Gorgeous journal from Kikki K

The lead up to New Year’s Eve can be an exciting time. There’s that weird time between Christmas and New Year where everyone lose track of the days, the date, and just floats through the days in a post-Christmas delirium.

As New Year’s Eve approaches, there a sense of excitement and renewed motivation to reset and rebalance your life.

Over the years I have tried loads of different ideas, tips and tricks to try and give myself focus and work out what my goals are each year. Here are a few that have worked for me, along with a couple of new ideas for starting the new year on the great note:

New Years Resolutions – Ok, so this is a really obvious one.  Stay with me though.  As you get closer to the big day.  Give yourself some time to stop and think, reflect on your year. What went well?  What would you change?  What did you miss? What do you wish you did more of?  Now, here’s my trick, write down as many ideas as you like.  Then, after a little more soul searching and thinking, choose one.  That’s right, choose one.  Make sure your resolution is really important to you and then commit to it.  Write your resolution down.  Try and check in regularly and reflect on how you are going.  Oh, and make it positive!  Be kind to yourself and focus on changing one part of your life for the better.

Visualisation – This is a firm fave of mine.  Start by thinking about what you would do if money was no object. What would your life look like?  Where would you live? What would you do with your time?  How would you spend each day? What would bring you joy?  Who would you be spending time with?  Got it?  Now, take some time, sit down are write out what your ‘new’ life would look like… in a years time.  Try and be as descriptive as you want to.  Now, keep your ‘Visualisation’ in a safe spot ready to take out and read next year!  I’ve used this technique over the years and I am a HUGE fan. Its a great way to try and imagine what my ‘big picture’ for my life looks like.

Write it down – Sounds simple, but it really is important to write down your goal, visualization, whatever you decide!  Why? Writing down your goal makes you accountable. Writing down your visualization allows you to check back in (with yourself) in a years time and see how you are going.  A simple notebook will do the trick, no need to get too fancy!  Unless of course you want to.

Choosing a word for the year – This is a new idea I  tried for the first time last year thanks to a tip from the lovely ladies at Mama Mia.  The idea is you pick a word to focus your intentions and actions and aim to live by that word for the next year.  My word was ‘strong’ and through last year I worked on getting physically and emotionally stronger.  I exercised more, I said no when I didn’t want to do something, I held my ground when something was important to me.  You can see just how much you can get from having a singular focus.  I wrote regularly in my journal (which in reality is a stock-standard notebook!) and was really happy with how I was able to focus in on my word throughout the year.  I’ve already decided that this years word will be ‘free’.  More on that throughout the year.

Hopefully you’ll find some time over the coming days to stop, reflect and come up with your own goals, visualisations, maybe you’ll choose a word too?

Enjoy xx