Staying Positive for the New Year

Never before have I felt more motivated to make some things happen in my life. Maybe it's partly the new year, but I'm trying to ride on this motivation as much as possible these days. It is hard to always stay positive, but I think that's really been the key in continuing to feel as though I can take on the world. A little more than a week into this new year, I've found a few things that have helped to keep me going.

1. Take control of your life. It is so easy to not do things just because you don't feel like doing them. I've often fallen into that rut where I told myself that I couldn't get something accomplished when it was such a simple task. I've been spending a lot more time telling myself that if it is something that I am physically or mentally able to do then I have absolutely no excuse, even if it pushes the boundaries of my comfort zone.

2. Find one thing to do for yourself each day. These might be simple things, but it has helped to either give me a few moments to relax or keep me motivated. One day I made myself a cup of tea, changed into sweat pants, and just sat and relaxed in a comfy chair for a good while with nothing else to worry about. I set a reminder on my phone to help me remember that Thursday will now be coffee shop day and that I will be leaving school right away on that day. I've made myself turn off for the 25 minutes during my lunch break to read a book. These things are definitely helping!

 3. Pay a compliment toward someone once a day. It'll make you feel so much better! Instead of dwelling just on your own life or the negative things happening around you it will help you focus on the positives. And you never know what could come from making someone's day!

4. Take a step toward at least one of your goals. New Year's resolutions are kind of like bullies. They make you feel bad all of the time and then you just want to curl up in a ball and never do anything again. I set goals instead of resolutions because I felt as though they were more manageable and would be something I could work toward and still feel good about. I have a daily planner that I use to help me out with this. I'm such a list maker that I have one for school and one for my blog and business. I list everything that I want to get done and in the end get to feel a sense of accomplishment when I cross it off the list.

5. Plan like crazy. It is nearly impossible to stay positive about what you want to accomplish if don't don't know what or how you're going to accomplish things. Make a plan with a timeline in terms of when things will get done. Break bigger goals into smaller tasks and chip away at them over a few days, weeks, or months. I tend to use a daily planner for this as well. I like to have a month calendar in which I can plot out what I'm going to get done over time, and then I use the daily section for my to do lists as mentioned before. Think ahead in terms of what you want to get done. For example, I started planning my Valentine's Day line at the beginning of December knowing that I wanted it to be finished by the beginning of January. It then became a priority to work on this new goal a little bit each day.

These things may seem simple, but they have really been helping me stay positive and motivated so far. I really hope that this will help you as well if you needed an extra little push to get something done!

How do stay motivated? Have you been able to stick to your goals so far?