From Resolutions To Intentions: A Simple Plan To Grow In The New Year

Resolutions fade when they stay vague. We chose a different path: turn intentions into actions you can measure, share, and celebrate. From holiday reflections and family moments that ground our why, to a simple framework for showing up better in every role, this conversation lays out how to move from talk to traction without drowning in complexity.

We dig into practical tools that high performers and everyday families both use: writing goals where you’ll see them, setting small recurring commitments, and reviewing progress weekly. Rather than chasing a perfect routine, we focus on behaviors that rebuild trust—validating feedback, naming specific changes, and creating tiny systems like Saturday calls, alternate plans when schedules collide, and phone‑free dinners. You’ll hear how to translate “I’ll be better” into clear steps, and how to invite the people you love into the process so accountability feels supportive, not punitive.

This episode also celebrates community with heartfelt shoutouts and real‑world examples of how growth shows up: trying a partner’s hobby, walking together, sharing notes from a book, and marking progress with simple rituals. Along the way we talk vision boards, goal lists, and the power of intentional words that you revisit, not just recite. If you’re ready to be better, not busier, you’ll leave with a plan to set intentions, execute them with kindness, and track the journey together.

If this resonated, tap follow, share it with someone you want to grow with, and drop your top intention and execution plan in the comments. Your next step is one small promise you can keep today—what will it be?

Chapters

• 0:00 Warm Welcome And Gratitude
• 1:50 Holiday Reflections And Family Time
• 3:20 Rethinking New Year’s Resolutions
• 5:05 The Goal: Be Better In Every Role
• 7:20 Turning Intentions Into Concrete Plans
• 10:55 Learn From High Achievers And Vision Boards
• 13:20 Mindful Monday: Act On Your Intentions
• 17:05 Accountability In Relationships
• 20:40 Everyday Practices To Show Up Better
• 24:00 Community Shoutouts And Support
• 27:20 Safety, New Year Wishes, And CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Wow wow. What's up, party people? Welcome to another episode of L Kivate Your Life. I am your hostess with the most deaths. L as in the letter L, and key as in the key to your heart. Well, we are slowly but surely creeping up to my hundredth episode. Thank you all for tuning in, staying loyal, remaining loyal listeners, providing me likes and feedback and comments. I could not be more grateful. So let's get into it on this December 29th, Mindful Monday. Our last episode was kind of talking about Christmas and traditions. I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas holiday. Thank you for sharing your traditions. I really appreciate it. And to those of you that didn't, it's not too late to go back and like or comment or subscribe. And if you're not a loyal listener slash subscriber, I will tell you it's as little as a cup of coffee or happy meal,$3 up to$10 per month. I engage with you, I answer your questions, I offer sound advice based on if it's dating, if it's pursuing a relationship, if it's family issues, setting healthy boundaries, you name it, I'm here to help you with it. And tonight's topic, honestly, I just wanted to touch on a few things. One, I had a lovely holiday uh for my daughter's birthday, as all of you know, went to Arizona, had a lovely time, spent just under a week in Scottsdale visiting my 25-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, and her boyfriend Ajay, spent time with the mister, did holiday things, looked around the town, and just had a lovely, relaxing, enjoyable, family-filled time. And so this year I couldn't help but notice, even at the Candlelight Vigil service, everyone was setting their New Year's resolution for the typical standard New Year resolution. I want to eat better, I want to lose weight, I want to go on a diet. And I just found it so interesting that everyone had sort of the same New Year's resolution. And I realized when we were at our holiday events, even this last weekend, we enjoyed the Delta King, spent time with our sons and daughter-in-law over dinner and drinks, and we were talking about goals. And well, I had the longest list, and my list was to be better in every sense of the word. And what do I mean by that? I mean a better mom, a better listener, a better friend, a better employee. I wanted to open myself up to learning, growing, evolving, changing, being open to new ideas and realizing if I was struggling with something, there was a reason behind it. And it's probably because I needed to master that skill or learn more about myself or how to overcome that challenge. Um, and so this year I'm just really trying to be better in all facets. So I would love to hear what your new year's resolutions are. Do you set any New Year's resolutions for yourself? For example, I want to be able to travel to Europe, see my family. I want to travel more. I want to ensure that I continue to be intentional with my friendships and be genuine and make more of an effort to spend more time with the relationships that matter, foster those relationships, nurture those relationships, whether it be my husband, my son, my daughter, my coworker that I enjoy spending time with, my friends that I only see a couple times a year, or, you know, wish each other Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Thanksgiving. I want to be better in all of those areas. So I would love to find out from you all what your intentions are. It doesn't have to be a New Year's resolution per se, but it could fall into that category of, oh, you know, I want to apply for another job. I want to make more money. And how much more money do you want to make? I want to move from an apartment to a house. I want to buy a new car.

SPEAKER_00: 6:30

Whatever it is, I personally would love to hear it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:38

Because I do think it is important for us to set goals and aspirations and put them to paper or computer or notepad in your phone. They have to be something that you marinate on and you manifest and you work on and you really mean it. So that is my Christmas wish, Liz. Christmas wish. I I the song is going through my head of my Christmas wish, but really we're past Christmas. So I guess it would be my New Year's resolution for myself, but would love to find out what are yours? Are you going to be intentional with your words and your actions? And how will you set forth to meet those goals? Will you write them down? Will you put them in the notes in your phone and go back and check them off as you do them? You know, if you look at all of the millionaires and successful entrepreneurs, that's what they did. They wrote out their goals. Tony Robbins.

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

Um, I'm drawing um a blank here.

SPEAKER_01: 8:23

Uh Zuckerman. I'm not thinking of his first name right now. Mark.

SPEAKER_00: 8:31

Mark. Is it Zuckerman? Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 8:38

Let me um not get ahead of myself. Basically, what I'm trying to say is in order for us to be successful and put our plans into place, we need to have these goals set out for ourselves. Mark Zuckerberg. There we go. His name came to me. Um let's think of you know the most successful entrepreneurs that are globally just just to name a few: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, um, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk. Um I mean, I I could sit here and and name them all day, but basically what I'm trying to say is how do we get to that point? Well, we have to be willing to set goals and follow through them. That's why we have vision boards. And these people like the Oprah Winfries and Warren Buffett and Richard Branson, they all had visions and goals of how to become bigger and better. And it starts with us. It starts with us looking at our life and seeing how we can be better. Not just for ourselves, but for the people we spend time with, our family, our friends. And that is something that has really been resonating with me lately is to be better in that way.

SPEAKER_00: 10:46

And to follow in their footsteps on how they do things.

SPEAKER_01: 10:56

They read books on goals, they set their goals with intention, they put it to paper or on a vision board, or leave themselves notes around their home to remind them that we have to speak victory over our life and we have to speak things into existence. Even the infamous sports that are out there, that's something they practice, right? So for Mindful Monday, that is what I want to encourage you to do. And just so I know that you are thinking about these things and that you will do it, I'm going to ask that not only you like my podcast on whatever platform you listen to, um, whether it be Spotify, YouTube, BuzzSprout, Amazon Music, Podchaser, um, I'm forgetting on an important one. Um, Apple Podcasts. Anyway, whatever platform that you listen to, I would like to request that after you have liked the episode, share with me what are your intentions. We're not even gonna tell, we're not going to say it's a new year's resolution per se. We're going to say, I'm going to ask you, what are your intentions for this new year? And how do you plan to execute those intentions? For me, I'll start with myself. I have already started it, which is anybody that brings anything to my attention, good, bad, or indifferent, about my behaviors or how I dropped the ball as a friend. I didn't return a phone call. I didn't show up in the nicest way. I came across as being short or insensitive, whatever it was. I acknowledged and validated everyone that brought it to my attention. And then I said, thank you. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. And going forward, I'll be better. And this is how. Oh, I dropped a ball. I didn't call you when I said I was gonna call. Now I'm going to send an intention. I'm going to pick up the phone and call you every Saturday, for example. And I'm going to follow through when you invite me somewhere. I'm going to make more of an earnest effort. And if it's conflicting with my schedule or family affairs or dog or work, I'm going to propose an alternative solution so that that person knows that they are loved and valued and important to me. And so those are some of the ways that I will be becoming a better elchovate your life. Is I will start holding myself accountable, validating your feelings, telling you how I'm showing up differently and better, and then showing you with my actions. Too often all of us say, Oh, yeah, I know I've been a jerk to you in our relationship, and I'm going to be better. Okay, that's a very vague statement. What are you going to do to be better? Are you going to read a book? Are you going to watch a video? Are you going to talk to your counselor? Are you going to educate yourself on your weaknesses and learn how to turn them into strengths? It could be something as little as putting your phone down more and spending more quality time with that person. Or show them that you are interested in their hobbies and interest and participate in those things with them. Go to the gym, go on a walk, walk the dog together, go on a bike ride, share what you read in a book that really impacted you in a positive way, and how you want to implement that into your life together, your hobbies, your interests, your conversations. Talk about things over dinner. This is what I realized about myself today is I, you know, um I drop the ball when I make these commitments. And what am I going to do differently? I'm going to hold myself accountable. And you can hold me accountable. And if I don't show up right, then I promise to do it twofold when you bring it to my attention. There are just so many ways that we can be better in our relationships with our family, with our friends, our colleagues, our fur babies, whomever we spend time with. And time is not promised.

SPEAKER_00: 17:01

So we want to make these moments count.

SPEAKER_01: 17:07

So that is my message for today's Mindful Monday. Is set an intention, create a plan, how you will fulfill those intentions. Share it with the person that you are setting these intentions for. And follow the progress together so that you're growing together and you both can pat each other on the back, shake each other's hand, offer a loving hug, massage, date night, dinner celebration. Cheers to us working out together, losing 30 pounds, getting more fit so that we can be around for our grandkids, whatever the case may be.

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

Don't just talk about it. Be about it. That's what I want to encourage all of you to do.

SPEAKER_01: 18:22

And I'm going to look forward to the likes and the commentary and the feedback. That way I can follow up with you and ask you, hey, how's it going? Did you check this off the list yet? Did you make it to the gym? Did you go to your daughter's baseball game? Did you go to this important event that you said you would show up for? Did you make more time to be with your kids? Did your kids make more time to be with you? Did you follow up with a phone call and tell them how much you appreciate them and value spending time with them? I'm trying to give you numerous examples so there's no room for excuses.

SPEAKER_00: 19:21

Relationships take work and effort, and it has to be a give and take.

SPEAKER_01: 19:31

So I hope that all of you will listen, take notes, make notes, and I will look forward to reading your comments, your feedback, your goals. I'm sure you're even going to have things that you will add to me, like, oh, well, I do A, B, C, D all the way to Z. How you like that?

SPEAKER_00: 19:57

Okay, cool. We learn from the greats. We learn from examples.

SPEAKER_01: 20:09

So I hope you're up for the challenge. I look forward to reading what all of you have to say. On that note, a shout out to my loyal subscribers, Roger Haven. I hope that you had a lovely holiday spending it with family, eating tasty food, maybe that you made, baked, picked from your garden. Hope you got to hug your loved ones and your sweet little grandbaby. Hope you got in some fun time, not just swimming and working out at the gym, but got your groove on.

SPEAKER_00: 20:57

All the important things.

SPEAKER_01: 21:01

Moving right along to Jeff Para. Jeff Para Namaste. Mr. Sprinter Life is living it up with a new, a new found friend that I see that you are spending time with. New year, new person, new goals, new adventures. I love to see it. Next up, we have Kyle Few. Thank you for being a loyal member of our family. Thank you for always believing in me, encouraging me, being honest with me, offering ideas and suggestions how to be better. And thank you for inspiring me through all of your words of wisdom, including your audible commitment to love. Love is a verb, can be found through Amazon. Yes, it takes work. It's like a garden that you have to water and feed and provide sunlight.

SPEAKER_00: 22:36

All the things you have to nurture it, right?

SPEAKER_01: 22:41

Moving on to creative Kara. Kara lovemyartist.com. Kara just put out the most beautiful song. I want to encourage you to go and find it. And as I always tell you, all of these people are. You can find their links in my page in the podcast description. This one is called The Smallest Cracks. Can be found on Spotify. And she just did a fabulous job on this. Yeah, lovemyartist.etsy.com, the smallest cracks on Spotify. The music, I just loved it. And I felt it was so relevant to things that we're going through in life today. So shout out to Creative Cara. Check out her Etsy page, lovemyartist.etsy.com. The woman is just so talented in so many ways from cooking to baking to recipes to how to groom your dog to songs, um, anniversary tributes, birthday montages, video music, um, paintings, clothing, so many things. Uh, next up, Angie Germer. Angie Germer, longtime no-seer here from. Hope that you had a lovely holiday with your family. Uh, Angie Germer is with Thrive Lavelle. And if you're looking for some all-natural supplements to help you lose weight, help you bulk up, help you go to the bathroom, make sure that they are filling the nutritional gaps. Angie is your girl, Angie Germer, Thrive Lavelle. Also, her link can be found in my podcast description page.

SPEAKER_00: 25:27

Thank you to Mike Kaufman. Thank you for continuing to listen and commenting when he remembers, when he thinks about it, when I remind him. Um, yeah, really appreciate you. Thank you to my loyal listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 25:52

Um, also, shout out to Lisa Roberts Carbello, who had the privilege of watching the Niner Bears game at Levi's Stadium yesterday. Mr. was so jealous that he wasn't at that game, really wanted to be there. Chicago Bears are his team. 49ers are, of course, all my friends out here, their team, Travis, uh, Steve, Lisa Roberts, and her boyfriend Robert. Um, yeah, so many of the locals, right? Um Niners won. So congrats to all the Niner fans out there. And thank you to Dory for being a loyal listener, Barry, Rhonda, Travis, Roger, Mike, hopefully Jeff Parra, hopefully Kyle. Um I haven't seen their comments or feedback, so that's why I'm saying hopefully. Anyway, I hope that everyone has a lovely holiday and an even more glorious New Year's. Remember not to drink and drive. Make sure you are taking advantage of all the transportation options that are out there for you.

SPEAKER_00: 27:33

Have a lovely New Year's. Enjoy spending time with whomever you're spending time with. Be intentional.

SPEAKER_01: 27:51

And I think that's all I have for this evening. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening. And I hope my hundredth episode coming up. I'm not sure if I'll have time on Wisdom Wellness Wednesday, being that it is New Year's Eve day. Um, we have a lot of plans that have been offered to us, and we're trying to figure out what's the best way to go, how to execute them all. So I don't know if I'll be doing my podcast on Wednesday. Um, so it might not be till the following Monday. But do have a warm, safe, fun, enjoyable, stimulating, all the things. Have a lovely new year, everyone, and be kind to yourself. And please remember to like the episode, share the episode, comment on what are your intentions for the upcoming year and how will you execute them. I'll look forward to reading your thoughts. Until next time, all of my Elkie Vaders. Ciao for now.