Ep 119. A Few of My Favorite Things

I’m Kym Showers and this is Reinvented After 40, episode 119, A Few of My Favorite Things.

Welcome to the Reinvented After 40 podcast. I am your host, Kym Showers, and I’m a certified life coach for women in the second half of life. Each week I’ll bring you direct advice and inspiring, practical wisdom to help you live your very best life and create a future you’re absolutely obsessed with. It’s going to be fun, let’s get started.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my beautiful friends out in the podcast world. This comes out the week before Christmas. I love Christmas so much. Christmas is one of my very, very, very favorite things. So I just thought I would just give you off the top of my head, I didn’t even write any notes but everything has to be turned in early this month so I’m doing five weeks’ worth of work in about two and a half weeks.

So a few of my favorite things, I love that song so much from Sound of Music. These are a few of my favorite things. And I love how Oprah’s always done, these are a few of my favorite things magazine episode too. So I’m going to give you a podcast episode, a few of my favorite things. 2023, you guys, is definitely my favorite year. I have loved this year so much. So that’s on the top of my list of favorite things. And of course, you know, it’s a story I tell about 2023 that makes it one of my most favorite things.

So my mindset is one of my favorite things. The way that I decide and choose to look at every single thing in my life, the boundaries I have in my life, definitely one of my favorite things because it gives me this extraordinary life experience at the age of 62. I do not talk about my troubles. I do not even think I have troubles anymore. I don’t think about my life in any way but in a way that serves me. And that is what I want to pass on to you. This year has been phenomenal, has been incredible, has been magnificent, has been extraordinary.

Definitely my favorite year and it has stretched me and grown me and shown me what I’m capable of. You guys, we’re capable of so much more, if our brain’s just left to its own devices, which is a scary thought. Our brain will never show us what we’re capable of.

But if we override our brain, if you choose to think about yourself in a different light, if you choose to think new thoughts, if you decide to let go of old thoughts that aren’t useful for you moving forward.

If you drop all your old stories that you’ve been dragging with you in the second half of life, I’m talking to all you women who are over 40. I want you to know you can totally retrain your brain and that will be your most favorite thing that you ever do because it will give you the life experience that you’re only dreaming of right now. And I have that experience. So I have gone first. I am an example of that for you. And I want you to know that I can help you do that.

So on the list of favorite things is this new group in January. It’s small, it’s intimate, it’s powerful. It’s already filled with women just like you who know you’re made for more, you want more in 2024. You’ve already decided 2024 is the year that you’re going to go get it. I want you to get in that group. This group, my coaching group, you’re going to say is your favorite thing of 2024, I 100% guarantee it if you say yes to you. Your brain will try and talk you out of it because your brain is a naysayer. Your brain is scared of everything.

Your brain doesn’t want you to grow and change and evolve. Your brain wants you to stay in the stagnant pond. But I want you to come and jump into this rushing river in 2024 because this is what I did last year. At this time of year last year in 2022, I decided what 2023 was going to look like and I made huge goals for myself. And, you guys, I achieved them all. I pushed myself and I started right off the bat. I hit the ground running, January 1st. I had already decided and I just started lining things up and making really terrifying decisions.

I just put myself out in no man’s land and decided I was going to go all in on me and make sure that I got every single thing that I wanted out of 2023. And I got every single thing I wanted and even more. It is by far my favorite year. I want you a year from now to say the same thing about 2024. And I am the one, I’m the best life coach on the planet, 100%.

I am actually in the process of looking for a new life coach because I just feel like I’ve outgrown my coaches. I’m looking for someone that has my energy, someone who has my experience and who can push me and take me further and to a place I’ve never been. And so I want you to know I’m the one for you. You will grow in ways that your brain will not even give you the thoughts of right now. So what’s possible for you is beyond your imagination right now.

So that’s what I proved to myself this last year as 2023 being my favorite year. And then because of what I created in 2023 and how I’ve expanded my capacity to do hard things and to believe in myself and to trust myself and to love myself. You know what else is my favorite thing of 2023? My beautiful baby grandson, Chip Jeffrey Milian, was born November 6th of 2023. So for sure my favorite thing of 2023 alongside his big sisters, Goldie Valentine and Dolly Clementine, oh my goodness, you guys.

And they don’t call me grandma. They call me Pippy because I got to pick my name and Pippy’s the cutest name. And so I’m Pippy and Jeff is Pappy. And Goldie and Dolly and Chip one day will call me Pippy. So I’m so happy and so proud of my daughter and Clancy and my son-in-law, Kyron. And just their little unit of five, they have three beautiful, perfect, darling children and I get to be their Pippy. And it is the joy of my life. So yes, that was just the cherry on the top that we had this healthy, perfect baby boy born into our family.

And I love my family so much. I’m so proud of my kids. I’m so proud of my son, Riley and his girlfriend Kate and her son Milo. Their little unit of three, I love them so much. They just add so much joy to my life.

And of course, my husband, Jeff. We will be celebrating our 40th anniversary this year. August 4th will be 40 years of marriage, 44 years of being together. Can you imagine? We have created such a beautiful life together and we have reinvented our marriage over and over and over, mainly because of me, of course, but he for sure tops the list of my favorite things. I’m so grateful for him, his hard work, just the way that he is, his quirks and all. He’s just such a steadfast man, trustworthy man. He’s just darling, lovely, kind.

The kindest man, smartest man I know. He has been my perfect match, my perfect partner. And we just have been really good for each other. So I am just ever grateful for my husband. I love the way we are with each other. I love the freedom I have. I’ve made so many decisions on my own and he continues to support me and that’s all I need from him actually. I don’t run things by him, ever. I just make my decisions and move on. And he just supports all of it. And I just support him too. And then we’re just a good time too. So super grateful for him. Totally enjoy him.

And you know what? I love my business. If you girls, any of you women out there, if you have a dream, let’s just call it a dream for you of starting a business. It could be a brick and mortar. It could be just something on the internet like I do. You could be selling an actual product. You could become a life coach like I am, whatever is in you, in your soul, in your spirit. You’re just like, “I think I would be really good at that or I’d like to get better at that or this is what I’ve always dreamt of. Maybe I just go and do it for a couple years, give it a good go and see what happens.”

I, 100%, my friend, tell you to do it, 100%. We have to have something in the second half of life, other than our family. We have to get out of our family’s business and stop making them our life. We can’t do that anymore. That’s not good for them and it’s not good for us. We have to have something of our own because we have so much life ahead of us. And I love thinking like that.

So my business is my favorite thing. It is a few of my favorite things because, oh my gosh, I told Jeff last night, I can’t even imagine where I’d be if I didn’t start this business, who I would be. I was a different woman six years ago at 57 than I am now because of what it has required of me to build this business, has been the best thing I could have ever chosen to do. You guys, it’s so fun creating my own money.

Listen, I don’t have to create my own money, but I want to create my own money and what that has given me is the feeling of so much independence that I needed, I have so much power in my own life, so much confidence. And the story about myself and the story about money has changed over and over and over again to my benefit. It has been 100%, all of it to my benefit and I just kept going even when I felt like quitting. So if you ever feel like quitting, I’m telling you, don’t quit. Your brain will try and tell you to quit. Do not quit. Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Set your goal and when you feel like you want to quit, I’m telling you you’re on the edge of a great growth spurt. Let’s just call it that, a growth spurt. So you’re just on the edge of next level. Maybe you’ve been trying to be, let’s just say a realtor taking your real estate exam and you didn’t pass the first time, so what? Who cares? take it as many times as you have to, to pass it and then get going on it. Who cares how long it takes you? And that’s what I’m telling you. No matter what your business is, who cares how long it takes you? That’s so irrelevant to me and how hard it is, is irrelevant to me.

We can do hard things, let’s just keep at it. So that’s why you need a life coach because I can coach you through all of the nonsense that your brain tries to offer you so that you quit on yourself. I will never let you quit on yourself because I never quit on myself, ever, ever, ever, ever. So my business is definitely one of my favorite things, and that just equals to how much I love my clients. They are my favorite things.

I get the best women on the planet. I get women who are serious about their growth, they are committed to it. They show up every week. They show up on camera, they participate. They have aha moments every week. They definitely come to get what is best for them. So I show up but my clients show up even more for themselves, which is the key. This is the key, you have to show up for yourself. And if I am good at anything, I show up for myself.

So that leads me to another favorite thing which is my planner that my clients all get. It’s called Plan Tomorrow, Today. And I started this discipline, planning tomorrow, today six years ago when I started this business. Actually it might have been seven years ago when I went to school at The Life Coach School to get my certification to become a life coach. It was just a lot of educating me and so I had to learn a lot of new things which is very challenging for my brain and I had a very big full life.

And I had a lot of people in my life, that was back when I was really people pleasing and very much in a lot of codependent relationships. So I had a lot on me every single day that I was committed to, a lot of people. And so I started planning tomorrow, today, back when I was in school to get my certification to become a life coach to actually build this business. Which actually took me out of people pleasing and took me out of codependent relationships. So there are so many good things that come out of hard things, challenging things.

But when you get in the discipline of getting up super early every morning and going to bed every night super early like it’s your job because you’re creating something new. And you decide today what you’re going to do tomorrow, you plan it all. And then you get up tomorrow and your whole day’s plan and you stick to that plan like I do, you really start creating your dream life. That’s the secret, 100%, that’s the secret.

And let me tell you another little secret. If you join my January group right now, when you’re listening to this, you will get invited to my December workshop, which is all on the planner. And I will send you the planner right away. It’s all on habits and planning tomorrow, today. So we’re just off and running for the new year and that’s the week right before Christmas. So, wait, you may have missed it, I think you did miss it. Yeah, sorry. I’m recording this too early.

So you’ve already missed that December workshop, but it doesn’t even matter, because if you sign up today for my January group, you will get a free pass access to my client portal, which has the replay of the December workshop, which is going to be so useful for you. And I will send you your workbook and your planner, your Plan Tomorrow, Today planner in the mail as soon as you sign up.

So it’s just all so useful and so helpful but planning tomorrow, today changed my life and has given me this business that is insanely successful and has become such a joy and love of my life. And has literally changed my whole self-concept. The story that I tell about myself has literally changed the way that I show up to my life every day with so much power, so much integrity, so much focus. So I just love that the discipline of planning tomorrow, today, definitely a favorite thing of mine.

And obviously another favorite thing of mine is this podcast Reinvented After 40, which I am obsessed with. Thank you to all of you for making it so successful and for sharing it with your family and friends and anyone that you know who needs encouragement and motivation and inspiration. It so inspires me every week, it’s become so important to me, and such a part of my journey, such a part of my self-concept, and I love it so much. It’s such a part of my business.

So this is definitely a favorite thing of mine, which also partnered with that is my podcast team. You guys are incredible. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for loving me and supporting me and being so consistent and so good at your job. Oh, my gosh, you just make me look so good week after week after week, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you all so much.

And of course, another one of my favorite things is the fact that I know how to manage my mind. I know how to manage my emotions. I do not make problems for myself. I do not create drama in my life. I know how to think on purpose. I know how to drop thoughts that aren’t useful. I know how to separate out facts from un-useful stories. I can just look at the facts of it and decide what I want to think about it.

Learn the amazing magical skill of staying in my own lane and putting my blinders on and not reading the news, not watching the news, not talking about other people, not creating drama for myself, that is really none of my business. It’s been so incredible for me.

I’m on a need to know basis as far as what’s going on in the world because I know because I am 62 years old and I used to get caught up in the drama of the world and the news of the world. I just don’t buy into it anymore, because there’s just nothing new under the sun. There’s nothing new under the sun.

The world keeps spinning, everything keeps going on. I could die tomorrow and everything would just keep going on. So why would I spend any of my precious time creating any kind of drama for myself? I just do not anymore. I just think about things I want to think about and I talk about things I want to talk about. So I love that about myself. That is for sure a favorite thing of mine. It has given me the exact life experience I want. That gives me the ability to create the energy I want to create every single day to show up exactly the way I want to show up to everything.

We went to a really fun Christmas party at my sister’s last night and I had so many really fun conversations. They have great friends and Jeff and I have gotten to know them over the years, of course. They’re just delightful and everybody’s doing really cool things and they’re just a very positive, optimistic group of adults and I love them so much. So I always have very interesting conversations. I find myself a little bit of an outlier wherever I am. I love that too about myself because I am no longer in a group think, I think exactly the way I want to think.

And if someone asks me what I’m thinking about certain things, I’ll tell them. I don’t have any drama around that. I’m not there for anyone to like me or to be impressed by me because that’s my job. So this is what I’m telling you. I’ve let go of any need for people to be impressed by me or to like me or I’m not thinking about that anymore. I’m just very confident in the way that I show up, because that’s what I have control of. And that’s a favorite thing. I know how to manage my mind. I know how to manage my emotions and that is what I have control of.

So I don’t worry about the things I can’t control, which is other people’s opinions. I’m not even thinking about that anymore. I’m thinking about what I can control. And what I can control is me and me showing up in all of my greatness and all of my power and all of my beauty. That is a favorite thing of mine and I do that every single day on purpose. And I want you to know you can too when you learn how to manage your mind. So I am very optimistic and I don’t see a downside to that whatsoever.

So even if someone has an opinion about that, well, you can’t be optimistic all of the time. I’m like, “Well, what if you can, wouldn’t you choose that?” Why not make that your life’s work? What if you can be optimistic all of the time? I’m not saying I’m optimistic all of the time but what if I could be? What’s the downside in trying to be? So I just try, I try to be. I conjure up all the energy that I want to live in every single day. And I show up as my best self because that’s what I want to do. So I’m not going to waste a day not being my best self, who would ever choose that?

So I love my optimism. That is a favorite thing of mine. I choose that every day and I think it’s possible for everybody that decides. So those are a few of my favorite things. I love my life so much. My life is my favorite. Every day is my favorite. And I choose that. It’s a decision I make. And at 62 years old, almost 63 years old, having the best year of my life, I want you to know I am an example of what’s possible for you, my friend, if you’re a woman in the second half of life.

And honestly, I don’t even care about your circumstances. They might be really, really difficult circumstances, and I promise you I can help you rise above all of it and think differently about all of it. And you can learn how to manage your mind and manage your emotions, change the way that you show up to your life every single day. I can help you do that.

One other thing I want to tell you is a favorite thing of mine is my body now. So I went into this year deciding thin, T-H-I-N is no longer a goal for me. I’ve always been thin so thin isn’t a goal and I don’t want it to be a goal for you either. What I decided is a goal for me for the rest of my life is to be strong. So I want to be strong. I don’t care about being thin and I don’t have a scale. I never know how much I weigh. And I don’t want you to care about how much you weigh or being thin.

If you’re a woman in the second half of life, I want you to know you can be strong. I want your body to be strong and healthy. That’s our goal. No longer thin. It doesn’t matter how much you weigh. It doesn’t matter what size you wear. None of that even matters. I want you to love your body and I want you to start lifting weights. I want you to start taking really good care of it. If you need to get on hormones, I want you to get on hormones. I want you to treat your body with so much goodness and kindness and focus and intention.

I want you to fill it up with nutrition that your body loves and adores, anti-inflammatory foods and it’s all deliciousness, but it’s all intentional and it’s all focused stuff. I love that I work out and train at Orangetheory every single day. I am so strong and my body is thicker, so T-H-I-C-K-E-R, thicker. And I notice that when I look in the mirror, it’s thicker than it’s ever been and I love that. That is a favorite thing of mine because I feel my own strength every day. I feel so strong when I’m climbing the mountain.

I feel so strong when I am doing squats or when I’m even walking upstairs or when I’m picking up my baby girls. I feel so strong when I’m moving furniture, when I’m lifting cases of water in Trader Joe’s, I feel so strong. So that’s what I want you to do too for 2024, make that a goal no longer to be thin. I want it to be a favorite thing of yours to be thick, to be strong, to be healthy, to look in the mirror and love what you’re seeing, to be able to lift things and not worry about your back anymore or your neck anymore, any of that.

I want you to focus on doing what it takes for you to be strong because you’re worth it and it’s possible for you in the second half of life. It’s so much fun. It will become one of your favorite things. So for sure, I love that about myself and the body I’ve created for myself this year and that was one of my big goals for 2023. 2024 I’m just going to get thicker and stronger in 2024 and I want you to come with me and do that for yourself as well.

So let me tell you just before I finish this up, January group because now is the time to join, do not wait, my friend, join right now. Make this your Christmas present to you, Merry Christmas to you. It will be the best decision you ever make. I guarantee you’re going to love, love, love it. It’s so much more fun than you’re thinking right now. It’s so worth it. You will get so much more than what you even think you’re going to get and that’s what I want to tell you for sure. Anything you want to change in your life, I’m going to be the coach for you to help you go and get it.

I am so good at what I do. I will not let you get away with any nonsense. So in 2024, if you’re ready, I want you to join my January group. It will be starting January 9th, it’s Tuesdays at nine o’clock for one hour on Zoom. So we’re going to meet for one hour every Tuesday morning at 9:00am California time, starting on January 9th.

Now, if I have a group over 10 women and if you’re new, you haven’t been coached by me before, you get a one-on-one session every month with me. So that is super helpful too. And if you ever have to miss the nine o’clock session on Tuesday, that is not one bit a problem because you get the replay. And also you get access to my client portal which is filled with good videos, helpful tools and it’s just a 24 hour day resource for you and it’s filled with all of the workshop replays as well.

So once a month I give all my clients, you guys all come on Zoom screen together and you get a bonus workshop. I teach you a tool. This month in December this month’s tool is Plan Tomorrow, Today. So all my clients are going to show up with their planner, their Plan Tomorrow, Today planner that they’ve already received from me. And I’m going to teach them how to use that for 2024. And I’m also going to give them ideas on creating habits. So that will be in the client portal, which you’ll have access to right away when you sign up today.

And then also you get invited to my May 2024 retreat. It will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday May 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2024 in Avila Beach, California. We will meet, all my clients will meet in person and I am going to blow your mind with so much goodness. You will be elevated for the rest of your life at this retreat, you will never forget it, I, 100% guarantee it. I over-deliver to all of my clients. It is very bougie. It is very fun. It’s very dynamic. I mean, you’re going to feel so loved, so supported and so connected. I get all the best women on the planet in my groups, so just know that. I want you to join my January group. It will be the best decision you make for yourself. It’s the best way to get 2024 launched for you and we’ll get to work right away. Alright, a few of my favorite things and I didn’t even tell you, of course, my retreats definitely top the list of my favorite things. The retreats are magical, magical, magical, magical, and life changing.

Alright, my friends, I think I already told you, but you’re one of my favorite things too. I love that you show up every week. I love that I show up every week and that we’re just really changing our lives in the second half of life. We’re kind of showing the world how it’s done and I will always go first. I will always be the champion for you. I will always be practicing what I’m preaching 100%. I’m always doing scary things. I’m always challenging myself.

And I want you to know whatever your dream is, you’re worthy of it and you can create it this year for yourself, and then you’re going to be on to bigger dreams. And just like Taylor Swift, who is one of my favorite things of this year, she has proven, oh, my gosh, life just is as amazing as we want to make it, 100% and it is magical. And it’s just all about how we think about it, how we show up for ourselves, the things that we decide to focus on and get to work on. That’s all it is.

So it all comes from this place of unconditional love for ourselves and for each other, for the world and for this beautiful magical life that we’ve been given. Alright, I love you so, so, so much. Have the merriest Christmas, have the happiest New Year.

I do have a podcast episode coming out next week, but it is one of the best of’s that my podcast team is choosing for me and my lovely Devon, I think is talking about it. I don’t even know which one she’s choosing, but I trust her and I know I’m going to enjoy relistening to it and I know you will too. You’re going to hear different things than you’ve ever heard before, because that’s how it is. Okay, have the merriest Christmas and I will talk to you in 2024.

If you love this podcast, I invite you to come work with me. Go to kymshowerslifecoach.com, sign up for my next group and retreat, and let’s create your dream life together.