#117 It's the Little Things

Read the full episode transcript

Hey, this is Melissa Parsons, and you are listening to the Your Favorite You Podcast. I'm a certified life coach with an advanced certification in deep dive coaching. The purpose of this podcast is to help brilliant women like you with beautiful brains create the life you've been dreaming of with intentions. My goal is to help you find your favorite version of you by teaching you how to treat yourself as your own best friend.

If this sounds incredible to you and you want practical tips on changing up how you treat yourself, then you're in the right place. Just so you know, I'm a huge fan of using all of the words available to me in the English language, so please proceed with caution if young ears are around.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Your Favorite You.

Today, I am called to remind you and myself of the importance of the little things in life. I think that life is made-up of a million tiny little things. And I think sometimes we get caught up in working toward the next big thing, forgetting to take stock and to enjoy and to be present with all the little things in life that bring us joy.

So I'm going to list out all the little things that, to me, are big things that I'm grateful for as another year of life comes to a close.

So for me, the first thing is an uninterrupted night of sleep. Now, I don't count getting up once in the middle of the night to urinate as an interruption because I immediately fall back to sleep. But I can remember when the boys were younger and back when I was a pediatrician on call, These uninterrupted nights back then were cherished. And now I sometimes take them for granted, but not today.

I am grateful for my uninterrupted nights of sleep. My warm bed to sleep in. Again, knowing that so many people don't have this luxury, I want to take a minute to be thankful for it every day. The first sip of my cup of coffee in the morning. I am completely spoiled, and I recognize this in that most days, this first cup of coffee is brought to me without me having to leave my cozy bed after a full night of sleep by my handsome hubby.

Snuggles with my puppy, Barney Stinson Parsons, whenever I want them. He is always happy to oblige. I know his years to be with us still are short, and I want to take advantage of all the smelly breath snuggles he's willing to give me.

Phone calls and texts from my boys. Them responding most of the time when I randomly text to tell them that I love them. This happens often enough that they have mostly stopped asking if something is wrong when I text them this out of the blue. It had been a while last week when I did this and Owen said, “Love you too, Mom. Everything okay?” to which I responded, “Yes, I just wanted you to know for sure sure,” with a laughing emoji.

The ridiculous memes that Jack and Owen share with John and me via our family chat or our Instagram family group chat. I have no idea what most of the memes mean, and I have gotten smart enough to stop asking. I plead the fifth as to whether John has learned this lesson.

Random FaceTime calls from my honey throughout the week, just checking in, often checking to see what I want for dinner. I'm so grateful to John for being on this journey of life with me. He did not sign up to have an entrepreneur as a wife. He thought he was getting a fellow physician for life. And boy, did I throw him a curve ball. Luckily, he has amazing hands and he has caught all of my many different pitches. And he's my number one fan, and he's always doing what he can to make sure that I'm living a life that makes me happy.

Which leads me to plenty of food to enjoy with my family. I'm so grateful to have John as my forever chef. We have documentation of the last time that I cooked dinner, and it was during the height of the COVID pandemic, so many years ago. I'm so grateful for the fact that I am not responsible for cooking dinner.

I have friends that know that if they haven't heard from me in a while, that it means nothing about our friendship. We assume positive intent with each other and know that no love is lost if we've not spoken or texted in a while. I have friends that I can call anytime when I'm in a rut. And probably more importantly, friends that I can call when things are going very well and they actually want to celebrate me. Friends who know that this relationship goes both ways and they can do the same with me. They let me see them in all of their pain and all of their glory, and I won't stop loving them. They've tried, but I won't do it.

I'm grateful for a relationship with my mom that has grown and helped me understand myself more over time. Like I said earlier on a podcast or somewhere this year, I'm grateful for a relationship with my dad that continues despite the fact that he died in 2013. He always knows just what to say when I talk to him.

I have a house that John and I have turned into a home. It brings me so much joy that this is a place still where my kids like to hang out, even when they have their own places to live.

I made this a goal when I first started coaching and I have made it come to fruition. I have clients around the world that have trusted me with their beautiful brains and stories and situations so that I can help them become a favorite version of themselves. I love meeting with my women every week, some of them multiple times a week. I love that I hear from my past clients too from time to time with big and little life updates. I love the flexibility that being a coach brings into my life and the schedule that it brings. It cannot be diminished or dismissed. I'm so grateful for it.

You know what else brings me joy? You all, my podcast listeners, who tune in every week and let me know if there's a problem with the pod, if it's late or if the audio is wonky for some reason. You also let me know if you love a particular episode or a particular thought or skill or idea that I share with you. Please don't stop doing that.

I would also be so grateful for your honest rating and review wherever you are listening to this. If you want give me a holiday gift. Let this be it. Okay? Please and thank you. I appreciate it so much.

My coaches, people who have seen the deep recesses of my brain, who have helped me see my patterns and why I act the way that I do. Women who've helped me develop my business over the years. Women who've helped me see my potential when it was hard for me to see it. Women who have not let me argue for my limitations. All they saw was possibility in me, and I'm so grateful to all of you. You know who you are.

I'm also so grateful for my ability to move my body. So grateful to all of my massage therapists and yoga instructors and trainers over the years who've helped me keep my body moving as well as it still does.

I have so much gratitude and have been brought so much joy by our beautiful planet by our little slice of heaven here in Ohio. I love my backyard and my trees and my flowers and the deer and the bunnies and the squirrels and the birds. I love all of the wonderful places we have to be outside here, to walk in nature, to listen to the small creeks and rivers, to appreciate the beauty of the sky, the sun, the clouds, the moon. I love it all.

I have gratitude to my ability to travel to the amazing places I've had the privilege to visit so many places this past year. Cancun and Nashville and Las Vegas, and Turks and Caicos, and Miraval in Tucson, Sand Lake, Michigan, Park City, Utah, Indianapolis, New York City and Saratoga Springs, Toronto, and I have an upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. I'm really looking forward to taking a small group of incredible women on a retreat to Tulum next month. What a way to start off my travel for 2025.

I've gotten to see Madonna with my bestie Greg. We were in the front row in Cleveland. It was incredible. I went with John to U2 at the Sphere. I had a weekend retreat with Martha Beck and Liz Gilbert. I've had so many incredible opportunities this year.

And of course, gratitude to my body for being healthy, for my normal mammogram, my normal pap smear, my normal colonoscopy. And oh my gosh, I almost forgot to be thankful for my education in hormone therapy and the company My Alloy for getting me started on estrogen and progesterone. I also need to be thankful to my gynecologist for starting me on testosterone this fall. My life has definitely changed for the better since starting on these medications this year. So I'm so grateful for that.

My challenge to you this week, as you may have some downtime around the holidays, take some time, maybe just five or 10 minutes each day to sit in the quiet with yourself and come up with this list for you. You could make a quick note as you go about your day of the little things that light you up or make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. See how many little things in your life add up to one incredible life.

If you're challenged by this exercise or if it brings up something for you that you don't love, be gentle with yourself, please. Know that it's common to hear something like this and have your brain go immediately to compare and despair, to scarcity, and to negative self-talk. That is certainly not the purpose of this episode. And it's completely normal if your brain goes there. You can lovingly guide it back to finding the joy and the little things in your life that you love if you choose.

My hope is that you will create your own joy list and keep it close so that when you're having a rough time, you'll have it as a reminder of all the little things you can do and the big things that you can plan and look forward to to get you through the rough patch. I know for sure that when I'm having a rough time, I will lovingly refer myself back to this episode and listen to it and be reminded.

And as always, I would love to help you see all of the amazingness you likely have already created in your life, plus ways to increase that amazingness if that's something that you desire.

Our next group coaching cohort starts in January, so in just a few short weeks. And I would love to welcome you to the group if that calls to you. You can go to melissaparsonscoaching.com/group to schedule a consult. We start January 9th. I hope to see you there.

Hey - It’s still me. Since you are listening to this podcast, you very likely have followed all the rules and ticked off all the boxes but you still feel like something's missing! If you're ready to learn the skills and gain the tools you need to tiptoe into putting yourself first and treating yourself as you would your own best friend, I'm here to support you. As a general life coach for women, I provide a safe space, compassionate guidance, and practical tools to help you navigate life's challenges as you start to get to know and embrace your authentic self.

When we work together, you begin to develop a deeper understanding of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. You learn effective communication strategies, boundary-setting techniques, and self-care practices that will help you cultivate a more loving and supportive relationship with yourself and others.

While, of course, I can't guarantee specific outcomes, as everyone's journey is brilliantly unique, what I can promise is my unwavering commitment to providing you with the skills, tools, support, and guidance you need to create lasting changes in your life. With humor and a ton of compassion, I'll be available to mentor you as you do the work to become a favorite version of yourself.

You're ready to invest in yourself and embark on this journey, so head over to melissaparsonscoaching.com, go to the work with me page, and book a consultation call. We can chat about all the support I can provide you with as we work together.

I am welcoming one-on-one coaching clients at this time, and, of course, I am also going to be offering the next round of group coaching soon. 

Thanks for tuning in. Go be amazing!