My NYE/ New Years + Tips and Tricks for Goal Boards and Vision Boards + Making the Best of Things
Happy New Years everyone!! I wish you all health and happiness as we enter into 2022, but know that in order for this to occur, you have to put in the work.
I want to remind you all that you don’t have to wait until New Years to make goals or create challenges for yourself. You can start anything, whenever you want.
I also want to remind you all that people’s goals look different, so never judge. Hard decisions are different for everyone, but nevertheless they are hard for each individual person and are hard for a reason.
On New Years morning I had planned to “get started on the right foot.” At first I thought this meant getting in a good workout and eating healthy. Unfortunately I woke up feeling sick. I have no idea what sickness because I was just sick a week ago, but instead of viewing this as unfair I changed my perspective. I thought of this instead as my first challenge of the New Year. It is easy for me to say yes to working out, I know this is not true for most, but it is for me. The harder thing for me to do is say no when I know I need to. I was supposed to go boxing in the morning with two of my friends, and going to the workout would have made me feel even worse, but it would have been the easy choice for me. I decided to start this year “off right,” by saying no. This year I want to achieve balance and I want to trust that I know myself enough to make hard decisions on my own. I don’t need my parents or a friend to confirm that I am making the right decision because I know myself better than anyone. So, cheers to the New Year and whatever your goals may be.
Vision Board:
A vision board is a collage of pictures and quotes of your dreams for yourself to attain or work towards in the New Year. This board is supposed to be inspirational and help make your dreams into reality. It is also so much fun to design and plan.
Steps:
Spend a minute thinking about what was good and what was bad about the past year (that you had control over). Think about what you want this next year to look like. I used my journal to write a few things I want to focus on such as attaining balance, being nicer to myself, and being present/worrying less.
Find pictures that represent the goals you are trying to achieve. I went on Pinterest and pinned all the images I wanted to a specific board so I would know where everything is.
I dragged the images to my desktop and created word documents with all of my images so I wouldn’t have to print out each individual picture.
I printed, cut, and then glued the images onto a canvas.
I did this with a friend and it was so much fun finding pictures and seeing what each of our vision boards ended up looking like.
Journal:
Another fun idea is to go to the beach or a park or wherever with a friend and journal. Explore what you want your goals to be. I think of New Years as a spiritual event so I try to find the goals that will help me attain a better way of life. Until recently, I never journaled. I never quite understood it, but now I do. Think of it as being able to text yourself. Sometimes there are things you don’t want friends or parents knowing because you need to figure them out for yourself. This is where journaling comes in. I use journaling to solve my own inner battles that need to be talked out, but there isn’t a person I want to talk it out with.
Goal Board:
I have never made a vision board before, but I do make a goal board every year. This is a way to write your goals down and be able to look at them everyday and remind yourself of the life or the person you are trying to create. I usually make eight goals because I have eight places on my goal board, but this year I decided to write down eight categories and write down my goals within each of those categories. For example, one of the categories is Personal and my goals within this are to release perfectionism, practice positive self talk, read one book each month, and continue to be my unique beautiful self never changing for others.
I’m not going to share all of my goals because I would like to keep most of them private, but I hope you all will take a minute to write down a few goals and how you can make them possible. I think that even just writing a goal down makes it that much more likely to occur. When it is written down, you know you have at least a slight intention to do it and you can look at that goal every day.
A few hours later…
So, I tested positive for COVID. This means that my family had to cancel the one thing I was looking forward to most, going to Mexico. Luckily we didn’t cancel it we just pushed it back until spring break, but nonetheless I am more sad than ever. At this point I just feel like disappointment and sadness has become the regular, but that is not how I want to start the new year. My family is being so kind and I am trying to look at the positives of this situation and remember that I need to trust the path I am on. For one, if this wasn’t covid, I wouldn’t want to be sick for our trip. Also, this will give me tons of time to get organized with things for the new year like my vision and goal board and cleaning my room, getting organized, and getting into a better headspace. I want to be my same happy, positive self which I know I will quickly return to, but I do need to give myself a little time to be sad. Being sad is normal and perfectly ok, but we can’t stay sad forever. When I first got the positive result, I basically cried out all the tears in my body and I started to spiral into a negative mindset. As I am writing this post, I am trying to let myself know that everything will be ok. Times are crazy lately, but we just have to accept what comes our way and make the best of it.
I am going to use this time at home to reset. Lately, I have been a bit sad with all the covid stuff going on and there has just been a lot happening in my life, but I am going to utilize this time to reframe and shift into a happier place.
What I am Doing to Make the Best of Things:
Journaling: I know I just mentioned this above, but recently it has been my saving grace (as well as writing blog posts). I have also been using my journal to write down positive aspects of this situation.
Making use of my time: As I mentioned I am going to be doing lots of cleaning and organizing!
Shifting perspective: I am choosing to look at things through a positive sense and with this I am going to meditate and just cleanse myself in general.
Looking to my goals: one of my goals is rolling with the punches which is exactly what I am trying to do now.
Reading: I am reading books for pleasure and travel books to get me excited. I am also reading self-help books that focus on the positives.
Let’s make it a great year!