Kelsey Merritt | Getting Clarity on Your Dreams

11/21/17 • 45 min

Kelsey Merritt | Getting Clarity on Your Dreams In this episode, Mitch Matthews interviews Kelsey Merritt. When they first met in 2016, Kelsey impressed Mitch with her list of 300+ things she wanted to do, see or experience in her lifetime. Since then, she’s gone to check many things off her list... including setting a World Record. They talk about the importance of clarifying your goals and dreams as well as dig into practical strategies for achieving them... even when time and budgets are tight. Listen To The Podcast: In 2016, Mitch and his Dream Team met Kelsey Merritt when they brought the BIG Dream Gathering to campus. She stood out because she brought her Bucket List of 300+ things she wanted to do, see or experience in her lifetime. Since that time, she’s stayed with it and checked a number of items off the list. In fact, Mitch and the crew brought the BDG back to Kent State and helped to make another of Kelsey’s goals (involving honey bees) a reality. Check it out it out below: In this episode, Mitch and Kelsey talk about how to get clear on your goals and dreams. Then they dig into practical strategies for making them happen! Comment below and let us know what you connected with from Kelsey’s story and strategies. We’d love to hear from you! Also... here’s a summary of the interview with a few more details too! Enjoy. Summary Kent State University student Kelsey Merritt met Mitch and the BIG Dream Gathering Team in 2016 and impressed them with her bucket list of about 300 items she wanted to do, see or experience in her lifetime. She’d already checked many items off the list, but she keeps adding items to it. However, this is not a list of mere achievements, it’s a list of experiences. Her focus is to be in the moment and enjoy the process. And she’s not afraid to dream big — one goal she recently went after was to break a world record. Time-Stamped Show Notes [03:12] Introduction and background of Kelsey Merritt. [06:57] The list. [09:39] Why the list is important. [13:35] Genuine curiosity. [17:34] Education outside of the classroom. [20:22] Failures. [26:20] Don’t be afraid of emotion. [28:03] World record attempt. [31:28] Why attempt to break a world record now? [33:45] Challenges in breaking the world record. [40:25] Wisdom of the week. Kelsey Merritt, Getting Clarity on Your Dreams The List Kelsey Merritt’s list journey started when she was a junior in high school and her English teacher assigned her class the task of creating a bucket list of 25 items, then completing and documenting two of them. Merritt completed her two items and stashed her list away in her room, only to find it the next year. “I pulled it out around the end of senior year when I was cleaning out my room, getting ready for college,” Merritt says. She decided to complete her list. “From there, it exploded into the beast that it is today,” she says. Although ever-evolving, at the time of this interview, the list has 348 items, 184 of which have been completed. It’s Important “It’s important because it’s helped me live my best life,” says Merritt. “I don’t want to go through the motions of life. I want to experience this world as much as possible.” People are concerned that she won’t finish her list before she dies, but that’s not the point. “I’m not preparing myself to die,” she says. “It’s taking what this world has to offer and just doing it.” People who assume it’s a death preparation are thinking about it backwards. Experience is what gets people talking, because when you start to talk about something you’re passionate about, you light up and your heart starts to sing, and it’s opened up doors for her at career fairs and networking events because of that excitement. “It’s made me who I am today,” Merritt says. “It’s pushed me out of my comfort zone. It’s taught me a lot about life, living,

Previous Episode

Wes Chapman | Overcoming Trauma & Finding Self-Worth

This week, Mitch talks with Wes Chapman, the Founder of A HUMAN PROJECT. Wes is also the recipient of Apple’s “App of the Year” award multiple times and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Plus, he holds patents on numerous medical devices. In the episode, they discuss how Wes was able to take the trauma of his childhood and turn it into something that would fuel his success. More importantly, they talk about how he’s learned to shut down the cycle of abuse and negativity to live a loving, fulfilling incredibly fruitful and peaceful life with his wife and their kiddos. Listen To The Podcast: As someone who attempted suicide 12 times before the age of 16, Wes Chapman knows all about trauma and overcoming it. Chapman believes that human beings are capable of overcoming any challenge if they understand their inherent self-worth and move forward in that understanding. He’s the founder of A Human Project, which gathers the greatest minds to find creative, scalable solutions to global issues in education, health, and society. Time-Stamped Show Notes [01:50] Introduction and background of Wes Chapman. [04:20] Snapshot of Chapman’s daily life. [06:30] Chapman’s favorite aspects of the back-to-school season. [09:01] Chapman’s childhood. [16:35] Shifting your thinking and self-worth. [26:00] Practical tips to reprogram the brain. [32:51] Self-worth. [37:27] Your brain is a highway. [43:43] Overcoming pre-conditioned feelings. [53:50] We’re chemical beings. HOW ABOUT YOU? Listen in and let us know what stood out to you from Wes’s story and the strategies he offers. Comment below and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you! Keep bringing your awesome. Mitch Now... here are some show notes from today’s episode too! Enjoy! Chapman’s Backstory Wes Chapman’s childhood was fraught with trauma. He endured alcohol abuse in the womb and at three months old was diagnosed with Failure to Thrive. At a year old his father abandoned the family, and when he was six years old, his mother left as well. “At a very young age, I was without the community that we’re supposed to start with, and the community that had taken me in and adopted me was abusive,” says Chapman. He and his younger siblings were abused physically, sexually, spiritually, and emotionally, and that abuse continued throughout his childhood. It was so bad that by the time he was 16 years old, he had attempted suicide 12 times resulting in documented hospitalizations. “That was my childhood. That was my reality,” says Chapman. However, awful as it was, he would never change it. “That experience and what I went through was key to what I am now doing,” he says. “I look at what happened to me and I look at what I’m now doing, and I look at the ability that I had to endure that, and now I’ve got this responsibility to share my story and how I actually overcame all of that.” Bringing Change to Others Chapman’s work with A Human Project focuses on youth and their families and giving them more opportunities to succeed. He has no typical day, and instead lives in two work spaces. When he’s on the road, he’s out in the communities having conversations with schools and community leaders, working with psychiatrists, and having face-to-face interaction with the youth he’s helping. When he’s at home, it’s more relaxed work on the business side and making sure that they’re rooted, strong, and building sustainable and scalable solutions. “I have to wear these two hats, the on-the-tour Wes and then the founder Wes,” he says. “It’s very hectic, whether I’m home or on tour.” It may be hectic, but it’s also exciting and rewarding for him. Working on a school-year calendar instead of a Gregorian calendar allows Chapman to see the kids he worked with the previous school year. “To see them completely picking up the pieces and changing their trajectory — some are miraculous changes and some are microscopic,

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Elizabeth Grace Saunders | Divine Time Management

This week, Mitch Matthews talks with internationally recognized expert in effective time management, Elizabeth Grace Saunders. She’s the author of two bestselling books. Plus, she writes on time management for Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post and Fast Company Magazine. In this interview, they talk about her newest book, “Divine Time Management.” They dig into subjects like maximizing your schedule and your time... as well as important concepts like true identity, relationships and asking the big questions in life. Listen To The Podcast: Elizabeth Grace Saunders is an internationally recognized expert in effective time management. She’s also the author of two bestselling books on the subject! Plus, Elizabeth is the go-to person for maximizing your day and becoming more efficient with your time for Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post and Fast Company Magazine. Time management is a passion for her. However... in the past few years she started to feel like the common strategies were falling short. She wanted to feel more peaceful, confident and accomplished... but the time honored concepts weren’t cutting it anymore. So she dug in to look deeper. What she found surprised her. But as she applied what she was learning... it started to change things for the better. Then Elizabeth started to share the concepts with her clients and in her writing and people let her know these new strategies were having a profound effect. As a result... she decided to write a new book. It’s called “Divine Time Management.” In this week’s episode, I talk with Elizabeth about the journey to write the book and the strategies that have made a big difference to her. We talk about maximizing your schedule and your time... but we also dig into concepts like true identity, relationships and asking the big questions in life. It’s a unique perspective that will get you thinking. Enjoy it and let me know what stood out to you. Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from YOU! ALSO - Here are the Time Stamped Show Notes from this Week’s Episode: [02:20] Introduction and background of Elizabeth Grace Saunders. [04:08] Becoming interested in time management. [07:40] Divine Time Management: The Joy of Trusting God's Loving Plans for You. [13:08] She’s still open to clients from all faith backgrounds. [18:23] Her approach and letting go of control. [25:08] Loving your true identity. [31:02] Uncovering your true identity. [36:10] Alignment with God. [40:09] Alignment in relation to planning and time management. [43:54] Hearing from God. [50:35] Cultivating quiet time with God anywhere. Elizabeth Grace Saunders, Divine Time Management From Stress to Balance Elizabeth Grace Saunders was a planner from a young age. As the oldest child, she always liked to know the plan for the day. However, her interest in time investment came out of a struggle with entrepreneurship. “I had started a business, and didn’t have any sort of work-life balance in order,” says Saunders. “I got to the point where I just felt stressed out all the time, and guilty whenever I wasn’t working.” She went on a personal journey of finding balance, and now uses that knowledge to help others. She began coaching in 2009, teaching strategies on planning, prioritizing, making to-do lists, and having realistic expectations. Divine Time Management In 2015, two things happened to change her course. The first was a feeling of inauthenticity. “I started to get bored of what I was doing,” says Saunders. Not feeling excited about her work anymore made her feel inauthentic and untransparent. “Then at the same time, I felt like God was telling me I needed to start giving Him more of the glory in my business.” She began a Christian group coaching program called Divine Time Management and began working on her proposal for her new ...