Words of 2024: Ditch New Year's Resolutions & Do This Instead

It's time to DITCH New Year's Resolutions and step into Words of the Year. In this episode Lunden explains why this is a much better tool to help you step into who you want to be NOW. Tune in feel free to share your words of the year with Lunden on Instagram @lifelikelunden

Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
0:00 Intro
0:20 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
8:57 Importance of Practicing the Word of the Year
15:59 Building Trust with Oneself Through Integrity
18:35 Sponsor: Snap Supplements 25% OFF using code LUNDEN25
20:29 Embracing Endurance for the Long Haul
23:11 Nurturing Your Word of the Year

Transcript

Lunden Souza: 2:26

Welcome to Self Love and Sweat THE PODCAST, the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections, break down barriers and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, Lunden Souza. Hey, have you grabbed your free Self Love and Sweat monthly calendar yet? This calendar is so amazing. It comes right in your inbox every single month to help you have a little nugget of wisdom, a sweaty workout, a mindset activity, just a little something, something to help keep you focused and motivated and keep that momentum towards your goals. So every day, when you get this calendar, you'll see a link that you can click that will lead to a podcast episode or a workout or something that will be very powerful and quick to read. And then you'll also see, on the top left corner of every single day, there's a little check box in the calendar and what that is is that's for your one thing. You can choose one thing every month, or it can be the same, something that you want to implement and make this something that you can easily implement, like daily meditation or getting a certain amount of steps or water, for example, and staying hydrated and even taking your supplements. This can be something if you want to get more regular doing a particular habit and routine, you can choose what that checkbox means. So, if you want your Self Love and Sweat free monthly calendar delivered right to your inbox every month on the first of the month, go to lifelikelunden. com/calendar , fill out the form really quickly and you will have your calendar in your inbox within a few short minutes. That's lifelikelunden L-I-F-E-L-I-K-E-L-U-N-D-E-N dot com forward slash calendar. Go, get yours for free and enjoy this episode.

Lunden Souza: 4:33

Happy today. Welcome back to the podcast. Happy New Year, happy 2024. Actually, at the time of recording this, it is December 28th and I'm recording from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I went on. I am on a trip with my aunt and uncle and my cousin and her husband and kids after a nice taste of Utah winter. When I found out they were coming to Cabo, I was kind of like I'm coming too. But yeah, I just. I know that the time of airing this episode is after 2024, or once it is already 2024.

Lunden Souza: 5:15

And this time of year is when I start thinking about my words of the year. Now, before we jump into the episode, I'm excited to announce that Self Love and Sweat PODCAST will now be available on Dash Radio on the expansion channel. So it has just been my dream and my goal to grow the podcast to help more and more people understand the value of self-love and sweat, and I have been gifted the opportunity to have this show also be featured on the expansion channel on Dash Radio. So I'm super excited about that. But this time of year is when I start to think about words of the year. Now, let me first start by saying that I do not like New Year's resolutions, and I'm going to tell you why. I think that New Year's resolutions are so played out that people don't take them seriously. And maybe you're somebody who begs to differ and you're like no Lunden, actually, I set New Year's resolutions and I nail them every year or whatever. But in my experience, and also especially with being in the fitness industry, as I was for many years, over a decade I feel like New Year's resolutions immediately put us in separation from the goal. And here's why I think when we set New Year's resolutions to lose weight or get healthier or do X, y or Z, it's like we start the year not there yet. And that's why I think words of the year are so amazing, because it allows you to start right now choosing your words of the year and being that today, in this moment, in the next moment, in the next minute, in the next hour, in the next day, you get to ask yourself questions like what would insert your word of the year do? What would they eat? How would they talk to others? How do they wake up in the morning? How do they show up? It gives you an opportunity to embody your words of the year and so, I really encourage you, listening to this episode today, to take this seriously, to really ask yourself what words do I want to embody this year and beyond? I did an episode on this last year and my word of the year for 2023, or let's say, words of the year this year I have to as well.

Lunden Souza: 7:43

Last year, 2023, my words were grateful growth. It was actually kind of like a combination word to remind me that it was time for growth and expansion, with gratitude, for those of you that have been following me for a while, or maybe you remember, at the end of 2022, I officially retired from fitness completely. No more fitness coaching, no more personal training, no more fitness partnerships, no more online workouts, no more online group coaching programs. I had "Strong at Home for Women for a couple of years and I just decided it was time to pivot and my heart knew it, my body knew it, my mind knew it. And so this year has been such an opportunity for grateful growth. 2023 was such an opportunity for grateful growth. I learned a ton, I put myself out there in ways that I never have before and really developed the podcast as a business, really developed my life coaching business, really developed my beauty counter business, and I just am so grateful for all of that growth and that word.

Lunden Souza: 8:57

I would ask myself all the time what would grateful growth do? How would grateful growth show up in the world? What would grateful growth spend her money on? How would grateful growth engage in conversation? How would grateful growth show up in relationships, romantic ones, friendships, business ones, et cetera. And of course I messed up. Of course I did. I'm human, we all mess up. I'm not perfect.

Lunden Souza: 9:24

Just cause I said a word of the year doesn't mean that I just automatically am it, right? We have to practice showing up as it. And I think the great part about solidifying a word of the year and sharing it with people close to you, I mean you don't have to share it on a podcast or social media or things like that. Like I do, I'm just an open book. I share everything, all the things all the time. But I think something about that really is like a good foundation. You can go back to that always and you can reflect on it. Like, oh, no wonder, that conversation, that relationship, that instance, that situation just didn't work out in the way that I wanted it to because I was not in congruence with my word of the year. So I don't know, maybe you're thinking of some options right now, maybe some words are just kind of dancing around in your head. I encourage you to write all of them down, right, it's not like you just think of the one and then write that one down. Maybe you do. But it's fine just to like engulf in that process of identifying your word of the year and writing down some options. And I wanna quickly share mine with you.

Lunden Souza: 10:32

So my two words for 2024 are integrity and endurance, and these words came from a book that I read recently called Anatomy of the Spirit, and if you haven't read this book before, it is such an amazing book. I listened to the audiobook, which, from my understanding, is a much shorter version of the regular book. The audiobook is only two and a half hours long and I think I listened to it probably five or six times. And I found out about this book because I joined a book club in Utah. A friend of mine that I met living in Utah invited me to join a book club and that was the first book that we read and it couldn't have been a better book for me at this time. And I just if you're listening read the book Anatomy of the Spirit. I can't remember, I think it's Caroline Myss is the author, but don't quote me on that, I'll look it up and put it in the show notes. But the book is called Anatomy of the Spirit. And so, yeah, integrity and endurance.

Lunden Souza: 11:42

Integrity and endurance are my words of 2024. And so for me, integrity means being a woman of my word, not saying one thing and then doing another, not saying I stand for one thing and then not acting in congruence with that. I found myself in a space where I felt like people weren't showing up with integrity around me and instead of blaming others and saying, oh, you didn't do this or you didn't, you know, I really had to look inward and say, okay, game recognizes game, like attracts like, how am I not showing up with integrity? How can I show up with even more integrity so that others of integrity will show up in my life, right? I'm a firm believer that the way we show up in the world is what we attract, and I know that might trigger some people, because we want to live in a world where people do things to us and make us feel a certain type of way, but I really believe game recognizes game, like attracts like, and I really was like, "okay, if I feel like people aren't showing up in integrity in my life, how can I show up with even more integrity?" And so, even though integrity wasn't my word of the year for 2023, I was already thinking about that and already recognizing that a little bit.

Lunden Souza: 13:09

And for me, integrity, yeah, just like saying things honestly and respectfully. You know, when I say, yeah, I'll be there, I'll be there. When I say, yeah, let's do that tomorrow, I mean tomorrow, right? And also it doesn't mean I'm overextending, right? It sometimes integrity could look like, hey, you know what? I know I said yes to that and something happened where I can't and I just wanted to let you know. I want my word to mean something I think we can all think of people in our lives who they just say something oh yeah, I'll be there or I'll come or whatever, or yeah, I'll get that done, and it doesn't happen and it's frustrating and it's annoying. And so, instead of expecting everybody else to show up with integrity in my life, I just am gonna show up with a shit ton of integrity in my life.

Lunden Souza: 14:09

Funny story about I say word of the year, but sometimes it ends up being two, right? And I was talking to my friend Kylie, because she's, yeah, very much into words and she has a very rich vocabulary, and I was like I wanted to combine integrity and endurance and so I was like, what's the adjective for integrity so I can combine it with endurance? And the word was integrus. So I was like, oh, integrus, endurance. And then her and I were Googling the words and whatever, and it was like this word hasn't been used since the 1600s and it just made us laugh because I was like, oh well, I guess I could still choose integrus endurance it sounds like a Harry Potter spell integrus endurance, and it just made me laugh. But, yeah, I think you can choose whatever word, even if you make it up, but that just makes me laugh and it was funny. And so the reason why her and I got to the point of learning that integrates wasn't a word and it hasn't been used since the sixteen hundreds. What is the definition said, this word has been obsolete since the sixteen hundreds.

Lunden Souza: 15:20

But we got into that conversation because I reached out to her and I'm like, hey, I'm trying to figure out my word of the year and I want to combine integrity and endurance. Isn't the adjective for integrity integrus? And so we just started talking about it was really funny and you know, it doesn't have to be so serious sometimes of like, I wish to tell you my word of the year, friend. You know, we can just like have that dialogue in that conversation. So that's integrity, you know, and that sometimes allows me to say, hey, let me get back to you. I don't know yet. Or no, actually no, because I want to be a person of my word.

Lunden Souza: 15:59

I want to be the person that when somebody talks to me or reaches out to me and I speak to them and my words come out of my mouth, I want them to know Lunden means what she says. Lunden says she's gonna be there, she's gonna be there. If Lunden says she cares about me, she cares about me. Lunden says she'll help me with something, she's gonna help me with something. And yeah. And then I want to be in my integrity with being proactive in saying otherwise.

Lunden Souza: 16:31

If I need to, like I said, if I'm gonna be there, I want to be there. But you know, things come up I'm not perfect, whatever and I wanna, you know, immediately address that situation and be like, okay, actually, you know, can we do it this day, or whatever Integrity. And then I can ask myself, like what would integrity do? What would integrity say? You know, even integrity, like in the morning. If you wake up and say, hey, I'm gonna go for a walk this morning and you don't do it, you might be able to hear a horn honking outside. Hopefully it stops soon. Anyways, I'll keep talking and maybe it'll drown out in the background, but I'm here at our hotel in Cabo and so there's kind of I think you can't hear it. I don't see the audio skipping when I, when I I'm recording. So, anyways, I'm just gonna keep going and if it's crappy audio later than I'll fix it, but anyways, I'm.

Lunden Souza: 17:28

Integrity also means doing what you say you're gonna do, so you can build trust with yourself, right? If you say I'm gonna go for a walk in the morning and you don't, you're, you're not gonna trust yourself. Your mind and your body are not gonna be a team to be like, okay, what I say to myself I do with my body. And I think that's why people, when you don't build trust with yourself, it's really hard to build trust with others. It's really easy to see others as the villain doing things to you and all the stuff. But it starts with ourself first. We have to step in integrity. We have to say, okay, if I tell myself I'm gonna wake up and take the trash out, like those little things matter, they matter so much because then when it gets to the big thing, right? Showing up in the arena for the big thing if you haven't shown up for the little things your mind and your body, and like bullshit, you always say that you're gonna do this and you don't. And we have to remember like we get to train our ourselves like a dog, like, no, I'm going to do cause I said I was gonna do it. No, I'm gonna do cause I said I was gonna do it and challenge that programming. My second word of the year is endurance. Hey, really quick.

Lunden Souza: 18:36

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Lunden Souza: 20:30

Now let's get back to the show. Endurance being in it for the long haul, doing things not for a quick fix, not for fast money, not for quick advancements, but choosing and making decisions that are for the long haul. So reminding myself I'm in it for the long haul. So how can I prepare my mind and body for endurance? What type of thoughts do I need to be thinking for the long haul? What type of foods, what type of friends, what type of music? What would endurance do? What would endurance say? How would endurance show up? And yeah, when I think of endurance, it really reminds me of how I take care of my body and my vessel to be in it for the long haul.

Lunden Souza: 21:22

I don't know how long I'm going to live, but I love studying the blue zones. I want to be around for a long time, not that you can't make a great impact in a short amount of time, but I don't know. Just a part of me is like I want to be around until I'm 110. And I think that's because when I'm on social media or I'm around people who are super old and it's just super motivating to me, like when they're super old and their cognitive ability is just spot on and they're healthy and they're alive and they're vibrant, that to me, is really motivating. So I think a part of me just wants to be that motivation too.

Lunden Souza: 22:07

So when I think of endurance, I think of the people that live in the blue zones, which, if you haven't heard of the blue zones before, there are areas around the world where people they have the highest concentration of centenarians, which means people that live to be over 100. And so there's one in Loma Linda, California, there's one in Sardinia, Italy, which is like one of my favorite places ever on the planet. There's one in Costa Rica, one in Japan, one in Greece, and that might be it. But yeah, there's a really good documentary on Netflix about the blue zones and each episode highlights one of the different countries and the different locations where people just live a long time and are super happy and have positive relationships and feel good and are just like all about life. And so I think of that when it comes to endurance, and yeah, those are my two words of the year integrity and endurance and I'm going to continue to ask myself in the morning what would integrity and endurance do?

Lunden Souza: 23:12

And the thing is, once you choose the word that you want to embody for your word of the year, you'll just know. You'll just know it'll resonate with your nervous system, it'll sit right, it'll feel good, and then it'll be very easy, as you continue to nurture your word of the year, it'll become very easy to spot the knot, right? There might be moments when I go to text someone and like, make up an excuse and it's like, well, what would integrity do? Let me, you know, I might, you know, jump into something that's a quick fix or fast or whatever, and I might just be like, no, that doesn't sit right with my word of the year, that doesn't resonate with the person I want to be. And so, yeah, I encourage you to think about your word or words of the year. I think one or two is great. I think it's way better.

Lunden Souza: 24:00

And you know, set new year's resolution, set goals, but also have your word of the year. So then it's like right now, in this moment, I can be present with my word of the year. My new year's resolution is not out here somewhere unattainable, yet you don't put yourself in separation or in lack of the new year's resolution right away. It's like how do you want to show up and think about it and feel free to share your word of the year with me? You can send me a DM on Instagram. I'm L-I-F-E-L-I-K-E-L-U-N-D-E-N. And you can also hit reply to any of my emails. If you're on my email list and you get my emails, then you can also hit reply to any of those and the response goes directly back to me. I read all of your replies. So I would love to know what your word of the year is. Help you kind of work on it a little bit and it just feels good to share what we're working on.

Lunden Souza: 24:57

It was funny I was doing something the other weekend and I was with a group of people that were just like complaining about everything, like complaining about their job and how it sucks and the weather and all these things. And I was on a call with some people in my beauty counter team shortly after and I was like you know what? Why do people have permission? Not that not people, anyone can have permission to do anything, right? I'm not the boss of everybody, but I'm like people.

Lunden Souza: 25:26

It's so normal for people to complain about how shit sucks in their life. Their job sucks, their partner, this like people can just complain about all the things that suck in their life. I want to make it normal to talk about the things that are great in our lives, to talk about our words of the year, how we want to show up, right? Not that we shouldn't talk about our struggles, but it's like I don't know. I would rather talk about possibility than marinade in just my job sucks, this sucks, this is hard. It's just like there's enough people out in the world talking about what they hate about their life. Let's talk about how we want to show up in our lives.

Lunden Souza: 26:03

Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you at the next episode. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Self Love and Sweat, THE PODCAST. Hey, do me a favor wherever you're listening to this podcast, give us a review this really helps a lot and share this with a friend. I'm only one person and with your help, we can really spread the message of self love and sweat and change more lives all around the world. Lunden Souza, reminding you that you deserve a life full of passion, presence and purpose, fueled by self love and sweat. This podcast is a hit spot. Austria production.