I know when a New Year begins it’s really exciting to write down a bunch of new shiny goals and have the best intentions to become a completely organized, fit, healthy, well read, super human! After weeks of over indulging during the holidays, it feels so good to redirect your life in a fresh new direction. At the beginning of January, you write all your new goals in your fresh new journal and feel super motivated and pumped to get started. Life is awesome!
But after a couple weeks of great new habits, a sneaky and familiar feeling starts to lurk inside of you. The one that whispers tenderly in your ear, ‘it’s ok to not go to the gym and instead watch Netflix with a glass of wine’. Or maybe it tells you that no one will really notice or care if you just don’t write a blog post this week. At first it doesn’t feel like a big deal to cave in and indulge in your old ways…you are only human after all. But, every time you do there is a little gnawing feeling that you are letting yourself down, again.
If you can’t relate to this at all, you are definitely a more disciplined person than I am! I find it very hard to write a list of goals, or New Year resolutions and stick to them all for an indefinite amount of time. This is especially true when I try to do things that I feel I ‘should’ instead of what is realistic for my lifestyle. I know myself very well and as much as I know eating a vegan diet and not drinking wine would probably do wonders for my health, I’ll likely not be able to commit to it for more than a week!
I absolutely love the idea of setting goals and working strategically towards something BIG. It’s pretty much the only way I have been able to accomplish anything. I find that if an intention, action plan, and final destination isn’t set, things just don’t happen. But, I also know the importance of the feeling and desire you are actually trying to achieve.
One of my goals is to feel amazing and full of vibrant energy. My health hasn’t been optimal for past year and it’s something that I know I can improve. In order to reach my goal, I set the intention each morning when I meditate of my desire to feel full of vitality. After I do this, I already feel better and make decisions all day long that will help me truly feel this way long term. Examples are going to yoga class when I feel like I have too much to do, or going to the grocery store and cooking when it would be so much easier to just grab something to eat on my way home.
It sounds really simple, but instead of making these super long lists of all the thing I ‘should’ be doing to be healthier, I just take it day by day and make better choices that will help me get to my greater goal of feeling healthy. I find the more I am conscious of how each decision impacts if I feel better or worse, the more I just want to make good decisions. I remember seeing the fabulous Kris Carr speak at a conference in New York, and she said that she only says yes to the things that inspire her instead of tire her. When you think of everything in this black and white way it’s so much easier to make a decision of what to do next. I find this was less overwhelming when it comes to reaching a goal.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t have a plan of action. Creating and implementing a series of actionable steps is the best way to make sure you get where you want to do. Another example of a goal I’m working towards is redesigning the Make It website. We’ve had the same site now for way too long and every time I see it, all I can think about is how badly I want to change it! Since, it’s so easy for me to get busy with a million different things, I know the only way I’ll be able to get a new Make It site up is if I schedule what needs to be done in my calendar. When I slot in what needs to be completed and when, it instantly makes me feel more relaxed because I see exactly how it will get done. Of coarse unexpected things will come up that I will have to account for, but overall having a plan of attack will make any deviations easier to deal with.
This is how I like to think of it; life style changes must be a series of small changes that get you closer to the overall feeling and big picture of how you want you life to be. Project goals must be clearly defined and scheduled into a calendar with lots of small actionable steps. Make sense? Good!
Of coarse anytime you reach any milestone, celebration must ensure. Bubbles (of any kind), dancing, a night out with friends, or chocolate will do just fine 🙂
Sparkly love,
Jenna
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