because they want to have a day at home with their toddler who's starting school next year, and that's success for them. For other women, it's being able to take two days out a week to spend with their elderly parents, or it could be being able to work to support your travel or other hobbies and that kind of thing. So like there's no right or wrong, and you know your different. Your version of success would be different to mine, and that's okay, but it's been really clear on what it is and then just blocking out the noise. I think for us as women, there is so much noise around us around what we should be doing, and we need to start knocking that out and learning to say no to everything that isn't.
And that's challenging, isn't it, Because it's about also having confidence and standing firm in that and blocking that noise and trusting yourself because and not looking at that person on social media who is doing everything before seven am, the cold plunge. They're getting up, well, let me start again, getting up at five am, going for a walk, doing a cold plunge. They're meditating a yoga and it's well, no, no one actually can do that. So be clear in what your version of success is. And you talk a lot about having trusted advisors to almost provide guide rails for you, and one of your keywords accountability. Can you talk to us more about.
This, yes, So that absolutely helps when you are establishing that version of success. It helps to be surrounded by like minded people, people who are going to almost be like that safety net underneath you. Now I'm not talking about like the security blanky, like the crotch kind of thing. I'm talking about people that can empower you, uplift you, keep you on track. Like if you've got goals that you want to achieve, a sure fire way of increasing your chances of achieving them is actually to declare them to somebody else. But that somebody else needs to be. Somebody who is going to support you and hold you to account, someone who is going to check in on you and go, hey, you know, how are you going with that with your marathon training? Felicity or you know that sort of thing. So it's having those people that It's like that cliche, you can't be who you can't see, So you want those examples around you to inspire you and encourage you.
We'll be back after this short break with more from Michelle. You know, having that accountability. I mean, I know this year some listeners will I run a half marathon. I set a goal at the beginning of the year. I mapped out the plans you as you talk about, but I actually stuck to it, and I was so proud of myself because a lot of the time you start a new year and you think, oh, I want to do all these things. I mean, I always have one hundred and one things, but this year I was very specific. I was like, no, there's just two things I want to achieve, and I actually did them. And if I look part you know back through a number of years, there's been lists, you know, with fifteen things and I've hardly done anything.
Yeah, huge, congratulations. That is no mean feat. And but I love how you said, like it was you only had a couple of goals for the year, And I think that is That is where I see people going haywire, is when they're firing at like a million different things. And again, to use an analogy, and I keep using sport analogies, I'm another sporting person, But it's the soccer. It's the goals, right, Like, if you're kicking multiple goal, multiple goals towards one goal, you're going to increase your chances of getting into that goal. Whereas if you've got a dozen goals lined along the field and you're kicking a ball into each one, you're less likely to get to kick that go So that's what you need to be thinking about when you are like setting goals, making plans, all of that sort of thing. Is like narrow your focus and narrow your energy so that you are not exhausting yourself trying to do a million things. But the marathon analogy is really great because you didn't wake up on jam.
But by the way, I did a half, not a marathon. Half love to claim a marathon, but.
So the half marathon, so what is that? Is that twenty one twenty one kilometers? So you didn't wake up on the first of January and run twenty one kilometers. If you did, you would have spent the rest of the holidays in hospital. Like you know, it's you can't you have to pace you had There has to be a plan. You've got to you know, there's all the scaffolding around you, all the like the strength training and the stretching and the eating. Well, there's so so often like a singular goal can actually lead to many other positive changes in our lives as well. And it's about becoming that person that you are now a half marathon runner, like that is you are now? Like that is part of your identity.
What about you? How do you want to feel in twenty twenty December twenty twenty five and how are you? I know you're not there yet because you like taking a break at the end of the year. But how just give us a bit of a rough idea of how next year will the planning of next year rolls out for you?
So the planning of next year for me will it starts with a reflection exercise at the end of this year. So I usually do that in the Christmas New Year break, just to reflect on the year that was. But then in terms of setting myself up for the new year, I do that after I have had a break. Taking that sort of frenetic energy from the end of the year into the planning it doesn't go well. So I give myself some time and some space, like when we rest, that's when all the great creative ideas come. Often, you know, when I'm away from my home, if I'm on a holiday, or even if i'm you know, just at the beach in Sydney or whatever, it feels very expansive. So I love that and that then I will start my planning from there. But my plan next year, Felicity, is more about consolidation. I've had a huge couple of years on the business and personal front, like big, great things, all good things, but it has been really full and really really I hate using that word, but really busy. And my goal for the end of twenty twenty five is to feel calm, feel a sense of calm after a year of consolidation as opposed to the rapid growth that has happened.
Do you have a word of the year.
Is that going to be your I think that is what I'm playing with at the moment. It is is it consolidate? Is it can't? I don't know if it can be calm because I am you've met me like I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm a calm, chilled out, relaxed person. That's not really me. So I don't know if I would feel.
Energy.
Don't go and ask my children and I'll argue with you. But yeah, something about consolidation, I think because I do usually have a word, and the words have been very dynamic over the last couple of years, you know, it's been like up level and consistency in those sorts of like high high energy words. But I love a one word theme or a phrase to just sort of tie around the ear. I think that's awesome.
And how do you plan that out? Like what is in your what is going to be in your plan between January and December to elicit more calm in your life?
So just spaciousness. So I plan on finishing up for the year, shouting down my laptop, turning, putting that out of office message on. I'm taking my eldest daughter overseas to wrap up her year twelve studies. So that's something that I've I'm really looking forward to that time with her and just connecting back into myself. Really, I think because a lot of the work that I do it's very given out, like I'm giving, I'm helping, I'm supporting, holding space for other people, and you know, it's important for me to connect back into myself and do those things that give me joy, like you know, the walks, the dancing, the sunshine, all.
The Paris that you're going on into.
Yeah, in Paris and going to the UK and seeing our friends over that. Like I'm really really looking.
Oh, how wonderful. I think you're in store for a really good twenty twenty five Michelle, And yeah, thank you for coming on extra healthy you and have a great Christmas.
Thank you you too. Thanks so much for having me.
Do you have a word for twenty twenty five or perhaps you're not even there yet, you just need to focus on the holidays. I hope a bit like that. I kind of make lots of notes, take a break, come back in January and regroup on how I want the year to roll out. Anyway, I hope you did find this chat with Michelle super inspiring. If you did, you can tell us, rate and review this episode. Tune into other episodes of Extra Healthy Ish. There are plenty to choose from. You can jump online, body andsoul dot com, dot you follows on socials I Am at Felicity Harley as well. Grab our print edition, which is out this Sunday in your local paper and until tomorrow. Stakes to Healthy Ish