I’m writing this new post fresh off of our holiday break and I thought I would take the time to not only ask myself some big questions but also to put it out to you all as well.
I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions because I’ve learned over the years that our brains are not designed to break tons of old habits and develops new ones at the same time. Rather, you will be more successful if you tackle ONE habit at a time and be super specific about them with a deadline in place.
So, if you want to lose weight this year (ok who doesn’t??) then break that down and say you’ll cut out sodas for 2 weeks. After you accomplished this, add the next step which may be that you’ll juice for 3 days a week for 2 weeks. Do you see where I’m going with this?
It’s the surest way to accomplish your goal of losing weight or any other goal!
But for those of us who aren’t making resolutions, I think it’s always fun to instead ask yourself some questions as you plan out your 2018.
Some of the questions I like to ask myself is “What really sucked about 2017?”
I know, I know it seems counter-productive to look back at what went wrong but trust me, it can be a really great way to clarify what you DON’T want in the new year. Maybe you ended a friendship that was toxic but one that you should’ve ended years ago – why not use this experience as a guide for what friendships you actually want, not waste time on those people who suck your energy? Maybe you passed up some travel opportunities because you were worried about your finances … do you regret it? If so, how can you travel more this year?
Next, ask yourself what you loved about last year?
For me, that question was harder as I felt 2017 was a really shitty year in terms of how our country has struggled through natural disasters, divisive legislation and the widening gap between communities. But if you search hard enough, I’m positive you can come up with some good things that happened (I know I did). Write those down too! Then, look back at these two lists and see if you can pinpoint some lessons you learned from the mistakes you made which you can use as information to NOT make these same mistakes again.
Now ask yourself one last question, “how do I want 2018 to make me feel?”
For example, maybe you want to feel less stressed, more peace, more organized, etc. Once you’ve identified how you want to feel, then you can figure out what you need to do in order to feel the way you want. (This can be another list if you’re feeling motivated!)
I’ve noticed that when I focus on how I want to feel more than what I want to do, this helps me become more invested in doing the stuff I gotta do in order to make the feelings happen!
After leaving 2017 behind, I know I want to feel more relaxed, more excited, more motivated, more accomplished. Now I just have to figure out the actions I need to take in order to get me there!
So together let’s make 2018 the year when we hone in what we want, what makes us happy and when we finally take the foundational steps to building that life we’ve been long imagining. I always tell my clients (and myself) that the days will go by whether we are doing anything or not so why not make them count?
Happy New Year!
