My New Years Resolutions, Reflections + How To Achieve Your Goals

At the end of every year, I like to cozy up in my bed, light my favorite candle, put on some relaxing music, and set my goals for the year ahead. I also take this much needed “me time” to reflect on the year as a whole. Did I accomplish what I set out to do? Did I lose track of my long-term goals? Did I discover a new goal? What was my favorite creation, collaboration, and brand project of the year?

Confronting yourself with these questions may be uncomfortable if you didn’t reach those big goals you had set for yourself the year before, but it also allows you to recognize all the accomplishments you may have forgotten about! It’s easy to look at those big goals, such as I’m going to lose 20 lbs or I’m going to quit my job and feel discouraged if we didn’t achieve them. Take this time to really dive deep into your past year, and uncover just how much you really did accomplish. Maybe you didn’t lose those 20 lbs, but did you start eating healthier, work out 1 more day a week, or find a new workout you loved this year? Recognize these smaller successes, as they all are essential ingredients to concocting the big goal. 

BUT HOW DO I RECALL THOSE SMALL SUCCESSES?

I’ll admit, it can be surprisingly difficult to remember those smaller moments, even if they meant a lot to you at the time. If you kept an agenda or journal for the year, pull that out right now! Sift through your months, your daily to-do’s, or your journal entries, and you’ll discover those hidden gems. Doing this made me realize just how much I had to be proud of! I was about to dispose of my 2017 agenda when I decided to skim through it, only to recall my Manifested Moments of the Month. Each month, I dedicated a page in my agenda to manifested moments: the seemingly small (or big) moments that month that I made happen for myself through hard work, determination, and meditation. Here’s just a few of my manifested moments:

• Collaborated with someone new
• Got a long-term partnership with a dream brand
• Got VIP Coachella tickets + opportunity to work with an amazing brand there
• Launched a blog
• Got in 2 TV commercials

If you haven’t gotten in the habit of writing down your manifestations or gratitudes, I encourage you to start doing so this year! You can record these daily, weekly, or monthly. It’s important to physically put your successes and goals down on paper, saying them aloud often, and attracting them through meditation. If you focus on what you didn’t achieve, you’ll continue attracting negativity. Focusing on these smaller successes will help you attract more of what you want in your life!

HOW DO I SET GOALS I WILL ACTUALLY ACHIEVE THIS YEAR?

I see so many people who are anti-resolution setting for the New Year because “they’ll get over it in a month”. True, if you go into it with that mindset, you won’t achieve it! Simple as that. I also see a lot of people set goals that are so broad, or part of a 5-year plan, causing them to get frustrated in themselves and give up goal setting in general. Instead of getting discouraged, you just need to be realistic and dig deep into your broad goal by coming up with stepping stones that will get you there. Let’s use one of my big goals as an example: I want to reduce my waste and be more eco-friendly. That’s great and all, but that is too broad and not specific enough. There’s no actionable goal there.

Instead, I’m setting my goal as: I am going to use less single use plastics by bringing my own tumbler to coffee shops and carrying reusable straws in my bag. You see the difference? This goal will help me be less wasteful by being conscious of what I need to do to get there. It’s attainable, specific, and actionable. Once it becomes habit enough, I can create a new actionable goal, such as I am going to swap my disposable makeup wipes for reusable cotton rounds. Keep in mind, you may achieve these smaller, specific goals within a month or two, but being in the habit of creating achievable goals throughout the year, not just the New Year, will encourage great success!

MY 2017 REFLECTIONS

• Never take family for granted. You never know what could happen. Cherish the time you have with them, tell them you love them every chance you get, and make sacrifices to spend time together.
• Life is more than a to-do list. Take that time to unplug, be present, and enjoy life without feeling the need to post it online.
• There’s so much of this world to be discovered and opportunities to grow in ways you can’t fathom. Take that spontaneous trip and get to know new people.
• There’s no time for toxic relationships. Cutting out those negative people who don’t love and support you is the best thing you can do for yourself. If someone isn’t treating you like a true friend, or doesn’t make the time for you, you don’t need them. Quality relationships over quantity, any day. 
• Life is too damn short to hold grudges. Quality friends are hard to come by. You’re human, you may have a falling out. But if they are a true friend, confrontation is necessary to repairing the relationship. You’ll feel a weight off your shoulders, feel like an adult, and most importantly, have that special human back in your life.
• Hustling hard and expressing gratitude are the keys to success. Your thoughts are powerful. Your words are powerful. Your actions are powerful. Choose what you focus on wisely. 
• Exercising your mind and your body really does have the biggest impact on your mental wellbeing. Don’t neglect yourself.

NEW YEARS GOALS

• Downsize, downsize, downsize: When I started YouTube, I got caught up in obtaining a lot of things. Recently I came to the realization that all of this stuff is driving me crazy. I know that minimalism isn’t realistic for me and my job, but I definitely do not need half of the items in my apartment! Time to donate, sell, and throw what doesn’t benefit me!
• Clean out my computer: Much like my overflowing closet, I tend to have useless files and folders cluttering my desktop and external hard drives. It’s gonna take some time, but I have a feeling a weight will be lifted off my shoulders once I do!
• Post content with a purpose: I talked about this in my relaunch post, but I’m done posting filler content, just for the sake of posting. It’s easy to get caught up in life and what others are doing and feel the pressures as an influencer to be posting constantly. This lead to me posting an old or low-quality photo just to put something out there. But I’m done doing that! I have shifted focus to pre-planning, having content ready for the upcoming week that will inspire, relate, or educate!
• Use less single-use plastics: After learning how only 1 in 400 coffee cups are actually recycled, and that over 500 million plastic straws are used in the U.S. every day, I knew I needed to make a change. I purchased a Byta to bring with me everywhere, as well as these stainless steel straws to keep in my bag so I don’t forget!
• Grow my blog presence: Relaunching my blog, collaborating with creative minds, has made me so incredibly inspired and driven! I really want to focus on my blog this year, posting weekly content that covers a variety of topics with the aim to inspire you to live out your best lives. I want to travel the world, work with my dream brands, and create motivating content for you babes!
• Spend less money on rent + more on experiences: I used to value having a big, beautiful apartment, but it really doesn’t drive me anymore. This last year we’ve spent so much on our rent in LA, that we felt guilty leaving to travel! As much as we love our space, we’d rather reallocate our funds and travel the world, doing what we love! Now, if only we knew where we wanted to live…
• Find a fun exercise: Once my trainer moved, my passion for working out slowly declined. I miss the fun, and how much happier I was when I consistently exercised! This year, I’m going to challenge myself to try new workout classes until I find one I love! Barre? Boxing? Spin? Hey, I’m down to try it!
• Make smarter purchases: While I just celebrated my 2 years of going meat-free (yay me) I hadn’t spent as much effort researching brands and ingredients of products I was purchasing. While I have a lot of products to use up or donate, I want to be more conscious of what makeup/skincare I’m using moving forward! There are so many brands and products to discover that don’t use toxic ingredients, harmful dyes, or test on animals, and I want to share these hidden gems with you babes!

Well guys, I don’t know about you but I am freaking pumped about 2018. This will be the year that changes everything, and I can’t wait to grow along with you! I’ll be doing a post all about my vision board and how to create one for yourself (and how to use it!) very soon! I want to know what your goals are for 2018 below! Let’s inspire each other and make this the best year to date.

xx 

photos: @taylorkrausecreative

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