Happy almost New Year friends! I just wanted to remind you now that we’re approaching a new year that it’s ok to not have all your ducks in a row. There’s no need to put exhaustive pressure on yourself to know what you want to do all year, especially if it gives you anxiety. There’s a time and a place to figure out specific goals you might want to achieve for 2023.
Some people, like myself have been thinking about 2023 goals since summer the year before. It’s just what I do, and I like to stay well ahead. Maybe you were simply too busy, or maybe you literally didn’t know what you wanted out of life. Still, as they say with everything in life, nothing is too late. So what if the end of January rolls around, and you still haven’t decided what to do with your life?
The point here is to take it easy and to take it small; use baby steps. There are certain things you can do in order to lessen the stress and anxiety. Let’s talk about a few of them.
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Journal…pour out your heart into a book no one else will see. (Well, hopefully). The point here is to not care about what you write or your grammar; just go with the flow and write whatever comes to mind, no matter how silly. You might find yourself doodling in the margins of your notebook. That’s ok. Do whatever you want. Then start to actually think about what's important to you. What are your hobbies? Your loves, your passions? Who do you care about? Who do you miss? Is there something you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time, the energy or the money? Write it down! The point here isn’t that you’re going to necessarily do all of those things, but that you have acknowledged that the ideas are floating around in your head. Once they’re on paper, they seem a bit more concrete.
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Take Your Time…Do a little here, and a little there. Keep your journal, notebook or brainstorming book close by and add your thoughts to it as they come to you. If you’re anything like me, you might get random thoughts and ideas as you go through your day or week. When they come, it’s best to write them down as soon as you think of them so you don’t forget. These thoughts could be completely random, or maybe you thought of something new and interesting that you would like to try out. You never know if you like something until you try it, so go ahead and give it a shot! If you’re more into brainstorming sessions, set a timer and try and think of goal ideas for yourself for a set amount of time. Start with five or ten minutes, and increase the time as you see fit. This reduces the pressure of having to come up with a grandiose idea.
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Break it down…If you do come up with a big idea that seems impossible to complete or tackle, break it down into small parts. You have your big idea, so now brainstorm all the things you possible might have to do to complete it…at this point the order of the steps doesn’t matter. Just write down everything you can think of. Once that’s done, you can put all the steps in order. Give each step a date to complete by and if you don’t know, that’s ok too. Just make sure you come back to this and complete it when you do know so that you don’t leave your goal in the dust.
The whole point of creating and following through with goals is to help us improve our lives in some way. You base your goals on your values (what you stand for, what you love, and how you live). Having goals will set you up for success, no matter the goal. Once you complete a goal (whether big or small), you will light up and be motivated to continue. Remember, knowledge is power. You gain knowledge from making mistakes and then trying again. It’s ok to fail, but it’s not ok to give up. Keep going and you will eventually succeed, even if it’s not in the original way you envisioned.
Keep your eyes up and live big! We only have one life to live, so let’s make the most of it!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
💜 SAN
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