5 Tips to Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet.
Happy New Year!
You’ve probably made your new year’s resolutions by now. If you haven’t, or even if you did, this blog post is definitely one worth reading.
What inevitably seem to be the resolutions to make each year are the ones related to our physical health. We make resolutions to lose weight, to exercise more, to really focus on our physical health.
But what about our mental, emotional, and spiritual health? What about the small day-to-day things that we can change that go unnoticed? Small changes make big changes, and you might just find yourself gravitating toward a calmer year. Better yet, a calmer you.
A book that I highly recommend on this subject is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. This book gives you the tools you need to create the life you want by highlighting the small day-to-day things that create big results.
Here are my 5 simple tips to make 2024 your best year yet.
Tip #1 - One Step at a Time
Take things one step at a time. This creates space for you to focus on your tasks with a clear mindset. You may be thinking But I’ve got SO MANY things on my To-Do List. How the heck am I going to complete them all?
Here’s a tip that has worked for me. Create your To-Do List according to difficulty or priority. Do the most time-consuming or difficult task first so you get it out of the way.
This leaves you with the ease and peace of mind to get the rest done. Not to mention, it keeps your motivation going.
If you do your most disliked task first, guess what? It’s done. Its over with. How relieving does that feel? The weight on your shoulders lift. You can breathe now.
If you’re more of a visual person like me, cross things out as you go along. I absolutely LOVE this. Not only do I get a visual of all of the tasks I got done, but it is so empowering to cross that stuff out with my pen. My motivation to move onto the next thing increases exponentially with every pen stroke.
The best part is at the end of the day, the list seems to have magically gotten smaller. And seeing that on physical paper or on a computer screen is relief in itself. Close your eyes and imagine it. Feels good, right?
Tip #2 - Break down big goals into smaller ones.
This goes hand in hand with tip #1. If you have a goal or resolution that seems impossible to do at first, try breaking it down. Work backwards. This has helped me astronomically.
I am a dreamer. A big dreamer. Breaking my goals or resolutions into smaller pieces makes it less overwhelming. It's easier. It also demystifies how you are going to get to that end result. Now you know the steps you need to take.
You get to see both sides of the coin: the big picture, and the pieces it takes to construct it.
Once you create your pieces, make a list. Make a schedule. Break. It. Up. Cross off those smaller things each day.
Tip #3 - 15 Minutes at a time.
If you have work to do, schedule your time in 30 or 15 minute increments. I always have multiple projects I’m working on, and this tip has helped me with overwhelm, and has made me more productive. The pressure slides off.
If you have a mindset of I need to work 6 hours on this today, chances are you are going to throw that work out the window. You don’t want to do it. 6 hours on one thing is a long time.
By breaking this down to 30 mins each day, or multiple 30 minute windows with scheduled breaks, it no longer feels like a sprint to the finish line. It’s a marathon jog with beautiful scenes to look at. You get to enjoy the journey.
If you’re having a day where everything seems to be happening all at once, try thinking 15 minutes at a time. A lot can be accomplished in 15 minutes. Pace yourself, and you’ll go far.
If 15 or 30 minutes seems short to you, vamp it up to 1 hour increments. You know the way you work best. This tip is also great for those physical New Year’s Resolutions. A little goes a long way.
Tip #4 - Stay Present. Focus on You.
I have often found that staying present is a hard thing to do in today’s world. We are constantly distracted. We rely on entertainment 24/7. We lost our ability to get in touch with our inner selves. If you’re good on this, great. But here are some suggestions if you need some help in this area.
Put your “do not disturb” mode on. Keep your phone away from your workspace. Turn off all notifications while you work. Batch your emails.
Your life is yours. Make it yours. Drown out the distractions. Get rid of the things that do not serve you and your goals. Once you do, you can enjoy life in the present moment.
Tip #5 - Pause if you need to.
This is the most important tip I can give you. We live in a fast paced world that expects things to be done in a timely fashion. If you need to pause, PAUSE. Hopefully no one is going to misunderstand if you need to take a moment to reset, or use the bathroom, or get a drink of water.
At the end of the day, we are human. We are not robots. You need to nourish yourself. Your body and mind need to be at their best so that you can do your best. How can you possibly do your best if you continuously push yourself through?
That’s how burnout happens. Rest is essential to your results. It is not the reward. Your pause can be 30 seconds or a day. Listen to your mind, body, and spirit. If it’s telling you to take a break. Take one, then get back to it.
I hope your 2024 will be one of the best years of your life. Remember, it’s all about the journey. You may find some new ways to navigate through the madness of it all, preparing you for a much calmer, improved version of yourself.
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