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New Year, Better Me

Happy New Year! 🎊


I hope you had a joyful and refreshing celebration of Christmas and New Year, and are feeling more ready and excited to welcome 2025 with open arms.


As I welcome the New Year, I am very much ready for an upgrade… of myself, that is! 🙋🏻♀️ Last year, I went through several new versions of myself, and I realized that these versions were all about breaking free from limitations and setting the bar higher. 🚀


Early in 2024, I made a conscious decision to shift from self-preservation to regeneration. I left spaces that were limiting my growth, and began experiencing abundance in many aspects of my life, especially in my business and career.


I thought my upgrade was done.


In the second half of the year, unexpectedly, I found myself working on another upgrade. It’s one that I have been admittedly neglecting for years – self-care. 💆🏻♀️ I thought I was doing enough because I consciously took care of my mental health and my inner peace. I realized that I neglected my physical well-being. It was only when I sought help that I realized how badly I needed it. 💪🏼


💡 I observed and reaffirmed one important lesson in both upgrades.


IT’S AN INSIDE JOB. 🤯


This means that we need to start working from within.


As a Coach, I know this very well. We often use the image of an iceberg to illustrate that there is so much that goes underneath it (or within us) that affects what we see on the surface.

This aligns with what James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) refers to as the layers of behavior change. In his book, he said that it is hard to change your habits if you haven’t changed your underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior.

Layers of Behavior Change (from jamesclear.com)

So what?


I listened to Atomic Habits on Audible a couple of years ago and I thought it had golden nuggets of wisdom. These fed my mind. 🧠 But it was only in the last quarter that I saw these lessons come to life, and I can honestly say that it works. 💯👌🏼


How?


I joined a fitness program with the intention of getting back in shape. I wanted to live longer, age gracefully and continue to perform all my roles at my best. Instead of starting by giving us a handbook on working out, and a list of food to eat (or not to eat), we all began with the WHO…. That’s ourselves!


Who do we envision ourselves to be?

What do we look like?

What would we be doing?


I love how this aligns so much also with professional coaching. When we coach our clients (especially at ICF PCClevel) we look beyond the surface (the WHAT) and focus on the person (the WHO) we are coaching. This means we unpack beliefs, values, mindsets and more.

“Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become.” (jamesclear.com)

Now what?


I have finished the 100-day journey in November 2024 and I am proud to say that I have not only lost weight, but have also successfully installed new habits into my life (i.e. waking up earlier, walking outside, regular workouts, mindful eating, to name a few). I have upgraded to a new and better version of myself.


Fitting Room Selfie: May 2024 vs Nov 2024


✍🏼 As you plan your year, instead of setting goals that are based on outcomes (the outer layer as in the image from James Clear above), try starting with your identity.



Who do you want to be by the end of 2025?

Make sure to describe yourself in full detail – inside and out! Start with a blank slate and create that Lead Character / Actor in your 2025 story (or movie) that you are about to write.

Celebrating with my Accountability Group

What’s Kurly’s next upgrade?

I am still reflecting on it and visualizing my new version. I’ll surely have that ready very soon, as I’m continuing my upgrades in the areas of spirituality, physical wellbeing, family and business!

If you’d like to join the 100-day program along with me and other Filipinos all over the world, you’re very much welcome to join the free webinar on Jan 10!



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