Happy New Year!!

Its the first day of the year and all of the plans, the resolutions and all of the other wishes are starting today! Like many others I am very excited for a fresh start and a new chance to apply the lessons I learned from 2016 into this year and form better habits to allow me to dream bigger and reach for more. I’ve been very fortunate to naturally be a self motivated person but I realize not everyone is like this and we all could use a pick me up every now and then, myself included to set us up in the most productive way. So to kick off my 2017 I made a list of my top 5 tips that I’ve used for staying motivated and having a productive year. Read below and let me know what are you doing to ensure that 2017 is your most productive year ever?

1.Get Motivated and Break Your Bad Habits

It takes 21 days to make or break a habit and a lot of people say it’s easiest for their mentality to start a new challenge on the 1st of the month. Take advantage of this day and mark it on your calendar as the start of your challenge and then mark off your completion day. Start with identifying the habit that you want to break ie. smoking, cursing, sugar, negative thoughts or the habit that you want to gain like reading daily, meditation, positive thoughts, daily exercise. Now take the baby steps to motivate yourself daily by starting everyday with a list of the tasks for the day and highlight the challenge on your list. Highlighting it is making it a priority for your day. I’m currently doing the 21 day detox again and on my daily task list I have the detox highlighted with a note to do a food journal through my day. Making the food journal one of my priorities helps keep me on task for my goal and learn healthy eating habits.

2.Meditation and Daily Affirmations

“I am _____” Look at yourself in the mirror and say 10 positive things about yourself and your life daily. This practice is proven to act as a confidence booster and personal motivator. Putting positive intention on your life aligns your thoughts with your daily work. Using daily affirmations and adding in meditation are the perfect way to keep you zen all year. I love meditation because I think it’s like having a very relaxing conversation with God. No words, just deep breathing and clearing your mind of stress, worry and daily distractions. The practice of meditation can be difficult to start, but if you focus on short periods of time, 5-10 minutes to begin it makes it a lot easier to build your practice up. Find a quiet space, close your eyes, relax your body (I prefer to be sitting, that way I don’t fall asleep lol) and focus solely on your breathing. I’ve also added in using meditation music to help keep my mind focused and the music is a big help in making me relaxed.

3.Get Creative

Get a notebook and write down 5 creative ideas that you’d like to do this year. Coming up with creative ideas is a great thing to aim for and look forward to in your year and can be equally as motivating and exciting as booking a vacation! So have some fun, dare and dream and ask yourself “what do you want to do?”

4.Plan Ahead

It’s time to make your plan for the next few months. Get a big white board, or a note book, or just a plain piece of paper, anything that you can keep in front of you daily. Take those creative ideas that you wrote down in the step above, and now it’s time to realistically write down a plan for them with a deadline for starting and completing. Plan out for the next 4 months, take the time to daydream about what your ideal work load looks like? Are you working like crazy from now till March because in April you’re taking a spring break? Or is the last Saturday of every month the deadline for a new chapter in the book your writing? All that matters is you write the plan down in a simple way and you have it somewhere in your room or home that allows you to see it everyday. Seeing it daily will act as a reminder and is the most helpful way for you to actually complete your goals.   

5. An Accountability Partner

My mom always says “one hand washes the other” so ask for help from the people around you. We can’t do everything by ourself, and our friends shouldn’t just be in our life to look cute, so don’t be afraid or too prideful to ask them for help with your ideas and to hold you accountable. Ask a friend to remind you about your deadlines or even be a nag about completion dates. Send them a screen shot of your calendar and in the nicest way possible ask them to remind you about the important things and do the same for them.

I hope these tips will help, wishing you guys nothing but productivity and success in 2017!