Happy New Year!! I hope you have been enjoying your holiday season, getting some good R&R time and connecting with family and friends. I stayed in town this year, (apart from a quick weekend to Tahoe with my son and three of his highschool friends for a couple days of skiing); it has been a good chance to recharge my batteries, work around the house and garden and connect with my two teenagers.
I hope that 2020 is off to a great start for you! Can you believe it? Another year has just begun (actually, a new decade!) and that means many of us have some New Year’s Resolutions, dreams, plans, goals or wishes for 2020.
People often create “resolutions” at the start of a new year, only to find themselves breaking them days or weeks later. This year, you can set yourself up for success by writing down your intentions and then breaking them up into smaller steps, that are more doable. Or you can hire a coach, create a vision board, find an accountability partner, or an entire community centered around the same topic (I launched a local Meetup group that is thriving to become healthier in 2020 with a variety of different events coming up: https://www.meetup.com/Healthy-Adventures-Bay-Area).
Very often, these resolutions and dreams are centered around health – because “the greatest wealth is health”, and often we don’t know what this means until it is taken from us. Yet frequently these resolutions are given up early in the new year due to a lack of inspiration, motivation, education or the right people to achieve these goals and dreams with. It is wonderful when we find others who are going through similar struggles and it is often amazing what we can learn from these connections.
As we head into the New Year, I have a challenge for you: during this first week of the New Year, write down 19 things you are thankful for in 2019, and also write down 20 goals, wishes, dreams or plans you have for 2020. No reason to panic – don’t forget you have an entire year to work on these dreams and goals and they can be as little as “I will drink several glasses of water every day”.
Research shows that gratitude is a critical element to a happy life, so for this past year I have kept a gratitude journal which has uplifted me during the year, especially on those not so great days.
For the list of 19 things to be grateful for in 2019, I have included all the wonderful people, connections, and encounters I made (and maintained) throughout the year. I am grateful for each and everyone. Some came in the most unexpected and exciting ways (for example, during a hike in the summer I made a wonderful new close girlfriend who grew up close to my home town in Germany and is going through the same life changes right now like me). I am also very thankful I completed a Holistic Nutritionist certification, launched my eBook “Better Health for Busy People” in the spring (https://7healthydays.org/ebook/), and was able to go on a surprise trip in the summer that came out of nowhere (to Ecuador). Last and most importantly, I cherish my (and my children’s) daily health that I don’t take for granted. And you can be sure that I do have at least 14 other things on my “gratitude” list for 2019.
You will be surprised how powerful such a list of goals and resolutions or “things to be thankful for” can be (this can be a simple statement like “I am grateful for the clean water I have every day.”)
For the list of 20 dreams, wishes, goals and intentions for 2020 I have included to provide my kids with their best last 1.5 years of highschool, as the best mother I can be, to be emotionally and physically available, to listen to them, to help them, and to be there for them. I will continue to make sleep and meditation (with the Headspace app) a priority, as well as healthy meals for our family and regular exercise for all of us including new hikes around the Bay Area and checking out places we have not been to in the valley.
Despite my unease with social media and technology, I will revive my blogging, learn about social media (I might hire my kids here for some tasks), use the online calendar and to-do-lists regularly, and overall become more tech-savvy. This will overall feed into another larger goal – to lift up (boost) my business and help more people achieve their health goals and turn their health, wellness and energy levels around.
Similarly, as Markus and I are finalizing our divorce early this year and he has taken care of the finances in our marriage in the past simply because it came easier to him, I will catch up on all money related issues, have a weekly “money date” regularly to look into our/ my finances and make sure the kids are up to speed as well as they already earn quite some income in their jobs as lifeguards, swim coaches and babysitters. (My Christmas gift to my kids this year was a three month financial education course with session one starting shortly.). And of course a big milestone early in the new year will be my amicable divorce from Markus. We continually focus on doing our best to co-parent our children.
As you consider what you would like 2020 to look like for you, I recommend you challenge yourself to honestly evaluate those nagging concerns that you may have ignored. My greatest joy comes from helping my clients to identify and achieve wellness goals. It is so satisfying to help clients turn their health, weight concerns, and energy levels around in just a few months. Close your eyes and picture where you see yourself in six months, 12 months, and 18 months from now. The time to act is now.
Getting started:
I offer a suite of services from goal setting sessions to implementation of a total refresh/restart plan. You can choose the coaching plan that is the right fit for you. I encourage you to begin your wellness journey immediately so that you can enjoy the rewards of a healthier life. Your wellness journey is just one click away! Contact me for a free consultation and we will take it from there!
Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year! I look forward to connecting with you!
Yours in health, Constance
