Ways to better start a new year.

Every year we have a chance to start anew, a way to hit a little refresh button on our lives and with the new year rolling around, I thought I would share some very beneficial tips for you guys on how you start the year head-on, with a better perspective on your life and who you are as a person.  From your health, relationships, spirituality, and finances, we should all try to achieve a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lifestyle. More romance, financial security, a healthier body, and a spiritual connection to the world are just some of the benefits of holistic living. Whether you are looking to live a cleaner, healthier lifestyle, provide better and healthier food for you and your family, improve your romantic relationships, or simply gain a sense of peace and connection to the universe, other people, and your immediate environment, working on your life as a whole and really honing who you are will really be beneficial for you not only short-term but long-term as well.

There’s a handful of categories that you should really sit down and analyze and here are some main ones:

• Quality of life
  • ask yourself this: how are you going to be better at who you are? how are you going to be a better husband, wife, father or mother? what is it that you’re going to do to grow yourself? what do you need to learn? what do you need to read? what events do you need to attend? what classes do you need to take?
  • set some goals for yourself and focus on how am I going to be a better person? What am I going to do to grow myself?”
  • where would you like to live? what would you like your home or car to look like? where would you like to travel? how does your daily life look?
• Health and fitness
  • make goals on how you can not only look better but feel better as well.
  • do you want to reduce your acne? reduce bloating? becoming stronger? lose weight? write it all down and research how you can reach your goals.
• Financial
  • do you want to buy a car? save and have enough money for emergencies? need to pay off loans? whatever it is, make a budget and a plan on how you can save money.
• Spiritual
  • it’s important to realize that there is a higher power out there, someone and somethings that are just out of your control.
  • find an anchor that provides you peace, whether it be prayers, yoga etc, find and work on things that provide you with inner peace.
  • if you follow a religion, work towards learning more about it, and becoming better in touch with the book and stories and important people in your religion and learn what made them so amazing, their actions, qualities etc.
• Family life
  • family life is something that’s really important, do you want to sit down and talk to your parents more? do you want to bond with your siblings and play games once a week or visit your relatives more?
  • write down ways you can maintain and improve your relationship with them.
• Career
  • what are you going to do in your business or career that’s going to move it forward?
  • do you also want to be making more than you do? what can you do to ensure you get there?
  • what positions would you like to fill? what skills would you like to learn or attain? what types of projects would you enjoy working on? where would you like to work or be employed?
• Character
  • what are some things you do that you rather wouldn’t? do you like how you are when you’re stressed or mad etc? what are ways you can become the best version of yourself?
  • if you’re not someone or don’t have qualities in you of someone you would marry, work on parts that aren’t that appealing to you.
  • what do you want to stand for? what values do you want to have? what level of integrity would you like to operate at?
• Social
  • this is your friendships, your relationships outside of family and this is what you’re going to do socially. do you want to spend more time with your friends and which friends?
  • what types of friendships would you like to establish? what kind of friend would you like to be? what types of activities would you like to experience or enjoy in your social life?
• Emotional
  • how are you in certain types of emotions, do you get angry really easily or get violent? do you tend to eat less or more when you get stressed out?
  • how can you learn to remain calm or deal with certain situations better? what are some things you do that really make you feel better that isn’t toxic or harmful?
  • what are trigger topics, phobias and touchy subjects for you? how can you overcome those?
• Intellectual
  • what or how many books would you like to read this year? what seminars would you like to attend? what skills would you like to attain? what classes would you like to take or topics you would like to learn more about?
  • how and where can you gain this information? what resources and activities will you have to do?

Really set times in your life so that if not every day, at least every week or month you can really be working towards your goals and where you want to be in life. Make sure that your goals are specific so you can tell whether you’re going to achieve them or not. Too many people go “well I’m going to be a better friend.” Okay, but what does that look like? How are you going to be a better friend? What are some qualities you see in your favorite friends that make them so great? Or they say “I want to lose weight.” Ok, how much weight do you want to lose? Get specific with these goals so that you’re able to figure out how to put a plan in place to achieve them.

Another thing is this: don’t put down too many goals. Don’t be an overachiever and put down upwards of 10 goals in each category. The reality is you’ll never be able to complete them all. Instead, pick one key outcome that you want in each one of these nine areas and then make sure the two or three goals you have all work together to drive that singular outcome.

 

You can find free printables that touch on a lot of those subjects on sites like The Happiness Planner, Day Designer, I Heart Planners, Fun Cheap or Free, Passion Planner, Start Planner, Passion for Savings, Neat House. Sweet Home, 30 Handmade Days, etc.

I’ve looked and read a TON of books and these have been some of my favorites that will really help navigate your life towards where and how you can make it better:

There’s this amazing book called Start Balancing by Kristy Dickerson and it’s a no-excuses book that gives you practical hacks for productivity, solutions for being efficient, and inspiring and relatable advice for daily application, allowing you to find your version of success. Follow me on @justbusydreaming on Insta for a giveaway of this happening really soon. 

Get Happy! by Dr Anthony Gunn is another wonderful book. The author is a psychologist who specializes in treating fears and phobias and wrote this book that’s filled with practical, simple tips will motivate you to find your way to happiness that I feel like really are lasting tips.

Skin Cleanse by Adina Grigore is a book written by a holistic health coach and personal trainer goes into ways and things we can do to really improve our diets, workouts, skin care etc.

The 100 Day Happiness Planner is another book that really helps you become more self-aware and really lets you reflect on your life and the things you need to work on. They also have a free app that has similar content.

Eat Pretty by Jolene Hart really breaks down and simplifies and educated you on nutrients that nourish healthy skin, hair, nails and a healthy body from the inside out.

Comment below with some goals you have for the new year in an attempt to become better holistically.

Hope you give these a try and if you do, tag me on Instagram @justbusydreaming for a shoutout ♥️