First Monday of the year 2021! Not much has changed, in fact, most things are exactly the same as they were in 2020 (shocker!). I appreciate the positivity of a lot of people believing everything would change at the start of the year. I really do but it is also great to realize that things do not randomly just change overnight. Unfortunately, there are somethings that we do not have complete control over.
There are so many things that we do not have control over- including when the world will go back to “pre-pandemic normal”. So here I am to provide some useful guidance that I have utilized in my life in order to ensure that I am controlling all the things that I actually have control over.
As a culture, we are taught that the start of each new year comes with lots of optimism, aggressive goal setting, New Year resolutions, out with old in with the new, new chapter, or new start etc. I love the positive attitude but these are not ways to sustainably set goals to achieve over time. So for this first post of the year, I am sharing some ways to start the year off on the right foot.
Over 2020, I read a lot of books, listened to many podcasts and there are some things that resonate the most with me… I am sharing them here because I feel that they have helped me to make remarkable leaps and bounds in my life. So I am hoping that these tips can prove to be helpful to you too. There are 3 simple things that I have focused on and believe impact my life greatly when I implement them.
Journaling The Day
It is so easy to set an alarm and turn it off, roll over and go back to bed and pretend that we have all the time in the world. But in actuality, time is a very limited resource and by acknoledging that and respecting that by doing things in a timely manner will definitely pay off. There are some ways I hold myself accountable and one of them is to write things down!! I write down my to do lists, my gratitude lists and things that I want to achieve over the long and short term. There are 2 journals that I love using the most- the 5 year journal and the 5 minute journal. I am such a fan of this 5 year journal because it is really nice to look back at prior years. Over the years, I have gotten accustomed to using the 5 minute journal. I feel like it gained a lot of popularity at the start of the lockdown. I have had this journal for years and love filling it out each day. It also makes for such a good tool to plan my day out and also remember all the good things to be grateful for.
Movement & Activity
I can not believe that I am actually saying this but it has been almost been a year since my quarantin-iversary! Which means, it has actually been roughly one year since my gym has been closed. So it has been paramount to find other creative ways to stay active. Go on a walk, a jog outdoors, hiking (I’ve done a lot of that) and of course, home workouts. To stay healthy, it is popular opinion to get at least 30 mins of movement in per day. So even if it is a walk outdoors or a youtube cardio video at home… there are so many ways to incorporate being active. I have really felt that this makes a difference for me and makes me feel so much better. I love to pick how many days I want to workout per week, plan what I want to do and then… Stick to it! I will share some of my favorite at home workout programs (paid and free over the coming weeks). These have helped me maintain some level of fitness over quarantine. Here are some of my favorite tools to use to stay fit and active. A lot of the below items are from P.volve but I do have resistance bands, weights, skip ropes etc that are not from P.volve (and I love them too!).
Healthy & Nourishing Foods
Our bodies need vitamins and minerals. I am human but I understand that cheat meals are only really cheating myself and my health. I have food sensitivities so there is no need to be as regimented as me but when I do eat clean, I love to really dive in all the way and eat the cleanest foods that I possibly can. I just feel better and know that I look better eating clean too. There are so many different resources available to find a sustainable and balanced way to eat for every single day. Here are are a few books that help out with this. I have a read a number of these books and like to pick the best suggestions that work for me & my dietary needs.
Thanks & Gratitude
Bonus tip… gratitude for all the lovely things in my life!
The reason that these things are very important to me is because we live in a very fast paced world where we have to make a lot of quick decisions all the time. It is very easy to suffer from decision fatigue. So I have been learning the different ways to remove the need to make so many decisions throughout the day by creating habits and attitudes for the basic things in life.
I hope that this helps out! Happy New Year- 2021 here we go!
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