Welcome to the New Year!
Hopefully this finds you healthy, happy and excited to tackle the adventures you pursue this year.
I absolutely LOVE New Year resolutions. Usually I take 3-5 under my wing and spend the year completing them. I haven’t failed myself in 8 years. I don’t do the typical loose weight-ish resolutions, mine are more realistic.
For instance, one year I read 12 classic novels. Some of them we effortless and enjoyable, others (Pride and Prejudice) were a little bit of a struggle (snooze-fest) to get through. I’ve also solved a rubiks cube that literally took ALL year. Those first two rows became easy after a month but that final one…OOOFF. Last year was all about yoga and becoming a certified teacher, NAILED it! This year just feels different, to honor that feeling I’m changing my New Year routine.
In December I started trying to nail down the intentions/goals/resolutions for this year. I had many conversations with strangers (thank you bar job) over their ideas on the resolutions. One lady told me that she picks 3 areas of her life and one goal for each of the areas. Health, Relationships and career. Last year she wanted to find a gym for her health goal that she felt a connection to. In the relationship category she wanted to have a weekly date with her niece and finally she wanted to land a promotion at her job. She completed all of these and it got me thinking, maybe THAT’S the way to do it. Three goals, three different areas of life, and it seemed like she had the perfect categories.
Something just didn’t jive when I tried to lock my goals in with those specific categories. Even after I tried other categories (wealth, movement & motherhood) it just didn’t fit.
Around mid December I started to notice a theme around podcasts, reading and conversation with people. The themes seemed to present themselves to me on almost a daily if not hourly basis. It seemed like every where I turned people were talking about creating space and boundaries so they could be their best self.
No matter where I looked those two words SPACE and BOUNDARIES followed me.
This year, although I LOVE resolutions, I’ve decided to take a rest from them. Instead of creating a list of Get To’s this year, will be a focus on ideas. Specifically the ideas of space and boundaries.
Space includes but is not limited to: creating space by minimizing clutter. Spend less, save more. Going in the closets and giving them a makeover. Creating head space by utilizing mediation tools. Creating space in my body by healthy movement every day. Space in the form of food, clearing out the junk and making room for clean eating.
Boundaries, although in second place; for me are probably needed the most. I tend to be a people pleaser and over extend myself to make sure others are content and happy. I often say yes when I mean no and over book myself to the point of exhaustion. This is where a focus of boundaries is going to be of the utmost importance. I need to create space for myself, within that boundaries need to be set so I have the room for me.
It seems simple and pure. But this year will probably be the hardest yet. Being a people pleaser I’ll need to stick to my guns and only commit to the things that I can’t live without. I’m actually a little anxious about sticking to my ideas but it’s needed.
Isn’t that where growth occurs? When we don’t let fear or anxiety take over but rather dive in and enjoy the waves.
I’ll keep you posted!
Namaste,
Jes xoxox