During Advent, in addition to spiritual renewal, I’m also doing some practical resetting. I’d love you to join me! You can share your progress and inspirations on Instagram or Facebook using tag #2018adventchallenge and if you missed the previous challenges, you can check them out HERE and HERE.
Week 3
Task 1: Declutter session #2
Your decluttering challenge this week is to go through your cosmetics and toiletries. Anything that is almost finished should be shifted to the front of the cupboard so that you can use it up. Anything that is long out of date and dubious looking should be thrown away. Anything that you don’t use could be given to a friend or family member who will use it. If it hasn’t been opened and is still in date, they can be donated. It’s time to regain control of the deep, dark recesses of your bathroom cupboard… and regain a few moments in your day that would have previously been spent searching for that elusive cream!
Task 2: Give thanks
Take time this week to say thank you to the people that have had an impact in your life this year. If writing letters makes you want to throw up, send a text! If you hate texting, make a phone call! It really doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do it. There are so many people in our lives that make a difference and I bet you can think of 10 people without even trying too hard… your child’s music teacher, your mum, your spouse, your neighbour, your sister, your photographer, your VA, your grocery delivery guy.
Maybe you always show appreciation for people like your spouse or your mum, and that’s great. But an extra thanks won’t hurt. And in fact, studies have shown that gratitude improves physical and mental health. So get on it!
Task 3: New Year’s resolutions
With Christmas around the corner, you might be feeling like this is just a stretch too far for your pause-ability! If you really can’t manage to set aside time and think about your 2019 goals in one sitting, do this instead.
Grab a blank piece of paper and write MY GOALS at the top of it.
Then just leave it somewhere where you’ll see it often. As you think of things you’d like to achieve next year, write them down. It might be that you write them all out today, or over the next week. Whatever happens to flow.
Then you can go through and categorise them in order of importance or in order of how close you are to reaching the goal, or not categorise them at all!
Take each big goal and write it out on a fresh piece of paper. Do the set-and-forget thing again. As you think of tasks that you need to do to achieve the goal, write it down. Once you’ve got a complete list of every task you think you’ll need to complete in order to accomplish the goal, order them in a way that is meaningful to you.
Then chip away at it. Slowly, surely.
One of the things I’ve been doing over the past few years is categorising my goals according to an area of my life, so I have one major goal per category. Categories might include: health and wellbeing, travel, family, business, spiritual, personal development, creative, etc.
There are so many ways to set goals and even more ways to achieve them. The important thing is to get them on to paper and review them often. It’s seriously THE number one way to make sure you’re on track.
