Encore Episode: Revisiting A Year Of Joy With Liz, Carroll

This episode is a wonderful conversation with Liz Carroll who shares her experience with JOY. 
Liz Carroll is a life-long student and teacher of making mindful money moves. Originally believing she was "bad with money," Liz did the hardwork to rewrite her money story. She needed to drop limiting beliefs about how a woman can earn and manage money to set her up for financial success in a way she would commit to and follow. It worked. Liz attained financial independence and retired early from her corporate IT sales career.Now, in her encore career, Liz helps other women experience calm confidence with their finances by unpacking and shifting their own money story. She has the unique ability to shed light onto darkness around money,making complex personal finance issues simple. She created the Mindful Money Method, a financial wellness course and coaching program that utilizes a holistic approach to math, mindset and soul-guided desires. Liz is a Certified Financial Coach from Ramsey Solutions, a Certified Life Coach from The Life Coach School and a 200-RYT Yoga & Meditation Instructor from Purna Yoga College. She and her husband live on the Oregon Coast.Their adult children visit regularly.

Liz shares how she intentionally planned a "Year of Joy" trip for her 50th birthday.  Yes, she preplanned her budget and started saving. Everything she did in her "Year of Joy" were experiences except for one item she purchased.  We discuss the importance of how experiences can continue to bring JOY for a lifetime compared to material items. Plus we discuss that one doesn't need a lot of, or any money to create JOY. There are many "free" things that can be done that bring JOY. 

We also talk about what Liz does, and how she helps other women create a more abundant and financially sound life.

Tune in and be ready for some great take-aways from Liz.

How to connect with Liz:

liz@mindfulmoneycoaches.com
website: www.mindfulmoneymethod.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmoneycoaches/

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

Transcript

00:09
Hello and welcome to Navigating Joy Together. My name is Lauren and I'm here with my family. Mark. Addison. Hunter and our dog Onyx. Each episode you will hear about our experiences with Navigating Joy Together in our family as well as tips you can bring back to your family. Thanks for spending time with us. Now let's get to it!

00:44
and welcome back to Navigating Joy Together. I am so excited to share with you our guest, but before I do that, I just want to remind you about Drive-A-Log. Drive-A-Log is a phenomenal car game that you can use in your car when you are driving and chauffeuring your kids all over the place. There are three different age levels. They have amazing questions. Some are fun and some are serious questions, but it provides the opportunity for communication between you and your child.

01:14
It was created by Adam Brooks and it is a wonderful tool to have. We use it in our car, great questions, sometimes the kids ask the parents questions and it just creates some really fun communication. Plus you're asking your children some questions that you might not think to ask or that you want to ask but you're not sure how to bring it up. So I really highly suggest you grab it. You can get 20% discount if you go to the link in the show notes and put in the code

01:43
NJT for navigating joy together. Go get it. It's super fun and look forward to hearing what you think about it. Now on to our guest. This week's episode is a conversation with a wonderful guest. Her name is Liz Carroll. She is a lifelong student and teacher of many mindful money moves. Originally believing she was bad with money, Liz did the hard work to rewrite her money story.

02:13
She needed to drop limiting beliefs about how a woman can earn and manage money to set her up for financial success in a way she would commit to and follow. It worked! Liz attained financial independence and retired early from her corporate IT sales career. Now in her encore career, Liz helps other women experience calm confidence with their finances by unpacking and shifting their own money story. She has the unique ability to shed light onto darkness around money.

02:41
making complex personal finance issues simple. She created the Mindful Money Method, a financial wellness course and coaching program that utilizes a holistic approach to math, mindset and soul guided desires. Liz is a certified financial coach from Ramsey Solutions, a certified life coach from the Life Coach School and a 200 RYT yoga and meditation instructor from Puma Yoga College.

03:10
She and her husband live on the Oregon coast. Their adult children visit regularly. This conversation is really fun. I love the topic that we talk about. Liz specifically mentions and talks about her 50th year Joy Project. And it is fabulous. So I'm excited for you to hear about it and learn about it and why she did it and how she did it. And hopefully.

03:38
it might inspire you to do something similar. I really hope you enjoy this episode. So sit back, relax, and here we go. Well, hi Liz. Thank you for joining me today on Navigating Joy Together. I'm really excited to have you on today. Thank you for having me, Lauren. I'm excited to be here. I mean, who wants, everyone wants to talk about joy. I know, I think so. I think the best thing that's happened with all the people that have reached out to me is there's so much joy in people's lives and we don't realize it.

04:08
And there's so much joy in our lives and we don't realize it. So the more that I can share, my guests can share how joy has impacted their lives, the better because we all would want to live in joy, right? And just feel more joy than the opposite. Yeah. And what do you think the opposite of joy is? I'm just curious. That's a really good question. I think it's something really deep, but I don't know. Because I think of happiness, the opposite would be sadness, or it could be anger or frustration.

04:37
I feel like joy is such an internal deep emotion. I don't know, is it despair? That's a, despair is what just came up for me. Despair was that, that's what I was like, let's try them both on. Like which one do you want to sit in? Right. What's the opposite emotion? Do you want to sit in despair? I don't think anybody does, but I think we naturally gravitate toward those negative emotions and keep ourselves in there way too long, so.

05:04
Well, of course that primitive brain keeps showing up for us. That's what I do as a life coach is I help people see their brain. So where are they? Where's that emotion? Help them uncover and name that emotion that they're feeling. I love that. Nobody's ever asked me that question. So thank you. This is going to be a really great conversation. You'll probably have awesome questions to ask me. Feel free. So we will start with you. Don't mean to put you on the spot. It's okay. You can put me on the spot. Okay. So.

05:33
Why don't you just share with us what you do? Yeah, well, thank you again for having me. I'm thrilled to be here. And I love talking about joy, all the emotions actually, but this one's on the positive side. I am a financial life coach. So I am a financial coach and I am a life coach and I am a yoga meditation teacher over the top of it. So it's the trifecta, right? It's being able to talk about math mindset.

06:02
and the soul, like those soul-driven desires, those secrets that we want to have in our lives that we're still trying to figure out how to afford and do. That sounds incredible. And everything you just said goes with what initially attracted me to want to chat with you, and we're gonna kind of jump right into it. But when I put something out there about looking for people who have some sort of experience with joy, you came back and said, you...

06:32
created a year of joy celebration for yourself. And I've never heard anything like that before. And so please share what that is or what that was and why you did that. Well, it starts out as a sad story. So I want you to know, we're going to go a little there, right? It starts out as the story that...

06:59
I lost my mom when I was 27. She was 46. My mom passed at 46. And I don't know what was, why this came up for me, but there was part of me that was like, oh my goodness, I only have a few, you know, so many more years until I'm going to, I don't know why that kind of comes up is that you think, oh, my father or my mother died at 46, then I'm going to die at 46. And I had to work through some of those emotions.

07:28
And 46 came and went. I had to go, you know, kind of a sad year in some ways because I was like anticipating that shoe to drop or something, some diagnosis or some illness or something. And I'm very healthy, so. But what happened for me though, is I then decided to make the shift. I decided to make the shift that every year, I was gonna have more joy because my mom, and do it not only for me, but for my mom too.

07:58
And then I was like, what's the milestone, the next milestone that's coming up that mom didn't get to experience? And I know that leans a little on the sad side and I don't want it to stay there because it was, it gave me a touch point and a mile marker the 50th birthday. The 50th birthday can be very powerful for women and it's a shift. For me, it was also,

08:27
I was empty nester by then with, so there was a different, it meant something different for me also is that it was like the second half. And I was no longer responsible for my children on a day to day, of course, a very great connection with my adult children. But there was, and my husband and I had set ourselves up financially, there were things that were going on in our lives. And I decided on that 46 year that I was going to save up.

08:56
and to cultivate a full year of joyful experiences for myself and for my mom. So that everything I did actually was bringing her along with me too in spirit. That is so incredible. You said a couple of things and I wanna ask about, but when you said it starts with a sad story, I appreciate you sharing that because I really do believe that joy

09:24
comes from some sort of situation that we experience and it might not be a very happy experience. And it's really us starting to be mindful about how we're feeling with our emotions and how we're gonna make changes. And you really talked about really shifting things that you were gonna do. You wanted to live more joyfully every single year. Before you went on this 50 year celebration of joy or joy celebration.

09:50
You said you started to make shifts. Did you do anything leading up to that besides just planning for that? Like, did you just do anything day to day to help yourself or to help yourself live more joyfully during the day? I did. I started looking at each day as more a gift, more of a gift. It wasn't so much in default like a day to get through. It was a day to enjoy, a day to experience. And I'm not saying I was good at it at all the time. I just wanted everybody to know I have a human brain. But I...

10:20
I did intentionally look at some ways that I could show up a little bigger. I could show up in ways like I got to choose. And so I think what happened for me is that shift of stepping into my own power. Like I get the power to choose the thought that's creating the emotion for me. And joy is an emotion. And so what does it take to...

10:49
create joy. And then I was like, how can I do this as a project? You know, so it was a full year. And then I was like, well, what would I want that project to look like? And I decided I had four years, I decided I was gonna scroll away some little extra on in addition from my commissions, I was in corporate sales, IT sales at that time.

11:15
And I decided, all right, I'm going to just squirrel a little away. I'm going to create a little count and I'm going to save up in the next four years. I'm going to save up $20,000. Now I'm a financial coach, so I want you to know that I talk about money. I talk about money very openly. And a lot of people sometimes repel that like, Oh, we're not supposed to talk about money. It's rude. I'm, I'm not attaching joy to money.

11:44
I want to make sure that everyone hears that. What I am attaching to it is I decided to have experiences that cultivated joy for me. Some of those experiences cost money. So I decided let's just be truthful. I mean, you know, those things cost money. And I decided to be really intentional and save up $20,000. Then how much fun, how much joy can I create?

12:14
with $20,000 while still being a full-time employee also. I want you to know I didn't, I wasn't like I peaced out for the year, but I did have some flexibility and freedom. I love how you mentioned experiences and we're gonna come back to that, but would you mind sharing what you did, what that year was like for you?

12:34
Yeah, I decided because I had already been setting myself up with my husband and I had been for years, I knew that during that four-year period I was going to hit financial independence where I know could make work optional for the rest of my life. And I decided what do I want to do for my next? Like what would be really fun and joyful to experience that could set me up for post work? Like post career?

13:04
What would that look like? So the first thing I signed up for, and in making my list, and I'm kind of a planner that way, so just know that I did make a list and it was all very intentional. But the first thing I did is I got my yoga teacher certification. It was a nine month long process, and I signed up for, I think, kind of one of the Cadillacs of the courses out there. And I went to the Perna College of Yoga.

13:33
and I absolutely loved it. And I got to know myself a little bit better. I had always been a practitioner of yoga. I had no intentions of teaching yoga. I just wanted to go deeper in my own practice. But guess what? Now I teach yoga at the local rec center. Yeah, think of it as my service work. And I love teaching senior citizens yoga now. So that was one. So that was the first one is that I got my yoga teacher.

14:02
certification. The other thing I did, which was super fun and joyful, is that I went on a 50th birthday cruise with 10 of my high school girlfriends. We were all turning 50 that year. I mean, who stays in touch with 10 friends from high school anyway, right? I know 30 years later, that's incredible. So that was another thing I did. And then

14:29
Of all the ways I, my husband and I went to Italy, which is kind of like adult Disneyland is the way I think for couples, you know. We did a two week tour of Italy. We used miles, so I want you to know that that was played into a little about the, being able to do it within budget. The only physical thing that I bought myself was I did buy myself a designer handbag when I was on that 50th birthday cruise with girlfriends. And it was just a really fun experience to.

14:58
all be together when I did that. The other thing that I did is I hosted a dinner for over a dozen of my sorority sisters. It was out on a lovely patio on just like a beautiful evening. It was actually my birthday night and it was just such a fun gathering. It wasn't terribly expensive. I think a lot of people would maybe be hesitant to set that up and it was great. It was really...

15:28
a real fun experience. And I got my financial coach certification. So that was the other thing. The last thing I did, so I'm telling you everything, and I went a little over budget, just a little over budget. But the last thing I did is I went on a 30 mile track on the Oregon coast and it was a walk. So it was for a nature conservancy. But I, yeah, I did that.

15:58
is most of it were experiences and you said that earlier. It's okay to treat ourselves to some materialistic things. There's nothing wrong with that. But I do believe that the experiences are what continue to bring us joy years and years later. Like when you're sharing that information and everything you did, you have this huge smile on your face. So the listeners can't see it, but I can tell it's still, I don't know how many years ago it was. I'm not going to ask, but I can just tell how much joy it still brings you.

16:27
And that's the importance of experiences. I don't know if you've ever heard of a hedonic adaptation. It's when we get used to something. So for instance, you know, maybe there's a kind of car that we're dying to have for years and years and years. We finally buy it. We're psyched. We're joyful. We're happy. Well, then we kind of get used to it several months later. And so even though it's awesome to have the car we've always wanted, the dream car, we're just used to it. We don't feel that joy. Whereas when we look back in experiences.

16:57
When we look back at experiences, whether it's playing the movie in our mind or looking at pictures or just thinking about it, that still can bring us some really deep internal joy within our soul. And I know everybody, if anybody just right now thinks of some sort of awesome experience they've had in the past, you will just feel your whole body just light up with joy. It's just incredible. So those are, that's something we would never get used to.

17:23
Right. Versus that dream car that, oh, we see it every day. We're in it every day. It's awesome. But it's doesn't bring me as much joy anymore as it once did. Plus the experiences is what really brings joy. So I just think that's an interesting concept. Well, I think the other part is that you decide, right? I decided this was all going to be joyful. Yeah, I decided that you know what? I'm cultivating joy. I'm labeled the account in the bank and I was putting money aside and

17:51
The other thing is, as a mother, you know, there's, it's not very often, I think that most women would say, I'm saving money to spend on myself. Everyone has their own choices as to how they would want to do that. I decided not to feel selfish about it. I decided that it's going to be joy and it's something that's going to feel empowering, something that's going to feel that lingers and that you can tell it does. Yeah, definitely.

18:22
I think it always will. Do you think the experiences you provided for friends, your sorority sisters, your high school friends created a lot of joy for them? And I'm asking that because, well, I'm sure it did. And what I'm really trying to get to is then what kind of joy did it create for you? Because I know when I do something that creates joy for someone else, that's even more powerful for me and how I feel, you know, how much joy is filled up within me.

18:51
And so I'm just curious what that feeling was like for you when you, you know, and hosted a dinner, you know, for your friends. And I mean, what was that feeling like for you internally doing these, you know, amazing things with your friends? I first want to clarify that I did not pay for 10 friends on my budget of the cruise. So we everybody paid their own way. I did. I did host the dinner out on the.

19:19
the riverside. It's so beautiful. But you created the trip though, right? So. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the that's true. It's like, there, well, we're, we're kind of on a regular rotation on that kind of stuff. But I will tell you, the the feeling that I had watching other people enjoy themselves. I mean, being able to be in an environment where you get dressed up and you get to have fun and you're

19:46
You're not worrying about anything. You're just having a great time together. I felt radiant. I felt and I want you to know that this is the other word that I'm going to use. That some people are going to go, oh, I don't know that she should say that. I felt rich and radiant and I don't want that to sound like it's egotistical. Does that make sense? Because it was more rich in experience.

20:13
rich in being able to do it, rich in making the decision that I'm going to be okay. I'm going to have my own back and it's okay for me to spend some money on myself. Does that? Absolutely. Yeah, because rich has many different meanings. I think we all go towards that one meaning of rich. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And it's like, it's savoring. It's like enjoying it to the fullest. Like that's where I've had that feeling of being feeling rich, like flavors, you know.

20:43
Yeah, I can totally see that. What a great use of that term. I love that. Okay. So taking yourself out of your year, joy, celebration, and thinking about just your daily life and besides the yoga you teach to senior seniors, which is amazing.

21:01
What else do you do to support others in their lives in creating joy for themselves? I coach, right? I coach women to have a rich and radiant life. I mean, that's the the mindful money method does that where we're how we think about ourselves and our ability to earn and spend and save money. So that's really where I show up and thrive within helping other women create heartfelt joy, like really heartfelt joy.

21:31
that how they talk to themselves. So that's one of the things that is so interesting about being a financial coach is that so many of us don't even hear the words that we have going on in the back of our brain about our ability to earn and spend safe money. Being able to help others uncover and make those edits and shifts on the way they talk to themselves. That's where I now spend my focus.

22:00
And a little of that trickles out to my senior citizens with the yoga as well. Just making sure that I say, I prompt them all the time. They probably don't even catch on to it. It's like, I'll say things like, oh, this is so good or oh, that feels so good, you know. And they... I love it. I'm leading them.

22:25
Oh, that's so great. Just the support that you're giving other women because I think we definitely don't talk to ourselves very nicely, especially when it comes to finances for sure. You know, there's a lot of negativity around that. I'm sure see that. At least I see that when I'm helping women uncover what are they saying. It's like, I don't have enough. I haven't done enough. I'm stuck. I'm behind. There's all those words. You know, none of those are positive.

22:55
They don't help us feel joyful. Do you have a couple examples of words or phrases you teach them or suggest to feel more joyful? Yep. First one is I'm enough, right? That's the, I'm enough, I have enough, or I have the ability or I'm open. I'm open to receiving. Those are, that's the, I'm open to receiving what comes my way. That right there is abundance and opens up joy.

23:25
It does. You're absolutely right. And I think that's one of the hardest things to do is to receive. I think for me at least, but I think it's, I wonder if it's more of a natural feeling for women. I don't know. Do you see that? That it's hard for women to really open up and receive? Yes, women so often, and I know the viewers or the listeners can't see me right now, but they, we have our hands out like we're going to receive, but we've

23:50
our fingers go wide so it becomes like a funnel, you know, a colander. So although everything comes through, we just let it pass right through. We don't hold on to any of it to actually be able to have. Does that make sense? So we're so good at taking care of, wanting to take care of everyone else. We open those fingers really wide and let it go through. What I did in my year is I closed the fingers bit. I decided I was gonna hold on to some.

24:20
And then I was going to be very intentional on how I decided to allocate it. And again, I want everyone to hear that joy does not equate money. Like there's no, there's not the connection there. The connection is I wanted to have these experiences that were bigger than things I had done before. Yep. That then created the joy. So I love it. Okay. Would you recommend people to create their own year of joy celebration or just create a

24:49
Joy's in some form or another. It could look all different ways. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I figure, boy, I better get on it. I've got my couple more years for my 60th, but I, or 40 more years actually. And I really recommend it completely that there's intention behind it because what it is is when you choose it, guess what happens?

25:17
It's like, I'm going to be intentional or I'm, when you think the thought I'm creating joy, what comes up for you? Let's just try it on. What comes up for you when you think I'm creating joy? I think I just initially think about how I'm feeling in the moment. That's probably the first thing. How am I feeling in the moment? And if it's a real intense joy, like I can feel it down deep in my heart, my soul, or I get chills or sometimes like my body wants to jump up and down. So that's.

25:46
initially would be the first thing that I think of. It's like it's for me when I just tried it on I'm like it's almost like giving yourself a hug like you feel it there in that in that heart like oh my gosh that's so oh I'm doing it for me and that feels good too that's the other thing is does it feel positive or negative in your body is how I ask a lot of when we're trying to uncover those emotions and often

26:12
our first initial response, whatever we're coming up with, it's negative. And so it takes work. That's the part that I want. I had to work at it to get myself to that level. Does that, to create more positive thoughts that give me those positive feelings. Yeah, definitely. That's what I've learned just in the last several years that I've been focusing on this with my family. It's a conscious effort. Now I've been doing it so much, I can consciously say,

26:42
All right, that was definitely not a feeling of joy and look at what it just did. How am I gonna shift that and change that? Or what can I do next time? And how am I gonna get out of it? And it's not always easy, especially if it's a disagreement with my husband or there's some parenting thing, there's always these things that come up. So it, but it definitely is a conscious thing. And I think we...

27:08
are not always conscious about that. I am more and more so because I really try to practice it as much as possible, but before, never was. I never would have thought twice about it. Well, and I think that's beautiful the way you said that, Lauren, it's a practice. It's like yoga. There's no one that masters yoga. There's no destination that you reach. It's not like, oh, I'm the best yogi out there. You're constantly growing.

27:36
So it's almost like you can constantly be cultivating more joy. Isn't it infinite or is there a destination? Like this is the most you get? Yeah, destination. I'm like, okay, I've got the most amount of love I could ever have. I don't know about that. I don't think it's finite. Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely. Okay. So going back to that question about recommending others doing that.

28:04
I'm sure there'd be a lot of pushback with people saying, oh, I don't have the money for something like that, or I don't have time, I can't take time off work. What would you say to somebody who had those responses? Oh, God, I did this with my kids when they were, they were pretty young, like 10 and eight, I think. And Rachael Ray used to have this show, like $40 a day on the Travel Channel or something like that. I don't remember exactly, but it was Rachael Ray's idea, not mine.

28:34
But I took the kids out and we were like, how much fun can we have on $40 today? So fun. And it was a single day during the spring break and I involved them. So I would shift it to how much joy can I cultivate or create or give on $40? Because I think everyone listening to this

29:03
that can come up with $40 if they choose to, if they prioritize. Yes. And I love that because sure there's going to be some things you're going to want to use some money for, whether it's ice cream or whatever, but you don't have to have a lot of money to cultivate joy for a day. That is such a brilliant idea. I'm going to do that. I'm so excited because there's so much that we can do.

29:28
that doesn't cost a lot of money and doesn't take a lot of time. It could be something that's an hour. It could be a full day. I mean, there's so much we can do. Thank you for sharing that. I absolutely love that. And I think that is so valuable. And people who actually try that or do that will realize that there's so much they can do with little time and little money even, and still cultivate a lot of joy. Absolutely. And it's so good. You know, I teach women about money and raising financially independent adult children.

29:57
So that is starting them young too. It's like, what is the correlation between joy or fun and the dollar? You can really take it apart. Like we can have so much fun without spending any money. Yeah. Absolutely. Great, great idea. I can't wait to do that.

30:21
It doesn't mean you don't go to, it doesn't mean you'd never go to a Taylor Swift rancher and spend $300 on tickets or whatever. I'm not saying that at all. I'm, what I'm saying though is be intentional and be mindful about it. And that's what I teach is I teach people to be mindful about how do they want to spend their money. And I certainly was very intentional. My number that I chose was $20,000. Anyone can, you can choose $40. Okay. This has been such a.

30:50
a wonderful conversation. Is there anything else you want to leave us with? And where can people find you and contact you if need be or what they want to? My leave behind is do it. Like really do something that's intentional, that's creating joy for you. And that could be as simple as my latest joy that I'm having right now that I am having

31:19
I just delighted in every day is I've cultivated this little Dahlia garden. And I have these incredible dahlias blooming right now. I live on the Oregon coast. So this is like, it didn't take much. It didn't take much at all for me to every time I go out there and see those dahlias to go, oh, this is so amazing. This is so joyful. I can't believe I grew these. And that's, that's a do it.

31:49
Whatever that is for you, just decide. I decide that those delias lighten me up. That's just my takeaway. Where people can find me if they have interested or curious in uncovering their money mindset, things that could be stopping them from experiencing joy around money is mind That's where they can find me. Awesome. Thank you.

32:18
the show notes and anything else or any other links that you have or you want to share, we'll put them in the show notes as well. I thank you for having me. The other place is follow along on Instagram. I'm mindful money coaches on Instagram and I love sharing all kinds of joyful things. And if you're interested in seeing any of my dahlias, they're there. Okay. I'm going to find them because there's this one house I walk by all the time because I have a dog and we have a park right at the end of our street. And last year they made this berm in front of their house.

32:47
Glorious flowers all different kinds of flowers and every single time I walk by twice if I'm going to the park and back So sometimes it's you know, four times a day depending on how much I go back to the park. I Just light up. There's something about it where I look at it and and I think that is so Spectacular, they're different heights and different colors and different kinds and it's so gorgeous

33:16
that it truly just fills me up and lights me up. So I am going to be looking at it because my flowers have grown really crappy this year. Pretty much everything has. So I wanna see more. I will find yours. Well, I love sharing them. I love that you have an intentional route to see flowers. I do. And I always look, I look in everybody's yards and sometimes I'm like, gosh, if people...

33:43
people might think I'm always looking in their houses because they're like the front windows are there and if any of neighbors are listening, I'm not looking in your houses, I'm looking at your yards and your flowers. And even though I see them every day, I still look at them every single time I go by, but not one house takes the cake. Theirs is just absolutely phenomenal. So yeah, it's my intentional ice piece that I look at all the time.

34:10
Well, thank you for having me. And I, you know, nature is such a good, such a good provider of it. It really is. It is one of the best and one of the easiest too. So if you really let yourself guess what? It's pretty free. You're right. It is. So if you don't know what to do, get out in nature. I swear by that too. It is one of the easiest and best ways to cultivate joy for sure. Could be anything.

34:39
Oh, Liz, thank you so much. This has been really fun and I've learned a lot. So I really appreciate it. And we'll have info in the show notes. And I hope everybody else got a lot out of it because I sure did. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Liz and I and took something away and got some value out of it. And my biggest takeaway was you can create joy in any circumstance. You don't even have to have any money to do it. She pre-planned something and she was very intentional.

35:07
with her year of joy, but you surely do not need $20,000 to create joy. I love her idea of the $40 a day with children and I never did that. I forgot about it. So that's my goal with our winter break coming up. You can find all of Liz's contact information in the show notes. I would love to hear what created value for you and maybe a takeaway that you have. You can email me at lauren at dailyjoy.us.

35:37
You can find me on Instagram at Lauren's Daily Joy or Facebook, Lauren Goldman Raymond. Thank you so much for listening and I am out of here. Did you enjoy your time with us today? If you did, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your review will make navigating joy together much more fun and we would be truly grateful if you would share this with others who you know would gain value from our podcast. Thank you again and we look forward to sharing our next episode with you in two weeks.

36:06
you