Too many set goals for the new year as some sort of fresh start, the new beginning, angst of the dawn of a new day. But to only attempt it, with good intentions try and stay sworn, get a fifth of the way there and realize you should have just stuck to something easy or less demanding. Sound familiar? Simple solution, don’t give up the new year giving up your worst habit. Chances are you took a while to obtain it, it might take a while to kick it. So try something else instead, like my tactic. If it is already an action I’m required to do, let’s see how good I am at doing it.
New year goal 1: Brush your teeth every day before bed and when you wake up. Just do it. The dentist tells you to. Your mom tells you to. So why not help yourself and set your goal to do something you are for sure benefiting from. That would absolutely be a year of no cavities or tartar.
New year goal 2: Read a new book every month. Now not all of us read but this could be anything that you are obsessed with. Maybe it’s buying a CD once a month if you’re into music, get to know a new artist and support their talent. Or it can be, get a magazine once a month and clip out what inspires you, get a vision board going the whole year long. Whatever your vice, just do it more, get good at it and enjoy it more often.
New year goal 3: Take a walk for 30 minutes every day. Perhaps you don’t have 30 minutes, but I bet you have 10 at least 3 times a day. So split it up. Take a brisk walk around the building at work when others do cigarette breaks. Or do it once in the morning before work, at lunch, then after dinner. However, you get moving just get moving more. This has more benefits than any one doctor could explain. You cut your risk of disease more than in half. Start young and you’re setting a path of mindful living.
New year goal 4: Make your bed every day. I was told by a teacher once that successful people leave their home with their bed made every morning and their sink empty of dishes. Not sure how accurate, but it taught me a few things. When you are tired and stressed and the day is finally up. It’s nice to come home and hit the hay knowing there isn’t a book lying in your path ready to remind you of homework, or some pile of laundry edging you to get it folded. You can breathe for that moment and the day has a silver lining.
New year goal 5: Have a night where there is no technology. Call it your “off day” or me and my man have “no tech Tuesday”. This allows you to appreciate the little things. Give time to those around you not just those on hand in your gadget. The ones near happen to be the most important, so take one day a week to show that you can put what matters most in your life, first. There are 6 more days a week you can tweet the president or facetime your BFF.
New year goal 6: Eat one or two meals cooked at home. The amount of which you do this could vary like for me; I go out only once a week so all my meals must be cooked at home. But I know in my younger twenties it wasn’t so. You train yourself now and it gets easier as you get older to feed yourself, and soon more mouths.
New year goal 7: Every day say out loud 1 new thing you are grateful for. This one comes from Ryan, blogger of officialryguy.com. He has an alarm set at a certain time each day, that when it goes off it reminds him to sit and think of just one thing that day he was thankful for. To ensure he never took for granted even the most simple of things. He said it got pretty hard at times trying to come up with something better or meaningful. But that even if it was having the clothes on his back or the toilet paper he bought, he was thankful that it was there for his pleasure.
New year goal 8: Start recycling!! This is my most important life rule: reduce your carbon footprint to ensure our children’s lives. I can’t begin to explain the power of donating your trash to become something twice or even 3 times used. Once something gets sent to a landfill there it sits for its long, nondecaying life, taking up space and producing a massive collection of waste overall. The more you recycle, reuse and reduce, the better you are making this planet we call home. Donate items, collect cans for cash, or stop throwing out your plastic bags and use them for one of these ideas. Whichever you choose you will make an impact on this earth and secure our place here for that much longer
New year goal 9: Help others by volunteering or support a charity. There is a list of ways this can be done. Here are some great ways to get started.
- To help animals in your area or donate to no-kill shelters all around. https://www.aspca.org/ways-to-give
- You can give a monetary donation or find a local food bank near you and help the hungry. http://www.firstfoodbank.org/
- There are many sites like this but specifically, you can donate to a child here in the US or around the world, without leaving your home. Easy enough? So, go try it! http://www.savethechildren.org
- This is a great site for knowing what is going on in the world and who needs help after natural disasters. Check back with them frequently to see what you can do to give a lending hand. http://www.directrelief.org/participate/
- If none of these hit your heart strings you can always look at rankings and which charities give the most without profit through this amazing site. I couldn’t believe how many ways you can reach out to people in need. http://www.charitynavigator.org/
New year goal 10: Take some time each day for yourself. I do a quick meditation, which is hard for most but it takes practice. You will get it if you keep trying. I started by using binaural beats to drown out my thoughts, then it got easier to shut out the world for 10-minutes at a time. Take a bath one day or lay while listening to your favorite song on repeat. However, you choose to make some “me time” make sure its self-love you are practicing. Make it wholesome.
Ever hear the phrase ” It takes 21 days to form a habit.”? Well, it actually has been thought that you could possibly form a habit in that amount of time, but only if the task is as simple as drinking more glasses of water a day. Otherwise, harder things like eating a piece of fruit every day or taking a 10-minute walk after breakfast could take 68 or even 258 days, but these are all under 365 days of the year. So if you can get this year in your grasp and take each day one goal setting day at a time. You can make your life that much better with these habits, rather than poor life choices you constantly forget to change. Setting a goal is about making a better you. If you forget, don’t put yourself down, pat yourself on the back and just pick up where you left off. Keep going it’s only 2016!!!
My Soul Therapies 