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A Year Of Change: Some Of The Ways 2018 Could Be Your Best Year Yet
We may have all heard the saying that the new year gives you the opportunity to create and embrace a new you. While drinking those glasses of bubbles on new year’s eve, you might well have promised yourself some of the things you want to embrace and change in the new year. You might have enjoyed the festivities of Christmas with all of the food and social events a little too much, maybe you have had a tough year and new year allowed you to draw a line in the sand. Or perhaps you just wanted to lose some weight, get fitter and healthier like so many others around us. Does it all sound familiar?
While there is nothing wrong with embracing the new year and seizing it as the perfect opportunity to move forward and leave the past well and truly behind, you have to wonder why there is so much focus around doing things in January? Why is there such a rush, isn’t life a marathon not a sprint? It got me thinking, and I wanted to share with you some thoughts. Perhaps you can embrace the whole new year new me mantra, but instead of doing everything in January, let’s make the year the best one yet and incorporate some longer term benefits and changes. With all that in mind, here are some of the ways you could really make 2018 your best year yet.
Be more organized
Organisation can be a big priority for many and is up there with being one of the top new year’s resolutions people make. You might want to ensure that you remember all of those important appointments, be more up to date with your deadlines for work, or even just remembering peoples birthdays. A great tip is to have a calendar or diary where you can make it a habit to start writing things down so you can better prepare yourself. It might also be a good idea to earmark perfect gift options that could work for many people such as friends or family members. Things like a my name necklace, toiletry gift sets or aftershave and perfume. This enables you to be more prepared while you are still getting into the habit of remembering those important dates. It isn’t just birthdays either, it’s anniversaries, valentine’s day and even up and coming weddings or family events. A diary or calendar can help you to be a little more aware of what you have going on, and then make it a weekly thing to look ahead to the week and plan accordingly.
Embracing gratitude and positive thinking
Our mental health can be hugely overlooked at this time of year, but what we fail to realize is how we are feeling on the inside can seriously impact how we feel on the outside and even our motivation and productivity. So it is important for us all to ensure that if we plan on making it a good year for the next twelve months, that we take some time to focus on our mental wellbeing. A great place to start is your thought process. Negativity can be all-consuming at times, and we don’t even realise we are doing it. So a good tip is to become more aware of your thoughts and if you find yourself being negative force yourself to think of things more positively. It’s all about changing the habit, and doing this can really have such an amazing impact on your life. Gratitude is another way to enforce this positivity, as you start to focus and feel thankful for what you do have in your life and not what you don’t. Developing the habit of writing in a gratitude journal each day can really help cement this through the process, and you might be hugely surprised by the way you feel moving forward.
Don’t diet become more healthy in general
On the subject of resolutions, many people look at their diet and want to lose weight during January. So some embark on a crazy diet that just isn’t sustainable moving forward. Which can lead you to give up on that resolution before it has even started. Instead, why not focus on a healthier lifestyle in general. That means just eating more of the good stuff but not necessarily denying yourself the bad. It means exercising and generally being more active, instead of focusing yourself on the gym each day which can mean you feel tired and unmotivated to carry on.
Get more sleep
Sleep is one of those things we could all agree that we could do with more of. So why not make it a focus for the next year. Proactively trying to get more sleep, or even just better quality sleep can impact your life in a positive way. You will find that you have more energy for things, feel more enthused and upbeat for activities like work or exercise. It can help you feel healthier on the inside and far more alert. Adding all those things together make for a better person. Sometimes you just need to make it a priority. Switching off the technology, creating your own bedtime routine, and giving it the attention it deserves. You will feel much better for it in the morning, that is for sure.
Drink more water
Water is nature’s natural detox, and this could be one of the quickest and easiest ways you make this year you best yet. If you do nothing but drink more water each day you will start to see the positive effects it will have you. Not just on your health but also mentally. Water can really help you with things like energy, it also goes hand in hand with getting better quality of sleep. But it can also improve your skin tone and condition, and make you feel much more energised and healthy. What are you waiting for? Drinking two litres a day may not sound like much, but after a year you could be a completely different person, just from this one change.
Create a bucket list right now just for the year ahead
Are you one of those people that has a bucket list of all the places they want to see and things they want to do during their lifetime? Then why not simplify that a little and make a smaller version for the year ahead? Maybe it’s going somewhere specific? Doing something different perhaps? Going for that promotion in work or career change? Eating veggie once a week? The options are endless, but creating a bucket list gives you the desire to do it. So get motivated and sit down and write yourself a little list.
Travel more
Finally, traveling can be a great resolution to have, so why not do more of it this year? I have already talked about how travel should be a big resolution to have and the benefits you can feel, but traveling can do so much more for you that it certainly could be one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways of having your best year yet. Take a career break, go somewhere out of the ordinary for you and your family, or even just try and do it more than once if that is out of the norm for you. It’s a great way to gain some perspective, recharge the batteries and also re-evaluate what you want from life. If that isn’t life changing, then I don’t know what is?
I hope that this has inspired you to focus on the new year a little different and take into account the whole twelve months rather than just the month of January.
