Making 2020 Your Year

For years I’ve been just like everyone else- making New Years resolutions only to get lazy and slack off 2 weeks later or forget what I even promised in the first place. Eat healthier, stop cursing so much, do more exercise….blah blah blah. I can bet a million dollars you’re guilty of making these empty resolutions too.

This year, however, I’m determined to do things differently. How? I’m simply not making resolutions.

IF ONLY IT WERE THAT EASY!!!

Instead, I’ve been thinking about my life goals & decisions. The key word being -decision-. Instead of a resolution, promise, or any other adjective you’d like to insert in there, I’ve been trying to look at it all from a different perspective.

While reflecting one day….aka while drinking wine in the shower as my kids yelled from the other side of the locked door….I began to think, what do I really want out of life? What will make me happy in this new decade? What do I want to accomplish that will make me proud in the subsequent decade? Sure I’d love a boatload of money and to eat pizza every day while wearing Louboutins and galavanting the world……but once the buzz from my wine wore off and I actually got to thinking seriously about what I wanted, the ideas came flooding in. “How am I going to keep track of everything?” I thought to myself. My first instinct was to look at Pinterest. Let’s just say I was inundated with inspirational quotes and articles about how to integrate celery juice into your everyday life. No thanks. After a bit of searching, I stumbled upon what appeared to be another mundane article about vision boards. Something in me made me click the article and as I began to read, I could feel my perspective shifting. This particular author talked about how a vision board is simply a place to physically put your ideas. But it’s up to you to manifest them. Sounds easy, right? Cut out a bunch of cool looking pictures, paste them to a poster board, write “Vision Board” with your tween’s glitter gel pens, then voila!! Nope. Nope. Nope….

I once read a quote that said a dream is just a dream until you write it down, then it becomes a goal. But that goal doesn’t become anything more until you put forth actions. That’s when it becomes real. (or something along those lines). My point being, it became clear to me that I could still utilize the ever popular Vision Board, as long as I mapped out a way for me to manifest these goals into reality.

My particular board is still a work in progress….but don’t worry I promise to share it soon….

In the meantime, I’d love to hear feedback from readers. Do you have a vision board or something similar? Does it help you to accomplish your goals?

Here are some steps that I’ve found truly helped me thus far:

1. Ask Yourself What You Really Want

It’s that simple. If you don’t know where to start, try grabbing a blank piece of paper and jotting down everything that comes to mind when you envision your ideal life. Nothing is off limits here (except maybe a rainbow unicorn lol).

2. Compartmentalize your Ideas

Placing your ideas into categories (ie: friends, family, personal development, health, money, travel) will help you map out the areas upon which you should focus on. After all, the law of attraction can’t work if you don’t know what you’re asking for.

3. Create Action Steps

Similar to a wealth management advisor mapping out a financial plan, you can do the same with you life. Start small and think about how each day (or month, or year) you are going to attain that. I know in my goals, a big one was travel, so I started with one long weekend trip, then one extended family trip, working my way up to an international trip that involves intense planning & saving.

Some Important Things to Remember:

1. NO ONE IS JUDGING YOU.  I know it’s hard to believe because in today’s society there are no secrets and there is no discretion. People can be down right crude to one another. But guess what? This vision board & these goals- they’re YOURS. No one is going to see them unless you share them, and even if you do decide to share and the particular person(s) don’t agree….well fuck them…seriously. No one on this earth can tell you that what you want out of YOUR life is wrong. Always remember that.

2. IT’S A WORK IN PROGRESS. Your visions & goals do not have to be static. Just as you grow and change, so will they. Don’t feel pressured to have to complete something the original way you wrote it down or envisioned it just because. Trust in yourself and your journey this life has given you. It’s ok to always be a work in progress. I feel like I am.

3. BE AUTHENTIC. This personal road map, or vision board, or mission, or goals, whatever you prefer to call it, is for only YOU. Try to let go of society’s norms and be authentic to what you want and what your heart tells you. Sounds a bit corny, but it’s true. As mentioned earlier, the Law of Attraction can only work if you put something out into the universe- so put out what YOU WANT….not what society tells you that you should want.

At this point I believe I’ve covered how you and I can both work together to make 2020 OUR YEAR. Even if the only thing we do is create a vision board. 

 

xoxo Robin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge Days 6 & 7: Meditation & Music

Yesterday and today were days 6-7 of my ten day Positivity and Productivity Challenge. Appropriately, one task was to do at least 5 minutes of meditation, while the other was to create a kick butt playlist.

Let’s begin with the meditation. This is a practice I’ve been trying to integrate into my daily life for months. Some days I get in 20 minutes, and other times weeks go by and I get zero. Today, however, I found myself 10 minutes of solitude and took advantage of it. One particular app I enjoy that provides some guided meditations is Headspace. Or you can simply go to YouTube and play one. If you’re not one for traditional meditations, you can also go alternative routes. One such route is utilizing sound meditation- which explores how sounds (ie: gongs, singing bowls, or simply music) are connected to our consciousness. A great website to learn more is www.soundmeditation.com. Another great idea that I love is walking meditation. Remember in my previous posts where I say nature helps you clear your head? I wasn’t kidding. Walking meditation involves the concept of focusing on the walk itself. I enjoyed reading about it here: http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/simple-steps-to-practice-walking-meditation/?ref=pin 

However you decide to meditate is up to you. The point of this mental exercise is really to calm our mind & bodies. Science has proven that regular meditation truly has it’s perks. So, challenge day 6- success!

Onto Day 7: creating a playlist. I honestly don’t think I’ve created a “playlist” since college. I remember buying my first iPod freshman year, and bringing it to the gym with me 6 days a week (Can you tell a lot has changed since then? iPod? Gym EVERY day? HA!!!) Anyway, I created my own loose interpretation of this task. While cleaning the house, I finally utilized our Amazon Echo Dot and asked Alexa to play each song that came to mind. By the time I was finished, I was not only very productive with my cleaning tasks, but also in a great mood. I had heard every genre from Eminem to Madonna to Bush to U2, and all I can say is: music is awesome. It’s very therapeutic. I’m not surprised it was part of this challenge.

At this point I’m 70% through and looking forward to the next 3 days of positivity and productivity. Wishing you a “happy hump day” as well.

Until tomorrow.

xo Robin

Challenge Day 3

“Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself”.

This simple saying is not only one of my favorites, but also one of the truest I’ve ever read. When we feel hopeless, or confused, or angry, sometimes all we need is to go for a walk and find the answers.

Today is day 3 in my ten-day Positivity and Productivity Challenge. If you haven’t guessed it by now, my task was to go outside for a walk and try to take in my surroundings. This has been my favorite so far. In warmer weather I used to go for a walk or hike every day. (Living in the Hudson Valley really has its perks) Here are some of my favorite hikes from this past Autumn, while I’m feeling all nostalgic.

Ok back to the challenge. I’m not too sure what else to put except that when I was outside today, it felt like I could “breathe”. All the thoughts I never have time to think about began to flood my mind, then I slowly processed them one by one. Once I broke out into a jog (I’ll call it a jog instead of a true run), my mind felt clear and I was trying to focus on my breath. I recently read that while training your lungs to run, an important exercise is to breathe in and out of your nose. With a little congestion this proved to be way too difficult, and I resorted to my usual inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. While exercising, I also tend to repeat my yoga mantras, such as, “use your breath to breathe energy into your body.”. Believe it or not, it helped me perform better.

Overall, a successful challenge task was completed today. Exercise is my #1 suggestion for anyone struggling to reach positivity, clarity, or a happier lifestyle. Before I say goodbye for today, I’ll leave you with two tidbits: 1. I’m currently working on a post of some of my favorite yoga sequences for different times of the day {hopefully someone will benefit from it}; and 2. Getting outside in all weather isn’t just good for adult souls, but children’s as well. Here’s a great article I read from a local organization that I love: https://wildearth.org/blog/children-that-play-outside-in-all-weather-grow-up-resilient. It may be a bit dated but totally worth the read.

Wishing everyone a great rest of your day (or night if you’re on the East Coast)!

xo Robin