At the start of the year, we decide to start with a brand new slate but by the middle of the week, the slate is scribbled with chaos. I am no exception. During my twenties, I have done the whole resolution shebang but those were the years where I was focused on education and career building activities and it worked then. But now in my thirties, things are different.
Also, I believe that
Resolutions are born out of Regrets.
Yes, for example, you regret not paying attention to your health hence you decide to go hit the gym next year or you regret splurging too much in this year hence you go frugal next year or you regret not having to spend quality time with family and friends due to work hence you start sulking and regret choosing this job,so on so forth.
I stopped making resolutions because I stopped regretting my current life scenario. I do wonder time to time but I stopped regretting my decisions because it is just not worth wasting time in sulking instead make new decisions and move on. You can read more about it here So no more resolutions for me but instead, I have Lifestyle Motives. Lifestyle Motives or Lifestyle Motivation resonated with me because they are part of your Dream Process or Life Goals.
As a kid you dream (set a goal) about being a superhero, in youth you try to gather tools to achieve those superhero dreams and then mid-youth you realize dreams are only human they change with time and then maturity teaches you that you need to work your ass off day in, day out so that you can live those dreams, because that’s what dreams are made off, 10% aspirations and 90% perspiration.
Let me explain,
If you dream to buy a country home to stay after retirement, then how you will live there, what will you have there and who you would want to live with becomes a dream that you have to live every day, work for it in order to save for it every day, make changes to other everyday activities and then someday you will comfortably live that dream only if you work towards it step by step every day.
What are Lifestyle Motives?
I feel to each is their own. What motivates a person to draft a certain Life Goal will vary exponentially from person to person. What comforts me, may not make sense to someone else. Perceptions are different but every individual is ultimately looking out to be happy, to be content.
Happiness is…. anything and everything that makes your Soul find solace and contentment.
What are my Lifestyle Motives?
I believe that Life Goals can phase out or alter but the way you approach your life goals makes all the difference. So what is my approach ?? Read on…
Only you can fuel your soul, no one else can.
My Self- Motivation Approach is mainly working around these below concepts:
- Simplify
- Communicate
- Just do it
- Focused
- Forward-Looking
- Productive
Simplify
- To publish a book is too complicated because….excuse
- To be fit is too complicated because… excuse
- To read a book every month because I do not have time because……another excuse
- To be a minimalist is too complicated ….. cause you definitely have a good excuse
Life struggles are real but they are not that complicated as we make them in our heads. Whatever your goal, don’t get bogged down by all the “excuses”. Break it down, simplify the action points so that it becomes easy to visualize and thereby work towards it.
One of my life goals is to write a book. Yeah! Someday.
So for me, I tell myself,
- If you want to be a writer you have to write
- You need to give a certain time to write
- You must finish chores effectively so that you are free to write.
Be it a sentence on the Instagram post or a blog post or a part of that book you think u are going to write. You need to write and then work on the draft for improvisations. To give yourself the time you have to simplify your other activities so that they do not consume you and in turn, you get quality time to write. See, Simple.
I have had a fair share of “complicated” in my life but now, ” I need Simple”.
I struggle time to time with this concept because this is my core moto to get things rolling. I also try to simplify my lifestyle activities in accordance with my Life Goal of someday being a Minimalist. I feel you can’t attain minimalism if you have too much stuff to deal with. This concept helps at many levels. Making decisions also becomes easy as you know what your end goal which is to simplify your life.
Communicate
Communicate your Life Goals to somebody, they might criticize or appriciate but ultimately it will motivate you to chase your dreams either out of determination or egotism.
Just Do It
Focused
Work with absolute focus on the task in hand, you will increase the quality of your output.
Forward-Looking
Productive
Hope you found my lifestyle motives interesting enough to at least give a thought and if they appealed to you then leave your thoughts below in the comments section. I would love to discuss this topic and hopefully, we can bounce of good vibes.
Until next time, Chao!
Crazy Foodies on Toes 