Creating 2020 Vision: How to Get Clear, Set Goals and Create a Life You Love

When you have 2020 vision, you have clarity, direction, purpose and this creates a strong focused mindset. If you are ready to see what you want clearly and prepare yourself to remain motivated, inspired and truly live your vision, stay tuned all throughout this year! We are going to get motivated and stay motivated with a constant search for and connection to clarity.

This post today will walk you through three basic steps to create 2020 vision for your year ahead—the year 2020! First you will use clarity questions to dive deep within yourself and get super clear on where you’ve come from through reflecting on this past year. Then you will set specific goals to set you up to move towards what you want. Lastly you will create a life you love through consistent action and maintaining a determined mindset. Ready to get started? Here we go!

Step One: How to Get Clear

Clarity requires self-reflection. Inner reflection can be painful, or at least uncomfortable…so we tend to either avoid it through procrastination, busyness or through plain old denial. If you can reframe the process of self-reflection from painful or uncomfortable to a process of getting super clear on what hasn’t worked so far, so that you can make adjustments and create a plan for change, you might actually enjoy the process!

Getting clear is not about regret, self-deprecation, self-punishment or anything else that feels negative. Self-reflection and getting super clear in order to allow yourself to problem solve and use those solutions to move forward in a way that creates feelings of empowerment and deep self-awareness. Take time with these self-reflection questions to dive deep and GET CLEAR! Get out your journal, set your ego and fear aside and gain the clarity through self-reflection that you can learn and grow from to make 2020 your most purpose driven and powerful year yet.

1.    What was the most memorable part of this past year? Why?

2.    What is the biggest lesson you learned this past year? How can you apply that lesson to the year ahead?

3.    In what ways have you changed over this past year? Are you satisfied with that change, why or why not?

4.    If you did not create the change you desire in the past year, why? What held you back?

5.    What were your biggest distractions in this past year? How can you adjust those in the year ahead?

6. What did you prioritize over the past year? Did you prioritize yourself and your personal goals?

7.    When you reflect on this past year, what are you most grateful for?

8.    What is one area of your life that you’d most like to improve upon in the year ahead?

9. How will you ensure that you make these improvements that you desire?

10. What are the challenges that may present themselves as you attempt to create these improvements?

Spend time reflecting on your answers and then move into the next step.

Step Two: Setting Goals

When you set goals, you want them to be measurable, doable and desirable. If you can measure your progress you will know when you’ve achieved your goal. When your goal is doable, it will be something that you can fit into your current schedule and lifestyle without any major disruption. And the big kicker is, your goal has to be desirable—meaning you have to actually want it. When you know what you want (goal) and begin to create a plan for making it happen (doable) you can remain focused on why you want it (desirable) to ensure that you make it happen.

The biggest element of follow through is creating small action steps. When you have the baby steps outlined that will lead you to the bigger outcome of achieving your goal, you can get there. This leads us to step three!

Step Three: Create a Life You Love Through Consistent Action and a Determined Mindset

Taking action consistently is how you will ensure that you meet your goals and live out your vision for your life. Without a plan to take action it will most likely remain a dream, a fantasy, a simple wish. With a plan that you commit to taking action on consistently, your vision will fall into place with time. When you have a determined mindset that you have to do these action steps daily, you can do these action steps, that you WILL do these action steps NO MATTER WHAT, you will make it happen.

I know this is all easy to talk about however putting the plan together and creating consistent action is not always so simple...Over the next ten blogs, I’ll be outlining TEN steps to help create the change you desire over time and through a series of supportive suggestions that will help you create a life that you love. When it comes to living your vision, it is ultimately YOU that has to make the choice and the daily consistent work to make it happen. The 10-steps will offer the support to help get you where you want to go and continue to create clear vision for 2020!

I hope these three steps are helpful in your search for greatness this year. If you struggle to stay motivated feel free to reach out, having support is an essential element to growth!

How to Survive the 3 Most Common Holiday Stressors

Do the holidays totally stress you out? If so, you are not alone. Many people say that the holiday season is the most stressful time of the year. While this time of year can be filled with aspects of fun, sharing and joy, they can also wreak havoc on your wellness routine and cause some old patterns to trickle back in or, even worse, you might completely neglect self-care. This is not good and can leave you feeling burned out, tired and may even leave your more susceptible to illness.

Today I am offering this survival guide to the holidays as a reminder to focus on your health and wellbeing while covering the most stressful elements of the season: disruption in wellness routines, financial strain and travel anxiety.

DISRUPTION IN WELLNESS ROUTINES

The foundations of wellness are nutrition, sleep, movement and relaxation. When you have a routine that balances each of these, infused with some intentional self-care, you most likely feel well, live well and create inner and outer wellbeing. The holidays tend to disrupt each of these routines! We all know it can be something of a domino effect where if one piece is disrupted all of the others are consequently negatively impacted. An example would be, if I am over tired from not getting enough sleep I may skip my AM exercise in order to get a few extra zzz’s. Because I’m still tired I may go for that extra cup (or two) of coffee—increasing my sugar intake and now disrupting my nutrition. With all the extra sugar and caffeine I can’t focus during my daily meditation and it is hard to fall asleep at night… So that’s the domino effect. Here’s how you can catch it before it completely derails!

·      Create a meal plan for each week and be sure to highlight where the vegetables and fruits exist within this plan. Even if you indulge in some holiday treats, you will still be well nourished!

·      Make your bedtime consistent, aim for 7-8 hours per night.

·      Maintain a simple exercise routine, even 10 minutes of stretching, taking the stairs or anything at all is better than nothing!

·      Do a 1-5 minute meditation before bed. Insight timer is a great app has a TON of free guided meditations, or you can use their timer to stay on track! If meditation is not how you decompress, give yourself some form of intentional relaxation in any way that you can, an epsom salt bath, reading, taking a walk, sipping chamomile tea…

Use the tools that work best for you and keep it simple, but whatever you do, don’t give up on your wellness routines, this is the time of year you need these routines the most!!

FINANCIAL STRESS & STRAIN

There is a reason the commercials start getting us in the holiday spirit super early. They want us to buy stuff, and a lot of it. Which is totally fine so long as it does not come along with financial strain, debt and regret. While yes it is fun to give and receive, there is no need to do it out of guilt and without the financial means to make it feel good. Here are some suggestions to reduce your financial stress and strain this holiday season.

·      Set a realistic budget and STICK TO IT.

·      Get creative. Making gifts such as ornaments, bookmarks, writing letters, creating playlists, getting crafty, baking or anything handmade with love is a great way to give! Who doesn’t love something handmade?

·      Choose thoughtfulness over extravagance. Consider what might be a meaningful gift over a bunch of smaller items to open. While lots of packages might look fun to open, the gifts that are most meaningful will be remembered and used throughout the year. (You can click HERE for suggestions on how to give the gift of wellness.)

·      Choose experiences over gifts. Enjoy a holiday dinner out or take a trip to a holiday show rather than exchange gifts. Maybe volunteer with friends and family somewhere where you can make a difference, this will take your mind off of wanting and get you into a space of serious gratitude. Spending time together is more memorable than a new shirt and other random items. This can create fun traditions that focus on quality time over financial expense.

Whether or not the financial means are there, you might enjoy getting creative and experiences over going shopping!

TRAVEL ANXIETY

Traveling during the holidays can be tremendously anxiety provoking as we all have busy schedules and traveling can become one more thing on the to-do list. Here are some travel strategies that can help to ease your anxious mind.

·      Practice deep breathing to help keep your nervous system in balance. If you need a resource, you can follow my 5-minute guided diaphragmatic breathing practice HERE! This is useful on a plane, train, in a car or even at the dinner table! Deep breathing is free, calming and always available.

·      Pack light, book your plans early and take the extra day off of work.

·      Travel with healthy snacks that give you sustained energy like fruits and veggies and nuts and seeds. If you become hangry while traveling, you will feel just that much more unpleasant.

·      If traveling is too much, create a time other than the specific holiday to travel when the fares are lower, and the days are less hectic.

·      Don’t skimp on your wellness routines. While traveling you might over-eat, under-exercise, under-sleep or skip your relaxation altogether. This will make it that much more difficult to bounce back from any traveling exhaustion. Even if there is one area you can maintain, that will set up you for feeling better than if it all goes away!

Whatever your plans are for this hectic holiday season, I hope you remain, healthy, happy and full of gratitude. Whatever you do, don’t forget to breathe!

How to Survive the Holidays: A Mindful Eating Guide

So the holiday season is in full force, did it sneak up on you too?! When it comes to the holidays, do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to surviving them all? Do you worry about overeating, over spending and in general just over doing it all? If so, you are not alone. This time of year, with the shorter daylight hours and brisk temperatures, it’s natural to want to do less and relax more. However, the nature of this season often gets us out and about, leaving us over tired and over stressed. When this happens, we often over-do-it with sugar, caffeine and possibly the alcohol.

Some of the primary challenges when it comes to over-doing-it during the holidays are, well, the big holiday meals, alcohol, candy dishes and sweet treats everywhere, food as gifts, cocktail parties… That’s a lot of challenges. If you already struggle with emotional and stress eating, the holidays are often too overpowering with that LONG list of challenges to stay in a mindset of health and wellbeing.

Here are some helpful suggestions to help survive each of these scenarios with a mindful eating approach to the holiday-all-the-things-food-season.

BIG HOLIDAY MEALS

Let’s start with the big holiday meals. Here are some suggestions to remain mindful and comfortable throughout each meal:

·      Start with vegetables—fill your plate with at least 50% colorful veggies.

·      Add proteins to your plate—when you eat protein and fiber (from the veggies) together it will create a feeling of satiation more quickly and stay with you longer.

·      Don’t overload your plate—if you want to eat more after your first serving, notice if you are truly hungry (mindful & intuitive eating practice) and if not, ask yourself if you can have the food you’d still like to eat as leftovers another time to receive that satisfaction later.

·      Don’t restrict what you choose to eat—on the other side of overloading is not letting yourself eat something you really want; this will only lead to cravings and resentful feelings of deprivation. Try a little of everything you want and TASTE it, enjoy it, eat it mindfully.

·      Eat dessert if you want it and if you aren’t stuffed but if you are full, don’t. Have a statement prepared for the “food pushers” in your life if you are choosing to not eat dessert (or anything else at the meal!) An example could be, “That looks amazing, can I take some to go so I can eat it when I’m not full and I can actually enjoy it.” If you do want dessert, eat it and do so mindfully.

ALCOHOL

So let’s be clear, alcohol is not a health food and if you struggle with over doing it with alcohol, it’s best to avoid it altogether. If you don’t have a problem with alcohol but tend to over-indulge during the holidays, here are my suggestions to remain more mindful in relation to your alcohol consumption:

·      Set a mental limit for yourself. Do this before you go to a cocktail party or holiday meal, know (and remember!) your set desired limits and stick to it.

·      Be sure you are not using alcohol as a coping skill. If cocktail parties or big get togethers create feelings of anxiety, discomfort or tension, you might end up over doing it to cope with those feelings. Make sure you check in with your emotions and manage them before hitting the alcohol.

·      Start any party or meal with water and be sure to stay hydrated

·      Have a glass of water between drinks

·      Choose a creative “mocktail” like seltzer, pomegranate juice and lime, no one needs to know there’s no booze!

·      Check in with your inner strength monitor to assess your “tipsy level” from time to time! You are way more likely to regret over-doing-it to under doing it!

CANDY DISHES

You know how during the holidays there are candy dishes seemingly everywhere? Here are some suggestions to help manage the dreaded candy dishes:

·      Give yourself a “sugar quota” for the day—maybe it’s 1-3 pieces of candy. Pay attention and be sure to stay in mindful eating-mode when you do enjoy a piece, when you eat it, savor it!

·      Be intentional about your choices. Do you even like those red and green M&M’s? Maybe so, but if they aren’t your fav, leave them in the dish.

·      Avoid the candy dishes. If you struggle with over-doing-it with sugar, it’s best to avoid the candy dishes and make intentional choices about what sweets you will have this season.

·      Avoid the mindless eating trap. With all of the candy around it can become easy to mindlessly have a few pieces here and there and not really enjoy and savor them.

FOOD AS GIFTS

Another big food challenge during the holidays is being given food as a gift. Here are some suggestions for dealing with this one:

·      Mange your feelings of guilt if you choose not to eat the food you are gifted. Guilt is appropriate if you have actually done something wrong, it is our conscience in action. However, if someone gives you a box of candy and you know it will be painful for you to just try one piece and you end up eating the entire box all at once, it’s best not to put yourself in a position you might feel upset about later.

·      Take the food gifts to work and share with others.

·      Take the food gifts to a holiday gathering.

·      Determine if you even like the food, then decide if it’s what you truly want to eat.

·      Save a portion of the food and give the rest away.

·      Create a sugar quota for yourself for the day and stick to it. If you’ve hit your quota, remember, you can always try something the next day.

COCKTAIL PARTIES

Cocktail parties are a challenge during the holidays. They tend have a lot of snacks and of course drinks—and they may come with a side of awkwardness. Usually they are not offering a full meal so it can be tough not to over-do-it. Here are some suggestions to manage cocktail parties with ease:

·      Give yourself a drink limit (review alcohol above!) and space them out well throughout the party. This is a mindset you create before even walking in the door.

·      Start with one drink. Then switch to water or a “mocktail” in the same glass.

·      Be aware of sugar content in any fancy mixed drinks.

·      Eat something healthy before you go so you are not hungry when you arrive.

·      Focus on the veggie options first with the available snacks.

·      Stay mindful as you do eat so you don’t graze. Sometimes when nervous we might nibble mindlessly.

A few last tips to help reduce incidents of stress and emotional eating holiday season:

·      Try to stick to meal planning and preparation throughout the season. It’s super tempting and easy to order take out or go out when you are feeling over-run during this season. This can add up in dollars and unhealthy meals.

·      Focus on vegetables and fruits. You may still choose to indulge in other holiday treats, just be sure to be well nourished along the way!

·      Make slow cooker meals that are ready to go and easy to freeze so you can have leftovers available.

·      Practice mindful eating at least one meal per day every day.

·      Use the emotional cravings protocol any time you need it.

I’ll leave you with this last reminder of the process of mindful eating so you can stay empowered, mindful and content with your choices this holiday season!

Mindful Eating is…

·      Eating without distraction.

·      Being in tune with what you are eating and your body, noticing how what you eat makes you feel.

·      Focusing on your senses, especially smelling and tasting.

·      Savoring and enjoying your food.

·      Staying tuned into to your hunger and full cues, eating when you are hungry, stopping when you are full.

·      Eating in a relaxed, calm and neutral emotional state.

·      Deriving pleasure from eating without judgment.

I hope you have a happy and healthy holiday season!