By now you have seen a million vision boards, goals lists, content consistency plans, and New Year resolutions. You have also seen everyone’s highlight reel from 2023.

Please don’t let this make you feel like you didn’t do enough.

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Remember every year is not an achievement year. Some years are just development years. Some years are just to maintain. They all have a purpose.

But back to this new year new me shit.

In my world, the new year doesn’t actually start until spring when the first zodiac is upon us, Aries.

I have trained myself by this point to use the winter to build new habits. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t make vision boards because I always make one and I’ll share that in a second but it just means that you shouldn’t be beating yourself up because you’re not excelling in the dead of winter.

Try to match your life to nature seasons, it will give your life more flow.

So let’s explore some things I’m doing to prepare for spring that I hope you’ll find useful:

Journaling has changed my life. I didn’t realize that a lot of my anxiety came from not releasing my emotions and keeping them all inside. So literally every morning, I write until everything is out of my head and I feel like I can hear myself think. You need a clear head space to do dope s**t.

I try to write until the very last page of each of my journals.

And then I put it away to review later.

Secondly, I also am very particular, I wait until a journal “speaks to me” before purchasing. I will go to places like Target, Home Goods, Marshalls, & TJ Maxx until I find the perfect one. The energy or the journal has to match the vibe I’m on. For example, my last journal was blue and gold and it said “Courageous” in gold letters and in 2023 definitely required me to be courageous.

This year I found a journal that says “Welcome to New Beginnings” and I feel that’s EXACTLY the space n for where I’m trying to take my life in 2024

She asked some GOOD questions. I cleared my entire day to sit and ponder on these questions and wrote them on the last pages of my 2023 journal. Whew. Then I reviewed them again on January 1st to remind myself of where I’ve been and things I won't repeat ever again.

I realized that a lot of my anxiety came from having all of my business tasks, and personal and mommy tasks in one planner.

So I went back to my original method of separating them into two planners so that I’m not always thinking about work when I should be thinking about what I’m going to cook for dinner.

It’s a small hack but it's a game changer.

So for the last 2 years, I have used this software called Monarch Money to track my expenses. It hooks up to my bank accounts and allows me to budget and see exactly where I spend my money. So I look to see:

FREE 30 day trial

So all I have been trying to get consistent with working out for FIVE YEARS. And I never can get my shit together. So this year I decided to do something drastic and do this thing called the 75 Hard Challenge. Because I know that it’s really just about me getting mental discipline.

I’m using this challenge to jumpstart me into the HABIT of working out, now obviously I’ll naturally get results but that's not my motivator for this doing the challenge. I just want to establish a workout routine that I can continue on with.

This challenge is HARD. I don’t recommend it unless you are really trying to change life (like me). I think the hardest part is going outside when it’s cold.

So guys I have always been obsessed with trying to figure out my signature style and I read somewhere that colors can enhance your natural beauty when you know what your personal color palette is.

So I found this app and it is so COOL:

THEENNNN, you take pictures of all your clothes and it will tell you if your clothes match your color palette, body, and style.

I got rid of so many clothes and surprisingly now, all my clothes match and I feel like I look more put together every day because I got rid of a lot of clothes that didn’t match my current aesthetic and future fashion goals. You can even take pictures while you’re out shopping to see if it falls in line with your fashion guidelines. I love this app. Here are some examples from mine.

Learn more about he app

I saw this reel on Instagram, and it changed THE GAME. I followed her exact steps and then made my new vision board my lock screen on my phone and both my computers. I made mine in Canva though, way easier.

author

Rachel Motley on Instagram: “It’s still not too late to create your 2024 Vision Board! Here’s how I designed mine with @adobeexpress ✨ #AdobePartner #adobeexpress #2024visionboard #2024visionboards #visionboards”

January 10, 2024

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These are just things to consider as you get into the new year. But the main thing that I want you to take away is that: Use the winter to build habits and do some behind-the-scenes work. You don’t have to pop out with everything perfect and at a high speed just because it's the new year.