Happy New Year!!!

The last year flew by a bit too fast. One moment I was working 17-18 hours to finish my Shivarajyabhishek Quilt and the next moment I was planning what to make for dinner on New Year's eve! So many things happened in 2019 that I had no time to breathe and felt as if everything just passed by me and nothing touched me.

So I am looking forward to slowing down a bit in 2020 and actually experiencing every moment!

I am a Capricorn and I love planning! Plus the beginning of the year also happens to coincide with my birthday (which was yesterday) and I usually take up these couple of days to think about things I want to do in the new year and make plans for them.

Every year, I pick a word of the year. For 2019 it was "Self" and what an year it was! Even though it flew by, it was an year of an inward journey, of understanding myself, of spending time with myself, of knowing what my potential is!!! It was an year of retrospection. I loved 2019. It had some of my best moments and some of my worst too. I have seen the highest and the lowest points of my life in this year. And I am grateful for that. I am embarking on the new year with new energy and am ready to take it on in more ways than one.

My word for 2020 is Abundance. It’s not just one part of my life that I want to see abundance in, I want and abundance in experiences, blessings, health, kindness, ideas, connections, healing, empathy, wisdom, spirituality, peace and so much more. I want my year to be filled with an abundance of moments that I will cherish all my life!!!

I love setting goals for the new year for myself. I make two lists, one for my personal goals and another for my work goals.Most of my goals look like they are resolutions, but that is what I want to be doing consistently by December next year. I might start smaller and then grow to it.

Today, I'm going to talk about my personal goals for 2020. I don't want this post to be too long. I will do another post on my professional goals soon.

When setting personal goals, I usually break them up into three parts. Mind, Body & Home. 

For 2020, my goals for my mind are 

1. Stay offline one day per week. I plan on switching off my phone's Wi-fi as well as cellular internet on Sunday. That way, I will get to spend more quality time with Aadi too!!!
2. Meditate every morning. I love to spend the early morning moments meditating. But recently, I kind of went off-track there. I love the energy and focus it gives me throughout the day. So this one is on my list too.
3. Write 3 things I'm grateful for everyday. I realized I need  to practice gratitude more often. And I do use a bullet journal, so it would be wonderful to start writing three things  I am grateful for every day.

Goals for my body are

1. Walk 30 mins 4 times every week. I realized that I need to start moving more and that is the reason I have put down this as a goal. I do plan on doing most of the walking outdoors rather on my treadmill.
2. Replace tea and sugar filled tea with Green tea. I am a recent green tea drinker. I think it has something to do with my inner urge to live a more sustainable life as I step into my 40s. But by the end of the year, I want to stop drinking regular tea and drink green tea instead.
3. Drink 12 glasses of water every day. This is not going to be easy. Its winter and I tend to drink much less water right now. I'm averaging at 4!!! So now, any time I go into the kitchen, I drink some water. Does not have to be a full glass. I have observed that I usually end up drinking at least half a glass.

Now its time for goals for my home.

1. Declutter my home. I recently discovered minimalism and I love the simplicity that it offers. I cannot survive extreme minimalism, I'm sure. But I definitely could do with a little less clutter in the house. My first step was to purge my wardrobe. And now I am tackling it one shelf at a time.
2. Start budgeting. I have no idea  how I got here without doing this so long. It was mainly because I did not have to spend for any of the household expenses so far. I was only concentrating on growing my business and  was putting back everything I earned into the business. But this year, I want to start making a contribution to the home expenses and that is why I need to start budgeting.
3. Make a lovely terrace garden. That is another of my new found loves. When my passion became my profession, I started facing burnout a lot and really struggled with it, especially after I finished my Shivarajyabhishek quilt. I started a small garden this summer and have gradually grown it. I am looking forward to growing it even further and creating not just a retreat space in the home, but also a vegetable patch!!!

Phew!!! Thats a long list. This time I also have developed a tracking system in my bullet journal so that I can know any time where I stand on my goals. It is usually a simple (tick the box) system with enough check boxes to track my performance.

Do you make resolutions for the new year? Or do you identify goals? And how do you plan to reach them? I would lobe the know how things work for others. Maybe you have a system that will help me. Or maybe, mine helped you! Do let me know in the comments!