2014 RESOLUTION > JANUARY GOAL

It is the end of March already so I decided to recap on my resolution to not set a resolution at the start of the year.
I decided to mix things up in 2014, instead of stating one big resolution to keep to for the WHOLE year I decided to give myself little goals to meet every month.

I've really enjoyed it but at the start of every month I'm like "I've got to do this for 30 whole days? No way will I do it" but I have and it has made me feel so much more accomplished than I think I would feel if I kept it up for say 6 months, got bored and then resolved to try again next year, where's the empowerment in that?

I'm one of those people who over thinks situations and has a million and one things going around in my head at one time, sometimes this works for me when I need to multi task but it was becoming more draining than useful so in January I set myself the goal to try meditation.

I was a complete beginner so to help me I used the website Headspace which offers guided meditation for modern living, it has a cool app you can download to your phone so you can grab some clarity wherever you are, great for when you sleep in so you can do it on the train (which can be a real test).

Let me be clear that when I decided to meditate every morning for 20mins, it wasn't an easy decision as "I am NOT a morning person" I repeat "NOT a morning person". 
I love my bed, I love my sleep and to fit in a daily meditation I had to get up at 6.30am every morning. It was hard at first but totally worth it, as almost instantly I noticed that I was less stressed and able to deal with difficult and people more calmly whereas before they would have definitely pushed my buttons.

I also noticed when the 30 days were up I had incorporated this single task into my routine so it was easier to carry on doing it, people say "if only I had an extra day" or "I need more time" but I'm starting to think the key is to make more of the time we do have to fit the things we want to do into our lives.

You can keep track of your progress which is great and so far I have completed 87 sessions and 23% of my Headspace journey. Looking forward to completing 100% by the end of 2014.

2014 / JANUARY GOALS

We all start off with good intentions from the 1st of January to change our bad habits but this time instead of setting myself 5 big goals to achieve by the end of the year I've decided to state 10 small monthly goals to work on incorporating into my life this month. 

I find it easier to stay motivated and check in with how I'm doing for 4 weeks at a time rather than 52.

Here are the thoughts and actions I will be working on.

1. Live more boldly

2. Be more compassionate

3. Take more risks

4. Forget my fears and follow my dream

5. Meditate every day

6. Follow a low FODMAP diet

7. Drink 2 litres of water a day

8. Write a daily gratitude list

9. Take part in the 5km Park run every Saturday in Jan

10. Do a 30 day photo challenge.

Have you set yourself nay goals for 2014 or have any tips to make sure you achieve them?
I'd love to hear them.

FREE PRINTABLE JANUARY CALENDAR

OK so I like to be organised but I admit it, I am also a total procrastinator! Sometimes I will give myself the task of organising my calendar before I start that really important (but boring) task. I wanted to gift a calendar which people could download and decided to design a monthly printable with a "motivational" quote that is more like a punch in the face (which we all need sometimes) but also soft (because we don't want to be too hard on ourselves), this was achieved by including a sweary word (apologies if you're offended) and a sweet colour palette, which makes it cute right? I have been blogging a bit more that usual and have noticed how important it is to schedule your posts and have a resource of subject ideas which is why I also included a January Blogging Calendar with space for a "To Do" List and a section to write your post ideas. Hope you like it! Follow the instructions below to print your own. Download the January Calendar HERE Download the Blogging January Calendar HERE If you have any issues downloading, try right clicking (Control and Click on the mac) on JPEG and save directly to your computer. All photos and artwork are © Stacey Wilson for DeesignGeek. Artwork in the downloadable PDF is free strictly for personal use, not for commercial use. Sharing these photos on Pinterest is welcome as long as you credit and link back to deesigngeek.com. If you'd like to blog about this post, a) I will love you forever and b) feel free to use a couple of photos provided that you link back to the full post on this page. Please do not distribute my downloadable artwork from your site and, as a courtesy, please do not link directly to the PDF download on my site- Instead, please link back to this page. Thanks so much for reading this boring stuff!