Design Your Best Year
It’s time to come clean. I started writing a blog that no one else saw exactly one year ago. Let’s jump into our time machines. It’s January 1st 2024, and I’ve spent most of the day listening to podcasts, videos, and reading books and blogs on how to make 2024 my best year. There are many good ideas that work for the content creators but what will work for me. I looked back at my Goals Journal (a name this notebook received today after a YouTuber, Jennifer at the Daily Connoisseur said she had a separate goals journal. Aha! That’s the name of this notebook I’ve been writing in for nearly 10 years) and saw what I was thinking about and planning for at this time last year. Much of it was the same. And, I had made progress on FI, personalizing my morning ritual, eating, fasting, reading, learning, but there were other areas that fell by the wayside again. Exercise being one. My friend reminded me this weekend that yoga is exercise, which is great, but I was thinking of walking or rebounding, and now with so much research out about muscle strength and longevity, getting and staying stronger is on the priority list. Another item that I’ve been contemplating is starting a blog, to record my thoughts, ideas, discoveries, learnings, and I’m putting those into action (or not.) I’m thinking ahead to 10 years from now, when we may have achieved financial independence, and I can do whatever I want, I may want to use this as part of a business and I don’t want to have to remember all my good ideas that will be worth sharing. Better to capture them now to share later!
I’ll be using Mel Robbins’ Best Year Workbook, and recommending to a few friends, to do my year planning for my life. I undertook a similar exercise about 8 years ago with a few coworkers and it was transformational for each of us. At that time we used the framework that Keith Ferazzi outlines in his book, Who’s Got Your Back, and on first glance at Mel’s workbook, I think it’s going to be even better, or at least better for what season of life I’m in. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Other New Year activities include Tim Senesi’s 2024 30-Day Yoga Challenge - free on YouTube. I’ve done Yoga with Adriene for about 7 years and upon recommendation from one of my friends at work, I tried Yoga with Tim, and I adore it. It’s a change I didn’t know I needed to make. I also enjoyed the beginner videos from Breathe & Flow yoga channel on YouTube, but a bit too Yang for me. I also broke down and paid for a yearly membership to Insight Timer, after a year of using just the free meditations. I highly recommend Insight Timer for beginning meditators - I count myself as a perpetual beginner - and I do so enjoy the courses so many different teachers offer. There was one on planning for the new year, which I could not resist. I then proceeded to save so many courses that I probably will have most of my year covered. I’m currently in the middle of Rachel Zinman’s course Discover Your Ayurvedic Doha for Inner Harmony, which is interesting, and I’m loving positivity coach, Liz Doyle’s course Advent Calendar of Self Love, which I started late and so will be taking with me into 2024. So much self discovery to share…you can see why I needed to start a blog. Wish me luck!
