7 magical tips to start the year off right
January, the sweet magic of a new beginning. There are few more prominent beginnings than a New Year. 365 blank pages ahead of us, waiting to be written and continue our life story. Hopes, dreams, plans, resolutions. We’re here to help set you up for success with these tips to start the year off right. Are you ready?
1. Review the year that has just ended
Every end of year prompts us to stop and think, to take a look back at the year that is coming to a close. What went right? What didn’t? How did it make us feel? What did we manage to accomplish? What did we learn? What can we take with us? There are lots of questions we can ask ourselves when analyzing what happened.
There is even a booklet out there that will help you gain clarity on the year that passed by asking you a variety of questions. This little work book is called The YearCompass and is free to download for everyone. In 2021 it was downloaded by 1,5 million people. Its second half also focuses on the New Year, on the things you want to accomplish and the things you want to let go of.
2. Finish what you started
After having reviewed your previous year, you know whether there are any things left unfinished, whether personal projects, tasks, courses, plans, or anything else you feel has not been completed and is still important to you. Keeping projects on hold does no one any good, you may not actively think about them all the time, but they are stored somewhere at the back of your mind and weigh you down.
Whenever you remember them you sigh and feel their burden, am I right? So, it’s time to make a decision about them, whether to keep going and finish them asap or give them up altogether and take them off your mind. There’s no shame in admitting something you used to be interested in doesn’t serve you anymore. It’s actually liberating.
3. Be realistic
When starting a New Year’s Resolutions list we tend to go overboard and put down all kinds of things, big and small, achievable and not so achievable. So, after a brainstorming session, we usually end up with 10-20 items on our list. But that’s not a good idea, simply because it’s unrealistic that you’ll be able to focus on so many things at the same time.
As with most things, it’s about quality, not quantity. To maximize your chances of succeeding, handpick your New Year’s Resolutions. Only pick a few that are really important to you. You can always reach new goals throughout the year, 365 days is a long time and you don’t need January 1st to start accomplishing something.
4. Find new ways to reach your goals
Let’s face it: most of the items on your New Year’s Resolutions list are not new. You’ve attempted to accomplish them before, haven’t you? Maybe even multiple times. Those extra pounds are hard to get rid of, motivating yourself to go to bed earlier is a daily task that you can fail so easily, or maybe you want to start meditating but you never seem to find the right moment to do it.
So, in order to make sure this time you’re on the right track, you need to think of new strategies to accomplish these goals. What you tried in the past didn’t bring you the results you were hoping for, so it’s time for some new artillery. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
5. Be open and acceptant
One of the most valuable qualities we can have in this life is the power to accept the things that happen to us. You know that saying, “God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
Let’s be open to unpredictable changes this year. Let’s not hang on to plans that cannot happen anymore. Our sanity is more important than anything. Let’s take things as they come, worry less and be more calm.
6. Have no regrets
Regrets are the most useless things we can possess. In fact, even more so, they are some of the most harmful things we can possess. Regrets hold us tied to the past, a past that we wish was different, but that we can’t change anyway.
Stop dwelling on the past, your life is here in the present. There’s no point in regretting past decisions, you always choose what you think is right at a certain point in time. Whether that really is the best decision or not, only time can tell.
7. Prioritize your health – mental and physical
These pandemic times have taught us that health is our most important asset, both the physical and the mental one, because we need them equally to live our best lives. In order to stay in good physical shape, I’m sure you know the drill: eat clean food, exercise daily, sleep well. Our mental health however is a bit more intricate than that.
There is no fixed recipe that works for everyone just as well, because we’re all different and we have different needs. So, the conclusion would be to listen to yourself: your body, your mind, your mood. Take a break when you can’t move forward anymore, spend quality time with yourself, give meditation a try, and look for the positives in any situation.
Hope this year will be everything you want it to be. :)
