Lessons Learned For A New Year Ahead

Yesterday the calendar changed to a brand new year, and while there’s nothing rather special astrologically about a calendar change, there is something symbolic about a new chapter. Like you, I have things in mind that I’m ready and excited to work on this year. Little habit changes that may lead to feeling better in my body, mind, and being.

That said, in the world of self care, I think it’s important to look back on the accomplishments of your past, as so often we take for granted the little things we’ve done for ourselves and the ways we’ve grown.

So here are few of my personal discoveries and accomplishments that I felt really helped me improve my life:

Putting Yourself Out There

At the beginning of 2022 I decided to make a tik tok video at least once a day, everyday in January. This challenged my bravery in a lot of ways because putting yourself out there online is vulnerable!

I think finding an area of life you’d like to see growth in, and figuring out a way to put yourself in this position is so important! For me, tiktok was a great platform for me to practice short form content creation- and it’s something that I’ve enjoyed as a user for several years so it felt like a perfect match!

For you this could be an artistic or analytic pursuit, and something you’re not naturally good at. Let that be okay. Put yourself out there, and you will see tremendous results in unexpected ways.

Have Mindful Goals

The next breakthrough I had is keeping my why at the top of mind, especially when it comes to goal setting. For years I’ve transitioned my goal processes to be cyclical by working with the lunar cycles which are about 30 days long. This works so well because 30 days is a reasonable amount of time to dedicate yourself to a doable task and benefit from it. At the end of that cycle there’s room for evaluation! (Learn more about working with the lunar cycle here if you’re interested!)

It’s very easy when you understand your why to set a short term goal. Grabbing some arbitrary numeric goal like losing 10 lbs or making an extra amount of money each month, often leads to your going through the motions instead of tuning inward.

When you realize that the biggest motivator to losing weight is to be more mobile, or get your body ready to welcome a baby, or to have more energy so you can do a specific thing you love to do- suddenly it’s much easier to make choices based on that desire.

Say No To Distress

Finally, and probably the best of the group, is to “unsubscribe” from the things in life that cause you unnecessary stress. Every year as we evolve we outgrow friendships, situations, and traditions that we once had a positive relationship with. If hanging out with certain people drains you energy and leaves you in a bad place- it’s okay to stop doing that. If your job is causing you physical or mental distress- it’s okay to job search. If your hair stylist no longer understands what you’d like to do with your hair- it’s okay to find a new one!

So often we stay in bad situations because we don’t want to cause other people pain or hurt- but choosing to continually suffer because it feels more familiar or safer than making a change- is not it. Stop doing that!

For anything that causes you insecurity, stress, or bad vibes- find a way to limit those interactions and prioritize the things that bring you peace, positivity, and good feeling.

If this subject resonates with you, and you could use more encouragement in this area- listen to me break all these thoughts down in our companion episode of the A Bit From Within Podcast on Lessons Learned For A New Year Ahead. You can listen below or find us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.