It’s definitely that time of the year when the question “So, what’s your New Year’s resolution?” is being readily asked. Sure, some of your friends and family might have already set themselves goals, and have maybe already started making progress on them. Maybe your closest friend has started to cut down on the amount of coffee she drinks or your sister has finally started those violin lessons she has been talking about for years. Or, perhaps your husband/wife is well on their way to learning the art of chess. If they have all started working earnestly on their resolutions, then where does that leave you?
My answer: Exactly where you should be.
You see, a New Year’s resolution, although a promise to yourself, does not need to specifically start in the month of January of the New Year. While others might go full-force in the first month, you might want to take your time in getting started, and that is completely fine. You might have a goal, yes, but there is no need to rush it, and there is surely nothing wrong with starting slow and small.
Essentially, if your goal is to go to the gym every second day, learn to play a new musical instrument or perfect a skill, it does not only take good time management and continuous eagerness, but also a healthy mental state of mind. Whenever we start something new, which might seem like a huge effort at first, we tend to automatically slow down by thinking of all the excuses e.g. not having enough time, energy or money – and this is when mind over matter really comes into play.
You need to mentally tell yourself that if you start making very small changes to your life every day, you will eventually reach your end goal.
This year, I have a goal on my list. In fact, I started working on my goal early in January, and even though I don’t really have a deadline, getting started was quite the task. To get me into the swing of things, I started making little changes in my day to day life – and I can already see and feel the difference. If you are on the path, but are still hesitant and have not started your goal yet, perhaps these tried and tested activities (by yours truly) will assist you to get on track and, confidently, stay on track.
Create a vision board
I have always heard about vision boards, and always wanted to give it a go. This year, I eventually did and I have to say, so far, so good. At the beginning of January I sat down and thought about everything that I wanted to accomplish, gain or achieve this year and beyond – and then proceeded to create a board of images, illustrations and words that depicted each goal.
A vision board can be done in two ways – by sitting down and physically paging through old magazines, newspapers and books, cutting out the relevant pictures and pasting them on your board. Of course, you can get creative here by getting out your colourful pens, paint and glitter if you choose. Why not even go a step further and throw a ‘vision board’ party for your closest friends, which could be a great activity to do together, while focusing and chatting about your future. Even better, throw in a yummy charcuterie board, a glass of wine and ‘vision board’ away!
“Another way of creating your board is digital…”
Another way of creating your board is digital, via an image-editing application like Paint or Photoshop. All you really need to do is search for relevant images online and paste them onto your digital board.
Whichever method you choose – once you are done, place your board in a place where you can easily glance at it every day – on the cupboard door, in the bathroom, wherever you choose. Since I chose the digital route, I have saved my completed board on my desktop. So, every morning when I log in to my PC, it’s one of the first things I see, and so it is a great reminder. Of course, as the year goes on, you can add to it – but my advice would be to keep it as is once completed. You do not want to keep on adding things throughout the year, and then your list becomes endless and possibly unachievable.
Set your alarm clock for an hour earlier
This is one of the activities at the top of my list. As the festive season died down, and the usual day-to-day activities started, I decided to start setting my alarm to go off an hour earlier – and I am someone that loves my sleep! But I can honestly say that this has made a big difference. When things are still quiet, and the sun is just about to rise, you actually do not realise just how much you can get done in just an hour. Sit outside in the fresh air, read, meditate, sip your coffee slowly, do a load of laundry, start on dinner – you decide what you do for that extra hour, but, do something. As the day goes by, you will then realise how much that extra hour helped you with your tasks for the day – essentially, freeing up more time to start on that goal.
Get your body moving
Yes, I am sure you have heard this many times before – but it does work. A 10-minute brisk walk, some jumping jacks or just a few jumps in the yard with a skipping rope, any physical movement during the day is bound to get you feeling awake, more energized, and ready to take on some more activities. If you can’t get out of the house, simply walk on the spot – this can make a world of difference. If you are at a loss with which exercises to do, quickly log onto Youtube and find a quick 5 -10 minute workout video and there you go.
Less phone time
In today’s world, most of us pretty much rely on our phones, not only to stay connected to the world, but for research purposes, to keep up with the latest news, entertainment and, well, to do work. We heavily rely on our phones and I think we can all agree that it is easy to quickly get caught up in watching the latest cooking hacks, recently launched series or those cute dog videos for three hours. A small change you can do, even starting today, is to consciously take note of the amount of time you spend on your phone, or, once you are on it, try not to stay on it for too long. This will definitely free up some time in your day to get onto that new goal of yours.
Meal-Prep ahead
This is a time-saver of note. Whether you are cooking for yourself, or your family, meal-prepping the upcoming weeks’ breakfast, lunch or dinners will give you some extra time during the week to focus on other things. This will quickly remove the everyday tasks of deciding what to eat and actually cooking it. This is also a way for you to eat more homemade food, and fewer takeaways, which is always good in the long run. What I usually do is set some time aside on a Sunday late afternoon to prep breakfast and lunch for the week, which can also double as dinner. So figure out which day of the week or weekend will work for you, and cook away.
So there you have it – my tried and tested activities to assist you in starting off that new goal of yours. At the end of the day, all you really need is time, and a daily reminder of your goals. If you can commit to just one of these, I promise you, you will find that you either have more time, more energy or both – just what is needed to get those resolutions going.
