Move Forward in 2024: How To Unlock an Inspiring Vision for This Year | S6 E15

Steve Alessi [00:00:00]:
Instead of grandparenting because it seems so old. We're so young. Excuse me. You're so young that you're just a parent of parents.

Mary Alessi [00:00:10]:
I like the parent of parents. I just don't like PP.

Steve Alessi [00:00:12]:
You don't like PP. But it goes in line with what happens when you're a new parent of parents.

Mary Alessi [00:00:16]:
Hey, you know, you want to know why new parents?

Steve Alessi [00:00:28]:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Family business with the Alessi's. I'm Steve Alessi, and I'm here in the podcast booth today with Mary Alessi.

Mary Alessi [00:00:38]:
Me.

Steve Alessi [00:00:39]:
Happy New Year.

Mary Alessi [00:00:40]:
Happy new Year.

Steve Alessi [00:00:42]:
Wow.

Mary Alessi [00:00:42]:
Welcome. 2024.

Steve Alessi [00:00:45]:
It's pretty cool.

Mary Alessi [00:00:47]:
How are we this high in the number, right? 2024.

Steve Alessi [00:00:51]:
That's scary.

Mary Alessi [00:00:52]:
It's very crazy.

Steve Alessi [00:00:53]:
Life is changing a lot. Yeah. With every new year, life is changing.

Mary Alessi [00:00:58]:
We've had a lot more in the last real quick season here.

Steve Alessi [00:01:04]:
I just feel like it was yesterday and we were doing this whole New Year's thing. I know, right?

Mary Alessi [00:01:09]:
I know.

Steve Alessi [00:01:10]:
Wow. Here we are again.

Mary Alessi [00:01:11]:
Here we are again.

Steve Alessi [00:01:13]:
And life is changing. I even had to increase the font on my computer here so I can actually read everything that I want to say. But here we are. Life's good, and we want to get right into our new Year podcast with you, and we want to thank you for listening and watching and sharing and letting people know about the Alessi family business. Now, here's some things we need to get out of the way. First off, you're wearing some great.

Mary Alessi [00:01:43]:
I'm so glad you looked at that. This sweatshirt is so cool. And now with the cooler temps this first part of the year, you got to get one. And it's the definition of what a podiance is, which is.

Steve Alessi [00:01:53]:
I hate to read your chest.

Mary Alessi [00:01:54]:
Like, go ahead.

Steve Alessi [00:01:55]:
You're my used to it. An audience of podcast fans, specifically those who are followers of the family business with the Alessi's podcast.

Mary Alessi [00:02:05]:
Come on. This is cool.

Steve Alessi [00:02:07]:
Those are great.

Mary Alessi [00:02:08]:
Wear it around town.

Steve Alessi [00:02:09]:
I'm a fan, by the way.

Mary Alessi [00:02:10]:
I'm a fan of navy blue.

Steve Alessi [00:02:13]:
I'm a fan of you.

Mary Alessi [00:02:14]:
I know.

Steve Alessi [00:02:14]:
That's a great look on you, but.

Mary Alessi [00:02:17]:
You just started this podcast by saying you had to make the letters larger so you could see. What does that say about me? Your eyesight is going, oh, gosh.

Steve Alessi [00:02:27]:
That's all right. Well, there is an answer for that, but I won't.

Mary Alessi [00:02:30]:
But I won't give it to you right here. Okay.

Steve Alessi [00:02:32]:
All right, let's get into something else. Since it's the new year, we always should be introducing something new.

Mary Alessi [00:02:39]:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi [00:02:39]:
And so we have a new segment to our podcast that we are calling. The Alessis are asking. We're going to have music and everything. Fire. We are everything. We might as well.

Mary Alessi [00:02:52]:
We just got to learn how to say the word podcast. I still struggle over that word.

Steve Alessi [00:02:56]:
You're making fun of me. Just tripling over it. Well, tripling over it.

Mary Alessi [00:03:01]:
Got to call it out.

Steve Alessi [00:03:02]:
Okay. It's my job, audience. There it is. So here's the deal. We're going to do it this way. Every time we say the Alesses are asking, there's going to be some kind of you or me. And here's the point of this. We love you hearing from us.

Steve Alessi [00:03:20]:
That's fun. But we also want to hear from you.

Mary Alessi [00:03:24]:
Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:03:25]:
And so what we're going to do is we're not asking you to ask us questions.

Mary Alessi [00:03:30]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:03:31]:
We're asking you questions because you are important. And quite frankly, we want to know who our audience is out there and what you think. What you think? Yeah. What you're grappling with. What are some of the questions that you're wrestling with throughout life and so forth? So we're going to be asking you questions and then we're going to ask that you respond with your question. What we're then going to do is be able to give you one, our answer to the question that we're asking you. But then we're going to discuss some of your responses because we want to know where you're at, what you're thinking. Maybe we can help you some way with some of the answers that are needed through the questions of life.

Steve Alessi [00:04:18]:
So it can't just be one way. You're hearing from us all the time. That's what we do on Sundays. We want to do something else with you. We want to hear from you for real.

Mary Alessi [00:04:28]:
We want their input.

Steve Alessi [00:04:29]:
We want to thank Alan Paul for this. He helps us with making sure we produce our program the right way. And this was a great idea that we could have so we can learn and hear from you. Now, what I'm going to ask is this particular question, and this is actually from you, Mary, this is going to be tough. All right. And then I need your answers to come in. We need them by January the 24th. So we want to get your answers in by January the 24th.

Mary Alessi [00:05:00]:
Don't miss.

Steve Alessi [00:05:01]:
Here's the question that we are asking. Are you ready? The Podians, since we're in an election year, we want to know this answer. What's the biggest issue that's going to determine your vote. What's the biggest issue that's going to determine your vote now? Could be, I don't know. You're going to send it in, but here's some of the things we're thinking of. Maybe it is social issues, right? What's out there with social issues? What's happening with the abortion issue? What's happening with the gender issue or the inequality or the education? The social issues, does that determine your vote? Is that going to help you choose the man or the woman that you choose to vote for? Or will it be the candidate themselves? Do you like their personality or do you not like their personality? Is that what's going to determine your vote? Will it be your political party affiliation because you're a Democrat or you're an independent or you're a Republican? What is going to determine your vote? So whatever that is, and you may have others that we did not mention here, whatever it is, go ahead, send in your response to that question and then we will be able to share our answers with you, what's determining our vote? And we'll discuss some of your responses.

Mary Alessi [00:06:31]:
That's going to be fun. I think that'll be I'm excited about.

Steve Alessi [00:06:33]:
All right, so go to the website. You'll see all this information right there and you'll be able to respond with your answers to the question the Alesses are asking.

Mary Alessi [00:06:43]:
I love it.

Steve Alessi [00:06:44]:
All right. New year, new you, new me, new topic. What do you think, Mary? Just a little update on our family because things have been really exciting in the month of December. We ended the year strong. What's some updates?

Mary Alessi [00:06:59]:
We added a baby to the family we moved into, back into our house because we remodeled the downstairs, which was something I think we would agree we won't do again for a long, long time. That was a lot. What else did we do? There was just a huge rush to the.

Steve Alessi [00:07:18]:
Tell me about your grandbaby. What's his name?

Mary Alessi [00:07:20]:
Oh, my goodness. His name is Matthew Manuel Moynia.

Steve Alessi [00:07:23]:
Yep.

Mary Alessi [00:07:23]:
M Eminem. And he is the cutest little thing. So proud of Chris and Stephanie Moynia for giving us this cute little boy, Matthew. And he is little, but he's just the sweetest. Thank God for another quiet, precious little baby. He's quiet. He sleeps good. And not that that affects us.

Mary Alessi [00:07:45]:
We sleep good, too, don't we?

Steve Alessi [00:07:47]:
Well, you stayed a couple of nights over there.

Mary Alessi [00:07:48]:
That was nice. I did. I did. To help Stephanie and Chris with Gianna, our granddaughter. And that was fun. I really did enjoy that. Being a grandma is giving me reason to pause and reflect on our moms, especially my mom who would come and stay with me for about a week after I had each baby. We had four and she would come and stay and I've really actually thought was the bed we had for her comfortable? Because she came and stayed for a week at a time to help me with the baby.

Mary Alessi [00:08:17]:
But I know that was a sacrifice, but it was certainly something that she enjoyed. I have definitely enjoyed being able to help my kids with their babies.

Steve Alessi [00:08:26]:
But you don't feel like a grandparent, do you?

Mary Alessi [00:08:29]:
No. Do I look like parents? There you go. I don't know what we thought.

Steve Alessi [00:08:34]:
I think we need to come up with a new merch shirt. The Alessi family business. And it has to be a PP.

Mary Alessi [00:08:40]:
A PP?

Steve Alessi [00:08:41]:
Yeah, parents of parents. It's a new term. We need to instead of grandparenting because it seems so old. We're so young. Excuse me, you're so young that you're just a parent of parents.

Mary Alessi [00:08:56]:
I like the parent of parents. I just don't like PP.

Steve Alessi [00:08:58]:
You don't like PP. But it goes in line with what happens when you're a new parent of, you know.

Mary Alessi [00:09:03]:
You want to know why new parents? Okay. You know why it wasn't hard to stay at the Moina's house two nights in a row to help him with the baby.

Steve Alessi [00:09:09]:
Why?

Mary Alessi [00:09:10]:
Because I basically am like a Newborn all over again. I get up twice in the middle of the night. It was so not an issue. I have to get up to PP. That's why I don't like that is one of the qualifications.

Steve Alessi [00:09:23]:
You're not a real parent of parents. A PP until you're pping in the.

Mary Alessi [00:09:27]:
Middle of the night problem that we have at this age. But it wasn't because I was getting up.

Steve Alessi [00:09:32]:
Anyway, back to the grandkid. He's doing great.

Mary Alessi [00:09:35]:
He's doing amazing.

Steve Alessi [00:09:36]:
And so is, oh my gosh, so is Marino. What's up with all these m's? Marino, who's right down the block from Matthew and they're going to be good buddies?

Mary Alessi [00:09:48]:
I don't know, but my name starts with an M. Just saying.

Steve Alessi [00:09:51]:
Me, me.

Mary Alessi [00:09:52]:
And I am Mia. That's my grandparent name. Mia.

Steve Alessi [00:09:56]:
No, it's me.

Mary Alessi [00:09:57]:
Well, because Gianna calls me me. She screens my name.

Steve Alessi [00:10:01]:
Me. It's great. Oh lord, I love it.

Mary Alessi [00:10:03]:
But she's adorable. But she's obsessed with you.

Steve Alessi [00:10:05]:
Yep.

Mary Alessi [00:10:06]:
Well, I have to say there's no denying it. Yeah, I don't like it.

Steve Alessi [00:10:10]:
That's why you're working overtime for Matthew and Marino.

Mary Alessi [00:10:13]:
Oh, they're mine.

Steve Alessi [00:10:13]:
Because you need one. I don't know. Marino's kind of, he's dialing in on you.

Mary Alessi [00:10:18]:
He is?

Steve Alessi [00:10:18]:
That is really sweet. See, I don't have a problem with that, babe. I'm glad you got the affection of your girl.

Mary Alessi [00:10:24]:
I don't have a problem. She's just, we had adjust.

Steve Alessi [00:10:30]:
Here's what's really interesting. Some of our people may know this, some of them may not. While this is the ebbs and flows, the highs and lows of life, and this usually happens at interesting times for us, and it happens because of our line of work in the ministry and what we do with the church work, we can experience some of the highest of highs, but at the same time, on the same day, in the same moment, we have to tackle the lowest of lows.

Mary Alessi [00:10:57]:
Right?

Steve Alessi [00:10:57]:
So while we were having this beautiful grandchild in baptist hospital, in the maternity ward, I'm in the emergency wing with my mom, who, on that particular morning when we were all going to the hospital, she came walking out of her room because my mom, who was just on this podcast sharing the week before, the week before, sharing about the new seasons of life, she walks out of her room that morning, and immediately I could tell something was off. I said, mom, hi, you all right? First thing she asked me is, where's Mary? And I'm like, okay, something's really wrong, because she never asks me where you're at. She's always saying, how did you sleep, Steve? Did you have any know? But she came out, and she had this very confused look on her face. And I knew right then something was wrong. Long story short, I had to rush her to Baptist. Her blood pressure was, had to rush her to Baptist. And what we suspected came true, which was she had a stroke. She had a mini have.

Steve Alessi [00:12:01]:
I didn't put it out there to everybody, Mary, but while you were over there with Steph in this new, beautiful life, I'm over here with mom trying to figure out what's going on. And for a few hours, it was just she and I. My sister did come down to help us out. And ultimately, now mom's back in Stewart, back where she lives, and she's getting some good therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy. She's navigating pretty well.

Mary Alessi [00:12:33]:
She is.

Steve Alessi [00:12:34]:
But, man, out of nowhere, it hit. And in the same day, you got new life, a new gift of life. We're over here also struggling with, uhoh, what's happened to my mom. And thankfully, she's okay now. And a lot of people have showed some real love to her and so forth, and we just ask that you keep her in prayer. But that's the ebbs and flows of life. And some of those that are listening in our audience, they have those same experiences, and we're no different. Right.

Steve Alessi [00:13:09]:
The high, we have a new grandbaby last year in December. The high. We're over here having our light fest, where we're walking through Dadland campus and meeting a ton of people, just thousands walking through and celebrating the highs of Christmas, which it should be the lows as I'm dealing with my mom having a stroke. And we had a dear family of our church that we ended up having to have a funeral for on a Saturday morning in between two light fest nights, a Friday and a Saturday. But that's the ebbs and flows. And I'm saying this intentionally now, because our audience and those that are listening, you've got to be emotionally strong. Yes, they call it the emotional quotient. You got to be able to be strong emotionally to handle life right.

Steve Alessi [00:14:09]:
Life's not fair. Life's no respecter of persons, spiritually speaking. We can come at it that there is the El Diablo, the devil. There's bad that happens in life. Some say bad karma. Hey, bad stuff happens. And you better be ready to handle those bad things that come your way, because it's part of the high and the low, the mountain, the valley, the ebbs and the flows of life. You can be winning one season, but boom, you can be losing the very next day, the very next season.

Steve Alessi [00:14:44]:
So if you're listening, while you're listening, you need to always remember, emotionally speaking, I got to be strong. I can't make every low about me, right? I've got to be looking around, because as much as I wanted to make at that moment, my mom going through something about mom and me, I didn't want to upset the celebration that was going on in our church and even in our family. I didn't want that to take away from that high, and I surely didn't want to take the attention away from the rooms family who were having to bury their 30 or 29 year old son. I didn't want that to get in the middle. So it was like, you know what? I can handle this. We can handle this. Our family, we can handle this, and we're going to help mom through it and so forth. But it's the highs and the lows, and you better be ready for them in life, which then should bring us to this.

Steve Alessi [00:15:38]:
That's a little update of our family. What are we going to be doing in the new year? Because if it's going to be new year, new me, new year, new focus, what's that going to look like?

Mary Alessi [00:15:54]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:15:54]:
And this is where we're going as a man and as a church. Every year in the last few years, I felt like we had a theme that we needed to hold on to to get us through the year. And one was the year of wisdom.

Mary Alessi [00:16:16]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:16:17]:
My stomach is hungry.

Mary Alessi [00:16:19]:
Not sure if the mic picked that up, but whoo.

Steve Alessi [00:16:21]:
It's growling. It was the year of wisdom because we needed wisdom to get through 2020, which was Covid. On the backside of that was the year of faith. We came out of COVID that next year in 2021, we needed faith to be able to see what we couldn't see because we were seeing so much in the natural. It was scary, and we needed to see what our potential in God could be. So it was a year of faith. This past year has been the year of the spirit.

Mary Alessi [00:16:52]:
Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:16:52]:
Where we felt like God is going to lead us. Here's what we're seeing for 2024. It's going to be the year of vision.

Mary Alessi [00:17:01]:
I love it.

Steve Alessi [00:17:02]:
The year of vision. What does that say to you?

Mary Alessi [00:17:05]:
When you told me that, I thought, that is so in line with what everybody really needs. We need a vision. We need a vision for our lives. Our nation needs a vision for itself. There's such a scattered sense of identity right now, and we know there's a scripture that we love as christians. Without a vision, the people perish. If you don't have a vision for your life, whether that's an education, a plan, a goal, what you see is a life that the Bible says perish, but you really do just fall off a cliff.

Steve Alessi [00:17:36]:
Or here's another version of it. Cast off restraint. Without a vision, people cast off their restraints.

Mary Alessi [00:17:42]:
Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:17:42]:
There's no order, there's no direction.

Mary Alessi [00:17:44]:
There's total chaos without vision and direction and leadership. And if we lead our lives well with vision, all of us take that sense of responsibility, the whole world looks different. But I think what we're seeing right now is that the lack of knowledge and understanding of how imperative a vision is, it's not just important, it's not something that's on your to do list. Oh, what's my goal? It's bigger than that. What's your overall vision for your life? One of the things that grandparenting has done for you and I is we see the impact that the vision we have for our lives will not only impact our children, but our children's children. And so the importance of vision is knowing how have we set our sales in what direction? Where are we going? What does matter to us? And have we put a name to this year to truly set the sales of our lives in the direction of a vision that we can see, that we can talk about, that this is the outcome we want, even if it's just for the next six months. What is the vision? What do we see? And that's really kind of a learned behavior.

Steve Alessi [00:18:52]:
It is. It's intentional.

Mary Alessi [00:18:53]:
And it has to be intentional.

Steve Alessi [00:18:54]:
It's intentional. Here's the thought with the year of vision. It comes down to this question. What's your life going to look like? Yeah, that's it.

Mary Alessi [00:19:06]:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi [00:19:06]:
Or better yet, what do you want your life to look, know Chris and Gabby yourself and stuff you've been pushing. Okay, Steve, what's the vision for next year? Because now we're back into this whole thing. What's going to be the thought? What's going to be the direction we go in? What's going to be the emphasis that we, as an organization, a church, what are we going to emphasize the most? So I hadn't had anything up to this point, right? So I'm away and I'm actually sitting in the hunting stand, and I had to just get away because our Thanksgiving, our month of November, was interrupted by this precious little boy, Matthew. And instead of being able to spend the month of November like I had become accustomed to for the last couple of years, spending the month with our moms and being up at the farm, coming back on the weekends to do services a couple of times throughout the month and just being up there to hunt and the beautiful cold weather, all that was interrupted. So I was a little frustrated. And I told you that because it became, oh, dad, here he goes again. He needs to get to know because, Georgia, dad's a happy dad. And I told you, Mary, it wasn't so much that as it was me sitting there in limbo, not sure what we were going to do.

Steve Alessi [00:20:26]:
Because now that the kids are even older and adults, I'm kind of like, I can't call the shots for everybody. I can call them for you and me, but I can't call them for everybody because they're grown adults.

Mary Alessi [00:20:39]:
Right?

Steve Alessi [00:20:39]:
So this was a challenge and I was just getting frustrated. So you were like, just go, you and your buddies, because you only had a couple of days and I wanted know, take a couple of guys in the church with me because they deserve it. And they're introducing them to hunting was great. And I'm sitting there, it's 05:00 in the morning. David Martinez and I are sitting in the dark in our tree stand. It's freezing. And I'm like, I'm just going to pray. I'm just bowing my head here because you can't talk.

Steve Alessi [00:21:07]:
You're alone for about an hour, even though you're next to each other. And I just started praying and my prayer was from, all right, I want to know what I'm supposed to be doing because, babe, I love being papa, but Papa can't define me, right? Papa to me. Excuse me if this offends anybody, is old, right? And I want it to be endearing. I don't want it to be old. I'm 63, but I'm not going to be old, right? I got a long time to go before I'm old, right? But if I can get in the mindset of being old with papa, and if I start thinking I'm old, I'm going to be old, right? So I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay, I'm not going to be old, papa, right? I can't let that be my vision from here on out. And I can't just be Mary's husband, right? Yeah. I love you as my wife, but I can't just be that something. I just can't.

Steve Alessi [00:22:13]:
I want to be your husband, but that can't just define who I am. Just like I cannot define who you are. I'm your husband, but you're more than being Steve's wife. So that can't just define who I am sitting there. And I just can't be this pastor, all right? So I'm like, what's my life going to look like? What's my next? I got a son that's nipping at my heels as a young 30 year old. He's ready to. My job is to make sure he and every one of my adult kids and this staff, they're all elevating and growing and getting better and getting more gifted and more annoyed and they need room. I can't stay in the way, right?

Mary Alessi [00:23:07]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:23:08]:
But it's not time for me to step out.

Mary Alessi [00:23:10]:
Yeah. It's a tough place, right? Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:23:12]:
So I'm sitting there in that deal, in that stand head on the cold bar, and I'm saying, what's the deal? And I heard this in my heart, vision.

Mary Alessi [00:23:25]:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi [00:23:26]:
You're going to make it. What you want it to be vision.

Mary Alessi [00:23:31]:
Get a picture.

Steve Alessi [00:23:32]:
Get an image.

Mary Alessi [00:23:33]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:23:34]:
Because part of vision is imagining.

Mary Alessi [00:23:39]:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi [00:23:40]:
Where does imagining come from? It's an image. So the question ultimately is, what's your life going to look like in 2024 and beyond?

Mary Alessi [00:23:54]:
Yeah.

Steve Alessi [00:23:56]:
And I've never been a guy with a five year plan. I've never been that kind of guy.

Mary Alessi [00:24:00]:
You're year by year, I'm a.

Steve Alessi [00:24:02]:
Year by year. I'm a shoot, hey, month by month. Come on. Week by week, it's a good challenge. But I have to ask myself, what do I want my life to look like? Because here's what everybody's got to realize. Nobody determines that but you.

Mary Alessi [00:24:19]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:24:20]:
If you let somebody else determine that, if you let a calendar determine that, you let a divorce or a situation determine that, if you let your kids determine it.

Mary Alessi [00:24:30]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:24:31]:
All right. That's not healthy because you're not going to be happy with the end result.

Mary Alessi [00:24:36]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:24:38]:
You're going to have to ask yourself, what do I want my life to look like? And then you're fortunate enough in 2024 to have twelve months with each month being a brand new canvas that you can start to paint what your life will look like.

Mary Alessi [00:24:59]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:24:59]:
Because it's on you. You hold the brush in your hands.

Mary Alessi [00:25:04]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:25:05]:
You're the one that determines what your life is going to look like in 2024. And we can't even blame the president. We can't blame economy, we can't blame anybody for that. Other people, anything that's going to be on us.

Mary Alessi [00:25:18]:
That's right. So your vision, and I think it encompasses every age group, every single age group, doesn't matter how old you are, if you're 18 years old, starting college, having a vision for the end result of that, having a vision just really for your character development. I think we only see vision in the eyes of, through the lens of what we're going to turn out being. And you can also have a vision for how you want your marriage to be. You can have a vision for how you want the culture of your office to be. You can have a vision for how you want to redefine your parenting, where there's more peace in the home, but you got to have a vision for it. At our age, where we are right now, one of the things that we've kind of had to stop, slow down and go, all right, we got to go back to the basics and do what we know to do. And that is redirect the vision and reset the vision for this season.

Mary Alessi [00:26:15]:
We've talked about it on our podcast before. You can go back and listen to the past episodes. What's it like, you and I? You're 62. Did you turn 63 this year? 63? I'm 35. No, that's a lie. I am 55. And we've got two kids married and we're grandparents, and we're in that in between. We still have parents alive that we're caring for.

Mary Alessi [00:26:44]:
And now we have grandkids on the scene. And it could very easily be a place where we're tug of warring between those two generations. But the truth is, the most important thing you and I can do is reset the vision for where we are right now. And where are we right now? We're still extremely beneficial to our two kids that are at home, as well as being guides and counselors and helping our two married kids. So feeling like we're in the way or thinking our parents need us more, all of that could be a detriment to our own personal vision. You have a personal vision for how you want this year to look for your life, or this month, as do I. A vision just might could be this year. You're determined.

Mary Alessi [00:27:26]:
You're going to eat better, you're going to get healthy, you're going to start working out, but have a vision. And it's not just a goal, because we can reach goals, mark them off our list, and then drop them like it's a hot potato. But a vision is something very different. It's in your mind's eye that you are imagine. It's imagining. And, you know, there's a big word right now that we're using reimagine. Really what it's saying is taking old stuff and changing the recipe and reimagining it. That's a big old word on social media.

Mary Alessi [00:27:58]:
I just did that this past year with the project we just are. It's coming out this month, actually, where we reimagined songs that I did in the early 2000s that were very well known, and we reimagined them and reproduced them, and the church is singing along with us and we're going to re release those songs. And honestly, I was not for that in the beginning. Our kids were. But now it's given me a brand new vision for what the next couple of years can look like. And I am so grateful for it because it's given me a whole new way to look at the season I'm in right now. And it makes me not feel old and obsolete. Obviously, I'm not at 55, but it makes me feel like, wow, there's a new wind in my sails.

Mary Alessi [00:28:45]:
Because I have a vision, even for just the next six months, getting this project out.

Steve Alessi [00:28:50]:
Yeah. Well, here's the thought. If I have a vision, my vision, like, for my health, I've got to have a vision for my health. What does that look like? I want to be healthy. I want to be able to bend over and pick up something without hurting my back. I want to wake up. I don't want to have indigestion. I want to be healthy.

Steve Alessi [00:29:09]:
Right. I want to be healthy now. My vision for myself is being healthy. But now what do I need to do to get there? Now you're talking about. Because nobody has a vision to work out, baby. Nobody has a vision to want to eat better. That's not what you have a vision for, to go out and walk every day or run. Nobody has a vision of doing that unless they're crazy.

Steve Alessi [00:29:30]:
You have a vision to be healthy right now. What do you got to do to get healthy?

Mary Alessi [00:29:34]:
Exactly.

Steve Alessi [00:29:35]:
That's another issue.

Mary Alessi [00:29:36]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:29:36]:
Right. But without that vision.

Mary Alessi [00:29:38]:
Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:29:39]:
Then you're casting off all restraints to be healthy.

Mary Alessi [00:29:41]:
They're just tasks.

Steve Alessi [00:29:42]:
You're eating whatever you want to eat, when you want to eat, doing whatever you want to do. So the vision is very important. Here's how I would equate it. The vision is like going out and getting a pre approval for a loan on something that you want to purchase. So I'm looking at some new property in Georgia butted up next to us. I reached out to the landowner, and I'm trying to get them to sell it to us. That was last year, so maybe this year he'll be willing to do it. Well, I already called the bank that has the note on our farm, and I said, hey, I want to get a pre approval.

Steve Alessi [00:30:16]:
I don't have an okay yet. I don't have an acceptance to my offer. I haven't even put the offer out there. But here's what I want. I need this much money to be pre approved for me that I will qualify for in order for me to get that loan. What do I have a loan for? I mean, what do I have a vision for? I have a vision for that property, but ultimately, all right, I got to get that pre approval now because I know that thing's going to come my way, and if I'm going to walk into that vision, I'm going to need this done right now.

Mary Alessi [00:30:49]:
Right.

Steve Alessi [00:30:49]:
So part of having vision is going out and saying, all right, I see the property. That's what I want, but I'm going to take care of this right now to start moving in that direction.

Mary Alessi [00:31:00]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:31:01]:
I got my pre approval, and I may not have the property, but my vision, as I look at that pre approval, tells me I'm going to get that property because I'm already preparing for it. So having that vision in your heart on the front side of anything you want is very important because it's going to help you get closer and closer to the end of it. And then every decision from there is either moving you toward your vision or away from your vision.

Mary Alessi [00:31:30]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:31:32]:
The right relationships are so important.

Mary Alessi [00:31:33]:
Yes.

Steve Alessi [00:31:34]:
Because they're going to either move you toward your vision or away from your vision.

Mary Alessi [00:31:37]:
And vision is what you see. What do you see? What can you see? And it's so important to self talk positively to your vision because going back to exercise for a moment, if you can't see yourself healthy and in good shape and looking good, you can't see that. And a lot of people can't. I mean, I know for years when I started going through the hormonal changes, I started seeing myself at the larger size. Seriously? And then you start negotiating, well, this is good. What's wrong with this? But I got a picture one day of what that looked like and I said, that is not who I am and that is not what I want to look like. I want to be at this size. I want to look at a picture and go, I like the way I look.

Mary Alessi [00:32:25]:
And it was all what I saw. So if we don't get the right picture first of what we want to look at, what we want our lives to look like, then it's just really mute because you'll give up exercising, you'll eat the cookie, you'll just give up. You've got to get a true vision for what you want your life to look like.

Steve Alessi [00:32:47]:
Well, I want more in 24.

Mary Alessi [00:32:49]:
I do, too.

Steve Alessi [00:32:49]:
I want more health. I want more love. I want more friends. I want more fun. Life is too precious.

Mary Alessi [00:32:57]:
That's right.

Steve Alessi [00:32:57]:
So I want as much as I can to get out of life.

Mary Alessi [00:33:01]:
Amen.

Steve Alessi [00:33:02]:
And that's why just looking at this new year, it's so important that we just get it in our heart. What's going to be different about this year than the last vision is going to help us see it differently. So if this has encouraged you today, we want to encourage you to then stay connected with the family business, with the alesses. Because we'll talk about this. It's what we talk about on Sundays, and it's all about making sure you're walking in and living the best version of you that you could ever imagine. So thanks for joining us today. Hope you were inspired.

Chris Alessi [00:33:36]:
You've just enjoyed another episode of the Family business podcast with the Alesses, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our audience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the family business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and Share it with them.

Chris Alessi [00:34:00]:
You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. Third, go to alessifamilybusiness.com and tap the askthealesses button. This is really cool. You could use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversations. Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews, and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at the family business with the Alessis. Because family is everybody's business.

Steve Alessi [00:34:35]:
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