Motivational Monday: Every day of 2014 is an opportunity to write a new page of your life

Photo credit: sunshinegirl80.blogspot.com

Ah January, the first month of a new year and the start of a new beginning.

If you caught my Happy New Year post, you will know that I completely zoned out for the holidays to focus on family, friends and myself (which involved eating way too much and drinking copious amounts of mulled wine whilst learning silly dances with my family at 4am in the morning) and today is my first official day back into the new year.

Which is why when I finally decided yesterday to look at the year ahead and all the things I want to do and achieve, I felt a little overwhelmed and to be honest scared.

A big difference to how I usually start the year. I’m usually really excited and motivated!! Thankfully yesterday was Sunday and even more thankfully I heard a fantastic sermon at church that just spoke to my soul.

I realised the reason I was feeling so overwhelmed was because

1. The things I want to achieve this year really mean a big deal to me
2. I was focusing so hard on the goals that I was not only making them bigger than they had to be but I was also making them a problem
3. I was looking at all my goals and forgetting to reflect back on 2013 and be thankful for what had happened and what I had achieved and use that as a way to motivate myself forward
4. Some of the goals are goals I previously had on my 2013 list so I felt disheartened that they were still there on the list 

So after much thought, I have decided to broach this year a little differently to the way I usually go about it which is to just write down my resolutions. I also thought I would share it in case it helps someone else who might be feeling a little similar to how I felt 

1. I started out by reflecting on 2013 and all the things I achieved and put the list up to encourage me through this year.
2. I then reflected on the things I didn’t achieve and tried to understand why I didn’t achieve them rather than beating myself up, the past is the past
3. Then I wrote a very condensed goal list, I usually write an essay! But this time I have 8 goals in total
4. For each of my goals I have written down 3 reasons for why I want to achieve that goal. This is to give me a reason to push for it and to encourage me to keep going for it
5. I decided to change my perspective on each goal, so instead of looking at the goal look at the different ways in which to achieve it. For example instead of thinking I need to loose some weight (after my Christmas pig out session), I’m thinking I need to have a healthier lifestyle so have more vegetables on my plate etc.
6. I have picked one goal (something smaller) to achieve by the end of January, and the reason for this is that by achieving one little thing it will encourage me to believe I can achieve the rest of my goals for the year
7. I have started practicing the art of visualisation. So I take all my goals and I start to visualise each one individually in my head, imagining how I am going to feel when I achieve them and actually seeing them
8. I wrote down what I would call the end of my 2014 book. We all started 2014 with 365 chapters of our life to fill.  So I wrote my last chapter for New Years Eve 2014, which includes all the things I am thankful for. This act of reflecting forward took off all the pressure for January and allowed me to objectively focus on the things I need to do to get there.

Finally I thought I would share one of the biggest things that helped me push past the feeling of being overwhelmed.

It was to have a little FAITH for faith is defined as “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen” and to simply just go out there, live life to the fullest and do my best, with only a little faith everything else will fall into place.

So my wish for you this year is to have a deeply fulfilling 2014 that is filled with a desire to look for the opportunity and joy in each day as you journey forward into your new year with a little faith.

Xxx