That’s a Wrap on the Old You!

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A friend has her whole family in overdrive preparing for holiday guests. She laughed, “Last weekend I told them, ‘Clean this house like Oprah is coming!’”

That high bar applies to more than housekeeping. As we say good-bye to the year as well as a decade, have you started to deep clean your world like Oprah’s coming?!

From Good Times to New Times

Kathie Lee Gifford spent the last few years doing her own version of deep cleaning. She and Frank Gifford bought their waterfront property when their children were toddlers and she spent over 20 years pouring love into every corner.

But after Frank and her mother passed in quick succession and her children made a permanent move to Los Angeles to work in Entertainment, Kathie Lee was left alone. So, when her “Today” show contract expired, Kathie Lee announced that she was selling her Connecticut home as well as her Florida vacation property. She was moving to Nashville.

The interesting part of the story is that Kathie Lee doesn’t see relocating as a less-than option. Instead, she views it as letting go of what weighed her down so she could be ready for a brand-new world.

She says, “I’m making big changes in my life because I need to—really big changes that are feeding my soul. Otherwise, despair sets in and loneliness can be crippling.” Her life in New York had its time, but Kathie Lee decided that it’s a new time.

Take the Release the Old You Challenge

Right now, you can probably tell me in an instant everything that falls into the “old you” category, like the chipped mug at the office or outdated clothes. But let’s dig a little deeper. Like Kathie Lee, do you also need to let go of a once-meaningful situation that suddenly passed its expiration date in 2019?

Compare your personal clean sweep to school: You may have
loved your fourth-grade teacher, but you didn’t stay in their classroom.
Although you felt sentimental, you still said, “That’s a wrap!” at the end of
the school year and moved into the unknown.

Here are three ways you can practice saying, “That’s a wrap!” to whatever might ultimately weigh you down:

• Make it fast by taking 30 seconds to declare, “I celebrate what I’ve learned so far. I easily release anything that has run its course.”
• Make it deep by taking 30 minutes to consider lessons you’ve learned. Where can you look back and say, “That person or situation used to drive me crazy, but I’ve mastered that lesson. I’m ready to learn something new!”?
• Make it real by celebrating your accomplishments. Pat yourself on the back for how far you’ve come!

That’s a Wrap! Series Recap

In the December series, we’ve talked about how you can use discernment to decide what either belongs in your future or is ready to be left in the past.

Here’s an overview of what we’ve learned:

• Cindy Crawford showed how the choice about pursuing an acting career made itself after a slew of bad reviews. She said, “That’s a wrap!” to distractions and walked toward her passions.
• A woman in New York told how she’s made the smart decision to invest in relationships that are positive and help her grow. She tells anyone in a pattern of negativity, “That’s a wrap!”
• Kathie Lee Gifford concluded that she needs new frontiers. She’s said, “That’s a wrap!” to situations that would have kept her living in the past.

An idea behind being a Soul Boss is that you no longer let small,
dumb irritations be the boss of you. So, act like the creative, wise CEO of
your life, and even if you feel nostalgic, let whatever needs to go go before
January so you’re ready for the new year. End 2019 echoing the belief of
Broadway star Billy Porter: “I don’t live in bittersweet. I only live in love.”