I heard Bob Proctor say something and it's been
completely life changing for me, he said.
We are only limited by weakness of intention and poverty of
imagination. Oh that's so good.
Hear this again. We are only limited by weakness
of intention and poverty of imagination.
He goes on to say. Focus on what you want and give
it your undivided attention. Use your imagination to build
enormous pictures. See great things happening in
your life. May this be the year you expand
your awareness of what is possible in your life, not
because everything suddenly changes overnight, but because
of you begin to see yourself differently.
May this be the year that you stop dismissing the quiet nudges
and start paying attention to the ideas that keep returning.
The dreams that feel a little too big, a little inconvenient,
or a little scary, yet refuse to leave you alone.
Those thoughts are not random. If you were listening to this as
a creative, a maker, or a mom building something alongside a
full life, I want you to hear this.
You are not behind and you are not late and you are not wrong
for wanting more. Your creativity isn't extra, it
is essential. It is how you bring beauty, care
and meaning into the world. May this be the year you stop
asking who am I to do this and begin asking what if this was
placed on my heart for a reason? I believe God doesn't give us
desires accidentally. The gifts that you carry, the
passions that keep resurfacing, the longing for something more
aligned and more meaningful, those are the nudges to keep an
eye out for. Those are the clues.
You don't need to see 10 steps ahead.
You just need to be willing to take the next small faithful
step. So what idea keeps coming back
to you even when you try to ignore it?
Where do you feel a gentle pull toward?
What would it look like to believe just a little more?
That more is possible for you than you ever allowed yourself
to imagine? Just notice what comes up when
you ask yourself these questions.
Awareness always comes before change.
May 2026 be the year you give yourself permission to evolve,
to outgrow old stories, to release the belief that you're
behind or missing something that everyone else has figured out.
If this season feels uncertain or quiet, that doesn't mean
nothing is happening. Sometimes the most important
work is happening beneath the surface.
Hello my friends, and welcome to Simply Hooked, a crochet
podcast. I'm your host Marcy, a crochet
designer, mom of two, and creative entrepreneur.
Here we celebrate the joy of crochet and talk about what it
really means to create a life you love through your own unique
gifts. Hello my friends.
I'm so glad that you're here today because this episode is
meant to feel like a deep exhale as we step into a new year
together. I've got to tell you, fall and
the Christmas season are my favorite by far, but honestly,
this last week of December is also just as exciting.
There's just something really special about reflecting on
everything you've accomplished this year and setting your
intentions for the new year with a clean slate.
The beginning of a new year can also feel heavy for some of us.
There's so much pressure to set big goals, make sweeping
changes, and somehow become a brand new version of yourself
overnight. And for many of us, that
pressure doesn't feel motivating.
It feels pretty training. So today I want to offer you
something different. Whether crochet is your hobby,
your business, or somewhere in between, this episode is an
invitation to reflect on the year you just lived, release
what no longer serves you, and move forward with intention, but
only in small, meaningful windows.
Because you don't need to plan your entire year to make
progress. You just need clarity about what
matters right now. So let's start by looking back.
Before we rush into goals or plans, I want you to gently
reflect on the year that just ended, without judgement or
criticism and without the urge to fix anything.
Think about your crochet life over the past year.
What brought you joy? When did crochet feel calming,
grounding, and life giving? When did it feel like a rest
instead of another responsibility?
And on the other side of that, what felt heavy?
What trained you? Where did you feel pressure to
produce, perform or keep up? If crochet is your hobby, maybe
this year showed you how much you need creativity as rest.
Or maybe it revealed that you've been turning your joy into
another box to check. And if crochet is your business,
maybe you learned what sells, what doesn't, what truly lights
you up. Maybe you also notice which
parts of your business leave you tired at the end of the day
instead of fulfilled. So this reflection isn't about
blame. It's about awareness.
Because awareness always comes before alignment.
And that brings me to a planning framework that has completely
reshaped how I think about goals, and I hope that you find
this just as helpful. So there's a book called The 12
Week Year written by Brian Moran and Michael Lynnington.
I hope I said that right At its core, the book challenges the
way most of us approach planning and productivity.
So the authors explain that annual goals often create a
false sense of time. When we believe we have an
entire year to accomplish something, we tend to delay
action like there's no urgency. You think I'll start later?
Hey, I've got 12 months, 10 months, nine months.
I've got plenty of time. And before we know it, the year
ends with a lot of good intentions and very little
meaningful progress. And so their solution?
A concept borrowed from athletics.
And instead of training for an entire year at once, athletes
break their efforts into focused cycles.
So the 12 week year applies that same idea to life and business.
So rather than planning for 12 months, you plan in 12 week
blocks. And each 12 week block becomes a
mini year, complete with a clear vision, focus, goals, and a
sense of urgency that helps you stay engaged and present.
So the authors outline a few core principles that make this
work, and the first is accountability, taking full
ownership of your actions and your results.
The second is commitment, following through on promises
even when your motivation dips. And the third is what they call
greatness in the moment, which simply means focusing on
excellent execution right now instead of waiting for perfect
conditions. I also talk about key
disciplines that support the system.
Having a clear vision, creating a focus plan for the 12 weeks,
aligning your daily actions with that plan, measuring what
matters so you can course correct, and using your time
intentionally instead of reactively.
So what I love about this approach is that it gives you
faster feedback. You don't have to wait an entire
year to know whether something is working.
Every 12 weeks becomes an opportunity to learn, adjust,
and move forward. And this works beautifully for
creatives like us because we don't thrive under rigid long
range pressure, right? We thrive in sessions, in
chapters, in seasons. So instead of asking what do I
want this year, I want you to ask yourself a more gentle
question. Like, what do I want to focus on
for the next 12 weeks? Not ten goals, not a total
overhaul, Just one primary intention.
So for for crochet hobbyists, that intention might be
finishing projects instead of starting new ones, or learning
one new technique, or creating an evening crochet ritual that
feels calming and restorative. For crochet business owners, it
might be creating one scalable product or simplifying your
offerings, building an e-mail list, or even stepping away from
work that trains you and toward work that feels more aligned.
This intention doesn't have to last forever.
It just doesn't matter right now.
But before you choose that intention, there's one more
layer I want to add because this is where so many of us
unknowingly limit ourselves. And this idea comes from Bob
Proctor, and it's the concept that I started with about
expanding your awareness. Most of us aren't limited by
ability or talent. We're limited by what we're
aware of. We make plans based on what we
have already seen, what we've already done, and what feels
realistic according to our past experiences.
But know this, your awareness can expand and it needs to
expand. I heard Bob Proctor say
something and it's been completely life changing for me.
He said we are only limited by weakness of intention and
poverty of imagination. Oh it's so good.
Hear this again. We are only limited by weakness
of intention and poverty of imagination.
He goes on to say. Focus on what you want and give
it your undivided attention. Use your imagination to build
enormous pictures. See great things happening in
your life. Oh my gosh, I gosh, when I heard
him say this, I thought, Oh my goodness, like I've been holding
my own self back, you know, it's just that the power of awareness
and gosh, just realizing that society really pigeon holes us
into what we should be doing. And gosh, there's just not
enough people asking what is actually possible.
Like don't tell me what I should be doing.
Like let's, let's ask ourselves what's actually possible and
wow, if you expand your awareness of what is possible in
your life, you might just surprise yourself because your
awareness can expand. If you imagine your awareness
like a room, many of us are living in a space that's far
smaller than it needs to be. We shrink our dreams to fit what
feels safe and familiar or socially acceptable.
So before you decide what's practical or realistic for the
next 12 weeks, I want you to pause and imagine what might be
possible if you didn't immediately shut down bigger
ideas. Not in a vague, cliched dream
big way, but just an honest, grounded way.
Think about something you once believed was not for you.
Maybe it's a crochet business that truly supports your family.
Maybe it's consistent income without constant hustle, maybe
it's being known for something meaningful, or maybe it's simply
having more peace, more time, and more joy in your creative
life. Instead of dismissing those
thoughts, gently ask yourself, what would my life look like if
this were possible? How would your days feel?
How would your evenings feel? How would you show up?
Bob Proctor teaches that the moment you become aware of a
possibility, it already exists for you.
Your job isn't to map the entire path.
Your job is to stop shrinking the vision to match your past.
So that's why I think this pairs so beautifully with this 12 week
framework. Because expanding your awareness
doesn't mean doing everything at once.
It means allowing yourself to want more without feeling
guilty. And from that expanded space,
you choose one intention, 1 focus, one step that honors who
you are becoming. So as you step into this new
year, I want you to hold this with grace.
You don't need to have it all figured out.
You're allowed to grow slowly, you're allowed to change your
mind, and you're allowed to create a life and business that
feel meaningful and peaceful. Your creativity was never meant
to live on a hamster wheel, it was meant to flourish.
So as we close today, I will leave you with this reflection.
What are you becoming aware of now that you weren't before and
what 1-12 week intention would honor that expansion?
If you love this episode, I hope that you would share it with a
friend and leave a review for the podcast.
It helps other makers find us and helps them become more aware
of what's possible in their life.
Please visit mercymaid.co for crochet patterns.
My kids and I learned a crochet course.
And until next time, my friend, until next year, keep creating,
keep listening for those quiet nudges, and don't be afraid to
imagine a life bigger and brighter than the one you have
known so far. Happy New Year.