How to make 2020 awesome!

Where do you want to be in a years time?

Can you answer that question?

Do you have any idea how you’re going to get there?

It is far too easy to get bogged down by day-to-day life and feel like we have no time or energy to make changes to our life.

There’s a tendency to focus on promotions, pay-rises, when I have kids, when the kids are older, the holidays…

While we wait for a set of circumstances to perfectly align we often forget to focus on actually living.

That’s how I felt nearly four years ago.

I’d gone from one miserable job to another. I was well paid but got little day-to-day satisfaction.

So, we sat down and brain-stormed what we wanted our life to look like the following year.

Over the last few years, both myself and my husband have left our full-time jobs and we’ve headed to France for a year with our boys!

I don’t regret focusing on work and building our savings for the ten years before we had children. BUT, I do look back and wonder what I actually did with my last ten years.

Life has a tendency to keep on moving while we’re waiting for everything to fall into place!

Let’s face it, many of us spend longer planning our two-year olds birthday party or lounge layout than we actually spend considering our lives. 

Well I certainly did!

Soul searching, goal setting…call it what you want…it’s kinda important if we want to get the most out of our time here!

Not in some rigid…must-stick-to-the-plan kind of way but actually spending time to think about what’s working and what’s not.

So, here are our tips for having an awesome 2020…

Visualise it! 

Ask yourself where you’d like to be in a years time. It’s great for re-focusing the mind and finding out what is really important to you.

A year isn’t so far in the future that it seems almost too daunting to consider. It’s also long enough to make some really positive changes and create new habits.

Life should be about enjoying the moments rather than always working towards a set of circumstances. By that I mean…I’ll start living when xyz happens…until then I’ll just keep plodding on.

By keeping your goal in mind and focusing your energy around it, you should find that your life feels more satisfying and has more meaning.

We need to do more of the things that make us happy and less of the things we think we should be doing!

Screw societies ‘norms’!

Write down what you see…what you want your life to be.

Prioritize

Choose some realistic goals to remind yourself of what you want to achieve…focus on things that you can work on now.

So, if you’re not happy in your job, plan to look for an alternative income e.g. a new role, working online, renting a room in your house.

If you’d love to start hiking again do it.

Want to travel more…save up, find a house sit, airbnb your house…do what you need to do to book those tickets!

Remind yourself

Read your goals list daily or weekly to remind yourself of what’s important to YOU. This will help you to focus on what you should be working on rather than getting distracted or pulled in another direction.

Take time every month to review your goals…What’s working out? What needs changing? Do you spend time on the right things? Is anything pulling you away from achieving your goals?

Remember that you don’t need permission from anyone to make your life better.

You should be your own biggest supporter…no-one should want happiness and success for you more than you want it for yourself!

Be thankful

Research has shown that gratitude not only makes you feel better and sleep better it also boosts your self-esteem.

While completing steps 1-3 remember to think about what is good in your life right now. Rather than focussing solely on what you want to change, think about what you enjoy that you want more of in your life.

Don’t think too far ahead.

If some one asked me where I saw our life 10 years from now, I’d have no idea…and that’s ok.

It’s just too far ahead.

Life is unpredictable.

We’re unpredictable.

Goals need to be adaptable and they need to move with us.

Our 2019 goals are pretty different to our 2018 goals.

Changing your goal is ok.

Find your tribe!

Find people that inspire you.

Follow groups that you can relate to on social media.

Leave any that make you feel bluh or are just a waste of your time.

Being surrounded by like-minded positive people can be the difference between actually reaching your goal and just carrying on as you are.

So, there you are! It’s nothing new. It’s not complicated.

In its simplest form it’s about giving yourself time to think about life, to understand how you feel about things and do more of what makes you smile.

To live mindfully.

To live intentionally.

This year we’ll be using this 6 Minute Diary to support this process too.

Click here to read the amazing reviews!

With your diary as a guide you spend 3 minutes in the morning and 3 in the evening looking at gratitude, mindfulness, positivity, prioritisation and productivity, doing good for others and personal growth and reflection.

Bring on 2019…

Do you set life goals or prefer to wing it?!