Words of Wellness with Shelly
Do you get confused by all of the information that is available regarding ways to improve your health and wellness? Do you often become frustrated or overwhelmed with decisions on how to be your healthiest? We all know and understand how important our health and wellness is to the vitality of our lives, however navigating the wealth of health and wellness information available can often feel overwhelming. Understanding the significance of our well-being in leading fulfilling lives is crucial, yet determining what steps to take that are essential for our health can often be confusing.
Welcome everyone to "Words of Wellness"! In this podcast, hosted by Shelly Jefferis, M.A., a seasoned health and wellness professional with over 35 years in the industry, all of your questions will be answered and clarity will be provided through personal stories, education, tips and inspiration. Throughout her profession, Shelly has always had the heart and desire to help others feel their best and live their best lives through her supportive and compassionate approach. Through engaging solo and guest episodes, several topics will be addressed, questions will be answered and clarity will be provided in an effort to lead you to a healthier, more energetic life. With a master’s degree in kinesiology, extensive experience as an educator, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur, Shelly brings a wealth of knowledge and a genuine passion for empowering others to feel their best. By featuring industry experts and relatable individuals, the podcast promises personal stories, practical advice, and inspiration. She is excited to come to you weekly sharing all she has experienced, learned and discovered through the years. Whether you're seeking to elevate your well-being, gain practical insights for personal health, or simply be inspired to live a high quality vibrant life, this is the podcast is for YOU! Be sure to tune in weekly and join us along our "Words of Wellness" journey and embark on a path toward a healthier and more fulfilling quality of life full of happiness, energy and joy!
Words of Wellness with Shelly
Own Your Hours: Time Strategy That Supports Real Wellness
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If your days feel packed yet your health still ends up last, the problem may not be discipline. It may be that nobody ever taught you how to manage time in a way that supports wellness. We sit down with CW Hawley, founder of Let’s Talk Time, to explore what happens when you stop chasing “productivity” and start practicing time strategy that actually fits your life. Her mantra says it all: own your hours, rule your life.
We talk about seasons of life and why a perfect routine can be the wrong routine if you’re in the thick of motherhood, caregiving, career pressure, or a major transition. CW breaks down why time management is not one-size-fits-all, how a time audit creates instant clarity, and how tools like the urgent-versus-important filter can reduce the constant feeling of being behind. We also dig into the mindset side, including your learned relationship with time and the self-leadership required to follow through when motivation fades.
The most personal part of our conversation comes from CW’s health story and how a cancer diagnosis changed her priorities overnight. That experience reinforces a hard truth: time is not guaranteed, and ignoring your body can have real consequences. We also discuss how to advocate for yourself with health care providers, why you can “shop” for the right partner in your care, and how planning for “hard” and asking for “help” can lower stress without pretending life will be obstacle-free.
If you’re ready for calmer days, better boundaries, and a wellness-focused schedule that matches your current season, hit play now. Subscribe to Words of Wellness, share this with a friend who feels overwhelmed, and leave a rating and review so more listeners can find these time strategy tools.
CONNECT WITH CW: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cw_hawley
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cw@letstalktime.com
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellnesswithshellyj https://www.instagram.com/momswhoflourish
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High quality, clean nutrition and beauty products: https://shellyjefferis.isagenix
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https://scoutandcellar.com/?u=healthyhappyhours
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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.
Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health,
Shelly
Wellness Questions And Time Pressure
SPEAKER_01We're not taught how to manage time in school. If you think back of any type of institutional learning from elementary, middle, high school, university, whatever, you're you're not taught how to manage your time. You're taught you're talked to or you're talked at about time management.
Meet CW Holly And Her Motto
SPEAKER_00Do you get confused by all of the information that bombards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or shouldn't be eating? How to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone. I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. To share tips, education, and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journey so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness, and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will, we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives full of energy, happiness, and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I'll be your host. And my guest today is going to share with us about a really, really important topic that really affects, I feel like, all aspects of our lives and our wellness. She has a saying that goes, own your hours, rule your life. And her business is called Let's Talk Time. So I am excited to dive into this with my guest. Welcome CW Holly to Words of Wellness.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Shelley, for having me. I'm super excited and honored to be on your podcast. So I'm grateful for the conversation. Hopefully, it will connect with your audience.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I'm sure it will. And as I was sharing with you earlier, it just I love the timing. It just ties right into a recent episode that I did, a recent solo episode that I did about a book that is all about living a hurried life and what does that look like? And we know in our society now that so many people are in the in that kind of a hurried, busy life. And we all are part of it. But I think, and you're gonna share with us all the different strategies we can apply. But I always share, and I've and I've and I'm not like perfect by any means, but I always share about being present, you know, the best that we can, being in the present moment, enjoying the present moment, and taking quiet time and doing all those things that kind of help us to slow down just a little bit, even though there's always going to be something going on in our lives, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think Rachel Hollis, I know Rachel Hollis has said this. I'm not sure if this quote came her from her originally, but uh be present where your feet are, right? And so that's I always think about that when I feel like I'm getting overwhelmed or busy or things are going too fast. Um, hurried life, you you you called it. Um, but yeah, I mean, when I talk about time strategies, um, the reason I I believe in using your time strategically is because I don't want to spend the rest of my life busy. I want to create time and allow time to work for me so I can focus on the things that feel good to me, feel good to my family, feel good to my soul, feel good for my body and wellness. Um, so so yeah, when people see what I talk about in time strategy, some of my corporate background comes up and they're like, oh, she's the productivity queen. Well, yes, I can be very productive, but I do it because I want a different, I wanted a different life, and I've been able to create that different life because of these strategies.
SPEAKER_00I love that. And I think too, it depends, like you're saying, at what phase are you and what stage are you in your life? And with if you have children, if you have kids, you have a family, all of those phases change a little bit. And I know for me personally, uh my husband and I are now empty nesters, and that's been a whole different transition, but in a good way. And I think that uh, you know, I I didn't know going into it, but it just kind of lends itself to a whole new phase of life. And I know for me personally, I've gotten a little bit spoiled with my my schedule, my day-to-day schedule. And I I have a kind of a routine that I do for my morning, and I like to have my time on my couch with my doggies and my coffee, you know. So yes, I I didn't have that when my kids were young, is the point, too, is like it all shifts and changes. And, you know, what does that look like for everyone at different levels of your life and different stages of your life? And I think that's an important thing, especially for moms, to to understand and give give themselves, give ourselves grace in that, right? To just know that it's a little bit different depending on where you're at.
Seasons Of Life And Self-Compassion
SPEAKER_01Right, absolutely. I I talk so much about seasons of your life, and you know, I've been through multiple seasons of my life. I was building a career, climbing the corporate ladder, and then at one stage of my life, I had a newborn, a child in elementary school, middle and high at the same time. Uh, and then, you know, the three older ones are are out of the house now, and I I still have a nine-year-old at home. So, kind of going through different seasons. I've gone through a corporate layoff season, I've gone through a season of uh rebuilding a career, I've gone through a traumatic health um episode with a diagnosis of cancer and a miraculous healing from that. So different seasons in everybody's life, and I can name these seasons, but all of your audience and your listeners will be able to think back and say, Well, yeah, I've been through this season or that season or you know, this trauma, that sort of season. And that's why I teach in my programs um and my frameworks that um, so I have a time framework, T-I-M-E, and the first the T stands for your relationship with time, but I stands for individualized time strategies, right? And the way I think about that is according to your season of life or wherever you're at, wherever you're at along your journey in life, not everybody is able to get up at 5 a.m. and drink a green shake and run two miles and and do your weight training and all these things, right? Drink half your body weight in water, all these things. Everybody's not at that season. And and what I feel like I need people to hear is that's okay. Like you have permission not to be a top performer all the time. There are seasons where you have to slow down. Um, you know, you you just have a newborn, you have to slow down. You you are an empty nester, maybe you can you your capacity grows, your margin grows when it comes to time. So I compare this to you you hear of a fad diet or you see somebody who is starting to look good and feel good and has all this energy, and you're having a conversation, like, what are you doing? Oh, you oh you look great, right? And they tell you, and you try to repeat, repeat it, but it doesn't work for your body type or your season of life, it's not flexible enough for you, right? And you feel like a failure, and then you feel shame and guilt, and it's just because it was never meant for you during that time, right? So I think time strategies move individually and cut you've got to customize them to the season of your of life you're in. It's not a one size fits all.
SPEAKER_00And I I'm I'm so glad you're bringing this up because I think it's really important for listeners to really uh kind of take that in and digest it, especially moms, because we tend to put ourselves and our needs on the back burner or the sidelines, I'll say. And uh it's just always so important to give ourselves grace. And it doesn't matter what phase of life. Like I know for me personally, a lot of traveling is happening right now with my family, with my boys. They are both one plays college ball and one coaches, and it's amazing and it's such a blessing. I find I'm st I'm still in that a little bit of that tug of war. I'm like, I'm gone so much, I'm not getting any work done. I haven't gotten any work done, you know, like so it's still happening. So I think that's important. As I say, it's you know, I'm speaking to myself also, is that you also have to, whatever phase you're in, to really realize that and give yourself a little bit of grace along the way. Absolutely, absolutely.
Goal Setting That Includes Help
SPEAKER_01Um, I think one of the beautiful things you said was um number one, giving yourself grace along the way, but then also um there's gonna be times in your life where you have to acknowledge that they're hard. Moming is hard. Moming is difficult, right? Whether you are on top of your game or or you feel like you're failing all the time, momming, momming is difficult. Being a mother is is is difficult, but it's the most rewarding thing. And we do have to show ourselves grace. Um, one of the things I have a uh whole goal setting framework actually pulled out of the biblical story of Esther, where I use Esther as an acronym. And the letter H in my goal setting framework, Esther, is hard and help, meaning if you're goal setting, you have to acknowledge that it might be hard, right? You have to acknowledge before you even go into your planning period uh that that it might be hard, that that it that it's definitely gonna be hard, and there's gonna be challenges and obstacles, right? And then the the other part of age is help and acknowledge that you're most likely gonna need some help, and that help doesn't always look like a person. Um, it could be, it could be a girlfriend, it could be a spouse, it could be, you know, some type of significant other, but it also could be chat GPT or someone to clean your toilets or you know, a friend that you can have a glass of wine with. Help comes in many ways, but you have to acknowledge that you're gonna need the help no matter what it is. Um, and there's always some type of help, even if it's an online resource, right? Uh so when you're planning, that's part of that that framework that I teach.
SPEAKER_00I love that because it is, it can be so many different, so many different things for for everyone, and depending on what they're needing at that point in time, right? Yeah. How did you I'm I'm just curious because if you're saying you have four children and the ages are quite, there's quite a range. Were you able to kind of integrate this with being a mom with the different age groups? And how what did that look like or still does look like for you?
A Cancer Diagnosis That Changed Everything
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I would love to say that I was very good at time strategy when I was raising my older children. And that's unfortunately just not the case. Um, but I think it was birthed from that experience, right? Um, so I've always been able to manage my time. And here's my feeling about time management, the the taboo um thought of time management. We're not taught how to manage time in school. If you think back of any type of institutional learning from elementary, middle, high school, university, whatever, you're you're not taught how to manage your time. You're taught you're talked to or you're talked at about time management. Also, goal setting. What are your goals? What do you want to do? Why didn't you do your homework? What are your priorities? Don't you know how you know you got to manage your time? We're not taught that fundamental skill. However, my thought process behind that is we are all managing our time. If we're an adult and we've we are making some sort of living and we're alive and can buy groceries, I mean, we may not be doing it well, but we're managing our time. But the the um stri the shift comes from when you move from managing it, just surviving, to actually being strategic about it. And when you're strategic and you can direct that time, it creates space along other avenues. It creates space for things that you really want to pour your best energy in. So when I was raising my kids, I was managing my time schedules, softball, baseball, football, now soccer, but I was ignoring my health. And so maybe this is where the conversation's going. I was not listening to my body at all. Um, I was putting everything on the back burner, and in 2018, time totally slowed down for me. It actually stopped for me. Um, and this is where my big uh mindset shift happened. I was diagnosed with Leomyosarcoma, and I had been ignoring, ignoring, sweeping under the rugs, all the rug, all these symptoms that I was having and just putting it off because I was in a corporate job, I was growing my career, I had the newborn, I had these children that were I was trying to keep alive and help thrive, right? And and I was ignoring all of those symptoms, and so uh miraculously I was healed via a surgery and did not have to go through chemo and read radiation, praise, praise the Lord. Um, but I was told that I was going to, right? And so it was during that season, uh, and basically a week from the diagnosis to okay, you're gonna be fine, we think, but we're gonna keep testing, right? That time was not guaranteed. And so that's when my life changed and I moved into this mindset of I've been teaching time strategies to my my teams, but I have not been following them. So that's where everything shifted. And so now when I'm focused on time, I am able to give those lessons to my older adult children, which I feel like everything works out for a reason. Because if I was probably a time strategy coach at the time, I'd drive them crazy.
SPEAKER_00So things work out, it works out, right? And what an incredible, incredible story. Thank you for sharing that. Absolutely. So many thoughts I have because that's a big reason why I created I have a community called Moms Who Flourish. And for that very reason, for for those of us and many moms who don't, we don't put ourselves first, and the whole point and purpose is to help empower moms to put themselves first in their self-care and their wellness. And you touch upon something that's so critical to be reminded of the importance of listening to our bodies. And our bodies are miracles, and they give us signs, God signs, right? And uh thank God you you you were okay. And you're saying you were diagnosed, and within a week you had surgery.
SPEAKER_01So this is a a unique story. Um, I was actually diagnosed from my pathology report after my surgery. I was the cancer had been removed before the pathology report came back, and so it was, but we didn't know that at the time. We didn't know that we had gotten it all or they had gotten it all. Um, but I found out 2018 on Valentine's Day. What a what a great Valentine's Day present, right? That um that I was diagnosed with this cancer, and that was a Tuesday, and found out Monday from my C or that was a Tuesday, and I found out that Friday from my CT scan that there were no visible um um thing, you know, visible visibilities of of cancer, and then had CT scans after that um every couple of months to make sure. But yeah, I mean it was something that drastically changed my life. I literally the week before almost canceled the surgery out of fear, um, because there was kind of a mix-up with some paperwork, and I think they they said the wrong ovary that was gonna be removed, and it ended up everything came out. However, um, that was just on my my pre-op. And I sat in my car. I'll remember this. I haven't shared this story in a while, but I sat in my car, uh called my husband at the time, and said, I can't do this. They've messed it up, something's gonna happen. I, you know, I've I've got my newborn child, like I can't do this. And he said, Calm down, you know, just pray about it. I hung up the phone, I prayed about it. And God, I felt the Holy Spirit come over me and say, Hey, you know, you gotta do this. So I went back in, apologized. I wasn't ugly, but I was like, I can't do this. Uh went back in and and we were fine, had the surgery, and thank goodness that I did, because if I had not, I probably wouldn't be here today.
SPEAKER_00That's incredible. What what a story. Honestly. Yeah. And uh wow. I mean it it uh it's like you're saying too, that led you down this journey of this time management. And I and I think it's it's also such a you know, wake up call for so many people that uh so many people like yourself, it takes something like that to kind of shake us and and make a change if we need to make a change. Um I see that so often in my profession when it comes to health and wellness. You know, it takes a it an event, it could be a cancer diagnosis, it could be, you know, a mild heart attack, whatever it might be. So much of the time it takes something like that to uh really whip us into shape and and make us make a change. And it's unfortunate. And I I try and talk about it and really I don't want to say preach about it, but really I encourage others to uh do things now so that you can prevent uh having uh uh a diagnosis or a disease later. And I always know and I always will say and qualify it by saying it's not a guarantee. But uh if we take the steps and do what we can that's in our power, it at least we know we're doing what we can, right? Um because it's it's hard. I mean, I saw my dad do do kind of that kind of he wasn't the healthiest, but he did have a mild heart attack, and then he made changes, and he probably was with us longer than he would have been had he not made changes. But sometimes it's hard to see that, especially with someone, you know, a loved one, go through that. And so I just uh what what a what a beautiful story how yours turned out. Yes, yes, definitely glad you had the surgery. Yes, I'm very grateful.
Listening To Your Body And Speaking Up
SPEAKER_01I'm very blessed. I'll never take that for granted for sure. I think you said something earlier that if I can go back to a minute back to you for a minute, um, about listening to your body and and showing yourself grace. But one of the things I've learned through that story, but some other minor health things as well. Yes, number one, you've got to listen to your body. Women are naturally intuitive, and we typically know when something's off, but we are very good at ignoring it, right? And manipulating the story in our mind so we can just keep on because we're expected to keep on moving and going and growing and all these things. But these little tiny things that are coming up with people's health, most of the time women know, like if they think back, they they have this event and then they think back, yeah. I mean, I shouldn't have ignored that, right? One of the things I'll say to that is I've found that no one is going to be your advocate as as well as you are for yourself, you are your own very best advocate. You can have the best husband, wife, um, mother, father, supportive siblings, supportive children, co-workers. They are not in tune with what's going on internally. And I use this example so much when it comes to using your time strategies to meet your goals. Somebody wants to write a book. Hey, you've got to focus and throw your energy into it this way, but you can't depend on other people to they might cheer you along, but they're gonna have opinions, or you know, they may cheer you along, but they're not necessarily gonna hold you accountable as well as you can self-lead yourself. And the same comes with the same comes along the line of wellness, right? You have to be able to be in tune and listen, but the biggest mistake is you can't ignore it. The same thing happened with my blood pressure. My blood pressure, I had high blood blood pressure after pregnancy for a couple of years after that. Blood pressure was perfect until I got pregnant, uh, hypertensive, took meds, all these things, made lifestyle changes, and then it started dropping. And so I was on this high dose of blood pressure medicine, but I knew my blood pressure was dropping because I'd have these. Little spots in my eyes, I'd feel you know, weak and and woozy. And I'm I'm a nurse by trade. I haven't nursed in a long time, but I'm a nurse by train. Ended up on in operations and all that stuff corporately. But you don't have to be a nurse to know that something might be going on with your body. And so when I went to the physician, my insurance change had to go to a new physician. It was one of my first visits. And I said, Hey, I feel like my blood pressure is dropping. I haven't checked it. However, I feel like it's dropping. Can we check on check on that? And the physician went into this big rant about, well, we can't just cut blood pressure medicine and it has to do. I said, I understand what you're saying, but at this point, I need you to listen to me. And so even with providers, you have to be an advocate. And if it's not serving you well and they're not listening, then you might need to make a change, right? I've I've had to change physicians a couple of times because I feel like I'm not being heard about my own body, right? So you have to be your own best advocate.
SPEAKER_00So true. And this is I this has been a very common theme that I have shared with other guests on the podcast. And I love it because it just reinforces it, reinforces it. I same thing like you're saying, I just did an episode with with a gal who used to be a nurse, and when she started going through the perimetopause menopause, she went into her provider and they wanted to just prescribe her anti-anxiety meds. And she said, no, that's not what I need. And so she ended up pursuing her own path of helping women when they go through this phase of life. So it's so interesting. And I think like, like just like with you as a nurse, you experienced it. And I thought, wow, that's wild how she was a nurse and she experienced the same thing, you know? And so again, just that enforcement of uh being an advocate, and we're not taught to voice our uh our thoughts or uh what we're feeling with a doctor. Like I feel like that's not something that we were taught to do growing up, right? That the doctor kind of knows, you know, and you listen to your doctor, which you know, of course, most of the time you you should, I guess, but we know now that they're human, they don't always have the answers. But thank you for sharing that because I think that's such an important point, and it just re-emphi and re-emphasizes the importance of of sticking to what we know is going on with our bodies and standing up for ourselves. And like you said, if uh our provider is not listening to us, uh we it's then we have the choice to choose someone new. And again, that's not something that's taught. Thank you for bringing that up because it seems to be a consistent theme, and it's so important for listeners to hear that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I actually um, but I feel like the way people need to kind of start thinking about this is you can shop provider, like you can shop providers. I know there's constraints with um insurance and self-pay, all those things, but if we as women can just or anyone start thinking about your physician, your nurse practitioner, because there's other options, your physician's assistant, your wellness, whatever, as a partner in your health, like you work together to figure out what is the best fit for your body right now. Obviously, authoritative respect to the expert because I'm I'm a nurse, I'm not a physician, right? And I'm not even a practicing nurse anymore. I'm not gonna give you medical advice. However, if you're telling me something that I'm completely uncomfortable with because I know that something else is going on with my body, then then we have to speak up.
SPEAKER_00It's so important, it really is. And, you know, I think I would hope more and more people are doing that because we we've learned along the way the importance of it. Something that was taught, at least for my generation when I was younger, you know, it's not something we were taught to do. Sure.
SPEAKER_01Because mom's talking for you when you go, or dad's talking for you when you go to the doctor until you're an adult and you're like, oh, I'll just stick with the program.
SPEAKER_00Yes, a hundred percent. I I had a similar experience, kind of like what you did with your cancer diagnosis. It's it's not exactly the same, but I when I was pregnant, when we were pregnant with my first our first baby, my daughter, there were some tests that came back abnormal. And when we went to have further testing done, they thought they saw a cyst on her brain, which then made them go, okay, there's even a higher now percentage of something being wrong. And I'm I'm totally like paraphrasing and condensing the story, but I remember at that moment in time, just again, I probably I feel like it was a message from God just saying, Listen, the the doctors know this is what they have to tell you. They have to base what they're sharing with you the on the statistics that they know and that they have learned, and that's that's their job. And ultimately, God has final say wherever this is gonna go. Thankfully, she was a completely healthy baby. But again, it's like it's like in any profession, right? We're we're taught certain things and and we have to stay within our wheelhouse, but we have to share that information at the same time, and it doesn't always apply to everyone, and so I think that's such an important message to always always be your own advocate no matter what.
SPEAKER_01It's tough though, sometimes, right? Because you said, like you said, you're not you're not taught that.
From Time Management To Time Stewardship
SPEAKER_00It is, and for someone who might not feel have that confidence to to voic vocalize where they're coming from, it can it can be challenging for sure. Yeah, I I just love this conversation, and I feel like we could continue for quite some time. Um, I want to kind of hear more about what you what you offer. Your focus is really helping people, like you said, manage their time and focus on that. And and I thought it was so great what you said earlier, too, how we are not taught, we're not taught how to manage our time. It's like we're thrown into it. That's been a challenge for me, I feel like, with business. Like I feel like I understand it, I hear it. You have to have a planner, and I have a planner, and you have to manage your time. But again, sometimes I get frustrated with myself, and then this just makes me remember that it's something that we were never taught. We're kind of learning as we go. How do you take someone through initially kind of that process to help them with that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so kind of going back to what I said earlier, moving from my whole goal is to move people from time management, which we should again, we should have been taught, but we weren't, right? To time strategy and really directing our time where we want it to go, where it needs to be most heavily weighted in order to increase your capacity to do what you want most, right? And so how I start conversations with people typically is I talk about their relationship with time. So if I were to throw out the name of a an ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, ex-husband, ex-partner, maybe a bad friendship, right? You'd have some visceral feelings probably come up in your gut, maybe get a little heartburn, right? And and why is that? That's because most of the time that might have been some type of toxic relationship. Not always, right? I don't want to assume, but but sometimes um obviously it was there was something off because it didn't work. Believe it or not, we're in the same type of relationship with with time. And so how we perceive time is a learned behavior from maybe how your parents perceive time, your teachers, people, other influencer influencers in your life. So you've heard a million people say, I don't have time, one day when the kids are older, when the chaos slow down, slows down, right? But in reality, that stuff never happens. Life does not slow down. Your seasons change, your children move out, just using your you as an example, but life is still busy, you still have other things, you're just filling it with other opportunities, events, business, right? So time, you know, we we fill the gaps organically, and until we learn to not fill as many gaps with just busyness. I talk about the Eisenhower matrix so much, urgent versus important. And when you when you go into that conversation, it seems to overwhelm people. Well, I'm just busy all the time. Well, you're busy all the time because you choose to be busy all the time. You you actually have a choice, and so what that season of life with that cancer diagnosis taught me was you're not nobody is guaranteed the same number of months, years, days, even hours. However, typically, I know there's some extenuating circumstances, but typically we all have 24 hours in a day, and we do have the ability to choose how we direct those hours. And so I teach time strategies around one core foundation, uh, one core value of my business let's talk time, and that's time stewardship. It is how we choose to use our time and how we steward our time to create impact in our lives and other others' lives. And so the way I do that around that core value is three things. I niche three things, and that's individualized time strategies, transformative goal setting. So, not not just smart goals, says M A R T, which is is wonderful, it's a wonderful validator, but that solely validates if the goal is smart. That doesn't have anything to do with the actual execution of the goal. So transformative goal setting, and that's where that Esther framework comes in, and then self-leadership. If you are not able to lead yourself with accountability, we can't expect anybody else to. So that's how that conversation begins. I offer six-week coaching programs, individually group coaching programs, and then uh work with businesses as well for time strategy leadership development.
SPEAKER_00It's so excellent because it's so needed. And I and I think that I saw something, I think it's in the I think I was reading it in the book that I was referring to in the beginning about how people will say, I wish I had more hours in the day, or I wish I had 10 more hours, but it's exactly to your point. Well, if you did, you would just fill those up, right? We would just continue. Exactly. It's just so funny. And I sometimes think I share on on social, and a lot of people are like, God, you're busy. And I think, yeah, it looks like I am, but I also am very, very intentional with my time. So when I am home, right, traveling or going to an event, I'm enjoying my time on the couch, yes, doing work or reading or sitting with my husband or my fur baby. You know what I mean? Maybe I should share more of that with people so they see that I'm actually sitting down and resting and relaxing because it kind of come across as that. And I am talking about being present and not being so busy, but yet people might think, Well, gosh, why are you sharing? You're always going here or going there. And it looks, like I said, that way, but very much so. I enjoy my time at home 110%.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I feel like it's very obvious that you're passionate about health and wellness and spreading the message, but it sounds like you're aligned in what you're doing because I think at the core of wellness, this this underlying stress level that people tend to have because they are so busy, it can be solved, it can be healed if you start being more intentional by directing those hours, right? I love a slow morning. I love a slow morning. My first 90 minutes, I've got very um non-negotiable anchoring rituals that I do in the morning and in the evening. And you know, that's not for everybody, and and that's okay because again, we're going back to those individually individualized time strategies, but you have to align that with what you want most in the season you're in. So true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I love what you're doing because just exactly what you said, it it ties exactly into wellness because that time strategy indirectly affects our overall stress. Exactly. And we know that stress is a huge part of our, it affects our health in either positive or negative ways. And I share about longevity as well. And stress is one of those important components of that, that we have to find ways to manage it. And what you're doing helps with that tremendously.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and one of the one of the um, you know, stress is such a I I mean, stress is real, but I do think there's so many people substituting the word stress for challenges, right? Like, I'm stressed, I'm stressed, I've got so much going on. We have to have some type of healthy expect expectation that there are gonna be challenges. And that's why um in my fra my goal setting framework, H stands for hard and help. I think I mentioned that earlier, but you have to acknowledge that there's gonna be challenges, and as long as you can know that up front, you're gonna be able to cope with that better. And that's not stress, that's life, right? Um, and the more you the more you plan, and listen, I don't plan out every second of my day. I'm not one of those time strategy coaches or or productivity coaches that says you have to calendar in when you urinate, right? I'm not one of those, but you you have the time, make the best of the time. And again, kind of going back to show yourself grace. If you forget to plan something or you need a reset, you gotta do it. Just just do it and move on. You gotta learn to let some things go. Um, but knowing that there's gonna be challenges when you're goal setting or or intentionally using your time, something's gonna come up and just accepting them before they even come up, it's gonna help your stress.
Time Audits, Morning Rituals, And Stress
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's so true. Where can people find you, CW? Because I feel like this is such an important topic. And you are just, I feel like I just am enjoying talking with you so much. You even just have a calming effect. So it probably makes sense so you do what you do. How do people reach out to you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so my company is called Let's Talk Time. I'm on all social media platforms. I love LinkedIn, I'm such a LinkedIn girl. Um, so CWHolly or Let's Talk Time on LinkedIn. I also have a book on Amazon, and that's where that tagline came from. Uh, my book is Let's Talk Time on Your Hours Rule Your Life. It also has a 30-day time and energy audit journal in the back of the book. So it's like two books at one. So love that. Um, and my email address is CW at Let's Talk Time, and I love to talk time. I love to chat. I offer free strategy calls as well.
SPEAKER_00I love that. And I will share all of that in the show notes. And amazing that your book sounds incredible. And that's that's another important tool to to to track our our time, tracker energy, how how is what we're doing is singer energy. And again, it goes back to that time strategy, like you say. Yeah. And gosh, it's so important. I just so appreciate you sharing today. It's been such a pleasure getting to hear about what you do and your some of your stories and what's brought you to where you are today. So thank you so much. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01You've been such an incredible host, and I still want to know more about your story. You've been so gracious to share. I love to hear about what season people are in their life.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. No, I appreciate that so, so much. And we'll we'll maybe have to do an um a part two or have another another time where we can share because I think this is just so so valuable for everyone. And I just I've just appreciated this so much and I've enjoyed it so much. Any last words of wellness or inspiration for our listeners?
SPEAKER_01You know, number one, the first thing I I talk about is your relationship with time. If you're not kind of doing a time audit, that's where I start people at. Audit your time. I've got uh tools I can send you. If you don't bring visibility and awareness to how you're actually spending your time compared to the story that we typically tell ourselves, sometimes that's a problem. And that's where I would typically start with. I uh this is barely scratching the surface, our conversation. Um, but I love to talk about gaining time traction and uh helping decrease people's compounding time debt as well.
Where To Find CW And Closing
SPEAKER_00Well, I just want to encourage all of our listeners to reach out to CW. I mean, she you can hear she's just a breath of fresh light to speak with, kind of just bring this sense of confidence to others when it comes to what you're talking about, what you're teaching others. So thank you for what you do. And I just again I encourage all of you who are listening to to reach out to CW, especially if you're having some issues with your time, your time management, and your time strategy. Jeff, definitely reach out to her. And as always, do something for yourself and your wellness on this day. And we will see everyone next time on Words of Wellness. Have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed weekend.