0:51

Hello, my friends. And welcome back

0:53

to real, brave and unstoppable

0:56

for episode number 119.

0:59

I hope that your holiday season is going well

1:01

so far. It's going really

1:04

fast as usual. Speaking

1:07

of holiday season this year,

1:09

I was able to travel back to Minnesota,

1:12

which is where I'm from, for Thanksgiving.

1:14

And for the first time, and I don't even

1:17

know how long I was able to spend

1:19

an actual holiday with my family.

1:21

Like on the day. I didn't

1:23

have my kids with me. They were with their dad

1:25

and they were actually also in Minnesota just

1:27

with his family instead of mine. That

1:30

it was really nice to be able to spend time

1:32

with my family. And I had so much

1:34

gratitude for that. Even got to experience

1:37

an outdoor football game. I went to the Minnesota

1:39

-Wisconsin game. To see

1:41

my nephew in the marching band.

1:44

Well we went for the football to. I

1:46

went to school there. So go gophers.

1:48

The high that day, it was a little below

1:50

freezing. So I had to really dig

1:53

deep to channel that good old Minnesota

1:56

cold weather toughness. And

1:58

it even snowed during the game, which was

2:00

like so magical. I loved it. So

2:03

I'm really grateful I was able to take that trip. This

2:06

combined with a book I read

2:08

recently called 29 gifts. You

2:10

should definitely check it out. It's really good. But

2:13

it caused me to really think about slowing

2:15

down to really appreciate the things that

2:17

are good in my life. Because,

2:20

you know, it's easy to kind of go

2:22

through our day to day and forget to really pause

2:25

with what's good. So

2:28

I was also this year, with,

2:31

I mean, I love Christmas, the holiday season. I'm

2:34

at a place in my life where I'm

2:36

finally able to enjoy it again. My ex

2:38

and I split up nine years ago during

2:40

the holidays. So for a long time,

2:42

it was really hard for me to enjoy that. But

2:44

I'm finally at a place where I really. I

2:47

totally do. I love it again. But

2:49

this year, I was

2:51

pulled to kind of reconnect with my

2:54

Christian faith a little bit. For those

2:56

of you who are not Christian, or do not

2:58

have interest in you

3:00

know, religion or whatever, don't worry. It's this is

3:02

not a religious episode. It's just, you

3:04

can apply what I'm talking about to really whatever

3:07

you know, you relate to. But

3:09

in the past several years,

3:11

I've really struggled a bit with how

3:14

I like how I relate to this.

3:16

And I've been kind of trying to find my own way.

3:20

But I found this was a perfect time to

3:22

do this with it being the season of advent.

3:25

Now again, whether you're Christian

3:27

or not, this episode has lessons. I

3:30

may refer to some elements of Christianity,

3:32

but you can most certainly relate what I have

3:35

to say to your own situation, whether

3:37

you're religious or not. But anyway,

3:39

getting back on track. Advent

3:41

is really a time for rejoicing

3:44

and also in being still

3:46

and waiting. It's a time of waiting

3:48

for the birth of Jesus

3:50

in Christianity. And it's a time of,

3:53

you know, for hope and for peace. So,

3:56

if you think about the typical

3:58

American during December. Any

4:01

guesses... Yeah, not so much.

4:03

Not many of us practice stillness

4:05

in December Do we? It's

4:08

almost like people are all lined up at the starting

4:10

line, you know, like horses in a horse race.

4:13

And as soon as black Friday hits, the gates

4:15

are open and the race starts. Shopping

4:17

planning, hosting parties. Going

4:19

to parties, finding the perfect gifts, making

4:21

the crafts. Decorating. All

4:24

the things, right. It seems like

4:26

things just keep piling up on the

4:28

to-do list and it sometimes feels impossible

4:31

to take anything off of it. I

4:33

remember when I was married, we used to have this

4:35

big holiday party every year. It was so

4:37

much fun. But I think about all the time

4:40

that went into that party. It

4:42

was a lot. We carefully curated

4:44

everything like the appetizer menu and

4:47

we made all the food ourselves. At

4:49

first. Eventually, when we

4:51

kind of chilled out a little bit about it, we had people

4:53

bringing stuff, but initially, like we wanted

4:55

it to be so perfect. We'd

4:57

even try some of the appetizers ahead

4:59

of time to make sure, you know, they're up

5:01

to par. And we'd have the house like

5:04

perfectly decorated. We even

5:06

planned a holiday trivia contest

5:08

and we had this fun white elephant gift game.

5:11

We always had a signature cocktail

5:13

for the party. Specially

5:15

curated the wines. And as a

5:17

finishing touch, we haven't had those little

5:19

white paper bag luminaries to

5:22

line our very long driveway. Oh

5:24

yeah. And let's not forget the printed custom

5:26

designed invitations that I designed

5:29

every year. Usually depicting

5:31

my chocolate lab in some sort of like holiday

5:33

get up. They were amazing invitations

5:36

I have to say, but I'm

5:38

like, I'm picturing them right now. There are some funny

5:40

ones. But, on top

5:42

of that, and this is related

5:44

to, you know, my chocolate lab appearing

5:46

on the, the the invitations.

5:49

I also operated a photography studio.

5:51

And this time of the year was always

5:53

the busiest. And

5:56

of course adding onto the shopping.

5:59

And when kids are a little at space that you got to

6:01

get all the cool toys before they sell out.

6:03

Otherwise you end up paying like, ah,

6:05

so much in shipping. And

6:07

yeah, let's not forget travel. We

6:09

would travel back to Minnesota every year

6:12

back then to see my family and my

6:14

ex's family. And we'd have

6:16

to get all of our gifts back there somehow.

6:18

So that meant planning ahead to ship things

6:20

before the days of Amazon prime

6:22

being so easy. Or packing

6:24

things in a suitcase. Again,

6:26

back in the day when airlines didn't nickel and

6:28

dime you for extra luggage. And

6:31

then travel in and of itself was just

6:33

a special treat. Delays and busy.

6:36

The, when you're we got stranded in Chicago

6:38

overnight because there was a snow storm

6:41

or there was another year I got stuck after

6:43

Christmas and wasn't going to be able to get

6:45

back for several days. Like

6:47

there weren't any flights available.

6:49

So I actually ended

6:52

up, this is one of the craziest things

6:54

I've ever done. I ended up talking

6:56

to some people in the line where we

6:58

were trying to figure this out and

7:01

somebody suggested renting a car.

7:04

And so I rented a car with these people.

7:06

I didn't even know them. There were,

7:09

there was this one guy and then this other couple.

7:11

So I think there's a total of four

7:13

of us, maybe five. I don't remember. I think five

7:16

of us total. And, yeah,

7:18

we rented an SUV and we drove

7:20

from Minneapolis to Baltimore. DC,

7:22

whatever And there's this huge snowstorm driving

7:25

through like Minnesota and Wisconsin. It

7:28

was one of the crazier things I've ever done. So

7:31

that was fun. But

7:33

over the years, I've taken a lot of these,

7:35

my plate and my kids are older.

7:37

So there isn't as much emphasis on getting

7:40

like the latest, hot toy before it sells

7:42

out. And stuff like that. Since

7:45

my divorce, I haven't hosted Christmas parties

7:47

and I rarely traveled during the holidays.

7:50

But I still have noticed that Christmas always

7:52

seems to come and go so fast.

7:55

It feels like I'm just like buzzing

7:57

through life and not really stopping to pay attention.

8:00

And savor, the little moments. So

8:03

this year I've really made it a point

8:05

to make

8:08

time for mindfulness or.

8:11

I don't even say make time, but I've really been

8:13

trying to be more present. I'm

8:15

focusing on getting more, still more

8:17

quiet. And

8:20

notice. I don't say I'm trying to get

8:22

still because like

8:24

anyone, this is a work in progress and

8:26

it's like, you know, we still will be busy and we

8:28

still there's no, all or nothing in this, it's just

8:31

where can I bring a little more stillness into

8:33

my life? So today I'm going to talk

8:35

about some of the ways to get still and quiet,

8:37

you know, and also to enjoy the little things that are

8:39

so beautiful about the holiday season. Now

8:42

I do have to confess, I've been trying

8:44

to record this episode for probably

8:46

two weeks and. I

8:50

think in my quest for getting still

8:52

and quiet, I've been taking things off

8:54

my to-do lists that are absolutely necessary.

8:56

So, while I would like

8:58

to say this is absolutely necessary.

9:02

I mean, honestly, it really

9:04

isn't and I knew I'd get around to it

9:06

at some point. And here

9:08

I am getting it out to you right before

9:11

Christmas. So, you know,

9:13

some of this... You can apply to

9:15

the week after Christmas, you can apply

9:17

to your weekend. Just how do you really

9:19

spend some time getting still and enjoying

9:22

what's left of the end of 2023.

9:27

So let's talk first about why

9:29

we get so busy in the first

9:31

place. Basically having

9:33

too much to do is,

9:36

it's like a result of taking on too much.

9:39

Putting too much on your plate. After

9:42

all we're each ultimately responsible

9:44

for how much is on our plate. Now

9:47

you might be saying. Yeah, but kortney,

9:49

I can't just say no, for

9:52

example, to increased workload

9:54

at work. I can't NOT do

9:56

my Christmas shopping. I have

9:58

to go to this gathering or this event,

10:00

that party and so on. I can't say no.

10:03

Well, I mean, there's some truth to that.

10:06

There's some truth to that. Like with work,

10:08

for example. However,

10:10

let me tell you about the number

10:13

of people I've coached in the last couple

10:15

of months, well, at all

10:17

ever, but who assume they can't say

10:19

no to work that's given to them?

10:21

They just assume that so they don't bother

10:24

to ask, if a deadline is hard or

10:26

soft or is there any room for

10:28

someone helping or like,

10:30

they don't really have the bandwidth for this. So

10:32

can they problem solve? But they're afraid

10:35

to say that they're, plate's already full for fear

10:37

that they'll be perceived as like incompetent.

10:40

Nearly every client I coach on stress

10:42

has some version of this

10:45

around work. And shopping,

10:48

like I get it, but is it true,

10:50

like really true that you really can't

10:54

not do your shopping. So

10:56

there might be consequences for not doing

10:58

shopping, but it's not true that you have

11:00

to. And also

11:03

like, if you're going crazy, like with

11:05

shopping, chances are

11:08

you're buying too much, you're

11:10

stressing about getting the perfect thing, or,

11:13

you know, you could be ordering it on Amazon

11:15

and you're running out to all the stores instead,

11:18

and you've got too many other things to do. So

11:21

the message I'm trying to convey here is that

11:23

many people overstress when it comes to

11:25

getting like the perfect gift or spending

11:27

the right amount of money. Which brings

11:29

up a whole other set of fears. But

11:31

like you're in control of deciding what you can

11:34

and can't do. And when you start

11:36

noticing have-tos

11:38

and should-dos... these are potential

11:40

thought errors and thinking traps, and you actually

11:42

CAN decide on something that works for

11:44

you. And isn't so stressful. It's

11:47

pretty common with stuff like this, to think

11:49

in very binary terms. Last

11:52

episode was about the beauty of gray.

11:54

You know, not, not thinking in all or nothing.

11:56

Like how can you find a little more gray area

11:59

in this, you know, binary

12:01

thinking or all or nothing thinking is

12:03

I either have to do all of this... or

12:06

I'm not getting anything done. I'm not doing

12:08

anything at all. In other words, like

12:10

I'm failing at this. So there's

12:12

a lot more gray area in there

12:14

than we usually

12:17

find. So

12:19

the shopping thing, like overstressing

12:21

about it, or over-planning.. That

12:24

can stem from fear. What

12:26

if they don't like my gift? What if I didn't

12:28

do enough? What if the money is uneven?

12:31

Susie really wanted this toy and if I

12:33

don't find it, she's going to be disappointed

12:35

for the whole rest of her life.

12:38

Like fear based thoughts, right? Parties.

12:41

I mentioned the one we used to host. It

12:43

was a lot of fun. Yes. But

12:45

it consumed my time from Thanksgiving,

12:48

and even before, remember I mentioned

12:50

the custom designed printed invitation

12:52

sent out around Thanksgiving. Yes.

12:54

Well, I had to create those before Thanksgiving.

12:58

At one point, I realized that I was having to cram

13:00

in all of the traditions I

13:02

wanted to participate in with my kids

13:04

into roughly a week or two. So

13:06

this really comes down to values. Like what's

13:08

important. Sometimes something that's

13:11

fun and kind of important gets

13:13

trumped by the stuff that is REALLY important.

13:15

So prioritizing your values,

13:17

knowing what your values are really helps here.

13:20

Going to parties, even though you don't have

13:22

the bandwidth for all the parties is

13:25

another thing. That's also fear-based.

13:27

Bob will be upset if I go to Gladys his party

13:30

and not his, I love making up these names.

13:33

I can't not show up for the work party.

13:35

I'll look like I'm not a team player. Okay,

13:38

so maybe Bob will be upset. But

13:40

I can almost certainly promise you he'll get over

13:42

it. And it is possible to

13:44

have a conversation with Bob about how sorry

13:46

you are, that you can't attend and hope

13:48

that you can next year, this one's about

13:51

boundaries, and also going

13:53

back to what's really important to you. Sometimes

13:56

we take on too much to avoid conflict

13:58

or making people feel bad too. And

14:01

sometimes we stay busy or get too busy

14:03

because it's just what we identify with

14:05

this time of year. It's

14:08

just what we do, right. We

14:10

don't really take the time to look at the

14:12

things we're putting on our plate to see if

14:14

they're really important. If

14:16

they're really things that have to get done, or

14:18

if we can back off. Some

14:21

people also experience grief or sadness

14:23

at this time of the year. And staying busy helps

14:25

keep them distracted. So

14:28

there are a couple of themes here. First,

14:30

a lot of our busy-ness stems from avoidance

14:32

of something else, like emotions

14:35

that are uncomfortable. You know, saying

14:37

no to aunt Sally's invitation could

14:39

upset someone and then you have to deal with the fallout

14:41

of that. When in reality, we

14:43

all need boundaries. And part of being emotionally

14:46

grown up is being able to communicate with aunt

14:48

Sally. And being able to

14:50

sit with the discomfort of where that

14:52

ends up. Not

14:55

an easy thing. Boundaries are not

14:57

easy, but they'll change your life. I promise. The

15:00

second part of this, or the second kind of theme

15:03

here is, and these two things work together,

15:05

but a lot of times we forget what's truly

15:07

important to us. So in some of these

15:10

examples I shared earlier, like let's

15:12

take decorating. For example,

15:14

if I'm stressing about getting my house impeccably

15:16

decorated, There are two possibilities.

15:19

Well, there are more than two, but two

15:21

of them are, a) I'm

15:24

worried that, uh, someone comes to my house and

15:26

anything looks less than perfect.

15:28

I'm worried about what they'll think or

15:30

the guests at my party will like scoff

15:32

at my decor. Or it won't look

15:34

good enough. It won't be fancy

15:36

enough, whatever. Option two

15:39

is that I just really enjoy decorating

15:41

and how it looks that makes me happy to see my

15:43

house decorated. But,

15:45

if this is coming at the expense of

15:48

peace and calm, and it's creating

15:50

stress around too many things to do

15:53

at a certain point, you really have to look at our

15:55

values and prioritize,

15:57

like what really is important? What,

15:59

what do we need to prioritize? What needs to come

16:01

first? So the holiday season

16:03

is really a combination of these things.

16:06

Prioritization of what's most important

16:08

and non- avoidance of discomfort.

16:12

So we have to be able to get really intentional

16:14

about this. And in order to get intentional,

16:17

we need to practice awareness. And

16:20

in order to practice awareness, we have

16:22

to slow down. We

16:25

have to get still and quiet. And

16:27

it's only here where we can start to notice

16:29

what we're thinking or feeling and what

16:31

we're doing. This

16:33

is hard any time of year when we're not practiced

16:36

in it. And yes, it takes a lot

16:38

of practice. It it takes making a commitment

16:40

to slowing down and to getting

16:42

quiet. There's so

16:45

much beauty this time of the year friends. If

16:47

you live in a snowy climate, the beauty

16:49

of the falling snow flakes against a

16:51

starry sky. Or the glow

16:54

of the morning sun through snow coated trees.

16:57

The chill of crisp December air, the sparkle

16:59

of winter sky. The scent

17:01

of pine cones, simmering

17:04

cider the twinkle of the Christmas tree.

17:07

Sounds of Christmas carols. The

17:09

closeness of family watching holiday movies

17:11

together. Glowing candles,

17:13

the excitement in the air as you shop for your gifts.

17:16

And when we don't slow down, we

17:18

don't even notice it.

17:22

So if you celebrate Christmas, it comes

17:25

and goes so fast when we don't slow

17:27

down. The family gatherings,

17:29

opening of presents flies by, and

17:31

then the we're just left in this mass of wrapping

17:33

paper and kind of like, whoa,

17:35

what happened here? And then

17:37

we feel totally bloated and crappy cause we ate too

17:39

much. Okay,

17:41

so I'm going to get a little Christmas story-y

17:44

here. So if you're

17:46

not familiar with this like

17:48

the Christmas story, that's okay,

17:51

but I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. Cause I think

17:53

it's really it's, it's just, it's such

17:55

a great lesson or such a great parallel.

17:58

Um, you know, when when the

18:00

angel came and told Mary

18:02

basically that she was gonna to bear

18:05

God's son Jesus, I mean,

18:07

can you imagine that, she wasn't even married

18:09

yet. That was no-no that was

18:12

no, no back then. So first

18:14

of all, she's like, how am I? She didn't know

18:16

what I mean. That was probably pretty scary.

18:19

But she totally like, she let go.

18:21

She surrendered. She trusted.

18:25

And Mary and Joseph didn't really have

18:28

anything. They didn't have money.

18:30

They weren't, you know, they really had to turn

18:32

everything over to trusting. They

18:34

had to slow down. They had to really

18:37

listen for signs of how

18:39

to handle this, what to do. They

18:44

were really focused on what was important. And

18:46

I think there's so much that we can

18:49

learn from the season of advent

18:51

where it's about waiting. It's about

18:53

really tuning into

18:55

what's bare bones important and

18:57

slowing down and waiting

18:59

for this, you know, big celebration

19:02

of If you, if

19:04

you're Christian the birth of Jesus, if you're not Christian,

19:07

let's just say like family celebrations

19:09

or whatever, like slowing down and really waiting

19:12

to partake in these beautiful traditions

19:15

this time of the year. And

19:17

this can apply it to any time of the

19:19

year as well. It's just like that saying

19:21

stop and smell the roses. If we don't

19:24

slow down and stop, like, we don't

19:26

even notice they're there. And

19:29

there's so much that we get from

19:32

noticing from being still and

19:34

really noticing what

19:37

is present for us. You know, what's,

19:40

what's happening around us. What's happening with

19:42

the people we care about. Another

19:45

thing that slowing down does is...

19:48

Have you ever thought to yourself,

19:51

I feel stuck. I feel

19:53

stuck? I feel like I'm going through the motions.

19:57

Slow down. And connect

19:59

with what's important. That's how we find

20:02

meaning in life. And if we're just

20:04

going crazy and just checking boxes

20:06

off the to-do list all day, and

20:08

we're not really taking a

20:10

moment to really check in with ourselves.

20:13

We're not going to be able to connect to what's truly

20:15

important to us. I've talked about

20:18

values a little bit on the podcast. I probably

20:20

should do another, like a little more in depth episode

20:22

about it, but values are so

20:24

important in just helping us make

20:27

choices in just moment

20:29

to moment choices about how we show up.

20:32

as Well as like bigger, you know,

20:34

setting goals and finding direction

20:36

in life. But. It's

20:39

really worth. I'm a huge advocate

20:41

for doing the values,

20:44

exercise, where you Google list

20:46

of values. You'll get a list of a lot

20:48

of words. There are some out there that are shorter

20:50

lists, but I like the ones

20:52

that are a little longer.

20:55

And you go through that list. And anything

20:57

that's really like jumps out at you

20:59

about like, you know, what qualities

21:01

are important to you in how you show

21:04

up, like what guides you

21:06

in creating the life you want to live? What

21:08

if somebody was giving a speech about you? Like, what

21:10

would you be really proud that they noticed about

21:12

you? It's the kind of, the kind of things

21:14

that you would strive for

21:16

or qualities you'd want to possess, even if no

21:19

one was watching you. And slowing

21:21

down helps you notice, like where am

21:23

I out of alignment with that stuff?

21:25

What, where am I out of alignment with what's important.

21:28

And how can I line up

21:31

with some of those things? How can I connect

21:33

with some of those things a little more? And

21:35

that's just where we find so much meaning

21:37

in life. Without doing that, yeah,

21:40

we just go through the motions. And

21:42

it doesn't feel fulfilling because we're doing

21:44

things that aren't important. So

21:46

think about that. You

21:48

gotta slow down. You gotta get

21:50

quiet. You gotta get still to be able to

21:53

notice that stuff. You know, I mentioned

21:55

before awareness. Slowing down...

21:58

Is where we find awareness. And

22:01

what do I always say? Awareness

22:04

is half the battle. Of,

22:06

you know, just growing and learning

22:08

and in this life. One

22:12

more thing I wanted to just touch on

22:14

is the waiting aspect

22:16

of things. So

22:18

I'm somebody who gets excited

22:21

if someone tells me they've got me a gift, for example.

22:24

I'm like, I got excited. Like I

22:26

want to know what it is. Like I don't want to wait.

22:28

I don't want to, I want to know what it is. I don't

22:30

really want to know what it is, but there's this

22:33

part of me that just so antsy to know, and

22:35

then I'm like, oh, I can't wait till that day so I can find out

22:37

what it is. So I

22:39

noticed this though.. My partner,

22:41

he does this every year... He he's

22:43

tries to suck me into this. He knows

22:46

that I bite and this year

22:48

I didn't... it was amazing. But

22:51

he knows. I get really frustrated if he pokes

22:53

at me with like, oh, I bet you can't

22:55

guess what your president is. And. and

22:57

it does, it gets me, it hooks me every time and

22:59

I get so frustrated. Not,,

23:02

not because I don't know what it is, but

23:04

more at the poking. And then

23:06

the curiosity just gets me.

23:09

But, This year

23:11

I kind of, I said to him, I don't want to know.

23:14

So don't even, I don't even care if you do that. I don't

23:16

want to know. So why would you do that? So.

23:19

But I did notice myself saying. Oh,

23:22

I can't wait until... to myself, not

23:24

to him, but I can't wait until

23:26

it's only a few more days and I'll be able to find out

23:29

what it is. And it's this huge box.

23:31

Like he wrapped it and put it by the tree. It's

23:33

huge. It's a huge box. So of course

23:36

my curiosity is there. Right? But

23:38

instead of like, I'm noticing,

23:40

oh, it's only a few more days. I can't

23:42

wait. Just let these days go by. And

23:45

then I caught myself and went, ah, that's

23:48

not really waiting. Is it? That's not

23:50

really waiting. So

23:52

the way I want to pull all this together. Is,

23:55

and this, you can apply this to anything

23:57

that you're sort of, you know, waiting for

23:59

in life. Is, you

24:02

know, that day's gonna

24:04

come. But how can you find

24:06

meaning and joy in the now?

24:09

In this day, in this day?

24:12

Part of the fun is

24:14

the waiting. And if we can just

24:16

slow down and get quiet. And

24:18

appreciate what's here in the now.

24:22

The other stuff will come. So

24:25

that's what I have to offer you today, friends.

24:28

I wish I would have gotten this out sooner for

24:30

you, but you can, you

24:32

can hold this message

24:35

and practice it next year. Or

24:38

what I would really love you to do is

24:40

in the couple of days before Christmas,

24:43

and in the, in the week, before new

24:45

years, How can you

24:47

just really slow down from

24:49

day to day and notice what's

24:52

present in you and what's present

24:54

around you. Now.

24:58

While you wait for this new year to,

25:01

to begin. I'd

25:03

love to hear how it goes. Send me an email.

25:06

Let me know. Um,

25:08

a couple of things before I go:

25:10

first of all, if you don't follow me on social

25:12

media, please go do that.

25:15

I'm kortneyrivardlifecoach on both, both

25:17

Facebook and Instagram. I

25:20

love showing up mostly on Instagram. I'm mostly

25:22

over there, but things do

25:24

cop. You know, do share over to Facebook

25:27

as well, but I love hanging

25:29

out on Instagram and I

25:31

would love to have some more interaction with

25:33

people and just, you know, have fun over there. I

25:35

think it's a neat place to to hang

25:37

out and sort of build community. So come

25:39

visit me over there and say, hi. And

25:42

then the other thing is... if

25:45

you're enjoying the show, do me

25:47

a favor and please go leave a rating

25:49

and a review for me. It's really

25:51

the best way to let other people find,

25:55

there's help other people find the show. And

25:58

I know some people have said it's really has

26:00

been enjoyable for them to listen to, so,

26:02

you know, who knows how you might be helping someone.

26:04

If you share it. And

26:07

one more thing I have to just share

26:09

is that the podcast host

26:12

that I use sends out every year, like

26:14

the stats for the year. And

26:16

I was pretty proud because I

26:19

am in the top 50% of

26:21

all the podcasts in terms of downloads

26:23

and listeners of all the podcasts,

26:25

this company hosts. Top 50%.

26:28

I thought that was pretty for small little old

26:30

me... I thought that was pretty cool. And

26:32

I'm really proud of that. So thank you for

26:34

being one of those listeners. So

26:37

much appreciate you. If you

26:39

ever have any episode

26:42

ideas or something you want to hear more about,

26:44

please reach out. I love when people do that. So,

26:47

with that friends, have a very Merry

26:49

Christmas and I will see you next time.