Forget Resolutions. Crush 2021 Goals, Achieve Your Dreams with One Simple Tool Says Fast Forward Founder Lisa McCarthy
Show Snapshot:
Tear up those New Year’s resolutions! Meaningful change and an extraordinary life require new tools.
Lisa McCarthy, a founder of the coaching and training company The Fast Forward Group, shares a simple, science-backed exercise to help you play big, take risks, and laser focus on what’s important – in every area of your life. Now, you can join the 50,0000 leaders from companies like Facebook, Google, and Nike who use Fast Forward to elevate performance and drive personal fulfillment.
2020 was an incredibly hard year. If we cannot control our circumstances -- COVID, the economy, politics - we can at least manage how we respond. Lisa offers tools to help manage mindset and better deal with life's curveballs and everyday challenges.
In This Episode We Cover:
1. Why declaring a bold vision focuses you on what matters most and is a key to achieving professional goals, personal dreams.
2. The science-backed benefits of declaring a bold vision.
3. How writing a vision differs from making NYE resolutions (and why sharing it makes it 2x more effective).
4. Two key questions to ask yourself to get started.
5. Tackling limiting beliefs that can derail playing big and successfully committing to change.
6. Why midlife is the perfect time to bring intention to what’s next (aka you are NOT too old to be bold).
7. Vision writing helps with self-care, managing your inner critic, and honoring your accomplishments.
8. How to keep yourself accountable and on track.
Quotable:
Your fifties is a time to really take ownership of who you want to be, and where and how you want to spend your time.
The most important relationship is the one with yourself. And a lot of women, even in our fifties, are not treating ourselves well. We're not speaking to ourselves with the respect and care that we would give to others. Many people really go to work --- saying one a year from today, if not sooner, I'm treating myself with respect and care and honoring who I am and all that I've accomplished.
We can't control COVID. We can't control the economy. We can't control what's happening in the schools. But you can control how you show up. You can control the quality of your work. You can control how you respond to your circumstances.
Snackable Smarts:
Writing a vision is about living with intention and staying focused on what's important versus reacting to what comes at you and hoping for the best.
Writing a bold, vision differs from goal setting or making New Year's resolutions because often when people are setting goals, they're general and vague, and we don't write them down. A lot of times we're keeping them to ourselves and we're not telling other people. As human beings, we are wired to play it safe. We don't like to fail. So, a lot of times we just keep things to ourselves and think, "Okay, maybe, you know, I'll tell a sibling or a good friend, but I don't want to put it out there. Declaring your vision to other people makes it twice as likely to be realized.
The Declaring a Bold Vision exercise asks you to fast forward one year out. Imagine it's January of 2022, and you're looking back on the year and you're reflecting on what would extraordinary look like to you and why was the year so meaningful. And you're doing it in very vivid, specific detail.
Writing a vision also differs from traditional goal-setting in that most people do not achieve everything in their vision. Because you're playing so big. The word “extraordinary” is there for a reason. Extraordinary health, extraordinary relationships, extraordinary fulfillment. How do you go to bed at night feeling proud and fulfilled most nights?
The key is asking for help; when we stay alone, we don't play as big. I recommend literally reading it to someone right after you write it, who will then check in with you at least once a month, so that you feel accountable.
Your fifties is this amazing time where, if you have kids they're more independent than they used to be or they're out of the house. You have more time to invest in what lights you up. So many women harness their fifties and put their foot on the gas. And that doesn't necessarily mean doing more. I've also seen a lot of women take on doing less, but just more things that are important to them.
Focus on what you can control. We can't control COVID. We can't control the economy. We can't control what's happening in the schools, but you can control how you show up. You can control the quality of your work. You can control how you respond to your circumstances.
Makers Conference | Lisa McCarthy on Declaring a Bold Vision — What are you known for?
More Resources:
Download the Bold Vision Exercise
Follow Lisa:
The Fast Forward Group website
Follow Lisa on LinkedIn
Lisa McCarthy’s speaker website
Transcript
Katie Fogarty (00:06):
Welcome to A Certain Age, a show for women on life after 50, who are unafraid to age out loud. I'm your host Katie Fogarty.
We are in the first week of the first month of a new year. And man, can we use a new year. 2021, we have been waiting for you! I am thrilled to kick off season two of A Certain Age pod with a very special guest. My dear, dear friend, Lisa McCarthy. Lisa's business card says that she is the CEO and co-founder of the Fast Forward Group, a global training and coaching company that's worked with more than 50,000 leaders from companies, including Facebook, Google, and Nike. But what her business card doesn't say and should, is that she is an unstoppable force of energy and inspiration. She coaches everyone she meets to play big, embrace risk, and take ownership of their work and life. She joins me today to share a simple but powerful exercise that will help you crush your professional goals and achieve your personal dreams. Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa McCarthy (01:08):
Thank you, Katie. What an intro, and I have to agree with you that I'm ready to put 2020 behind us.
Katie (01:17):
Oh my gosh. I know we all are. So, before we dive in and get going, I just want to let listeners know that Lisa has been one of my dearest closest friends for 15 years. Our oldest daughters, who are now midway through college, became great friends in kindergarten. I have been lucky enough to have Lisa in my life for a long time. I've done her Fast Forward program several times. The very reason this podcast exists is because of the vision writing exercise that Lisa is going to walk us through shortly. I've used her tools for years. I can attest to the difference that can make in your life. So, I'm really, really excited to get started. Lisa, I know you're going to be talking about bold vision, what that means, what it looks like, how to execute it. But I do want to start by asking you to share with our listeners, why writing a bold vision differs from goal setting or making new year's resolutions?
Lisa (02:09):
Yes, I'm happy to. Okay. Well, the biggest difference is that often when people are setting goals or New Year's resolutions, they're general and vague, and we don't write them down. And a lot of times we're keeping them to ourselves and we're not telling other people. And there's a ton of research on your brain. You know, as a human being, we are wired to play it safe. We don't like to fail. So, a lot of times we just keep things to ourselves and think, "Okay, maybe, you know, I'll tell a sibling or a good friend, but I don't want to put it out there." And when you put it out there, people want to help you and then they hold you accountable. So, it's totally different. And this applies to business, even personal things. How many times have people said, "I know need to improve my health or I need to improve my marriage" Well, you know, as you'll see, when I take you through the bold vision exercise, I would say, "Okay, January 2022, a year from today, 'How will we know your health has dramatically improved? How will we know your marriage is way better?'" You'd have to get specific. So, that's the key difference.
Katie (03:24):
And do you write your vision at the start of the year? Or can you write it at any point?
Lisa (03:29):
We are leading programs all throughout the year. So, whenever people get access to this framework, we tell them to do it annually. So, it really doesn't matter if you're in March. Right now we're in January. So, the whole exercise is to fast forward one year out. Imagine it's January of 2022, and you're looking back on the year and you're reflecting on why it was so meaningful to you. And you're doing that in very vivid, specific detail.
Katie (04:00):
Can you give us an example of what that would look like? And how we might go about writing one of these bold visions of our own?
Lisa (04:06):
Yes. So, let's see. We have seven questions that guide the process. And those are on our website. I'll share them at the end, but basically I'll share one meaningful example for all people. The first question is, "What are you known for?" And this is the question that when we're rushing through life and focused on doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, sleep. We're not really thinking about how do we show up. And so, this question really has you raise your consciousness of who you're being. How you're showing up as a parent? How are you showing up as a friend? How you're showing up as a daughter? How you're showing up as a leader or a colleague at work? And then you want to get really specific. And how we coach people —because we all have a lot of strengths— we coach people to focus on, what's not true today. Or what's not true consistently. So, using my own story, I did this exercise many years ago. I actually had to interview people to ask them, well, "What am I known for? How do I show up?" And it was a very disturbing story at the time because what I found out I was known for being really busy. Intense and busy. And that was at work at home. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't the best week for me.
Katie (05:24):
Love it.
Lisa (05:24):
So, I really like had a look at like, "What is the cost of that? You know, what is the impact on that?" People feeling like I was impatient at work. And my husband and kids not feeling heard at home. And I just thought, "You know what? I could make up a lot of excuses for why this is true, or I could just put the past in the past, and do what we call, 'throw your hat over the wall.'" Throwing your hat over the wall, making a commitment to something that you don't know how to do. Or for me, I had just been this way for so long. And it had been part of my success. And it's when you throw your hat over the wall, you commit to an outcome that you don't know how to achieve, or you could fail. And I literally wrote, "I am known as for being a calm and present leader. I am known for being a calm and present mother and wife." And at the time this was literally like borderline fantasy.
Katie (06:28):
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Lisa (06:29):
Yeah. I wrote it down and that was actually the easy part. The harder part was then you had to tell people. So that it like was more likely to happen. So, I went home that night and I told my husband and he actually was...he's kind of sarcastic. And he said, "Look, I love you, but we'll see." And I said, "You're damn right, we'll see." But then at work, you know, it was interesting. I shared with my team, that this is how I'm committed to showing up. And if I'm not showing up this way, I want you to let me know. Now there was like a whole plan that had to go with changing my behavior, but the first step was throwing my hat over the wall. So, I had no choice, but to follow it. Writing it down. Putting it out there. Telling other people. And then that became the motivation to literally change how I showed up. So, that's one of our seven questions. But one of the things that has made such a difference for people as they take on, "I'm known for being confident and assertive; I'm known for being patient; I'm known for being positive," things that people really want to be, but just haven't been thoughtful about it.
Katie (07:40):
Lisa, I love the way you said the first step was sort of declaring this bold vision to yourself. But it sounds like the second step was sharing it with the people in your life, with your husband, with your team. Why is it so important to share your vision with people to make it real?
Lisa (07:54):
Yeah, it's so important because, first of all, research shows, if you write down your goals and aspirations, that it's 42% more likely to happen. And then if you share it with other people, and we always suggest getting a specific accountability partner, like one person that you're going to talk to every three weeks. Obviously, if it's your partner at home, they're always there, but then it's twice as likely to happen. So, that's why it's so important to take the one to two hours that we recommend, to answer all of our questions, write them down and then share them out loud with at least one other person. But if you share it with more...I think about your own business and what you created coming out of Fast Forward. And now you're actually on Chapter Two of that with this podcast series. I think that every time you've said, "I'm doing this..."you've committed to the why you've had a compelling, but you you've been able to like choose to be uncomfortable because you didn't know how to do either of your businesses that you've created.
Katie (09:01):
Absolutely. I can totally agree. And the very first time I did Fast Forward, it was probably the year that you launched. And what year was that again?
Lisa (09:08):
That was in 2013.
Katie (09:10):
So, 2013. So, for the past seven or eight years, I've been writing one of these visions. And the very first time I did it, I was like a vision writing nutcase. If somebody looked at me for too long, I would whip out my vision on my phone and read it to them. I would be bumping into them at school events or parties. I was so lit up and excited about this. Because sharing it with people is so key to making it real to yourself. I really can attest to the power of putting it down, and then putting it out into the world. So, you mentioned there are seven questions. What are some of the other ones that people should be asking themselves as they start to think about creating a vision of their own?
Lisa (09:49):
Well, the second question in the exercise—most of the people we work with are working and they're working full-time, or they're working part-time, some are in corporate America, some are entrepreneurs and some are at a crossroads. And so the second question is, "What were your professional outcomes?" And instead of saying like, "I want to launch a business or I want to get promoted, or I want to grow revenue," you'd have to get super, super specific about what actually happened. And this is very uncomfortable. You know, it's very uncomfortable to get specific and measurable, saying, "I grew revenue by 50%. Or we cut costs by 20%. Or we grew market share by 10%. Or I got promoted and I'm now making 15% more money. Or I left my company and I'm in a new job that, that I love, working, with people I respect." So, it would really have to be as specific as possible. And most visions have three or four metrics in their business, in that question alone, really focused on, "How will you know you were successful?" And that's what we did many years ago when we actually created our business.
Katie (11:11):
It's so smart to get really granular like that and very specific. Because it's so easy to say, you know, “I want to be more fit,” but that's so general. But if you say, “I want to do strength training three times a week and commit to doing yoga daily,” then it's easier to put it into practice. You know, you actually have steps.
How does this work for your personal life? You said a lot of the people that you do work, but I know that your approach with fast-forward is really whole life it's really integrated. So, how do you bring the vision into achieving your own personal goals?
Lisa (11:40):
Yeah. What what's made us different from all the training companies out there, is that we're actually, our mission is to change the workplace. I mean, I had worked for 20 years in corporate America, and I just kept watching people, including myself, deprioritize things like health and relationships and, hobbies, and reading, or just having fun. And so, when we look in the vision, we ask people, "What were the personal outcomes that you were most proud of?” So, people say things like, "I'm sleeping seven to eight hours a night and I'm drinking two nights a week and I have never looked better." And, you know, for some people, it may be that they want to, that they lost weight, but for others, it's just about how they feel and how they're taking care of themselves.
People will say, "I started playing an instrument again and I'm playing three times a week and it brings me so much joy." Finances, a lot of people go to work on finances. "My finances are organized. I feel secure. We have a retirement plan." And the main difference I want to point out is that you're saying it as if it's already happened. So, most goals are out in the future as a desired state. Like I want to.... We'll try to.... We hope to... In the vision, as you know, Katie, because you've done it multiple years, you write it as if it's already happened, even though you often don't know how to get there
Katie (13:14):
And tell us why you do that Lisa. Why is it important to write it as if it's already happened?
Lisa (13:18):
It's just more compelling. People are so uncomfortable committing to things before "the how." So, what we've found is that when people can stand in the future, if you think about all great visionaries, whether it was like putting a man on the moon or creating a social media network or creating the electric car, people had a vision, they could literally see it. So, the whole opportunity here is to paint a vivid picture of the future as if it's already happened, so that you personally are enrolled and then you can enroll other people in getting on board.
Katie (13:58):
I love that. And one of the questions I know that I've seen on your materials, and I've heard you say, and in different sessions is to ask yourself the question, "What would extraordinary success look like?" And I think a lot of people are afraid of extraordinary success. And you don't even simply mean career success or work success. You mean success in every aspect of your life that's important to you. And sometimes people are reluctant. So, what are some of the things that might get in the way of people being able to stand in the future and to paint a vision?
Lisa (14:32):
Well, what gets in the way for people is what we call limiting beliefs. So, if you think about it, when you're young, you have all this confidence and optimism. And then as we get older, different things happen to us, and we construct beliefs and then we collect evidence. So, things like, "I'm not smart enough, I'm not creative. I'm not disciplined. Like launching a business would be too hard. Moving up requires sacrifice. You can't trust other people. It's easier to do myself" That's a big one for women. And we construct these limiting beliefs. We collect evidence and they keep us playing small in certain parts of our life. And so, one of the things we coach people to do is think about what are those limiting beliefs. And given the topic and your audience, what we see a lot as women start to get into their fifties is, "I'm too old."
Katie (15:29):
Totally. That's a biggie.
Lisa (15:30):
Yeah, exactly. Like, I'm too old to reinvent myself. I'm too old to move, to do a lateral move inside a company. I'm too old to get a new job. Companies are hiring younger people. And you know, what we look for evidence of, that we'll find it. But I know so many stories of women that are just getting started, or really gaining momentum in their fifties, including myself. Because your fifties is this amazing time where if you have kids they're more independent than they used to be, or for some people they're out of the house. And you have more time to invest in what lights you up. And so, I've just seen so many women harness it in their fifties and put their foot on the gas. And that doesn't necessarily mean doing more. Like I've also seen a lot of women take on doing less, but just more things that are important to them. So, you have to really look and what you say creates your reality. So, if you say, “It's hard,” or “I'm old,” or, “It's easier to do myself,” like that just perpetuates itself.
Katie (16:49):
Sure. It becomes true.
Katie (16:52):
We, Lisa and I both go to a Bikram yoga, or at least we did pre-kind of COVID life. And one of my favorite teachers used to always say, "If you think you can’t, you're right." So, if you think you're too old, you are correct. You are too old. But if you remove that limiting belief and think, "Why not me?" You know, "Why not now?" You can move forward. And I've seen that with so many of the women that have come on the show, a first-time novelist at the age of 56, somebody who launched a multi-million dollar company at 48, after 15 years as a stay at home mom. If she had sat there and said, "I can't do this because I haven't worked in 15 years, you know, she would have been right. But she thought to herself, "Why not me? Why not now?" And then she created it. So, I think that's such a key thing to identify. For our listeners, you're not too old and it's not too late.
But I do want to ask you Lisa, about COVID. Because I said, at the top of the show, I love this vision writing exercise. I do it every year. It gives me so much peace. It gets me lit up and excited. But I will say I wrote one in January of 2020, and by March of 2020, I kind of thought none of this is going to happen. And I had to like really talk myself back into realizing that COVID was not the end of the line for some of my goals. So, what would you say to any listener who's struggling were they are now and thinking of COVID and the economy as one of their limiting beliefs. What would be your coaching?
Lisa (18:19):
Our coaching all year—and we were in it ourselves as a live training company— so, we had to really rewrite our vision. But it's really to focus on what you can’t, excuse me, focus on what you can control. So, if you think about it, we can't control COVID. We can't control the economy. We can't control what's happening in the schools, but you can control how you show up. You can control the quality of your work. You can control how you respond to your circumstances. And in many cases, you know, people have had to put things on hold. But I look at your own success with the podcast. You know, people need it more than ever, and you really got it going during COVID. And I literally, I know several women who have... There there's a lot of companies that are benefiting, particularly in e-commerce. So, I watched several women translate their skills and get better jobs during COVID. And I've seen other people say, "You know what? Now's not the time. I really need to just focus on like the well being of myself and I can improve my health right now. I can improve my relationships." "I've never had more time to read," is another great story. We had a graduate that has a full-time job, has several children. And she really wanted to, her dream was to get published and be a writer. And how it showed up was like, "How would I ever have time?" And then when she wrote in her vision that she had published six articles, and this was a year ago. She actually found in COVID she had more time to write those articles. I mean, she literally has, has done 18 articles since she took the program, I think two or three years ago. And then she just got one of them published in Harvard Business Review during COVID.
Katie (20:17):
That's amazing.
Lisa (20:17):
So, I think it's just focus on what you can control. What can you do versus like, let me just wait until this whole thing is over.
Katie (20:27):
Right, I know. Because it feels like it might never be over and that's who wants to put your life on hold?
Lisa (20:33):
Now we have a vaccine. This will end. I actually think it's the best time to write a vision. It's the best time to write a vision. One of the things I want to remind people or tell people is that the thing about writing a vision that's also different from traditional goal-setting is most people do not achieve everything in their vision. Because you're really like, you're playing so big. The word extraordinary is there for a reason. Extraordinary health, extraordinary relationships, extraordinary fulfillment. How do you go to bed at night feeling proud and fulfilled most nights?Versus focused on what you didn't do or should have done. And so, when you're writing your vision, you want to recognize that when you get to the end of the year, 85% of people are delighted and they've learned so much. And this is about living with intention and staying focused on what's important versus reacting to what comes at you and hoping for the best.
Katie (21:31):
Absolutely. So, tell me more about playing big. Because I know this is something that I've experienced by being in one of your sessions. People sometimes come in with a vision and then you walk them through this concept of limiting beliefs and playing bigger. And then they leave with a bigger, bolder vision. How would our listeners take themselves up, you know, turn that volume up to 12, and really play big. What does that look like?
Lisa (21:57):
Yeah. If I was coaching people, one-on-one, it's all about... Let me take your podcasts. As an example, you said, “Lisa, I'm launching a podcast.” I would say, “Okay. A year from now, how many listeners do you have? What are people saying? What are the Apple ratings?” Like, I want to get very specific. “Why is this so important to you? The more metrics the better. What difference has it made in people's lives? What are you gearing up to do in year two?” So, I really coach you to paint a vivid, specific picture of what happened and that's what gets you playing big. And I'd say, “Why is that so important?”
Katie (22:41):
Absolutely. These are questions that everyone can be asking themselves. I love the idea of partnering up with an accountability, buddy, you know, to have that kind of shared coaching, where you could push your friend. Because it's often so easy to talk to your friend and hear their vision, or hear what they're up to. And then as an outsider, you say, "Well, you can do these things. You can have a podcast that's top rated. You can add all these listeners, you can.” And when sometimes when it's ourselves, we are reluctant to even verbalize to ourselves what it is that we really want. So, that to me, I think is one of the big, magic pieces of vision writing is that you really, and you get better at it. I feel like I've gotten better every year. Like I play bigger and bigger and bigger about what it is that I'm committing to for myself, and my relationships, and my goals, because I've seen the successes come. You see the things that you've wanted to do be realized. When I say success, I want every listener to know I'm not talking necessarily about money or attention. It's just whatever the success is for you and your own life. Like what you've committed to in terms of your relationships with your kids or even when you said about organizing your financial paperwork, I had a laugh because I committed to that. I'm like, "I am sick and tired of the piles and the files." you know, “I'm going to organize this.” And I did. I put it in my vision one year and my husband and I made it happen. In part because I reminded myself and him, that that was a part of our vision. So, the more specific you are I think the more useful that this is.
Lisa (24:15):
Yeah. And, and you're one of our A-plus students. But everyone else can be too. And, you know, I think it's important to also talk about the relationships aspect of this. Because this exercise really has you do a relationship map of your life. And we believe that the most important relationship is the one with yourself. And for a lot of women, even in our fifties, we are not treating ourselves. We're not speaking to ourselves with the respect and care that we would give to others. So, that is part of a lot of people's vision. I don't know if it was part of yours, but a lot of people really go to work on like a year from today, if not sooner, I'm treating myself with respect and care and honoring who I am and all that I've accomplished. Just like you would speak to someone that you love and care about. And how do you fuel yourself in different ways, whether that's exercise or meditation, or seeing friends, or, you know, a glass of wine or whatever you need. How do you take care of yourself? And then how do you bring that same level of intentionality to other relationships? And a lot of times people go to work on relationships that they really wish looked different. For me over the last two years, there's something wrong with my relationship with my son, but he's a 15-year-old aloof teenager. And so, in my vision, I say that John and I are really close and every week we're spending time together doing things that he enjoys. Once I said that, it compelled me to figure out, “Okay. Well, what are those things going to be?" Because you know, I now know, that requires sitting on the couch, watching football, even though I may not know, you know, exactly what's going on. I actually got him to playing ping pong. We have, our activities because otherwise he's in his own world and I want to make sure that we have meaningful ways to connect every week.
Katie (26:28):
I know that's so beautiful. I've had that experience too with attending your sessions. I know you know this story. I'll quickly share with our listeners. But part of the limiting belief exercise, at least it's sometimes is called I think, choose a new story, is that right? And the choose a new story is to just have a different perspective about something. And so, at one point I realized that the story that I was living is that my daughter and I, my teen daughter and I, were always in conflict. And there was door slamming and screaming and crying, you know, mostly by me. And when I attended your session at one point, there was this idea of choosing a new story, and I realized, I'm choosing the story that we're close, just like you did with John. I'm choosing the story that Grace and I are close. And I showed up every single night to see her, you know, her closed door and I would knock on it and I'd open it. And I would go in and I would say to myself, "You know, Grace and I are close and she wants to hear from me." And like, as you said, this was like fantasy. There was nothing rooted in reality that she wanted to hear from me. But by choosing that new story, I went in and I said, "Let's have tea, or let's get our nails done, or goodnight, sweetie." And slowly bit by bit, day by day, we were close. And she was coming to me to say, "Hey, mom, do you want to go out for coffee?" That wouldn't have been available to me had I not decided to just think differently about the situation. If I allowed myself to keep thinking like, "Oh, this is terrible. And teen girls and moms, grrrr. There'll be no progress." But by choosing...I chose that. I made that choice because in my vision, I was close to my children. And it's so important to articulate for yourself what you want, what you need, what lights you up, and then think about ways to put it into practice.
Lisa (28:21):
Yeah. And what success would look like. So, that was for you to say, "I'm really close with Grace," given everything that you've just shared. Like, that's not about incremental improvement or hoping it gets better. You know, you put yourself out in the future and you said, "Okay, I'm taking on a new... I'm going to be intentional about this relationship. She'll do whatever she does. But I'm showing up as a loving, close mother and friend." And then you did, and then she responded to that. So, that's possible with anyone. That you could do with that, with someone at, at work, you could do that in someone in your family even someone in this case, these are our children that we love. But we've seen people transform relationships with people that, particularly in the workplace, like they just have to work with, to be successful. They're not ever going to be close. But they need to take on... The vision may be something like, "I have a productive working relationship with this colleague." Because now it's causing them a lot of strife. But if we don't put it out there in the vision and commit to the future not looking like the past, then we're not going to change anything. So, that is the whole point. It's like, how do you put these outcomes out in the future that compel you to change your mindset, to change your behavior and to go for it. And it totally works.
Katie (29:44):
I know you've been doing vision writing for a number of years now. Have you experienced differences as you have aged? Do you feel that it's easier to put yourself in the future and create a vision that works for you? Or is it harder? Tell me a little bit about if there's been an evolution and what that looks like.
Lisa (30:04):
Well, I think year one is always the hardest, because it's a different way of thinking. It's actually choosing to be uncomfortable. And which people don't like to do, right. And they don't like to. They'd rather write down two or three goals on a piece of paper. And this is way more comprehensive. And then I think back to what I said earlier, as we get to the point where our children are growing up and we feel like we have more time, it gets more fun. It's like, obviously I still have a lot of commitments in my life, even though I don't use the "B word." I'm no longer busy.
Katie (30:45):
You're really fulfilled, I know.
Lisa (30:46):
Yes, I'm overly fulfilled. Or I'm in demand. That's what I now say, so that I show up differently. So, as you’re aging, I think it does get easier. Because you're smart, you're wiser, you know, you've learned from experience. I think you also have more gratitude just given everything that we've, we've all been through. So, it's more conducive if you will to taking the time to really be thoughtful about how do I define success and fulfillment versus often when we're younger, we might cue off other people. Trying to be something that's not important to us or what we think we should do.
Your fifties is a time to really just take ownership of who you want to be, and how you want to spend your time. And the key is asking for help. When we stay alone, we don't play as big. So, that's what I always recommend. Literally, after you write your vision, I recommend you read it to someone that will then check in with you at least once a month. So that you feel accountable to say, "Well, here's where I've taken ground. Here are the gaps. Here's what I want to recommit to. That's what we call a Fast Forward buddy.
Katie (32:05):
I love that. I love that. Lisa, you have shared so many amazing tips and tools. I want to make sure we leave our readers...Excuse me, excuse me, listeners. We want to make sure we leave our listeners with more information about how they can access your vision-writing materials and questions.
Lisa (32:26):
Yes. Well, everyone can go to our website, which is fastforwardgroup.net. And if you do /vision, you'll get the seven questions and also a sample of what an actual vision looks like. And then we also host a monthly Bold Vision workshop, a 75-minute experience to actually walk people through several questions and it's interactive. So, we have two of those and we have one in January and one in February, so you can check out our site and it's just a meaningful way to kick off the year.
Katie (32:59):
Fabulous. Well, I'm going to encourage all of our listeners to head there. I'm going to be writing my own bold vision. If anybody wants to, who listens to the show, wants to see it, I'm happy to share. We can be accountability buddies. I encourage you to follow the Fast Forward and Lisa McCarthy and acertainagepod.com for all the show notes, where you'll get to see also this vision writing exercise and the links to Lisa's websites. Lisa, thank you so much for kicking off the show today. You are one of my dearest friends. You're an inspiration. You've made such a difference in people's lives, and I'm really happy that you came on to be with us today.
Lisa (33:35):
Thank you, Katie. It's a privilege to be your friend and to watch you keep growing and going. So, thank you for having me and I wish you an extraordinary 2021.
Katie (33:48):
This wraps A Certain Age, a show for women over 50, who are aging without apology. And if getting fit and fueling your health is part of your vision for 2021, please join me next week when I talk with Dr. Vonda Wright, author of two fitness books for thriving at 40, 50, and beyond. Special thanks to Michael Mancini Productions who composed and produced our theme music. See you next time. And until then: age boldly, beauties.