31 days into a new year and we’ve achieved so much. We’re taking steps towards the future and taking the time to look back over a month of hard graft and determination.
Periods of reflection don’t only need to occur at the end of a year. Take time, when you have it, to look back and reevaluate your future steps.
What do you need to change? What do you deserve to celebrate? How are you going to reach your end goal?
How are your resolutions going? Genuinely, don’t lie to us.
Look at how the small changes you’ve been making have been positively or negatively impacting your life. February is usually where people stop subscribing to their resolutions, and for good reason. Sometimes they’re just impractical or unattainable and that is OK!
Do things that make you happy, and leave that which doesn’t behind you.
And for the resolutions that you’d like to keep around, have a look and see what you can do to keep the ball rolling. Pick independent when you’re deciding on where to go for lunch, take the stairs not the elevator if you can, and smile at strangers.
This observation came from us revising our resolutions. Instead of leaving some behind, we just adjusted them, so they fit into our life better.
That goal to read a book a week may be attainable for some people, but for us, with our slow reading and busy life, it’s just not possible. So, we’ve picked up a few smaller books, set reminders to take a book to work and read it en route, and just made it our goal to read as many as we can. No pressure, just enjoyment.
Small adjustments like this avoid guilt and actually help us achieve an end goal that won’t have us stressed out and unhappy.
Was January work, work, work? A non-stop dedicated month to self-improvement?
Take a minute and relax. Stay at home and put your feet up, or better yet, head out and enjoy yourself. Go dancing, see a gig, eat the cake.
Because as much as it’s brilliant that you’ve been choosing all of the stuff that’s good for you, every so often, you deserve a reward. Whether that’s chocolate, beer or just staying up late. Do it!
Reflections help us adjust our actions going forward.
What have you yet to do? What event caught your eye? Who do you still need to catch up with?
Look forward and plan forward. Book that workshop, learn something new, invest in your goals. Whilst the past can offer us help and support, we don’t live there.
Have you let this month slip by? Stop being passive and become more active in what surrounds you!
Get involved, start that painting, apply for that job. Just go out and give it a go! Life is too short to keep saying no.
Stop feeling jealous and start forging out your own path instead.
Whether it’s location, people or your newsfeed, surrounding yourself with good is important!
Go on holiday, unfollow those who make you feel less than and keep those you love close.
What surrounds you can really impact your outlook and output. being supported, having positive information and news around you, and being in a place that inspires is IMPORTANT!
We’re not saying move to a land far away, but maybe become a tourist in your own city and fall back in love with it. Go out and meet new people. And unfollow all of those accounts that guilt trip you into buying a new wardrobe every two weeks. You deserve more!
Keep learning. Whether it’s a class, a new skill or setting aside the time to learn about yourself.
Don’t punish yourself if you or your actions are imperfect, just like art, the faults make it human. Just adjust and develop, learn what best suits you and continue on forward.