“Tell yourself a better story,” says every great coach.

Welcome to Midlife Woman Redefined, a podcast for women near retirement who are ready to step into a new chapter of freedom, travel, and fulfillment. If you’re ready to focus on figuring out who you are and what you really want, this is the place for you. Here’s your host, master certified life coach, travel addict, and midlife maven, René Washington.

Hello, hello, hello. I am C. René Washington, your life coach and your midlife maven. And we are here for the Christmas episode of Midlife Woman Redefined. And today, we are talking about the power of story. Before we get to that, we celebrate.

I’m just celebrating that I have made it to the end of the year. This is the last podcast episode in 2019. I’m so excited that, one, I stopped being afraid and I got off my butt and created this podcast, and two, I’m celebrating that we are 24 episodes in. I was hoping that it would work out that it would be 25 episodes on December 25^th, but I think it’s actually 24. And I am just thrilled about that.

So, pause, take a moment, and celebrate yourself. I am sure that in this entire year, you have many things to celebrate. Take a moment, pause, and pick a few to think back on and celebrate, that you can say, “Yes, I did that. Yes, I accomplished that. Yes, I achieved that and I love it.”

Now, this is Christmas. This episode will air on Christmas day. And I know that all of you who are listening may not celebrate Christmas. I wanted to talk a little bit about it though because it is an amazing example of the power of story.

I get a little amused when I hear my sisters and my brothers of the Christian faith get all up on their high horse about Jesus being the reason for the season. And I get it. It is the reason for our season. It’s not the reason for everybody’s season.

And I can look at that objectively because if you look at the historical narrative of how Christmas came to be, the actual celebrating and gift-giving, all that predated Jesus’s birth. It was actually a pagan holiday that did connect to gift-giving and debauchery that the Emperor Constantine, in around 336AD officially converted the Pagan tradition into the Christian holiday of Christmas.

Because it’s believed to be that Jesus actually was born in the summer or fall, not December, and we continue to have these debates about, “Oh, don’t say happy holidays, say merry Christmas,” and all of this kind of stuff. Which is fine, that’s your thing, no judgment here. And I also am not judging the happy holiday people because I choose to not be sanctimonious about the season.

The birth of Jesus is the foundation of my faith and my hope, how I can increase and live more deeply in faith and hope is my focus. Who was braver, bolder, or better than Crist? No one in my world. And sharing the gifts that God has blessed me with, loving deeply, coaching expertly, inspiring when I can, connecting who I can or whom I can, this is my braver, bolder, better path.

What’s your story? Tell yourself a better story. We’re coming up on the end of the year. I’m going to talk more about that on the next episode, about why I’m not doing resolutions. And I wat you to just really think back over this past year and think about all the things that you’ve told yourself about yourself.

I the coaching world, we focus on story because what we say to ourselves, so often, can land on the negative side of the lane, and that’s what trips us up. The story of Christmas has provided hope for millions and millions of people over thousands of years and centuries, or however many centuries.

And what a wonderful way to provide hope for people. And this is not about you making up something. We work on your mindset form the perspective of what is really true about you. Because a lot of these negative things that we tell ourselves are not true.

For me, I believe that Jesus was born. Whether he was born in the summer, fall, or December matters not to me. I know that he came into this world. I know things about myself that, when I fall into that beat-myself-up mode, I remind myself of myself and I know that I can continue to grow and be better. And that’s where my focus needs to lie. That’s the story that I need to focus on, and that’s what I help my clients do.

I am so thrilled about the women I have worked with this year. I am telling you; they have done some beyond amazing things. And some of them came from a place of being pretty much hopeless, and they are ending the year – one in particular, I’m so thrilled for her because the things that can trip us up, for some of us, you might say, “Okay yes, I’m going to sell this house.” But for her, it was huge because it connected to family stories, family patterns that were keeping her stuck.

And now, she has sold that home, moved to a new place that’s he loves, a new town that she loves. And she’s in the coaching world too and her business is taking off gangbusters because, once we clear out the junk, once we let the shit go, we open up space for the new and better to come in. I know this to be true. I see it in every woman that I coach.

I had another woman client who bought a new home. She didn’t believe she could she kept the faith. Whenever she got down, she has the tools. You know, we worked on the tools to speak hope to yourself, speak faith to yourself, remind yourself of yourself and who you are and whose you are and what you can do. And she did that thing.

She’s moved into a new home for her and her children. So I see what women are doing through the power of telling themselves a better story. And that’s my jam, helping women do that. Oh my gosh, I love it, love it, love it.

So, if you are celebrating Christmas today, I hope the merriest of merry Christmases for you. And for all of you, I am so grateful, so eternally grateful for your showing up to listen to this podcast, for how you have reached out to tell me how powerful these episodes have been for you, the change that you’ve made, the little mini coaching sessions that you’ve experienced every week. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for showing up. Thank you for reaching out. And stay tuned. Next year is our Braver, Bolder, Better year. We are focusing on all things fear, false evidence appearing real fear, that we are going to destroy. We’re going to work ourselves through it and we are handling all the fears in the 2020 episodes; fears about money, fears about love, fears about relationships, fears about career.

Whatever your fears are, we are going to cover it. And do let me know what you want to hear on the show. I’ve had some of you reach out and I appreciate that. Let me hear from you.

I had a woman reach out to tell me about being stuck in dealing with adult children who she still allows to kind of control her life and she’s unable to focus on her own priorities. We will be talking about that. Reach out to me. You can contact me at [email protected]. You can send me emails. I love hearing from you, [email protected].

And also, continue to leave ratings, reviews, subscribe, share. Share this Midlife Woman Redefined podcast show with any woman you think would benefit. We are continuing to redefine. We are continuing to live our best life.

Before we leave, I am giving away the last prize for those of you who will rate and review – you’re entered into a drawing and the drawing allows you to either get a 90-minute coaching session with me, or a gift card to your favorite spa. Now, amazingly, women have chosen the coaching session. And it is worth way more than the $100 spa gift certificate, I promise you.

I’m excited about that, and so I will do the last drawing on the beginning of the new year. So stay tuned for that episode and in between time, go ahead and leave your ratings and your reviews and you need to send the email. The instructions are in the podcast show notes, so be sure that you leave your email address because that’s how I can identify you.

Because your rating and review names show up – they could be Jackson25 or whatever, it won’t give me a name. And so unless you send me an email, I won’t be able to contact you. So be sure to do that.

And again, happy, happy, merry, merry, celebrate all the wonderful things. If you are listening to this podcast, something wonderful has happened for you, to you, because of you. Celebrate that. And remember, for midlife mavens, living well is our only option.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Midlife Woman Redefined. If you’re ready to learn more and reclaim your time, head over to crenecoach.com.