3 Tips for New Year Reset
by Veronica Joce
The energy of January is that of going within. It’s the time when we reflect and strengthen the understanding of our personal growth. We deep clean our life to make space for abundance. We redirect our energy to embrace change and transformation.
As the new year begins, it’s important to reconnect with your authentic self and align daily actions with your vision for 2024. Below are some tips to inspire you to refocus on your goals, routines, and well-being. Reset your systems and it will surprise you how much beauty and freedom you can find in simple, intentional, consistent daily rituals.
Revisit your goals, intentions, and life vision
Sometimes, things that are truly important to you can be overshadowed by the constant need to meet expectations and reach big, audacious goals that are so popular to set. Achieving a goal becomes the goal itself.
Revisit the goals you set for the new year and ask yourself:
Do you really need new goals or do you want to continue excelling at what you have achieved so far?
What is your long-term life goal? How are you moving closer to achieving it?
Are your intentions and vision for the new year aligned with your daily actions?
This reflection may help you reframe the “new year–new you” experience and prioritize consistency and progress over perfection and quick wins. Remember–not everything that is relevant and meaningful to you can be quantified.
Set your priorities, build the foundations and systems that make your vision possible, and define values that can hold it together. Show up for yourself, make yourself accountable, and do the work.
Different to your goals, create a simple joy list and write down all things you want to do in the next 12 months. These will be your reminders to bring more joy and fun into your life. Keep this list somewhere you can see it often and cross the feel-good activities off as you go. Here are some ideas to inspire you:
- Places you want to visit
- Experiences you want to have
- Interests, creative projects, and hobbies you want to pursue
- Books you want to read or podcasts you want to listen to
- Restaurants, new dishes, and cuisines you want to try
- People you want to spend more time with.
Deep clean your life and introduce new routines
If you find yourself asking what it takes to maintain a lifestyle of harmony, the answer is: simplicity. Minimalism is a lifestyle philosophy that focuses on surrounding yourself only with what and who adds most value to your life. It’s about setting the right priorities, letting go, and being mindful of what you cultivate in your life and what you spend your time, energy, and money on.
As always in minimalism, less is more. And it starts with your mindset, habits, and everyday routines. As James Clear wrote in his book, “Habits are not about having something. They are about becoming someone.”
Are you keeping yourself busy for the sake of being busy? If you feel overwhelmed by activities that were supposed to keep you healthy and productive, reflect on your daily routine:
How do you want to feel? Who do you want to become through your daily routine?
What would you like to change and do more of?
What makes you happy? What grounds you?
What helps you stay focused and get things done?
Understand what daily rituals are working, what habits are serving you a purpose, and what isn’t. Be intentional and deliberate when decluttering your daily routine and introduce new–or upgraded–systems and habits that can bring harmony into your life.
You can start with practicing gratitude, connecting mind to your body, devoting enough time to self-care, and building meaningful relationships. Invest in experiences rather than things and refocus on who and what truly matters to you.
Decluttering your house is as important as decluttering your routines. Reduce the quantity to improve the quality. Reorganize your wardrobe and storage spaces, donate items you no longer need, declutter your technology–files, apps, email subscriptions–and mentally reset for the new year ahead of you. There is beauty in simplicity.
Focus on your well-being
Once you realize that you are your number one priority, your well-being becomes the new metrics of success. The more you practice it, the higher levels of health and happiness will manifest in your body and mind.
Well-being is about staying consistent with healthy habits for your mind, body, and soul. Monitor what feels right to you, then introduce those positive changes into your daily schedule and make them your wellness rituals. Moving your body is one of them. To put it simply, if you want to get more done of the things that matter to you, you will gain a lot by introducing exercise into your daily routine. In other words, prioritize fitness to maximize your productivity.
Build a solid routine, track your mood, sleep cycle, energy levels, nutrition, and you’ll maximize your chances of living a long and fulfilling life. Make self-care part of your daily routine, so it can provide you with a grounding sense of peace and calmness. It can be reading, self-reflection through journaling, being close to nature, going for insightful walks and letting your mind wander. Or something as simple as preparing your favorite beverage, stretching, and doing some breath exercises.
Here is an exercise from the Five Minute Journal Fit Edition to help you set your wellness intentions and stay accountable for the year ahead:
Visualize yourself 12 months from now.
What are you going to do to take care of yourself?
How do you want to feel physically?
How will you nourish your mental health?
How will you ensure that you have enough energy?
By creating a detailed and clear well-being vision for 2023, you are, in a way, planting a mental seed that will help you act and make decisions to nurture it to its potential.
Make this new year all about the journey–the journey of self-love, intelligent change, and growth. Onwards.
