Challenge Day 1
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[00:00:00] I just wanted to kind of preface this by saying I feel bad that I'm not showing up on the Christian career mom, because I'm highly engaged right now in the 12 day roadmap to parenting clarity and purpose in 2024 challenge. And if you want to watch those videos that have the actual presentations and get to visibly, see me work through this knowledge, then you can join us over on YouTube.
There's a playlist for the 12 day roadmap, and then you can also join us in the free Facebook group, the Christian parenting community. But I wanted to throw the audio version of these trainings over here on the podcast so that you guys don't miss out. Um, so right now we just finished date eight. So I'm going to have to catch up and get all those posted.
And then from now on, I'll start adding them here for you guys each day as well. I hope you enjoy.
Hi, everybody. It's Katy. I'm so excited to have you here. Welcome to day one of our 12 day parenting clarity and purpose challenge to get us ready for parenting in 2024. [00:01:00] This is going to be an incredible adventure. I'm so excited. I'm so grateful to have you here. So a couple of quick reminders. If you haven't yet watched the welcome video or introduced yourselves in the group, you can find that information in the guides and also here in this playlist.
If it's uncomfortable to introduce yourself, please feel no pressure whatsoever. And you don't have to post a selfie. I would love to know a little bit about you, where you're joining us from and what you hope to gain from this challenge so that I can make sure I make it just as valuable for you as I possibly can.
Over the next 12 days, we're going on a journey that's full of empowerment and insights and strategies, and we will walk away with a clear roadmap to ensure our parenting success in 2024. So let's get started. Remember this challenge is road trip themed. So here's our roadmap. Here's what you can expect over the next 12 days, so I'm just going [00:02:00] to briefly touch on each stop for this journey that you see here.
In case you missed the welcome video and you're not quite sure. Today's day one, and today we set the vision for 2024 and we create goals to get us there. In this session, we dive deep into setting our clear, ideal future for our parenting journey, and we're going to explore our values our priorities and our aspirations as parents, and then create actionable goals to help us achieve that vision.
Day two, we overcome challenges from 2023. Every parent faces challenges. And on this stop, we'll address those obstacles and the struggles that you faced in 2023, and implement strategies and tools to help you overcome them and move forward with greater confidence. Day three, we take a pit stop, And we strengthen our faith as Christian parents.
Our faith is an essential part of our parenting [00:03:00] journey. In this session, we'll discuss how a strong foundation of faith is a vital and how to deepen that and incorporate those practices into our daily family lives. Day four, we cultivate consistency, which is key in parenting. And in this session, we discuss the importance of establishing consistent routines and boundaries in our family with practical tips and strategies for how to do so.
Day five, we utilize feedback from our children. Their insights and perspectives are So valuable, and we're going to explore the importance of listening to and learning from them. Their feedback can inform our approach and strengthen our relationship with them. Day six, we're halfway there and we're celebrating our six.
Successes from 2023. It's so important to also acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and the milestones as [00:04:00] we have them in this session. We take time to reflect, celebrate and foster a positive and grateful mindset for moving forward. Day seven is where we create our initial action plan for 2024.
Everything we learn in days one through six will help us bring this to life. And we'll guide you through the process of creating a practical and achievable action plan for your parenting journey in 2024. Day 8 is all about nurturing the communication and connection with our children. We'll explore strategies to nurture open and honest communication, as well as ways to strengthen the bond between our family members.
Day 9 is one of my favorites, building resilience in our children. This is such a valuable trait for anyone to develop, so we'll learn ways to foster that in our children, with strategies to navigate challenges, bounce back from setbacks, and [00:05:00] develop a growth mindset. Day 10, we prioritize self care as parents.
We have to have the energy and emotional well being to show up for our kids. Especially the way that we want to show up for them, the expectations we have for ourselves, and what they deserve from us. Balance and renewal is key. On day 11, we really focus on the gratitude and mindset aspects, which can completely transform our families and bring so much joy, peace, and intentionality to our daily lives.
And finally, on day 12, we take everything we've learned and we review our vision, we review our goals, and we align our action plan with our vision. We're going to make any necessary adjustments. And make sure that everything's in alignment, and we are ready to commit to this action plan. [00:06:00] Okay, so before we get started, just a couple of quick reminders.
You can still sign up at covenantcollections. com slash 2024. That's 2 0 2 4. If you haven't yet, that's how you'll get a daily email that has, Hey, the video's posted. Here's the link. Here's a link to your freebies. You can also access all of those things inside of our free Facebook group, the Christian Parenting Community, and you can subscribe on YouTube to make sure you don't miss any updates.
Um, just Awareness that our 3, 888 worth of giveaways will take place only in the Facebook group. So those announcements will happen there, and those entries will happen there. To enter, all you have to do is comment on a super simple homework post. I promise it will be so easy. So there's no reason not to enter into that.
And I want you to win. We're going to have 12 [00:07:00] winners throughout this challenge, but I think I'm going to announce them in increments of three. So on day four, I'll announce three. And then on day eight, I'll announce another three day 12. I'll announce the last three. But again, those announcements will take place in the Facebook group.
If you have any questions, if you need any support along the way, That also takes place in the Facebook group. So that's a great place to be. Take advantage of that community aspect. Okay, let's get started. Today's probably our biggest time intensive day. It will still be short. It's still bite sized. It still totally works for the busy parent, but there's multiple pieces involved today to set the foundation up.
So you're going to get clarity on your parenting vision, identify your values and your priorities. Set actionable goals that align with those values and priorities. Get confidence in where you're heading, when and why, and commit to this journey in each phase to [00:08:00] reach our goals. So, I don't want to take up more of your time, so I'm going to save the big announcement of what those giveaways actually are until tomorrow.
But you can go ahead and start entering today when the homework is posted, okay? First and foremost, before we do anything at all, we need to have the reason why we're doing it. Top of mind that's going to be different for every one of us, but that's the fire. That's the driving force That's our motivator.
You're here for parenting clarity and purpose Why does that matter to you? What makes you want to be the best parent that you can be? I'll share mine with you for context. I think of all the areas where we know the outcome is important, okay? So we strategically make sure we're going to have a positive outcome.
Like at work. [00:09:00] is where most of these revelations came to me in a professional career. If we as a company want to hit a certain metric, we're getting clear on the vision. We're selling the vision to those we need to go along with us. We're setting goals. We're working hard. We're monitoring the metrics and we're following up with each other, consistently checking in to make sure we're on.
track. We're identifying areas that could improve every step of the way, and we are improving them. We're finding the wins, and we're celebrating them to keep engagement up. We're putting plans in place to improve the processes and increase the efficiency of whatever we're doing. And then I'll look at how a lot of us treat parenting, myself included, at the time that God sent me this wake up call.
Like, we just wake up in the morning, give it our best, whatever that even means for that day, and then we go to sleep, [00:10:00] we rinse and repeat. But from the perspective of a Christian parent, we believe that our children belong to God. First and he entrusted them to us. So we're co parenting with him. We're raising his kids.
So this just kind of smacked me in the face and I was like, why on earth am I not seeing this for the opportunity? The responsibility, yes, but the opportunity to serve that it is. Obviously, I know it's probably the most important role I'll ever have. But am I treating it like I know that? Am I giving it the forethought that it deserves?
God himself trusted me with this child, and he expects me to raise this child on a path that leads him back to God. If that's my vision, if that's my mission, if that is my goal, [00:11:00] why am I not giving it the same level of planning and effort to guarantee my success in achieving that outcome, that my professional career Gives to its goals.
Why? By not giving it 10 times that much. So that's my why. That's why this is so important to me. Now, I want you to pause this video for just a minute or two and think about why it's important to you. What led you here. You don't need to overthink it. It's probably fairly top of mind because it's what led you to take the step to even watch this.
And then I wanna take a quick moment to pray over everyone watching this. Father, I pray that you give us clarity in this challenge, that every person watching this will walk away with clear answers on what to do to reach their vision for their families. But Lord, no matter what we envision, no matter what we desire, I [00:12:00] pray that you give us a peace and an understanding that your will will be done.
And that is the best way to ensure that our Families are exactly where they should be is that we ask for your will to be done in our lives. And Lord, I ask that you give us the answers that we need to walk away fully confident and fully prepared to hand our families over to you and serve you through our parenting journey.
Help us get clear in our hearts, in our minds and in our families in Jesus name. Amen. And now it's time to get clear on our values. I actually have a family values checklist that I didn't think to include in part, as part of the 18 freebies that you get for this challenge. So I'm going to include that as a bonus.
So now today you're going to get three freebies. That will be the family values checklist, the [00:13:00] vision workbook, and the smart goals worksheet. So why is it important to start with our values? They're our compass on this adventure. They keep us in alignment. They help us keep our priorities in check. They give us stability and direction.
In other words, they're super important. And they're a step we can't skip over because this is our foundation and it influences the environment around us. So we're going to do a quick exercise. I want you to take a moment and reflect on what truly matters most to you. What virtues do you want to instill in your children?
What do you think of as the guiding light that gets you through things? You can just jot them down as they come to mind and then we'll reflect and decide our top values. These are our building blocks. In the next step, we'll use these values and priorities to create our vision. So getting clear on [00:14:00] this step before we move forward.
It's very important, but I don't want you to get hung up here because you can revise these whenever you want. And most of us are going to have a lot of values that resonate with us. That's where the priorities come in. What's our top priorities based on our values that we want incorporated in our families?
Now you've got a list of all the values that resonate with you. It might be two, it might be 10, it might be 20. It's totally fine regardless. Now from that, if you had to place these in order of priority, what would be your top values? I have six that I narrowed mine down to but it's up to you which you feel are your top priorities.
Mine are faith, Love, honesty, connection, integrity, and growth. So these values are going to shape our decisions, they're going to shape our interactions with others, and they're [00:15:00] going to shape our overall approach to life. Our actions should constantly align with these values. And we have to treat them as the foundation towards a more purposeful and fulfilling life.
I like to think of them as the deal breakers for our family. These are our non negotiables. We've made it to the vision. You're going to have a vision workbook as part of your freebies for today. Okay? So that's going to give step by step how to work through this. It's also going to provide multiple examples and templates that you can use.
But at the end of the day, you don't have to spend a lot of time creating a vision board. My favorite way to do this is literally just a blank piece of paper and a pen. I like to write out everything that I'm envisioning, and then I just circle it. That's the best way for me. I can add quotes. If I like to, I can add Bible verses to it if I want to, and I can, So you can edit it and revise it with pretty limited effort.[00:16:00]
But if you're more of a visualizing type of like creative mind, Pinterest is a really great place for this. You can just make a vision board, board on your Pinterest, and you can add photos that Really speak to those things that you had listed down But what I encourage you to do is to write them before you look for images Because once you see those images, it's going to start inspiring other things and I want the first Ideas of what your vision is to come straight from within you without any outside sources.
Okay. So we're going to work through this. If you don't need to pull it up right now, you can work on it after this is one of your freebies. I just want you to take a moment and focus on your parenting aspirations. Choose the template style and the time commitment that best fits your needs and your availability.
You can always start with one, come back and build on it later. Just take a moment and imagine your [00:17:00] Ideal family life. What do you hope to achieve as a parent? Write this out like a journaling exercise. Now we're going to take a moment and we're going to work through this together. I'll ask you a few questions that will help you visualize.
So feel free to just relax right now, close your eyes, and see what comes to mind when I ask these questions. What were the core values that were most important to you in your family? How do you envision these values being lived out in your day to day family life? What would success look like for your family if everything went exactly right and led to the ideal outcome that you were picturing?
What types of things do you want more of in your family? What are the best parts of your family life right now? Use your vision workbook to work through this when you get a chance. Now as far as [00:18:00] creating that official vision board, You really don't need to, but of course you can if they help you visualize and if they encourage you.
So, I want you to do whatever best resonates with you. I don't want you to feel like this is a huge time investment. It's not. It can take you 5 minutes. It can take you 30 seconds if you already, if you visualize pretty easily when I ask those questions. What do you want your family to look like a year from now?
In a year, if everything was exactly how you wanted, what improved? What did you do more of? If it was as close to perfect as humanly possible, what would be different? What would be the same? That is your vision. Now we're at the final stop on our adventure for today, and you've already done A lot. Today's probably the biggest time investment of all the days.
I realize it's still less than [00:19:00] 20 minutes, but I promised you these would be time efficient for the busy parents. So I want to honor that. And there's just multiple steps that are required for creating a solid vision and you need this foundation for everything else. If you aren't familiar with SMART goals, that's an acronym for goals that set us up for success.
We don't need lofty or unrealistic goals like, I win the lottery and I hire a full house staff to handle all the unpleasant things so that I can be the best parent possible. With SMART goals, we're making sure our goals are specific, measurable, achievable.
So let's say that my goal is to pray more as a family in 2024. So in step one, I'm just going to write that down for step two. I can add more details to make it more clear. So maybe, In 2024, we will pray together more as a family during our [00:20:00] bedtime routine. In step 3, I want to make sure it's measurable.
So what does more really mean? If we aren't clear here, we won't know if we've accomplished the goal or not. So then I would add At least five nights per week. In step four, I need to make sure it's achievable. So this is where, if I had just now said seven nights a week, I would probably readjust it to five.
Because life is going to happen. There will inevitably be days where someone's stuck. sick or someone falls asleep on the way home and we're totally thrown off from our normal plan. Obviously, I can still aim to do this every single night, but to make sure my goal is achievable and I set myself up to win, I'm just going to stick with five nights a week.
In step five, is this relevant to my overall objectives and my values? So what was my vision for 2024? Does this goal get me to it or closer to it? If so, then [00:21:00] yes, it's relevant. And step six, we want to make sure it's time bound that keeps us from setting really vague goals. Like I'm going to lose 10 pounds.
Okay. But when next month, next year, or just sometime in the next decade, how do you know? When you're going to achieve that. So since right now we're focused on our 2024 vision, these are 2024 goals, so we're all good on the time bound requirement. And now you've set a SMART goal. See how easy that was? But repeat this as many times as necessary, based on whatever your vision includes.
And use the SMART goals worksheet that's included today as one of your free resources to help you work through those. If you have any questions at all, or you run into any roadblocks when you're creating these, utilize the Facebook group. And I will be there to help you and support you and guide you and coach you through it.[00:22:00]
Now that's it! You did it! You made it through day one. which is again probably the toughest day we're going to have through this challenge because it just makes you dig a little deeper and it really makes you think. But you will not regret the time that you invest in this challenge and I hope that you're feeling thankful for the work that you've done up to this point.
There's so many amazing things coming so again keep an eye on your email, subscribe on YouTube. be active in the group. I'll be aiming for around 6 p. m. each day releasing that day's lesson. And a final reminder for today, make sure you participate in the homework in the Facebook group. This is how we'll choose the winners for the giveaways, which I'm so excited to share with you guys because it is so good.
And I promise that the homework is super, super simple. Okay, that's it. And I'll see you in the community and I'll see you tomorrow.
