So we're over a week into 2020 and I'm finally getting around to a long overdue update. I decided to put myself out there and share what I'm working towards in 2020 (if you want to make your own, mad-lib style intention sheet for 2020 for free, you can do so via Lara Casey's website here).
At the end of last year I started working on some habits that I wanted to change, and that got me thinking about all of the habits that I already have that I'm proud of. I wanted to share the list of things that I have successfully ingrained into my life and daily routine, the things that are in the works where I'm not just starting but they aren't necessarily truly part of my life, and then the new things that I'm starting to work towards.
Habits that are part of my lifestyle, that I want to make sure I KEEP doing:
Meditation: 10 - 20 mins a day of mindfulness meditation
Workouts: training (this year it's for IM 70.3 Boulder, August 1st)
Nutrition and cooking food at home (I go in waves on being "good" about meal planning, but am still always focused on high quality, mostly Paleo, real food)
Sleep: Aiming for 8 hours a night, in the dark, and hopefully uninterrupted
Habits that I'm currently working on, that I'm aiming to cultivate in 2020:
Daily Devotional - reading the bible and creating a relationship with God
Keeping a Journal - including what I'm grateful for, along with what I'm struggling with, how I'm feeling, and whatever else needs to come out onto the page
Dry January - resetting after the holidays and changing the habit of having a drink to decompress at the end of the day, and figuring out how that will cascade into the rest of the year
Get out once a week - I need to do something for me, that's not a workout because that's something that I have down already, once a week to maintain a healthy balance
Read for 15 mins a day - a few days a week, with the ultimate goal of finishing a few books this year
Now it's a bit overwhelming to think about having to ADD all of these things for what I already do - I recently listened to a podcast that talked about the concept of what you're going to say "yes" to and what you're going to say "no" to. This feel like a similar exercise I've done at work for years - Start, Stop, and Continue so if that's something you're familiar with, the goal is the same. We need to identify what are the things that you're going to let go of, say No to, in order to free up space for the things that really matter to you.
If you want some more direction, this is not my area of expertise, but found this series helpful and used this goal setting post from Lara Casey (which is where I found the graphical fill in) as a launching point for me to put "pen to paper" and gave me a starting point and the nudge I needed to get started. I love the point of view of cultivating what matters to YOU, not what you should do or what you think you are supposed to do, but what YOU want.
Remember it's not too late to set some goals, intentions, create some new habits whatever it is that you want to do for yourself to mark this new year and new decade. You don't have to start on January 1st, after all I didn't!