Old Fashioned On Purpose

S16: E10: My Hard Won Lessons of 2024

• Jill Winger • Season 16 • Episode 10

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2024 was nothing like I expected—but somehow, it turned out even better than I could have hoped. It was a rollercoaster of a year, filled with some of the hardest lessons I’ve faced so far. 

While it wasn’t always easy, looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. In this episode, I’m sharing the challenges, struggles, and valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way. Tune in to hear the journey!

Podcast Episode Highlights

  • My predictions of 2024 failed...
  • The book that influenced me this year
  • Our business plans this year 
  • The hard lesson on 'Surrender'
  • The inspiring quote I leaned into this year
  • The hard lesson on responsibility and risks
  • The hard lesson on seasons...
  • The hard lesson on pressure
  • Learning that the people you need come at just the right time
  • Final thoughts

Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode:

Learn more about the Old-Fashioned on Purpose Planner here: www.prairieplanner.com 

The podcast episode I did with Kate Kavanaugh on her podcast Mind, Body, and Soil: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-complexity-of-simplicity-with-jill-winger/id1615122217?i=1000670634958

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:


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Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome back to The Old Fashioned On-Purpose Podcast. We have once again reached the end of the season and it just so happens to be the end of the year as well. So I figured it was high time for a wrap up of this past year because this past year has been wild and unexpected and potentially one of the biggest learning experiences of my life to date in a very unconventional and very weird way. So I have spent a lot of time personally ruminating and unpacking 2024 and a lot of these things that maybe have alluded to on previous episodes, but they were still pretty fresh, sometimes a little raw, and I wasn't quite ready to share everything with the world. But time has passed on a few of these topics and I figured it was time to kind of pull back the curtain and talk about this past year for us. Some of the things I learned, a lot of these were hard one lessons. These were not fun, fluffy lessons, <laugh>. Um , but I think in fact, I know that some of these will be applicable to you in your life, wherever you are in your homestead or your journey as a entrepreneur or a business owner, or just a person. And so I wanted to share some of these today on this solo episode. So let's get started. So this is the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast where we explore what we have left behind as we have raced towards progress and how we can get the good stuff back. And as you know, probably I'm your host, Joe Winger. I've been doing this homestead thing for a long time. Way before it was cool, way before it was trendy. Um, but I'm still doing it and I'm really passionate about helping folks see how they can bring the best of these old fashioned ideas into our everyday life. So, whew . Um, a little housekeeping before we get into the juicy stuff. Um, we are at the time of this recording and this is gonna, I'm recording this about a week and a half before it goes live. I have about 400 planners left. Um, we started with much more than that, so they have sold very quickly. And once they're gone, I'm not reprinting this year, so we're just doing this run. And that's it. I mean, I'll do 'em again next year. But this is all for the 2025. So if you're wanting a planner, grab it now. Um, this, we've had really good response to this new version with a better cover and the tabs and the thicker paper and all the updates . So I think you're really going to love it . Um, I'm really, really happy with the quality of it this year. And the cover is beautiful. It's , I think it's my favorite cover to date. Got a wonderful designer, so grab it while you can. It's www.prairieplanner.com and make sure you spell Prairie correctly, 'cause that one trips up a lot of people. And then they email me and go, the link doesn't work. And then I'm like, well, you have to, you know, prairie's a tricky word to spell. So prairie planner.com , you can get a look at the inside. I have a video flipping through. You can see everything that's included. Um, I think we have maybe 200 sets of the stickers left if you wanted to add the stickers onto the order. They're , they're , uh, coordinated with a planner, so grab it now while you can. Um, but I'm excited to see how you guys are gonna use it in the coming year. 'cause I'm already getting mine set up. Um, I've talked about this before, but my favorite week of the whole year is that week between Christmas and New Year's when the whole world is like bloated on cheese and chocolate and no one emails me and no one calls me and everybody leaves me alone. And I love to just work in the planner and dream and set goals and cast visions for the coming year . So I'll be really working in the planner , um, during that week here in a little while. All right , where do we start? I have my list. I'm gonna pull it up. I , like I said in the intro, I could not have predicted what 2024 would be. And it's kind of funny because I , um, actually did try to predict <laugh> last, I think it was either end of last year or beginning of this year, December, January. I had a couple episodes where I talked about my lessons of 2023 and my goals, and I made some grand proclamations. Um, so I really did try to prophesy what this year would be. And it was completely wrong. Like, could not be more different, which is a lesson in and of itself, I think. Um, and it's kind of funny to me 'cause when I was younger and especially like first starting my businesses, for some reason it worked better when I cast the big goals. And I would do that constantly and I would set audacious targets and I would always hit them and it was bam, bam, bam. And I had vision boards and I had lists, and I had, I would write out detailed , um, descriptions of what I wanted to bring to life, and then it would come to life and it just worked so well. It was like A plus B equals C. And for some reason, as I've matured both in age and in my businesses, it doesn't work like that for me as much anymore. Like, I still am always pushing and I'm wanting to do big things, but , um, I, I've learned to be much more flexible. And I'm gonna get into that more in a minute. But it's just funny. So a lot of the things I've predicted and planned at the beginning of this year didn't quite work out like I thought, but perhaps that's more normal than we, we think, right? So I think the first one is, if you listen to that episode , uh, a year ago, I, I talked about a book that Christian and I had read over the holidays and it was life changing for me. And I, I know a lot of you listen to that episode 'cause I've, you've come to me and talked to me, whether you've met me at the episode of Fountain or at events or whatever you've referenced that episode in this book. But it's called 10 x is Greater Than two X and it's by Benjamin Hardy. Fantastic book. Like one of my top 10 books. Loved it. Like it was one of those books the whole time I read it, I was highlighting I was wild-eyed, couldn't sleep, like so excited. But the premise of that book is that we're often spread too thin. And if we really want to make huge leaps in an area of our life, it could be business, it could be um, career, it could be home setting , it doesn't matter. We have to cut out the extra, even the good extra, even the things we think are important and we have to double down , um, and get very, very focused on a very select number of things. And his premise among others things in there is that , um, everyone thinks they need incremental baby steps to grow. And he's like, sometimes the best way to grow is to 10 x it. You just like take such a monumental leap. Um, it's so out of the ordinary and it's so unlike what other people do that can actually be easier in a way, a sick and twisted way. So love the book, highly recommend it. Um, and I came out of reading that book just so inspired and Christian and I had a whole list of things that we were going to set into action in 2024 after we read that book. And I talked about this before in a previous episode I think a little bit. Um, but we knew we needed to pare down our businesses because we, I think every entrepreneur does this. We cr we're creators, right? We always create, we always grow. But what happens sometimes is you grow, grow, grow, and you keep growing. And sometimes that need to create and that need to produce leaves you with a lot of things that are good, but they can start to compete with each other. I've seen so many people do this, I have done it. And now I , I think we all have to go through that stage. And now I'm kind of like, whoa , whoa , whoa . I'm , I'm , I'm a little more grown up now we're gonna cut it back and get really strategic with the things that are actually producing the results I'm after. So we came out of that book knowing we needed to close down or shift some of our businesses. We have too many businesses. Love business, love entrepreneurship, but you can't do it all. And so we had decided that we would , um, close genuine beef in 2024, which we did. Um, it was a good business, but it was not our ultimate goal and it was distracting us from other things. And we also came out of that book deciding that we probably should shift away from the soda fountain. And I published an episode at the beginning of 2024 talking about why we were selling the Soda Fountain. And many of you're are very aware of that whole story. 'cause I've met a lot of you this summer at the Soda Fountain and talked to you about it. Um, but we were like, you know what? These things are taking a lion's share of our attention and maybe this is not where our focus should be. So my, my lesson in all of this is that 10 xing something in your life , life isn't as cut and dried as you might think. And that was the surprise that kind of hit me in the face as we started to put these plans into motion. Because after I read that book, I had this very naive expectation that I would just roll into life and chop, chop, chop. P prune , prune, prune. And off we go. And all these businesses are gone. And I'm moving on to ultra focus back into my writing. I was gonna like really focus on writing and the blog in 2024. And um, that's not how it worked out <laugh> . And sometimes when you have created things and you have entangled yourself in things, it takes a lot of effort to get yourself out of them. And it's not just a matter of pruning, you know , snippet off and it's gone like it takes a lot. And so that was frustrating , um, especially in the first half of the year. 'cause I went into it thinking I would just purge these things for my life and it did not work out like that. Which leads me to my second lesson, surrender <laugh>. And I did talk about this in a previous episode and I shared with you why I hated this lesson so much at the beginning. And I fought, it's kicking and screaming. Um, because within that lesson of realizing that sometimes we can't just walk away or run or prune the things we think we should right away, sometimes it takes more time and more intention. Um, I was offered the opportunity to learn this lesson of surrendering. And that's not something I like at all. It's not something I've ever embraced. It's not a lesson that I have claimed or thought about because up till now , um, I have gotten pretty much everything I ever wanted and every goal I've ever set by just like grinding it out and I can outwork anyone and I can out focus anyone. And I like that about myself and it works out for me most of the time. Um, and so when I <laugh> went into this idea of pruning our life with that same intention of grinding, hustling, gonna make it happen , um, I realized quite quickly that this was going to be an area that I couldn't just force it. Like I was going to have to wait and surrender to the process. And man, I didn't like that. So this spring, I'll be honest , um, winter and spring of 2024 wa I wasn't my best. I wasn't <laugh> wasn't I, I wasn't in a great place. I was pretty frustrated, extremely stressed. Um, I'm not prone to a lot of anxiety. I just don't, I usually can kind of work myself through that. But like, I wasn't sleeping, I was just worried all the time. Um, and I just was like, this has to happen. I need, we had put the soda fountain on the market and I'm like, this has to happen in this timeframe. And I had set a date where I'm like, it's totally gonna be sold by this time. I know it is. And then I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. And I had it all mapped out for the rest of the year. And as the months ticked by and it wasn't happening, like, I'm like, I don't know what to do 'cause I can't force this. Like I've, and when I say force set has a negative connotation, I'm not looking at it in that way, but I'm like, I can't make this happen. I can't like manifest this into being like , I just have to wait. And that's something that apparently I'm not really good at. And so I learned this lesson of surrender really kicking and screaming for several months. First <laugh> , and you can ask Christian , um, it wasn't pretty like, it wa it wasn't my shining moments , um, this early spring , um, because I was like, I will not surrender. I will not trust the process. I will not, I will make this happen the way I want it to happen. And that just wasn't meant to be. So , um, I've learned through the process of this year that surrender, you know, I , I think I've always hated that word because it makes me think of just laying down and just giving up. Um, but that's not what it is. It doesn't have to be like that. And I learned that surrender can be an active process and it can be a process that while you're in the middle of it, you're still curious and you're still open and you're still, your feet are still moving, but they're moving in a way that you're flexible to being , um, led or taken where you need to go instead of having that idea in your mind , um, right off the bat. If that makes sense. So when Christian and I were talking during this part of the year where I was struggling so much , um, he would just say, you have to trust. You have to trust. And I'm like, I don't wanna trust. I do not want , I would literally, I don't wanna trust the process. I refuse <laugh> . And so finally, I, I fought it and fought it and fought it. And I was like one day, I mean, it was, it was multiple days, but I, I just started to , to allow myself to sit with a thought of what if this is the way it's supposed to go and what if , um, shockingly can't imagine such a thing. But my plan that I set out in January actually wasn't the plan that was meant to be. And when I let myself ruminate on that question and just be curious like, what if the idea I had is not the idea that's supposed to happen? Um, that's when things started to unlock a little bit for me. And I still was scared to death. Um, because like I said, I had planned for the soda fountain to sell in a certain timeframe and we had a lot of interest. We had a lot of interest. And I had so many people say, I want it. I'm going to the bank. And then they would ghost us. Or I had people say, I'm taking it, I'm going, I'm moving here. And then they'd ghost us 'cause they couldn't find a house. And like it was so frustrating. Um, it was like, like the most horrible rollercoaster you can imagine. And I felt totally at the victim of these other people and their , um, ability or inability to make a decision and be willing to take on risks. And it just made me feel so frustrated. And when I realized I was putting so much stock into the actions of others, I'm like, well, that's not, that's never a good thing. That never gets me where I wanna go. And so when I put that , uh, responsibility back on me and just trusted that process, that's when things started to shift. And I started to go, well, maybe this very strict timeline I had set to sell the soda fountain wasn't actually reality. Maybe that really <laugh> wasn't what was supposed to happen. Um, and that's where things got very interesting, which I will continue to explain here in a minute. But I wanted to share a quote with you , um, that I leaned on, like this was like scripture to me, <laugh> , um, during this period, during spring and early summer of 2024, it's Brianna West and she's very well known . She's an incredible author. Um, and I , I think you'd call a lot of the things she writes poetry , um, and she has a number of books. One's called The Mountain is You and then the Pivot Year. But the , I found this quote of hers on Instagram and then I bought her books. I can't remember which book it's from. I think it might be the Pivot Year, but I wanted to read it to you 'cause I read this over and over and over and it was this quote that kind of opened me up and started to allow me to ask, you know, what if I can just be curious about what's happening right now instead of fighting it tooth and nail, and what if I can just surrender to the process? So let me read this to you. She says, in retrospect, you will see how clearly and intricately you have been guided how the right things always arrived at the right time, even when you were absolutely convinced they would not. How the wrong things left. No matter how tightly you gripped, how hard you tried, how much you attempted to force a lesson into a lifetime, how you were drawn to the experiences you most needed, even if they were not the ones you wanted. Like amen to that <laugh> , how life gave you the exact amount of space and time you actually required, even if you spent much of it wondering why things were happening too fast or not quickly enough, how all that seemed so random. So Ill faded so untimely, how all that seemed so random so ill faded so untimely then wove together into something greater than your conscious mind could have pieced together when you were just standing in the ruins wondering how you would build your new city. I read that so many times and I, it so perfectly explained how I was feeling when nothing was happening as fast as I wanted in the timeline I wanted, and the way that I wanted and the things that I wanted to go away weren't going away. And the things that I needed to show up weren't showing up. Um, no matter how much I tried to force it or make it happen. And that's when I first started to accept that lesson of surrender. So hopefully that quotes maybe helped with some of you in that same place, but that was a doozy of a lesson and I'm , I think I'm still learning it, but , um, it changed me in a big way . Okay, so a little bit more on the soda fountain saga in a minute, but I wanna shift over to lesson number three. And that is the reward lies in the risks you are willing to take and also in the responsibility you are willing to shoulder. And I'd say that this was less of a lesson for me 'cause I think I've learned this lesson already, but , um, this was more of a fun one because I got to start to see the fruits of the risks that Christian and I have taken over the , the last few years. And we started to enjoy the harvest a little bit in some of those things. And it just reminded me that we couldn't have had the mountaintop moments in some of those areas if we hadn't taken the risk first. Um, and it was also, I was also reminded in just a lot of conversations with people this year, even like folks who would come to me and say, I want to buy the soda fountain. And they would be so gung ho and so excited and then , um, they would just fizzle off. And I'm not saying that, you know, they, they had to or or they were necessarily scared. But I just saw a complete aversion to risk. And so many people, whether it was soda fountain conversations or people in our local area or people even talking to me about moving , um, here I have so many people who reach out and they're like, I wanna move to where you live. I love what's happening there. And I'm like, awesome. And then , um, some of the reasons that come up, why they don't, I'm like, you're , you're gonna have to take a risk in some way, shape or form whether you move to my area or you buy a business or you start something new or you , um, you know, any , anything. There's always risk involved. And I see so often that people hamstring themselves from what they really want in life because they get so stuck on that roadblock of risk. And you know, this year was our second year of operating the charter school and it's still been hard and Christian's there a lot and that's really become his thing as I've been at the soda fountain more. Um, and there's new challenges every single week. But when I stop and look back from where we started to where we are in just two short years, like we have almost doubled the amount of students we had from our first year. We have over a hundred students. We have a bus buses running all over the place. We have a lunch program, we're getting accolades, we're getting recognition. We've had people at the state level say, you are the example we want for charter schools in the state of Wyoming. Um, and we constantly have people telling us like, this is what we want in our community and how can we model after yours? And it's, it feels good, right? 'cause we quote unquote did it. Um, we got through that hard first year and it's still a hard second year and it'll be a hard third and fourth year. But we got through that first mountain and now we can sit back for a small moment and go, look, this is amazing. Um, and it feels good to have the pats on the back and it feels good to have student numbers and it feels good to have a budget where we can actually operate 'cause we have enough kids. But none of that warm fuzzy goodness would've been possible if we hadn't been willing to put our necks on the line two and a half years ago. And I think that's, I just think people miss that so much. Um, and the same with the responsibility. People don't want responsibility. And those of you who are willingly shouldering responsibility, like I want you to know how rare and special it is and to keep going. 'cause I know it's heavy sometimes and responsibility isn't , um, sunshine and butterflies, but you're the ones making the difference because we, we need those people who are willing to take that risk on themselves and willing to stick their necks out a little bit and willing to do the hard things , um, in that realm of responsibility. And it's so huge. So again, that wasn't a lesson necessarily for me, but it was a lesson I observed over and over. If you want something big, if you want to change your life, you have to take some risk . It cannot , um, be separated there. It's so important. Um, and I'm not necessarily, let me just put a caveat on this. I'm not saying it's necessarily financial risk all the time 'cause I've seen people get into big trouble with that. And it's funny 'cause people often seem more prone to taking stupid financial risks than they do other types. So Christian and I have definitely taken financial risks over the years, but never to the point of if we lost it all, we , we couldn't still function, right? We've put money into things that were risky, but we knew if we did lose it , it wasn't gonna break us. And even when Christian quit his job to come work our businesses full-time with me in 2015, that was so scary. That was so scary to me. I went , I that whole, the day he quit his last day, I wanted to throw up all day <laugh> . Um, 'cause I knew it was all on us. That onus , that responsibility was all on us. There was no company, there was no corporation taking care of us. But we knew then we had enough in savings. We knew our numbers enough that we're like, okay, even if our businesses fall to pieces in a year, we have a backup plan. So be careful with your financial risk , be wise with your financial risk , but in the other types of risk , maybe be a little more like gritty. Be a little braver. See what happens. Um, yeah, it just, it's you , you can't have what you're really going for. You can't have the greatness you seek unless you're willing to , um, put it up , put yourself out there a little bit. Just ruminate on that. So that was , uh, an interesting one. Alright , lesson number four. And I did a podcast on a newsletter on this already. So I'm not gonna belabor this one, but I wanted to still include it on the list of this year because it was a big one. And it's something again, I , I was really struggling with it. I'd say end of 2023 and beginning of 20, 24 seasons, your life will have seasons and it's okay. And it's okay to have something that was your identity at one point point , um, change and maybe go more to the background. So a new piece of you can move forward and you can hold all of those pieces of you at the same time. And that's okay. And there's that quote, and I wish I would've looked it up, but I'm just gonna butcher it here and you guys can google Google it. But it's about something about like, we all contain multitudes. And I think about that so much. 'cause people will often, not often, every once in a while someone will be like , um, you know, you're hypocritical 'cause you talk about living old fashioned, but you use a phone or you can't like , um, whole Foods and also eat at a restaurant sometimes. And I'm like, no, I , I can do both. Like we all contain multitudes and there's different, we all have lots of facets and it's such a silly societal thing we do that we think we have to fit into a certain box all the time in a certain way. And we can't have pieces of ourself that contradict each other. And I actually was talking to my friend Kate Kavanaugh , um, I don't know if you listened into the podcast I did with her on her show. It was such a good episode. Um, but I gotta meet with her in person in New York , um, this past spring. And we had this wonderful conversation and then we continued it on this episode. And I'll put that in the show notes 'cause it's just a great conversation. But we talked a lot about paradoxes and how , um, her and I have really strong convictions in many areas, but we're also like, sometimes we just do the opposite and sometimes we contradict ourselves and that's okay. And it's a part of being human. But anyway , um, I'm on a rabbit trail, but seasons <laugh> I have shifted in our life or our life has shifted and I fought it tooth and nail. And this is another piece of that surrender lesson. You know, for 14 years, 13 years or more, I've been the stay at home homesteader person with little kids around my feet , um, on my computer talking about canning and baking bread. And, you know, my daily to-do list was , um, all home related . And I loved it. I still love it. And that was the best thing we could have ever done for our young family. And it really made me who I am today. And it created the businesses I have today. Um, and it was absolutely magical. And now my kids are older. I have a 14-year-old, a 12 and a 9-year-old, and they're still, they're not grown up yet, they're still kids, but it's different than the toddler years. And it caught me off guard how much our life would shift as we became slightly less home focused and more community focused . And as my kids hit this age range, we also had the charter school come into play and the soda fountain come into play. And so it was all of those factors at once started to pull my family away from the homestead , um, and out into the community more. And like, I think I shared earlier this year, I fought that I threw a tantrum over that. 'cause I'm like, this is not who we are. We have to maintain this. Like we're a full-time family. We, we stay in this house 24 7 and we do our things. And I had to open up , uh, to the different possibilities around that. But I realized that just like nature has seasons , um, our garden has seasons, we also have the seasons of life, which I know that's kind of almost a cliche to talk about, but when you're in the middle of a seasonal shift in your life, it feels much less obvious. So I've learned to sink in to the fact that , um, we're still home studying and I'm still running a homestead platform, but it looks different than it used to. And I'm still cooking a lot, but it looks different. And my kids are still awesome farm kids with a lot of responsibility, but now they're taking those lessons that they've learned here on the homestead and they are using them in different applications on the basketball team or in the charter school or, you know, working around our community. And , um, it's good and it's a beautiful part of them growing up, but it's different. And so I've just learned that the seasons of life will hit you faster than you expect. Um, and it's, it's , it's a good thing. It's a , it's a beautiful thing to let some pieces go so you can bring others in. So yeah, that was, that was a tough one for me, especially. I , I think I had that one working at the same time. I had the surrender one working. And both of those , both of those at the same time was a lot. But I survived. So here we are . Um, okay, next lesson is pressure. And I, this is a , was kind of an , it was more of a revelation than a lesson, but I realized this year that I love pressure, I crave it. I'm , I love the dopamine and adrenaline that comes with a challenge. And some of you have been around long enough to know that they're like, probably duh Jill , we , that's not a surprise. But I, I've known that about myself for a while, but I, I guess I wouldn't let myself admit that I love challenges for the sake of the challenges. I felt like that was not something I could say that blatantly. And I always had to make up reasons for why I loved doing hard things. Like, oh, you know, it's good for the community, or, oh, I'm trying to make money, or I'm starting a business, or I believe in homesteading and I , and those things are all true. But a big part of it that I finally just flat out allowed myself to admit this year is I do things for the sheer joy of the challenge often , um, and period end. Like I love hard things. I like feeling buried. I love the adrenaline. Um, and it really, it really hit me this summer when I was at the soda fountain more and once, I'm gonna explain more about that in a minute here. But as I, the stress of the soda fountain started to go more to the background and I could be more present mentally and physically with the day-to-day operations , um, I realized how much I love a rush. Like, I love it when we are standing room only, all the tables are filled. Um, you know, the adrenaline's high and we have to figure out how to coordinate it . Like my brain just hums and I don't know how to explain it. And, you know, I started to think about it and think about all the other areas of life when I am half buried, that's when I'm the happiest. Like , um, another example that's a little different, but not is like sorting cattle. My , one of my favorite things to do is sorting cattle because there's so much to think about, right? I'm working on my horse and making sure I'm, I'm handling my horse appropriately in a way that is true to what he needs. And then we have the cows behind me and I have cows in front of me, and I have this gate guy with his flag and this guy pushing the cows this way. And I have to watch these outta the corner of my eye and I have to have all my peripheral vision working. And I , you get so immersed in it and you're, you end up getting out of your head and just into your body because you have to rely on your, almost your animal reflexes to do it all. If you start to have that go through your brain and conscious thought it slows you down. But it's such an awesome feeling. And, and I get that same feeling when, you know, we are in the middle of a rush with the soda fountain, or I'm trying to coordinate a big project. And I think what it is, and I've talked about the flow states in Old Fashioned on purpose, my book and here on the show, but that flow state, I think it brings us out of this modern , um, phenomenon where we're so , uh, split minded, right? We're always multitasking. Our brains are always going a million directions. And I, you know, a lot of that's phone related or distraction related . But when you're buried in a challenge like that and that, that , um, adrenaline's going, you can't think about anything else. You have to think about what's in front of you. And it's like complete, it's like mindfulness in a weird way. Like some people get it from meditating <laugh> , you know, the monks and the Zen and all that. I get it from those moments where I am fully in my body, I'm completely focused on a task. It's a little bit of out of my comfort zone. So I'm really having to dial in and it's just like, it's absolutely beautiful. It's one of my favorite things. And so this year for the first time, it's a little shift, it's a little lesson, but it's big in a way. I, I allowed myself to go, yeah , Jill, I just, it's okay that you like the , the adrenaline, it's okay that you just like the challenge just for the sake of a challenge and allowing myself to seek out things , um, just for that purpose sometimes and not try to make up a bigger story about why I'm enjoying it. That's, it's been an interesting shift. And I also see sometimes in culture, I see it a lot online in different memes or, or articles that come around. Like sometimes people, they try to explain that away. Um, I've seen people say, well, you know, people only like those sorts of big responsibility projects because they're traumatized eldest children. And I am , I am an oldest child, but that has nothing to do with it, I don't think. Or they say it's a trauma response or it's , um, an avoidance or escapism or it's, you know, societal pressure to always be productive. And maybe, maybe that's true for some people, but man, some of us do it because we're just wired for it and it's okay. And if you're that person and I , I'm guessing that a good number of you are because homesteading lends itself well to that personality trait. Um, it's okay. So I see you, I celebrate you, you're my people, and it's okay , uh, just to like that pressure. In fact, the people who can crave that pressure are the ones who really make big shifts in their world. So keep up the good work if that's you. Alright . And my final lesson, my big wrap up , um, for 2024, that's been probably my favorite lesson of this year is that the people you need in your life will come when you least expect it and in a form that you least expect. So , um, there's been so many times over the last decade plus where I have felt like, you know, I was missing certain people in my life, whether it was family members that I needed that weren't quite showing up in the way that I was hoping or , um, needing friends or needing support or needing employees. And time and time again, I have been shown that they will come when you need them, but you're gonna have to be open to who shows up because it's probably not how you're thinking it will be. And 2024 was the biggest example of that I have experienced to date. So why, what shifted in the Soda Fountain was , um, a gentleman showed up this spring when I was in the throes of despair over the soda fountain. And , um, he's been a part of our community for a while . I didn't know him very well and he showed up and he started volunteering at the Soda Fountain. And honestly, I was pretty , uh, all standish to him at first <laugh>. And I was, I was grouchy about the whole situation. So Jill was not in a happy mood for several months. Um, so he showed up and I'm like, sure you can, you know, do what you wanna do . But I just kind of was dealing with my own , uh, stress and I just kind of let him, you know, just ignored him. And he stuck around and then I'm like, well, he can't be legit, so I'm gonna see, you know, how much he can take before he runs because people always leave, right? And that was kind of the story I had told myself was that people always leave. People leave when things get hard. And that actually is true a lot of the time. And I've seen that in our community a lot. When things get a little bit too high pressure, people run , um, they can't take it, they quit, they leave. Uh, and I got really frustrated and very jaded over that. And that was a big part of the reason I wanted to sell the Soda Fountain is because I'm like, there's no one here. There's, and I said this so many times out loud, there's no one here who I can partner with. There is no one, they do not exist in this community and I can't do this by myself. So George showed up and completely shattered that story I had been telling myself. And some of you met George this summer and , um, George is now managing the Soda Fountain. Long story short, and I , uh, started to just again be open-minded and curious to the possibilities. And I thought, well maybe , um, this could work. And maybe I first I was like, this will work temporarily. And then I'm like, actually, I think this will work more than temporarily. And so fast forward to today , um, George has completely shifted the culture of the Soda Fountain, the menu of the Soda Fountain, the processes of the Soda Fountain. And it's never been better. And not only that, he has helped me fall in love with the place again. 'cause I'll be honest, like I was really struggling 'cause I had felt so , um, betrayed by so many employees and so many people who had promised different things. And it didn't quite work out like that, which is just the nature of running a business, especially in the food service industry. Um, and he, he has shown up in a big way and, you know, he's not who I would've expected to do that. Like, he kind of came out of nowhere. And my lesson, I think the biggest lesson of this entire year is that be open to who shows up in your life because they might be who you need. They just might not come in the packaging that you expect. And so, as of this moment, and a lot of you have asked this, so I just wanted to put a a nice bow on this story. 'cause it started off with us selling the Soda Fountain in January and now it's December. We're, we're keeping the soda fountain for the time being. And I , I don't wanna put any grand proclamations on what that will look like in five years. Like I've learned not to do that <laugh> , I'm just learning to be okay , uh, day to day , month to month and just enjoy the process. But George and I are , uh, we're doing Fancy supper nights. We have been selling out these very , uh, elaborate dinners. We do steak, we've done some fancy lasagnas. Um, our community members are showing up. They're excited. There is more passion in the Soda fountain than I think we've ever had. And I am wild-eyed, excited about what's happening there to the point where like, I can't wait to go every day and I haven't felt like that in a long time. And the creativity is flowing. Um, we have so many ideas and it's, it's like just beyond what I could have ever expected. That's the one of the biggest pivots in my life to date, considering where we were at in January. And I just want to share that with you because I hear so many of you tell me. You know, I I think there's a , a big lack of community and relationships right now and I, I blame it a lot on technology and just the way our society is so fractured. And we tend to, you know, we're, we're connected in one sense with our phones and our computers, but we're very disconnected in another senses and our communities are more disconnected and fragmented. And so I hear so many of you say, you know, I want more relationships, I want more community, I need partners, but I can't find them. I can't connect. I don't know where the other homesteaders are. I don't know where the other people like me are. Um, and that's just something I hear over and over. And I just wanna encourage you if that's you or you felt that in any way that , um, be open to who shows up because it might be the person you're looking for, but they may not be exactly what, who you think. And so many times, you know, someone has fulfilled a need in my life , um, that I didn't expect. And I , I think about that a lot in just, just even other people in our community who've supported us , um, being a father figure or being that mothering type of figure. And maybe we don't agree on every single thing and we don't look like each other and there's parts of their life that I don't understand, but they come exactly when I need them to and they give little pieces that I need. And I'm continually humbled by that. And I just want you, I just want to encourage you to be open to who shows up. So if you happen to stop by the Soda Fountain in 2025, we still own it. We're planning to still own it. Big things are happening. If I'm not there, George will be there. So be sure you say hi to him. 'cause he has been a force to improve every single part of that business. And we're trying new recipes. We have pizza nights. If you're local, make sure you get reservations for one of our steak nights because they're a blast. We have an absolute blast. Speaking of like loving the pressure, the one of the big reasons I love our steak nights is 'cause it's, it's hard and it's challenging and there's so much adrenaline and ooh , it's addicting. So, and the food's really good. Like the food's really, really good if I do say so myself. So be sure to stop by if you're, if you're coming through our area in 2025, it's still open. It's, it's more open than it's ever been. Um, and really good things are happening there. And it's been, the Soda Fountain particularly has been not only the biggest surprise for me of 2024, probably one of the biggest surprises for me in the last decade of what can happen when you surrender, when you're open to possibilities , um, when you're curious, and when you just allow things to potentially flow the way they're supposed to flow. Um, and not try to force things. So I think that was so notable for me just because of my personality and I love the get things done, the hustle, the grind mentality, but sometimes the opposite is where the answer lies. So I wanna leave you as we close this episode and this season and this year , um, with one more quote from Brianna West . 'cause like I said, I just leaned on her words so much this last year and I highly recommend her books or follow her on Instagram. She posts , um, excerpts there. But , um, this is one, I think it's from the pivot year almost when you least expect it, things fall into place. You realize that what was left was making space for what was about to arrive. The quiet let you hear the guidance, the unhappiness forced you to make a move. The Unsettleness made you keep seeking the doors that closed, turned you toward the ones that were opening the lessons. Were always eating you. So friends. Um , I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. And I'm gonna take a few weeks break to spend time with family and organize my planner and get my head on straight for the year to come. Um, I can already feel it ripe with possibilities and I'm excited to see which lessons I will learn in the coming 12 months. So take care. Um, and I will catch up with you in the new year on the next episode of Old Fashioned On Purpose.