New Year! New goals – alignment with the same beautiful you!

Pilates Lennox Head

Written by Bridgid Pearse

December 29, 2020

I am not a fan of New Year resolutions but I do love the reset that a new year brings. A moment to refocus on what is really important. At this time of year I love to clarify my values for the year, set goals that create the life I want for me and my family and start some great new habits.

Bringing in the new year with clear intentions is so FUN. This is not about setting heavy expectations on yourself that you feel you must live up to! It is about uncovering the things that inspire the hell out of you and bringing them front and centre. It’s about finding alignment between your values and how you prioritise everyday. This kind of alignment is just a important as physical alignment of your body.

This might feel hard after the year that 2020 has been. With the scary forecasts it might feel terrifying to start to really go for what you want. But the truth is now is the best time to be clear, to choose your way forward and stay true to yourself.

Here are some ideas about how to bring in the New Year with light intentions that fill you with inspiration:

Journal a day in your new year

Journalling is a great tool to help uncover your values. Journal writing is like looking in a mirror that reflects the things we cannot see any other way. A regular practice of this can be enlightening. It can help to uncover the things you really want in your life that might be hiding behind your fear.

A fun place to start is just writing down what you imagine as your ideal day 12months from now. What time do you wake up? What time do you do first thing? What does family time look like? What does your ideal work look like?

Be on the lookout for your critical voice. You know the one that says ‘I can’t do that’ or ‘that will never work’. Just acknowledge the voice and keep playing the game of imagining your ideal day.

This practice gives us clues about what our goals could be for the year. Once you have gone through your complete imaginary day from waking to going to bed in as much detail as you can, put it down and leave it for a day or two.

Look for the clues in your ideal day

When you go back to your writing about your ideal day look for clues that can build your ideal routine. Notice where you have imagined time for yourself, or what sort of exercise is in your ideal day. Notice your waking time and how you balance you time, work time and family time in your ideal day. Look at what your work looks like. How different is it from what you are doing now?

Now this is the really fun bit! We can use the answers to the questions above to start to understand our own goals. If your ideal day started with you sleeping until 11 and playing in a jazz bar until 2am that tells you a lot about where you need to be focused!

For me, my ideal day starts early with some quiet time before the general day begins. This means earlier nights and teaching my six year old what quiet time means in the morning.

I imagine business collaborations with other people and businesses who support women to love themselves and care for themselves. I see more clients who come to my home studio for movement that is truly tailored to their goals. I see flexibility around my family and a lifestyle that connects us to nature everyday.

Decode to discover your new goals

Sifting through the details of this future imaginary day it’s time to summarise these details into yearly goals. For example my yearly goals look something like this:

  • Create a morning routine that works for me and my family
  • Grow my studio clients
  • Maintain a schedule that balances work with family time
  • Create 2 collaborations with aligned local businesses that share my ideal clients

Then you break it down…

So if you have some goals that feel right then it’s time to get out the calendar. Think about when in the year you want to have achieved these goals. Yes there is work / change involved in getting there so check in with your stress levels here. You want to keep it light, when you write it down you don’t want to feel an impending sense of doom. Butterflies in your belly on the other hand are totally acceptable. You have just written it down and you are committing!! Excitement and fear is A okay. A sense of doom might mean you need more time.

I want to be trying out my morning routine in January so I have to get busy with that now. But I am giving myself until March to tweak it and try things out. So Jan and Feb there will be a strong focus on my morning routine, what works and what doesn’t.

I want my studio schedule to be full by June so there are a bunch of marketing steps to do for that plus at least one of the collaborations need to happen early in the year.

And so you work through to break down your monthly goals.

And then you schedule it

And now for the most important bit. At the beginning of each week you look at your monthly goals and you schedule time in your schedule to work on them. It sounds easy doesn’t it? And it might be but it also might not be because maybe that monthly goal might scare the pants off you!

Staring down a goal that you really want but your fear is in your face, this is where the magic, I mean the work is.

Above all make it your own

I hope this has given you some ideas about how to think about your own goals. Take any part of this that you like and change it in anyway you feel to make it work for you.

Setting intentions in this way is a remarkable way to grow, give to yourself and give to others. In my view the more of us who know what we want for ourselves and how we get there, the more we all have to share with the world.

Wishing you all the best for 2021 and I can’t wait to see you move towards your dreams and goals.

XBrigid

Pilates Goonellabah

Thanks for reading!

I am Brigid Pearse, comprehensively certified Pilates teacher, ex-dancer, and mid-life mum. In group classes, workshops and private sessions I help women learn to move well for life.

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