I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration! I wore this mustard yellow tulle dress which I thought stood out in a sea of black dresses. My New Year's resolutions are to practice gratitude and live more intentionally and whole-hearted. Practicing gratitude is not new to me (and I've talked about it on this blog) but I want to do it more often. Expressing gratitude is about appreciating all the things that made you happy and grateful for during the day. By keeping this practice in writing you can reflect back it on other days whenever you are having a bad day. When you do this you are celebrating your present and blocking negative emotions. Grateful people are more stress-resilient and have a stronger self-worth. So I'm using the Gratitude 365 app to keep track of things I'm grateful for. The thing I love about this app is that it allows you to include pictures and I'm a very visual person so this is perfect for me! I unfortunately wasn't using this daily like the example here, sometimes just once a month, so I want to be more mindful of using it. I should start by saying that I'm incredibly grateful that my office is closed from Christmas to New Years Day, that break was really nice to have.
These are the goals I've set for myself this year. I wanted to write them all here so I can actually hold myself accountable.
1. Weekly gratitude practice - There's always something to be thankful in your life, you just have to find it. I've found that my relationships with people have been key to my happiness.2. Declutter - I have a little clutter problem at home which only stresses me out to see the mess. I'm going to work harder on keeping my home decluttered.
3. Buy Less - I need to be more mindful of clothes shopping and the stylebook app has really helped curb that as well as following tips from Nicky Hilton. I've made this resolution many times before because it is ridiculously tough to stick to. I once made a resolution not to buy any hair products for one year because I was overstocked in shampoo bottles and I surprised myself by going for 18 months without buying a hair product. I know this will take a good deal of effort and soul-searching but I'm going to try really hard at being more mindful of how I spend my money and avoid impulse buys. I understand my value is not found in my possessions.
5. Don't ruminate on things that bother me. The more you dwell on something the worse it gets. I want to focus on what's good, not what's wrong. This goes back to the gratitude journal to help me develop positive thoughts all the time by being grateful for what I do have.
6. Smile at strangers - I know it's a strange to have up here but it's something I think is important in being nice to others. I know when people smile at me I always think it's a nice gesture and brings a little joy to my day. Here's to a year of bold moves!
7. I'm turning off notifications to a certain website I visit, the stuff I get notified on create an urgency that really isn't.
8. Finish my photobooks for my vacations last year by end of January.
9. Read 35 books this year, last year I read 26 books.
10. Join a Book Club. I read a statistic that said that reading could lower stress levels up to 68% and was shown to be a more calming activity than listening to music.
I found an awesome list of New Year’s Resolutions Every Person Should Actually Make my favorites include:
- Turn your phone off at dinner (don't leave it face up on the table in restaurants)
- Don’t check your Instagram feed when you’re with friends
For those of you with financial resolutions you must use Mint. Every Friday I get an email telling me how much I spent that week, with a pie chart by categories so I know if I spent too much on clothing.
I think the most important thing with goals are to make them specific. By creating goals with end dates on them you will see your resolutions in a clear, concise way. Success is all about doing the right actions consistently, so with a to do list you will accomplish more on a daily basis leading you to your ultimate goal. To keep yourself accountable to achieve your goal I recommend either a vision board, a secret pinterest board, or try out the free app Bloom to increase your productivity, keep you motivated and inspired.
No comments