Welcome And The Pulse Check

Yo, yo, yo. Welcome back to the Feather Your Lifestyle Podcast Conversations on Lifestyle, Passions, and Hustles. My name's Chris. I'm your host, and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 253 today. And these are some of my favorite episodes where we're 90 days in to 2026. And this is relevant to any year, whether whether you're listening to it in 2026 or not. But it's time for a pulse check. You know, I like to think about, you know, how we've been progressing for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, you know, mid-year and then end of year as well. And I think it's really important because you are we're we're now roughly, it's probably about 93, 94 days into 2026. And that means a quarter of the year has already passed, which I mean that that's that's scary, don't get me wrong. But there's a whole bunch of questions that I want to walk you through today and ask you. But the first thing I will ask you before we get into those is what do you actually have to show for it? Like being frank, nine days in, what do you have to show for it like off for 2026? And how is that shaping up? Now, this is not to be harsh and it's not to be judgmental at all, but in a truthful way, I want to go through this, I guess kind of like breaking down, you know, some of the some of the things that we can ask ourselves to kind of like pulse check and see how we're actually going. Because I know a lot of the time this can be all very overwhelming when we have to confront this stuff because we realize maybe we're not doing what we thought we would be doing. But I'll before we get into the intro, I'll quickly just say the whole premise of this is at the start of the year, usually what happens is we're motivated, we're excited, we have big goals, big plans, big changes are coming. We've got fresh energy, and nine days later, reality sets in, and some people are soaring. You can see people that have just done amazing things, stuff that you couldn't even imagine doing in a single year. Then you've got people that have kind of stalled, slow down, and then you've got people that have quietly just disappeared, abandoned, and you know, whatever. So this episode, aka the pulse check, is not to beat yourself up. It's to have a reality check, calibrate, yeah, recalibrate before the year runs away. You've got plenty of time. So we're gonna roll the intro, then we're gonna go straight into a five-part pulse check where you can kind of go through this with me, do it yourself, and hopefully get yourself a bit more grounded, identify some of the problem areas, some of the wins, some of the your lows, and then set you up for success for the rest of the year as well. So let's let's roll the intro. All right, before we start, I will just quickly say if you do enjoy these episodes, I do appreciate you. But yeah, make sure you subscribe if you haven't, hit the like button. You can also leave a comment down below. But if you think someone else needs this pulse check, send it to them. Send them a message and say, hey, this is what you need. Get them to listen to it. This is probably gonna be a 10-minute episode, short and sharp. We're just gonna get it done. You may need to spend a little bit more time doing some work on this though. So it might be a bit longer than 10 minutes, but me talking, it's probably gonna be 10 minutes. So, right, let's get into it. So the pulse check. Number one, we want to do a bit of a momentum check. We want to understand, you know, how do we actually start the year? So, did you actually start the things you said you were going to start at the start of the year? Now, some of you might not have had any plans. You might have just wanted to see what was going to happen. Well, that's okay too. But you do need to ask yourself, have you actually started any of the things that you said you wanted to be intentional about this year? And are you moving forward or are you just thinking about moving forward? I think this is where people get stuck. We get stuck in planning, making things right before we even execute, when really you just got to execute to get things moving and happening and then actually make them right. So progress doesn't have to be massive, it's more about the momentum and the consistency. Since I got back from the Philippines, which was like the 12th of January, 13th of January, around there somewhere, I've been doing daily short short form content, a way to challenge myself to think outside the box and bring more content, you know, out of me. Now that's been a challenge. Some of it's been really great, some of it's been a slog, but the momentum helps pick up, and we've seen some really great results. It's led to some great opportunities. Imagine if I didn't do it because the first one flopped, right? But every small step counts. So that's the momentum check you want to kind of do. The second check that you want to do is an energy check. We want to be asking ourselves, what has been giving you energy lately? What's been giving you good vibes? What's been making you feel energized and ready to go out to do what it is that you're doing? And what's been draining you? What's been making you feel low? What's been sucking the life out of you? Often the biggest clue about where we should be focusing our time is simply noticing what fuels us versus what exhausts us. Those two things can be really good pulse checks. And your life is constantly sending signals. Now, right now, the thing that exhausts me is being in survival mode in my business because we've had some pretty bad months of recent. But I'm also fueled and motivated because I know the possibilities that we can achieve. So I'm working hard and figuring out new problems to solve. And how do we how do we get back to where I want to be? That stuff excites me. That stuff motivates me, especially when you get the results once you put in the work. So that's the next thing you can do. The energy check. Number three is the alignment check. And this one, this is where we get a little bit deeper. Are your actions actually matching your intentions? This one's it's tough to swallow, right? Because a lot of the time we have ideas, but the things that we're doing isn't really getting us towards where we want to be. I mean, I talk about this all the time. Are you doing something today that gets you closer to where you want to be? And are you living the year you said you want? If this year you want to make it your best year yet, what are you doing to make it your best year yet? Like, you know, if you said you wanted better health or stronger relationships or meaningful work or I don't know, more discipline, but you know, are you actually aligning your daily choices to that? Again, it's not about perfection, but it is about honesty. You need to be honest to yourself. The next thing, which is number four, is a growth check. So if we reflect on the last 90 days, what have you learned? Not just achievements, let's not just focus on wins, let's think about actual tangible growth, new skills. What experiences have you had? Have you got better awareness? Self-awareness? Have you improved your discipline? Have you remained consistent? Have you got a stronger mindset? Have you developed resilience? Sometimes the biggest progress is internal and it's not something like a vanity number of revenue and things like that. All of these things super count because they stack skills, awareness, discipline, resilience, mindsets, all of that. That stacks and makes you a stronger, better individual. That will mean you can go to the next steps, which is going to be step number five, and actually thrive. Uh, so step number five is, or point number five, is course correction. So this is probably the most important conversation you'll have today in this podcast. The beauty is of it, it's a pulse check. It's you know, you're not setting things in stone. It's really just you've got to be honest with yourself here. You still have three quarters left of the yeah. There's still time to shine, there's still time to get back to where you want to be. But having done all of this, I know we've been quick, but having done all of this, what needs to change? You need to answer that. What needs to change? What needs to start? What do you need to start doing? What are the things you need to actually be doing? And then what needs to stop? What do you need to stop doing? What needs to stop today? Because the worst thing you can do is wait till the next quarter or the quarter after that, or wait till December and ask yourself these questions. Get on top of it now. You know what you have to do. I I can see it in you. That's the reality of it, right? And we have to remember remind ourselves that progress it doesn't come from a perfect plan. If I had a perfect plan, I obviously I'd be in a different situation where I am now. But things haven't gone to perfect plan. Things have changed, things have adapted. I've had new challenges arise. But when you regularly reflect, when you regularly adjust, when you regularly take a pulse check, you can keep yourself moving forward. So I've got a couple of challenges for you. This this could take you 10 minutes to do, but I think it's really important that you do this. Invite yourself to do this. It's about 10 minutes. All you gotta do is write down what's working across the area of focus or across everything. If you want to dive into your business or if you want to dive into personal life or you want to kind of you know cross them over, it doesn't matter. Write down, take some time. Number one, what is working? What's not working? Write down what's not working. And then number three is based on all that, what's one thing you're going to approve on in the next 30 days? Small adjustments now create a massive, massive difference later. And that's all it is. It's just doing things at a small amount every day to get you closer to where you want to be. So I hope in 90 days that you're gonna feel proud. I hope you look, you're probably you're probably also gonna feel frustrated because maybe you're not gonna get the results you want. But you might also feel like you're just getting started. But the important thing is I want to make sure, having done this first 90 days, that when you get to the end of the next 90 days is that you've you've actually starting to make this year count. If you're feeling like you haven't made this year count yet. Now, this pulse check wasn't about judging yourself, it was simply about having a conversation, having a reality check, and making sure that your your heart and your life are aligned into where you want to go. I need a sneeze. Because if you're not aligned with it comes, James, if you're not aligned to where you want to be going, there's gonna be this friction pulling you in two different directions. So just do the pulse check. If you've listened to this and you haven't taken any action, you haven't written down anything, please stop, go do it. Because I guarantee it, it will just open up some new conversations with yourself and give you some clarity. And then you can go take some better actions. That's it from me. Like I said, 10 minutes were at 10 30, so we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up there. If you did have any questions or want to continue the conversation, you can chuck them down below. We'll be back here again next week doing it all again. And I'll see you when I'm looking at you. Ciao.