The Magical Clean Slate {AKA Jan 1}
You know what I’m talking about, right:
New Year, New You * Blank Slate * Wipe the Slate Clean * Fresh Start * This year I will……*
Yep, I am talking about the magical day of January 1st where you sit down to make a list of resolutions or goals and proverbially wipe the slate clean of the past year to focus on the new year and how magically THIS year will be won.der.ful! This is the time of year you buy a bunch of books on amazon thinking you’ll read them all this year, you sign up for a gym membership and the gym is overcrowded with people who did the exact same thing as you, you resolve to get a better job, promise to lose those 15 lbs {again}, this year you’ll eat healthy, you’ll pay off debt for sure, stop drinking, find a man, and the list goes on.
Not to rain on anyone’s parade or be debbie downer, that’s not my intention {keep reading for some positive stuff}, but 92% of resolutions fail! Yes, you read that right. NINETY TWO%.
Ironically, yesterday, Jan 26th was what some call blue monday with this week being the most depressing week of the year. I wonder why? Could it be that we are all back to the daily grind, our Christmas credit card purchases are now showing up in the mail, the weather is terrible or you realize that you haven’t started or worse, you’ve given up on all your resolutions already or you are incredibly grumpy on the third week of the juice cleanse you thought was a great idea on Jan 1!
Well don’t fret because let’s face it, New Year Day is just that – it’s a day. It’s not the be all end all of your clean slate options or your goals or resolutions. ANYDAY can be THAT day you start something new or make changes in your life. TODAY is really the best day.
I’ve been doing resolutions and setting goals for years upon years. Then when I got married, my husband I sat down and wrote personal and family goals. We’d get some accomplished and others not so much, I mean we are human too. Along came our son and our lives got so busy settling into our new normal, we decided we were DONE, DONE, DONE with traditional goals and resolutions. What was once super important didn’t seem so important anymore and our lives started to get crazy busy and complicated. So a couple years back I was feeling like, heck I didn’t do anything with my life this past year…and the New Year, New You thoughts started to drift into my head. Luckily I have an amazing husband. He was like, are you kidding, are you cray cray, we did a lot and had a lot of fun! At that moment, we decided we would do a year in review. It was around Christmas, we made a plan to pull all our best photos and put them in a Mixbook photo album and reminisce about the great year we had and all the amazing memories. This was such a cool experience and it made us focus on the things we DID do rather than the goals or resolutions we DIDN’T do. We also did a financial year in review, pulling all our finances together the good, the bad and the ugly – luckily we had found Dave Ramsey a few years ago, so it was more good than bad or ugly! That day, we focused on the fun times where we were having fun just being in the moment and we looked at how far we’d come financially. I loved it, we were hooked and we do this every year now. I highly recommend you do it too! Don’t get me wrong, we still have “goals” in life, we just didn’t wrap them up in resolutions or the new year, new you phenomena.
So this year around New Years, we decided to do our Mixbook but we also want to get back to some real goal setting for our lives this coming year. My personal “goals” for this year are really words: simplify and gratitude. I really want to simplify my life and get rid of clutter {not only house clutter, but mind clutter and “thing” clutter}. I also want to focus on the good stuff so I will be intentional about writing down one thing I am grateful for every day. We all really do have so much to be grateful for, it’s just realizing it. The hubby and will also create some financial and family goals, but we aren’t bound to the Jan 1 deadline – we’ll plan a weekend in the next month or so to be in the moment and really think about what we want for our lives. Then we’ll make a plan together to achieve those goals.
So, my final advise to you is don’t beat yourself up if you don’t achieve your goals or you’ve already given up on some. Sit down and think about what you’ve already accomplished or done, how you want feel, what you truly want to do then make small simple changes daily or weekly towards those things. And remember, any day can be a clean slate day. It doesn’t have to be January 1 or Monday {remember all diets start on Monday – lol, really? that’s so silly} – TODAY is the best day to wipe the slate clean: new day, new you!
I am so incredibly grateful for my family, my health coaching business, and my life! I choose to live in the moment and make every day a clean slate day!
Now it’s your turn….
Let me know what you are grateful for, if you learned a tip from this post, or what your goals are – I’d love to hear from you in the comments below or on my Facebook page.
