Hey friends!
GUESS WHAT! I don’t believe in new years resolutions. THAT’S RIGHT I SAID IT. But let me explain… I don’t believe in setting JUST new years resolutions because that is a serious waste of time and probably forgotten by January 5th. Would you agree? Okay maybe that’s an over exaggeration but for a lot of people that is their reality. Not to be a pessimist but I don’t believe in new years resolutions to be the ONLY time to set goals. For me, my yearly resolutions are bigger goals that I want to achieve that I anticipate will take more time, effort and commitment. I support these goals by setting little goals monthly so that by the time December of the following year rolls around, I’m not upset with all I didn’t accomplish but instead I made little changes along the way to my strategy so I could achieve those bigger goals for myself yearly. I can also reflect on all the things I did accomplish or change my strategy for the following year if it’s a huge goal that will take years like saving to buy a house or whatever. Life is all about building, moving forward, one foot in front of the other. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will the life you want to live be.
I’ll start by sharing some accomplishments I’m proud to have accomplished this year:
- starting a 2 -year program at a local nutrition school in March, 2017 to follow my passion to help others through diet and lifestyle and grow my side hustle
- buying a new car for my own independence and stability
- starting and growing my blog with ZERO coding, tech-savy experience, working with some amazing brands, making connections world-wide and almost finding a semi-regular posting schedule in between my crazy life 🙂
- going back to Europe for the 2nd time in August to visit London, Paris and Amsterdam in 2 weeks
- visiting Disneyland, California for the first time EVER!
- growing my intuition, getting in tune with and listening to my body in terms of my diet (not a diet) and all that “woo woo” spiritual stuff
Overall, I’d say 2016 was a pretty good year for me. I really believe that my life changed when I began manifesting and changing my attitude and perspective. Instead of things happening to me, I started believing that they were happening for me. Not everything was peachy in 2016, the hard things I did go through this year, which I won’t list for confidentiality reasons, were HARD. They made me feel depressed at times, so anxious that I wanted to just walk out of the situation and lose my drive and passion for awhile. I could feel my “sparkle” and “light” was getting dimmed but I one day I chose to acknowledge that I was going through it and I would get through it, which I did! I wasn’t going to let that situation take over my life. The worst thing you can do when you’re deep in it, is keep thinking low vibration thoughts and allow that darkness to get a hold of you. Look for that light, it’s almost like fake it till you make it but you have to FEEL what it feels like to be happy again, to have that light shine as bright as the sun, when you get through that rough patch or problem or whatever it is that is plaguing you. And not to mention, hindsight is 20/20. There are so many times that I’ve been disappointed but when I looked back, I could see how that pushed me to where I needed to be.
So, moving on to 2018 – CRAZY! Do you guys remember when we thought the world was going to enter in 2000? So silly.
I want to talk about how to set goals – personal, professional & just life.
First and foremost, STOP with the blanket goals, please for the love of god. I’ve talked about SMART goals before and that still is true today. SMART goals are:
Specific – ask yourself the who, what, where, when and why.
Measurable – how can you quantify your goal?
Attainable – how can you get there? by planning, reading, buying something, practicing?
Realistic – are you willing and able to make this goal happen?
Time-Based – how long will this take you?
The biggest thing for me is being REALISTIC. Saying I want to workout regularly is great but if you don’t know how you’ll fit it in to your already crazy schedule or how many times a week you’ll go, will you really hold yourself accountable? Probably not. A much better goal would be “I’m going to take 3 workout classes a week rotating between yoga, pilates and HIIT. I will schedule these in on Sunday before my week gets filled up.” See how much more accountable your statement already is by adding the how? That doesn’t mean you can’t skip a workout here and there but set the bar high so you can’t weasel out of your goals!
In contrary to above, don’t be afraid to dream hard. Every year I write ridiculous goals down that I don’t know how I’ll achieve but I know that I believe in myself, my skills and that I’ll find a way. For example, I always said “I’m going to own a home by 25”. I didn’t know how, I didn’t have a proper career when I declared this or even enough savings to pay for another semester if I decided to do further schooling but I trusted the Universe and that the right people and opportunities would come my way. Can you guess if this happened or not? Spoiler alert, it did, but because it’s a pre-sale, I have not moved in yet but hey I blame the ridiculous market here in Vancouver for that but it’s still something I’m so proud of for sure.
Sometimes goals can be doing less too but you have to be honest with yourself instead of just giving yourself a pass. How does that make any sense right? Well for example, one of my goals for next year is to make more time for myself. To spend more time in solace, to go to bed early instead of staying up super late and working on my blog. To feel like a human waking up every weekday at 6 a.m., I’d love to be in bed by 10 p.m. I notice my mood is lifted, my body feels better and I’m way less irritable. Even though I enjoy working on my blog, I know that it takes a toll on my physical and mental health by taking away from my sleep. The end of this year has really got me slowing down and appreciating the little things. I want to savor the little moments instead of always rushing to the next thing that life has to offer. It’s the journey, not the destination that matters, right?
Re-assess regularly. One of the main reasons that I think people “fail” or “forget” their new years resolutions, is because they don’t regularly reassess how the progress is coming. They expect to be an expert right away and when they can’t see the results that they want, they give up. My yoga teacher always reminds us of children, if a child tries to walk once and falls down, they don’t sit and say “ah, nah I guess I’m just not meant to walk, I’m not good at it”. Nope, instead you will see them get up over and over and over until they are finally wobbling but walking and then slowly they get better and more confident. Why did we forget this as we grew up? WHY do we think that we have to be perfect when we do something the first time or even the tenth time? It’s okay to not be good, it’s okay as long as we keep trying, re-assessing and improving over time.
Those are all my tips for now but I thought I would mention some exercises that I like to do:
- Vision boards – Grab a poster board and some old magazines and begin ripping out pages you like. It could be food, a body, a car, lettering, a house, flowers, anything that resonates with you. Then go back and cut out what you want on your vision board, spell out phrases and quotes with various lettering you found. I’m looking at the one I did last year and my favourite quotes I have on there are “Goal Getter”, “The best things in life are love, happiness, sunshine, confidence, living”, “You’ve got the power!”, “Why not you”, “The choice is yours and it’s simple” – okay so you get the point. This exercise is a fun way to express your artistic side and see something inspiring each day. You can re-do them as many times as you want in the year.
- Write down your 2018 intentions/ manifestations – Now that we’ve talked all about what types of goals to set, now you actually have to do it. For me writing down your goals is a must, this could be on a note in your phone, in a journal, on a white board, whatever but find something that works for you. I have a notebook that I like to write it and I like to just let my pen flow and not overthink it. My personality is very type A so I have to control it and let my creativity flow through otherwise I would over-think it all!
- Tell a friend – my goals are usually personal but if yours are the types of goals where it would help to have someone hold you accountable, then tell someone and keep each other accountable. For example like the fitness classes I mentioned above, convince your friend to sign up with you! Unfortunately, it’s so much easier to do something when you don’t want to let someone else down rather than just not wanting to let yourself down.
Some 2018 goals of mine are to:
- keep up with a regular blogging schedule (I’m thinking Wednesdays)
- to spend less time on my phone when I come home from work and put my phone in another room so I’m not tempted
- to allow myself to rest when I need it. I’m always a go-go kind of person but I really just want to slow down this year and even exercise slightly less
- continue developing my meditation routine. Currently I have finally gotten to 5 minutes in the morning and before bed, I’d love to start extending that but it’s a new habit and I want to take it slow right now.
- to attend a yoga/meditation/wellness type retreat
I could really go on but I want to hear about your goals, intentions, manifestations!!! What do you hope to accomplish in 2018? Let me know in the comments below, or you can always contact me via email or Instagram (@balancingandie).
Cheers to the New Year friends!!
