Hey, hey, beautiful friends, and welcome to building a life you love.

This is your host, Kristen.

I'm so excited to share with you that today I'm starting a seven part series called creating a life you love.

We are going to dig into so many good things each week.

I'm going to share with you some ideas and then a tactic or a tip that you can apply to your own life.

First week today, we're going to talk about rediscovering your passion and rekindling that spark within you by exploring and being curious and creative in your life.

So I can't wait to share that with you in a few minutes.

But I just want to let you know this series will also talk about stepping into new things, igniting your dreams, what God's put on your heart.

We're going to talk about living on purpose and setting boundaries and eliminating distractions to focus on what matters most.

We're going to talk about shifting our mindset, and we're going to talk about nurturing our mind, body and spirit and what practices we can put in place to have a big impact.

All of this culmination of these episodes is going to help you step into a life that you can change.

You can create yourself a transformation that so many of us are wanting.

So many women I talk to, we have all walked through or are walking through parts of our lives that we just feel like not fulfilling us in some way.

We feel like we could be fully awake, but we're not.

And so I want to help you step into feeling awake and alive and thriving.

And there's going to be a freebie with this, if you haven't already downloaded it, it's called reignite your passion.

It's a workbook that you can walk through on your own.

And you just need to head over to my website, kristenfitch.com, and sign up for my email newsletter.

And you'll get that freebie right away.

But if you haven't already signed up for my email newsletter, not only do you get that, but I'm going to be sharing with you when the design a life you love create a life you love course comes out.

It's coming out in the next few weeks, so I can't wait to share that with you.

But my newsletters share encouragement, things I'm reading, things that have impacted me, where I've had transformations in my life that you can apply those same tactics and tips to as well.

So go over and do that now, and then I will share with you the first part of this series rediscovering your passion.

Here we go.

Have you ever imagined building a life you love, but got stuck in between the what ifs, expectations, and obligations in your life?

Welcome to building a life you love.

The podcast dedicated to helping you step into a life where your passion blossoms from within.

Your faith deepens and simplicity becomes your favorite cinema everyday life hi, I'm your host, Kristen, an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Join me each week as we dive into creating positive habits, stepping out of your comfort zone, making space for meaningful work and relationships.

I'm going to bring you practical tips, uplifting conversations, and expert guidance that you can use.

So why wait?

Step off the path of expectations and into a space that feels genuinely yours.

Subscribe now to building a life you love, and let's begin this transformative journey together towards joy, peace, and purpose.

Okay, so let's dive into rediscovering your passion.

How do we do that?

What does it look like?

And why is it worth stepping into something that's different than what we've been doing?

So I'm going to share with you, along this or through this episode, few words from other people that have just really inspired me or hit home.

And so the first one I want to share with you is by Corey Laspara.

And he says this it's a risk to be you.

It's a risk because you don't know what sort of pushback you might receive when you show up as your full self, honoring your authentic expression.

The alternate, though, is to slowly die while you're still alive.

And that's the worst pain.

He then says, if it is true that there is a version of yourself that you are meant to be, it will only be discovered through your uncompromising commitment to listening for and surrendering to what feels most true in each moment, despite how uncomfortable it may be.

Ladies, I don't know about you, but that hits home for me.

That spoke so deeply into my soul that so many of us are living, but we aren't fully experiencing life.

We're not fully expressing ourselves in some part of our lives.

It could be in our relationships.

It could be in our codependents, people pleasing, doing too much right, doing stuff for other people when they should be doing it themselves.

It could be in a job that is just draining us and pulling us down because we know we're meant for something else.

It can be that we have a story inside of us to share that we haven't had the courage yet to do.

So, you guys, it can be so many things it can be that we've wanted to explore more, to be brave enough to try new things, but something's been holding us back.

This is what this episode, this is what this series is about, actually, this is what the entire podcast is about.

It's about being brave and having the courage to unearth who we truly are, to unlearn the parts of us that aren't us, and so that we can fully become the diamond in the piece of coal that we're meant to be in the world.

Okay, so how do we rediscover our passion?

Well, the first thing is we have to start getting honest about what things are.

Kind of come in life like that.

We see, we notice, we read, we hear, we watch, but we have like a little peaked interest, you know, like it's kind of cool or wow, I love, that's so cool that, you know, so and so is doing that.

I wish I could do that, or I've really always wanted to try this thing.

So the first thing is noticing.

What are you noticing?

Or what are you saying about things that you wish you were willing to try or want to learn, or are willing to stretch yourself and do something new, or what is so painful or not fulfilling in your life that you know, it's got to change, but you've not been willing to take a baby step in that direction.

And I'll share a couple things with you.

All right.

For me, personally, for me to reignite my passion, rekindling my curiosity, my creativity happens in a few ways.

And this is what I've found first is I know that I'm a person that I love exploring new places, exploring new towns, learning new things.

I love taking pictures of things.

And so for me it is one being aware of what I like doing, what I enjoy seeing or places I like going, and being honest about that.

Because if I don't go somewhere, even if it's a tiny two hour little expedition on occasion, I start to just feel worn down by the monotony of every day.

I can just feel uninspired, inspired in my life.

And so for me, it's what could I do today or this week or this month that would make me excited, that would get my creative juices flowing.

And so for me, I try to make sure that I add things like that on my calendar, even if it's I'm going to go take pictures in my backyard of my flowers, right?

So it can be something really small, or it can be something really big.

I just went on a trip to visit a friend in the Pacific Northwest in the peninsula of Washington state.

We had a great time for several days exploring the small towns and the coffee shops and the restaurants and the wineries and the beaches and some great flower area as well.

So for me, that was so fun.

Of course, I got to connect with my friend.

That was the reason for going.

That is always such a good thing.

But I also got to tap into that part of me, my creative spirit, my adventure soul.

And so we have to have things to look forward to, and we've got to get honest about what isn't in our life that we want to add more of.

So that's the first thing I'm going to tell you do, is write down what do I want more of in my life?

And that can be everything from really small things like I want to read more books or I want to learn about something.

I want to become a better cook.

Two, I really want to go to this place, or I want to see this art exhibit or this other exhibit or something.

So start writing those things down, keep an ongoing list, and add to it as you think of these things.

And then the second part is, have a goal for yourself.

Every week I'm going to do a small thing that makes me feel a little bit more electric or alive or gets me excited.

Okay, so that's your goal.

And then the second part to that goal is, what can I add monthly or quarterly?

Do something that I'm really going to be looking forward to.

Makes me super excited.

I feel like I'm going somewhere I haven't been or I'm doing something new because that's going to reignite your passion for life.

It's going to make you feel alive again.

And I'm telling you, it makes such a difference.

So, for me, I've already said I like learning.

I like exploring places.

And so I'll share a couple of those things with you that I'm doing right now.

One, I buy books pretty regularly.

Some of them I read straight through, but some I read as needed.

Or you, just as I feel like it may be a chapter or two, depending on if it's business book or a book on health, I don't tend to read those from COVID to cover.

So anyways, right now I'm reading books like good energy by Casey means, and it's about the connection between metabolism and limitless health.

It's a really good book.

It's lots of data and information in it.

And then I'm reading another book called the end of Alzheimer's.

So it's how to prevent and reverse Alzheimer's.

I have several family members, older family members, who are, have a cognitive decline and either have some form of dementia or Alzheimer's.

And that means that on both sides, my husband's side and my side.

And that means that I also want to make sure are my husband and I doing things so that we will not, hopefully, be someone that ends up having any cognitive decline as we get older?

And so those are two books that I'm digging into.

I'm learning about, but I'm also reading some other health books.

I know there's a theme, but it's because it's become so apparent that, one, our health is the most important thing.

Because there's a quote I've shared on here several times, but it's, if our health is absent, really, nothing else matters.

And while I could be doing better in some areas, you know, it is important to me.

I do want to keep learning.

So I'm reading a book from a german gentleman who I think lives in Spain called forbidden health.

And that is very specific book on some different protocols or substances.

This is just to give you an example.

Those are some of the things I'm reading.

I'm also reading about herbs and things like that.

I have a garden out back, and I'm still learning to be a better vegetable gardener.

I've had herbs for a long time, although I've added new herbs, but all of these things, right, they keep me excited, they keep me learning, they keep me thirsting for more knowledge.

And I think that's how we start tapping into our passion, our creativity, and our curiosity is, I think, gosh, which plant would be a great, or what herb would be a great herb to add that might help with this, right?

Or I'd put in tea, or I start getting curious and saying, well, what do I need to do in my garden to make it right?

So the plants might look great, but certain ones have given me a lot of vegetables or produced a lot, and other ones, other types of vegetables haven't.

And so learning about that, right, the soil, what does it need?

What's wrong?

You know, it takes a long time to become a really good gardener, typically because you have to learn the ins and outs about soil and pests and all this stuff.

My point is, it's shifting our mindset from one of being.

It's called a fixed mindset, right.

Which is kind of like being stuck where we're at and not seeing possibility to a growth mindset.

And there's obviously someone I've shared about her before, but she's a researcher.

I forget what university she's at that's written a whole book about the growth mindset.

I have it somewhere.

But the point is, we want growth mindsets.

When we have growth mindsets, we start looking at possibility, we start being more open minded.

We start being more willing to try things that we haven't done in the past.

In other words, we don't stay stuck.

We are willing to change our ideas, our mind, or our pattern behavior.

So it's super important, right, that we change our mindset.

Okay, the next thing, as I talked about rekindling that spark within you by exploring what excites and energizes you.

So that's what we just talked about.

Other ways that we can tap into reigniting and rekindling our curiosity or creativity.

Tapping into noticing things and then exploring more things is by what I call creative detours.

And so these can be really tiny or they can be much bigger.

But a creative detour is basically just how can in my everyday life or week, allow me to have a creative break or, or be creative when I'm doing something I do anyways?

So one way I do this is when I'm going on a walk, I tap into this idea.

And so what I do is I start noticing things on my walk.

So, wow, the flowers today, there are so many purple flowers.

Or look at that tree, look at the leaves.

And so I'll start noticing a very specific detail.

Okay.

And then the rest of the walk, I'll look for connected, related things, things the same color or shape or whatever it might be, or, wow.

Look, I don't know what this type of flower is, but I love it.

What is it?

I'd like to learn.

And so on my walks times, I noticed that several of the flowers or plants have somewhat of a triangle shaped leaf or flower.

And I'm like, that's so cool.

If you just walk through the flower, sometimes you wouldn't even notice the shapes in nature.

I've seen other days I've walked by a tree that I see lots of times.

The leaves look like a heart shape.

Literally, they look like a heart shape.

And I don't know what plant that is off the top of my head, but I'm trying to tap into being present.

But I'm also using my creative, you know, or my curiosity because I'm looking for things of interest.

I'm not just going on my walk and noticing nothing.

So I'm becoming a better noticer, if you will.

But when we wake up to what's around us, we wake up to our senses.

What smells?

Do you smell?

What do you hear?

What are you seeing?

Specifically seeing?

Right.

Did you walk by five dogs today or did you notice nothing because you were just in your head?

And so that's another way is to go on these little creative detours and look for the unexpected or look for patterns.

So other ways I take creative detours are, I said I like taking pictures just for fun.

And a lot of times it's just on my camera because that's what I have on me.

But if I go to beaches, I will take photos, of course the beach, but then other things, the driftwood on the beach from different angles.

Sometimes I'll go out for the afternoon, grab a coffee.

Maybe I'm going to hit something like a farmer's market.

I'll take pictures at the farmer's market of things that are pretty or colorful, or maybe I'm somewhere and I notice that they have a lot of outdoor art.

I'll take pictures of that.

So that is another creative detour for me.

Right.

I enjoy it.

It's calming, it's relaxing, but it's letting me be creative.

How I took the picture, what I took the picture of, can I do a series of pictures around these pretty plants or the succulents or the cool, bright art?

That's another way that we can tap into our creativity through these creative detours.

Maybe you're a big foodie.

I know I am.

I love food.

Sometimes it's, I want to go try some of the newest places, right?

The burger bar or the taco place or the bourbon place, whatever your thing is, right?

Maybe for you it's tea.

So go try different shops, you know, over the year and tap into that new experience.

For some people, it's, you know what?

I've never really tried thai food or name a different type of food.

Or maybe I've tried it, but I've not tried much on the menu.

Well, okay.

But I liked it.

Or I've heard it's really good.

Make a plan to go try a restaurant or a cuisine that you're not used to trying.

And so this is what allows us to start feeling awake and start saying yes to new things.

It allows us to start rediscovering what excites us, and for most of us, what excites us is being open to possibility, which we're going to talk about some more that more next week.

But it's, how do we live?

Feeling charged and excited?

Okay.

So here's the next.

I wanted to share this quote with you from doctor Jo Dispenza.

He says, there's a future you out there that already has a greater mind.

And you meet that person by taking the time to be a creator in your life.

You meet that person by becoming a greater mind.

Right?

And so that's the whole learning, stretching ourselves, growing.

That's how we step into the future that we want.

That's how we create a life we love.

And I think that's it's so important.

And we don't do that by staying stagnant.

We do that.

Bye.

Stretching by growing, by trying new things, even if they're hard, even if we don't like them, or even if, you know, we do a bad job at it.

It doesn't matter, right?

It's in the doing.

It's in the living.

That's when we start to feel the passion, like we're living fully alive.

And so that's what I want for each of you.

And that's what I have been stepping into over the last few years for myself.

Okay, this is another quote I wanted to share with you.

The power of positivity.

Shared it.

It says, you will be free when you understand that the cage you were, where you live, is made of thoughts.

And this is so true.

And part of reigniting our passion, part of stepping into the life or creating life we want, is by understanding that the thing holding us back is us.

Right?

It's our thoughts.

I can't do that.

I'm too old.

I don't know how to do that.

Maybe there's no one for me, right?

If you're a single, single person or I don't have the time, right?

So it's things we continue to tell ourselves that keep us where we're at.

Those statements and those thoughts are keeping you in that cage.

Keeping you in the cage of your past or keeping in the cage of the life you might be.

Okay, but it's not the life you dreamt of.

It's not the life you feel deep in your soul that you're meant to be living.

Maybe it's that you're doing work, you're in a career that pays you really well, but it doesn't fulfill you in any way, right?

You don't feel like you've stepped into your purpose.

You don't feel like you're serving the world the best way that you were made to serve.

And so we just have to get really honest with ourselves.

One, about the thoughts.

So I always recommend, write them down.

You know, what do you feel like is holding you back from the future you want?

What's holding you back from changing careers?

What's holding you back from trying something new?

What's holding you back from dusting off dreams you had when you were 15 or 25 or 35?

In stepping into those dreams, maybe you can't make the whole dream happen tomorrow.

You most certainly can take or make one action happen towards that dream or towards a goal you have.

One of my goals is to, when we move, or if we bought a second house, it's to buy a house on the water.

I have lived in my house for just over 25 years.

So we bought this house right before we got married and we've not moved.

We live in a great neighborhood, love the people.

We're close to a lot of things.

But my heart has always, especially for the last 1015 years, wanted to be on the water.

For me, it's calming, it's peaceful.

It's where I feel like I'm at home.

And so that is my next goal, right?

And so for me, the goal has to be, you know, am I putting money aside or at what point will I have the money that we feel like it's time to do that in the next couple years?

One, our son is graduating high school, our youngest this year.

So it wouldn't have been before that anyways.

But that's one of my goals.

That's one of my dreams.

I have lots more.

But the point is, if I don't say it out loud, if I don't tell my husband that, if I don't, if I'm not brave enough to say, I don't know how that's going to work out, I don't know when it's going to work out, but I know it's what I'm moving towards.

I know it's what I want to.

Then how would it ever happen?

I could settle.

I could say there's nothing wrong with our house.

And there's not.

We've had lots of good years of memories here.

And there are days where I say, you know what?

This is good enough.

We're lucky.

We're blessed, right?

There's so many people that don't have what we have.

But then I remember no.

I feel pulled.

I feel called wrong to that vision of my future home.

So I'm not going to take a no for an answer.

I'm going to move towards that, whether that's in a year or four years or however, whatever time it is.

And so we have to be brave and we have to be bold to speak what we want.

So that's the next thing is we have to get honest and write down what is it you want in life.

And I have to share this with you.

Some time ago, I think it was in July that today's show shared that they had a 10 two year old woman on the show who still works.

Share simple tips and mottos for a long life, and she said, always be curious about what will happen tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, and see friends.

That is it.

We have to tap into our curiosity.

We have to tap into our creativity.

We have to understand that we've got to shift into a growth mindset, one that's looking forward to learning, discovery, exploration, whatever that means to you.

And maybe you've never done those things before.

So it's baby steps for you.

If that's true, start small.

Start getting curious about things you hear about.

Start being creative in the smallest way.

I doodle on my papers, not all the time, but sometimes, you know, I do all sorts of things.

I like succulents, so I like seeing ones that have been put together really beautifully.

Just looking at it to me is just makes me feel more creative.

It makes me feel inspired.

Okay, so the thing is, we don't want to.

We don't want to be drifting.

We don't want to feel like we are stagnant because stagnant, right.

If a plant was stagnant, it means it's not growing, which means it's not thriving.

I don't know about you, but I want to thrive.

I want every year from now till the end, right?

Every year forward, I want it to be my best year ever.

And I want to be better than the year before in some way.

Whether that just means that I've expanded, that I'm doing even more the things I love, that I'm having meaningful conversations and I'm spending time with people I care about.

I just want to increase all of that, turn up the volume on all the good things and get better at processing and dealing with the things that are going to happen in our lives.

Right.

Loss and death and tragedy and hard things.

Those are going to come.

But the more that we're able to do these other things, the more it's going to be in perspective and we're going to be able to handle those things as well.

The other thing I would tell you is tapping into our faith helps us reignite our passion.

Why is that?

And maybe some of you are not someone that really connects on a faith level right now.

And that's okay, too, right?

We're all at different places and for different reasons, but for me, and I think this is true for most.

Tapping into your faith.

For me, I believe in God.

I come from the christian perspective on it.

But I.

It's that everything I see in the world, the sunset, the beautiful plants and how they do, what they do, how a baby grows inside of our tummies, you know, all these things, to me, is a miracle.

It's amazing.

It's beautiful.

It's.

There's so.

I mean, there's millions upon millions of different plants, right?

How they look, their colors.

There's every color in nature, right?

That's where we get our colors from.

Too many of us have stopped paying attention.

So, for me, one, that's the whole noticing thing.

Two, it's, I believe God created all those things.

And so when I see it, I see the creativity, I see the workmanship in the world.

I see how nature works.

There's things that, honestly, I can't even comprehend that wow me so much.

You know, I've read things that when a beanie comes to a flower, flower is giving off a vibration before the bee touches the flower, and it's giving a vibration that says, I have pollen.

But once that bee comes and gets the pollen, it gives off a different vibration that says, I do not have pollen at the moment.

So the next bee knows to skip that flower.

Tell me that's not crazy.

In other words, so many things are happening at so many different levels that we don't even know until they study them.

And so, for me, knowing that there's a higher power, knowing that each of these plants and the colors that were picked, the leave is purple on one side and green on the other, I mean, I'm not even sure I could come up.

I know I couldn't come up with all the things, all the creativity I see in every day of my life, the inventions that scientists and doctors come up with, the new technology, it's beyond comprehension.

And so star fishes that can.

Its leg can get ripped off, or it's.

I don't know what we call it, but.

And then it grows back.

So we have to start being in wonder, living in wonder and awe.

Let's not get stuck in the spreadsheets and the to do list so much.

Let's step back into nature.

Let's step back into seeing God's earth, God's creation.

Because when we do that, when we see that in other people, that we all have a little part of God in us.

We are all creators.

We all are workmen, if you will, or women in what we do in the world, how we show up.

And so when we start living with that sort of wonder and awe, living one more audacious life, it will change everything.

And it will reignite your passion in ways you can't even imagine.

So take the time to slow down and to notice what's around you.

Take the time to be in awe of every creation out there.

If you are someone like me who believes in God and that's your face, important to you, then see it from that perspective.

But if you're not, just look at it for its creativity at face value.

And so that's what I want to share with you today.

And I just want to remind you again, if you haven't already, head over to kristenfitch.com dot.

You can click the link in the show notes, but download the free reignite your passion workbook if you haven't already.

That will help you step through some different reading and then exercises to really get your creative juices and your tapping back into yourself, right?

Welcoming you back home to you and what it is that you want to step into.

And when you do that, you'll also join my email email list or my email newsletter.

And I share lots of encouragement and ideas, tips, things that have really made an impact or transformation in my own life.

So head on over and do that now if you haven't already.

And until next week, have a great week.

And thanks again for listening in and if you enjoyed the show, we'd love it if you'd subscribe and leave us a review and rating on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts and you can check out freebies and resources we have for you@kristenfitch.com.

and if you have ideas for the show or guests that you'd like to recommend, I'd love to hear from you.

So dm me on Instagram rstanfitch or you can email me from the website.

Thanks so much.

Until next time, have a great week.