Can you believe it?!  The year is almost at a close - and what a year it has been! December is traditionally the month for reflective mode and thinking about our next-step plans.  So how can you end the year on a high and empower yourself to move into the new year with clarity, focus, and motivation?  This article contains a 6-step formula that will help you reflect on this year and then plan the next in a way that your best self can thrive.  Let’s dive in!  Step 1. Reflect Before you start thinking about your next-step goals, take some quality time to reflect on the year that’s about to close. Reflection is a powerful way to prep for effective planning because it allows you to see your year through the lens of hindsight.  Hindsight is 20/20 vision. When you look back knowing what you know now, it’s so much easier to see why certain things didn’t work out as expected! Hindsight allows you to extract the lessons, and learnings life gives you through experience. In turn, your next steps become more powerful and confident.  What’s your last year's reflection?  Here are some questions to think over.  1. What were the highlights of your year and why? 2. What didn’t go as planned, and what did you learn from these experiences? 3. What brought you joy? 4. What created frustration and discomfort? 5. What would you like to leave in the past year - and what would you like to take forward into the new year?  Step 2. Own who you’ve become?  We live in an age of instant gratification fuelled by dopamine hits! We want everything NOW - including our biggest goals! But that’s not how life works. Life isn’t about getting to a particular destination as fast as we possibly can. Instead, it’s about the constant evolution and learning to smell the roses along the way. In the words of Zig Ziglar, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Even if you had to let go of big goals and dreams, making them no longer possible, humans are adaptable. We have a beautiful ability to pivot and shift our focus and figure things out with what we’ve got. So while the past year may not have been the year you imagined, it gave you something.  So take some time to figure it out.  Grab your journal and reflect on the person you’ve become BECAUSE of your experiences.  Look back to the beginning of the year and get clear on the gap you did close.  Step 3. What now? Given who you are and what you’ve achieved, what do you want to do next?  If you could wave a magic wand, what would you love to create in the year ahead to build a life that nurtures and expresses your best self? Remember, it’s not about the big goals you achieve, but the happiness you create for yourself as a result of the things you choose to commit to.  It’s always a good idea to start with a brainstorm of possibilities. You can use the life categories in the BestSelf Benchmark to help organize your thoughts:  1. Health2. Finances3. Work / Career4. Relationships5. Personal growth6. Mindfulness Ask yourself, what would you like to achieve in each of these areas? Don’t censor your thoughts at this stage; just write everything done.   It’s also fun to write out your bucket list. You’re more likely to achieve the desires you write down because they’re no longer just a concept in your mind. Step 4. Prioritize It’s often a mistake to try and tackle everything at once. You’ll just get overwhelmed, which will steal your motivation leaving you feeling frustrated and disappointed that you didn’t move the needle further.  If you can’t do everything, you have to take some time to figure out which goals are the biggest priority for you NOW. Focus is key. Each day, we have a finite amount of time and energy. It’s essential to use these resources optimally, to make the biggest impact.  Or we risk getting stuck and feeling stagnated.  The 80/20 rule is a useful framework for prioritization because this mindset will help you to identify the goals with the highest leverage.  You’ll also need to figure out the order in which you’ll tackle your goals. When you look down your list, you’ll see that some of your desires lie further back along the line of dominos.  What dominos do you need to topple first to knock down the later goals?  Step 5. Think in 90-day chunks One of the most powerful things you can do for your goals is to set yourself 90-day targets. Ninety days is the goal-setting sweet spot because it’s long enough to achieve something significant, but short enough to keep the deadline close enough to fend off procrastination.  One of the reasons we struggle to achieve one-year or five-year goals is because the deadline is so far in the future. Humans have a tendency to push off things for later! If you have a year to hit your target, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ll do it tomorrow.  Then before you know it, tomorrow becomes never - and the needle didn’t move!  In comparison, give yourself three months and there’s urgency.  It’s how 90-day goals can help you achieve more in a quarter than other people achieve in a year.If you’re ready to set [and achieve] some 90 days goals, the Self Journal is the perfect accountability tool to help you. Inside, you’ll find goal-setting templates, weekly planning and reflection tools, as well as a powerful daily layout designed to help you win the day and leverage your time and energy. Step 6. Take action!  The difference between a dream and reality is the action you take. Nothing changes until you put committed feet forward.  But don’t worry!  You don’t have to take massive uncomfortable leaps to move the needle on your life. Compounded baby steps combine to create an incredible impact.  The secret is to start.  Then commit.  The secret is to keep moving forward - no matter what - knowing that you do have what it takes to navigate life’s challenges and figure out the inevitable roadblocks that will show up along the way.  And remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Instead, find the people who will get in your corner and cheer for you. Accountability is a powerful motivator that will inspire you to go further and faster than you could ever go by yourself.  Most importantly, know that you’ve got this.  Look at everything you’ve accomplished to get to this exact point in time.  Just imagine where you could go next.

Life is full of twists and turns and ups and downs. But it’s reassuring to know that we have the power to switch on our own joy.  Even on the busiest of days, there’s always an opportunity to make space to feel good.  The secret is to make time to indulge yourself.  Give yourself permission to focus on self-care, put yourself first, and make time for what makes you happy. This involves cultivating the mindset that empowers you to drop the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘musts’ and push off any guilt so you can make a little more time for the things that light you up.  The upside is so worth it.  If you’re able to switch on happiness, not only do you feel elevated emotions, but you’ll also empower yourself to ride the wave of productivity, creativity, and optimism that follows.  So how can you make happiness a regular occurrence?  The secret is two-fold.  1. Discover what brings you joy. 2. Embody the habits that make you happy Let’s explore this two-part puzzle in more detail.   What brings you joy? It sounds obvious, but if you want to feel happier, first spend some time figuring out what brings you joy.  Here’s the secret… You don’t have to reinvent your entire life, and you don’t need a big budget either. Instead, put together a list of go-to activities and moments that make you feel good in your skin and switch on all the feel-good vibes. For example, your plan might include:  • Reading• Meditation• Yoga• Self-education• Practicing gratitude• Walking barefoot on the beach• Wild swimming• Having a massage, a facial, or a mani-pedi• Driving out somewhere• A long, leisurely cup of coffee• A lie-in• A Netflix binge • Mini-break or an overnight stay• Watching a great movie• A hug• Cooking a delicious meal from scratch• Writing• Dancing• Playing a game• Crafting• An in-depth conversation with someone you care about - Deeper Talk can help• Listening to a great podcast [quick plug! We recommend Writing Your Best Self!!]   The secret is to discover what brings you joy. Make your happiness a habit  With your list complete, it’s time to figure out how you’ll weave more of the things you love into your life. It’s tempting to say that you don’t have time - and you’d be right. We all live hectic, busy lives after all. But here’s the thing; your happiness doesn’t depend on your amount of spare time. Instead, it’s all about the way you allocate your hours.  In other words, with the right planning strategies, you can mastermind your day [and therefore your life] to evoke more everyday joy. Here’s how…  Choose your non-negotiables.  A non-negotiable is something that you do regardless.  It’s an activity that’s such an ingrained part of your identity that you figure out a way to make it happen - even if the odds are stacked against you.  When it comes to your happiness, pick a selection of activities that you’ll make your non-negotiables.  Consider picking activities for different timescales. For example: • Daily habits: You might switch on happiness with a great book, practicing gratitude, and taking a walk in nature.  • Weekly habits: You might designate Sunday mornings as your lie in time - fuelled by an incredible cup of coffee • Monthly habits: Treat yourself to a monthly massage or an overnight stay somewhere so you can explore a new place Use your schedule What gets scheduled gets done.  If you leave your happiness habits to chance, the likelihood is they won’t happen. Instead, something else will swallow up your time, and you’ll be left feeling frustrated with lower happiness levels than you needed to settle for.  Your Self Journal is the perfect place to ensure you make time for the things that bring you joy.  Schedule your happiness habits with the same rigor and commitment as you would a client presentation, work deadline, or other appointments. Block out time in your day to make space for the things that make you feel good and allow other commitments to fit around your non-negotiables.  Let go of the belief that you don’t have enough time because chances are you will!  After all, how much time do you waste through procrastination when you’re feeling demotivated or bored?  When you infuse more of what you love into your day, don’t be surprised if your creativity and productivity soar. When your cup is full, it’s a lot easier to pack more into your life without depleting your energy. Drop the guilt A lot of us were raised on the belief that hard work leads to success. It’s one of the reasons we can feel guilty for taking time out and making space for the things that bring us joy.  Here’s the thing… If you allow guilt to tinge your happiness habits, they won’t feel as good.  What’s more, if you’re feeling your best, then it’s going to be a lot easier for you to perform at the top of your game. If you have a hard time making time for you, it’s time to change the story.  Make time for happiness, and pretty soon, it could become your secret effectiveness weapon!  Reflect on your success Reflection is a proven way to learn from your efforts so you can tweak and improve going forward. Your Self Journal has a weekly review page where you can reflect on your week as well as take some decisions about how you’ll make the next week as good - or even better.  Use this space to understand the difference your happiness habits are making to your mental and emotional well-being.  • Do you include the right habits - or do you need to swap in something else? • Are you making time for the things you love? • What difference is your happiness time making to you and your life?  When you see a progression, it’s a lot easier to inspire yourself to keep on moving forward.  Keep yourself accountable Finally, ask yourself how you’re going to make your happiness habits stick.  One way is to use a habit tracker. Simply check off each day to create a winning streak. Before long, your streak will create a chain that will be more painful to break than you get the habit done.  You can discover more accountability suggestions when you listen to how to stay accountable to yourself and your goals. “Happiness is a direction, not a place.” — Sydney J. Harris Happiness is something we create - it’s not something that we obtain.  It’s also a feeling that fuels the good life - which is why we all crave it.  So don’t leave your happiness to chance. Instead, make your happiness a habit with the help of this simple five-step plan. I wonder how your life will evolve as a result.

Life is full of abundance. Don’t believe me; look at nature! It’s plentiful!  There’s something powerful about being able to see your life through the lens of a glass half full, rather than half empty. Optimism and positivity can inspire you to see more good around you than there is ‘bad’.  Sure, this approach takes discipline.  Negativity can be addictive as well as draining. It’s easy to find yourself pulled into a downward spiral when you focus on what you don’t have - rather than what you do.  So if you’re ready to transform your default mindset so that you can see ALL the hidden gifts in your life, this article is for you.  Keep reading and discover FIVE different practices that will remind you how blessed you actually are. Practice reflection Reflection is the practice of looking back so that you can learn through the eyes of hindsight.  Hindsight is powerful because it gives you 20/20 vision. When you know how things worked out, it’s easy to see what you could have done differently [or better] to create a different outcome. With hindsight, it’s easy to understand the actions you took to create the positive results you enjoyed. These learnings are gifts - gifts that enhance your skills, your confidence, your plans, and your knowledge etc.  Reflection allows you to extract the gifts that could otherwise sink under the radar and disappear in the flurry of life.  What’s more, your gifts from reflection are gifts that keep on giving because they stop you from repeating avoidable mistakes, which can help you achieve your goals faster and easier.  So decide to reflect regularly. It’s a powerful way to find the hidden gifts in your day. Be open to seeing your gifts Some gifts are obvious; for example, the coffee bought by your friend or the bouquet your partner brought home from work.  Other gifts show up in disguise. In fact, they don’t even feel like gifts when you first receive them! For example, some gifts come in the form of significant challenges that rattle you.  But it was thanks to those challenges that you made a decision or took an action that turned your life down a better path entirely.  The secret is to look for ALL the gifts that come into your life. Yes! Even the ones that aren’t wrapped up in a bow.  Choose to believe that life is always sending you the good stuff because energy flows in the direction of your attention. Practice gratitude Gratitude is one of the simplest, but most powerful ways to turn every day into a gift.  It’s easy to practice gratitude. All you need to do is write down the things you’re grateful for along with reasons why. The secret for enjoying insane happiness through appreciation is to LOWER the bar [now that’s something we don’t often say!]  Here’s why… It’s easy to feel grateful for the big stuff - like a perfect launch, a big bonus, or a dream vacation. However, these big things don’t happen every day.  If you only celebrate the big things, you’ll tune out the everyday miracles and magic that’s present in EVERY moment of your life.  Such as an incredible sunset, the perfect field of flowers, a warm cup of coffee on a cold day, a book that lights you up, a conversation with a friend, a hug from a loved one… my list could go on.  When you take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate these small things, life suddenly feels a lot more full.  What’s more, because the things that you appreciate, appreciate, the more you focus on the good stuff, the more good things you’ll attract into your life.  For gratitude ideas that lower the bar, download this free 101 gratitudes PDF. Define your Win The Day score The Win The Day score is another way to find and notice your gifts. You’ll find this feature on the Self Journal’s daily pages.  To rate your day, you have to revisit your experiences and assess how ‘good’ they were. It’s a simple practice that’s a lot deeper than first meets the eye.  To choose a rating, you have to reflect. You have to think about who you’ve been, what you did, and what you enjoyed. You have to think about how you felt and decide where on the spectrum between 1-10 your day sits.  While we all have ‘bad’ days [and you’re definitely allowed to have them], a low rating is an invitation to think about how you can approach tomorrow differently. As a bonus, a daily rating allows you to see a pattern over time - creating a visual reminder of how in love with your life you are. Consciously create gifts Finally, your ability to see gifts in your day is all a matter of perspective.  What one person perceives as a gift could be someone else’s nightmare!  The secret is that you get to CHOOSE your experience because you are the one in the driver’s seat of your life. For example, you get to decide how:  • You spend your time - and whether that time will create gifts in the form of memories and achievement. • High or low your gift bar sits.• Alert you’ll be to the gifts that show up.   It’s up to you :-)  Your best self is always unfolding. Each day, you have the opportunity to move the needle on your life in a beautiful way.  These five simple, but powerful practices are here to help you celebrate the micro-moments as you walk the path to your bigger goals.  Use them to inspire yourself, cultivate a positive mindset, and feel unstoppable.  You’ve got this.  

As a species, we’re continually evolving as we unlock more knowledge, more potential, and more ideas. You could say we’re programmed with an evolutionary drive to ensure the next generation experiences better than the one before it.  So how can we support this process?  How can we have a positive impact on our children so they can learn from our life experiences and become their best self?  Here are seven ways that have worked for me.  I hope they inspire you too.  Praise Regardless of your age, recognition and appreciation are great to receive! Being acknowledged makes us feel valued and important - and that can boost your confidence and self-esteem.  We’re all familiar with praising people for a job well done. I’m sure you’ve done it yourself countless times! For example, “You did a great job at tidying your room” or “well done on those grades for your homework assignment.”  DOING praise is super important…  But so is praising people for who they are BEING.  For example, compliments such as “you have a beautiful heart” or “I love the way that you were so kind to your brother” land a little differently. With these types of compliments, you don’t have to do anything to deserve them! Praise for BEING teaches children they’re worthy of love for WHO THEY ARE; not just what they DO. This tactic helps children learn that it’s not their skills, talents and gifts alone that are valued and appreciated... but who they are as a person too.  [And remember, we’re human BEINGS and not human doings!] When children feel loved and valued for their being, it instills a deep sense of self-confidence and self-love - both vital components for being your best self.  Inspire their creativity “Everything you can imagine is real.” —Pablo Picasso Everything around you [nature excluded!] started life as an idea in someone’s imagination. Creativity is the birthplace of innovation.  And children are wired with endless imagination and a head full of wild ideas! The problem is, society gradually squeezes this instinct out of them!  One of the most powerful things we can do for our children is to maintain and encourage that creative instinct.  Creativity is massively valuable to society.  Creative people solve problems and invent new stuff, as well as lighting up the world with art and other forms of artistic expression.  One of the most impactful things we can do for children is to give them space to play, explore, try things out, and mess things up! Let them write, draw, paint, dance, explore… whatever inspires their wild ideas.  Importantly, encourage the ‘messes’ as well as the successes, because creativity is - by nature - a journey of exploration. Not everything turns out the way you imagined, and that doesn’t matter. To paraphrase Edison, he didn’t fail thousands of times to create the electric light bulb. Instead, he discovered plenty of ways NOT to do it!  Imagine, if children feel safe to create without fear, who knows what they’ll invent and innovate. They could be the one to have the next paradigm-shifting idea.  Someone is going to. And at the same time, they’ll also develop resilience as well as confidence in their ideas [and ultimately themselves].  Empower them It’s easy to assume that children don’t know - because they lack the life experience of adults.  However, there have been so many times my children have blown me away with their wisdom and capability. It’s risky to underestimate them because it can knock their confidence.   Often, children do know their own mind. They do know what’s right for them - because they can feel it in their bodies. They’re in touch with their instinct, which is why it’s powerful to cultivate and strengthen self-awareness in children.  People who know themselves become influential decision-makers. They’re able to problem-solve and figure out the right actions for them. They’re less likely to be swayed by peer influence or popular opinion. Instead, they’re able to do what’s right for them.  One way we can empower children is to give them the space to find their own solutions, try things out, and learn from their experiences.  As a parent, it can be challenging to step back and watch your child ‘fail’, but as long as your child isn’t in danger, imagine the skills this approach could help them embody.   Don’t be perfect I know you know this logically, but do we embody this truth?  There’s no such thing as a perfect parent.  There’s always going to be something you could have done better or differently. That’s the power of hindsight. It gives us 20/20 vision so we can learn and grow through our experiences.  I believe it’s important to know that you don’t have to be perfect in front of your children. Sure, you want to be a good role model, but that doesn’t mean getting everything right all of the time.  Because when you think about it, that’s an unrealistic expectation.  We’re human. We’re DEFINITELY going to get things wrong! We will make mistakes and have regrets - it’s part of the journey through life.  So if mess ups are inevitable, instead of trying to model perfection, what about modelling what to do if you mess up?   For example: • How to take responsibility and ownership for the things you’ve done• How to say sorry when you’ve hurt someone• How to troubleshoot problems• How to fix things and learn through the process I believe children gain a lot from understanding that the love doesn’t go just because the behavior was undesirable.  Talk  It’s so important to cultivate a child’s conversational skills.  People who can talk and listen are powerful and influential - because they’re able to express themselves, ask powerful questions, and see the world through different shoes.  Conversations are also a connector.  When we talk together, we feel closer because of the shared experience that leaves us knowing each other better.  Talking is also a great way to process life and all its ups and downs. If children can talk about their beliefs, thoughts, and feelings with confidence, not only will they develop emotional intelligence, but they’ll strengthen their self-esteem too. Finally, conversation sparks curiosity. It allows you to learn from someone else. And it enables you to stand up and be seen for who you are and what you believe.  Prompts such as the 150 inside the Little Talk Deck are a simple way to spark powerful conversations with children. Pick up your deck HERE.  Stretch their comfort zones  Children have infinite possibilities.  The world holds the potential for virtually anything. What could they be, have, and do as they explore their life?  The challenge is, fear is ever-present!  Fear is a survival instinct. Your brain is programmed to look for danger to keep you safe. It’s the hard-wired fight or flight response. The challenge is that humans have evolved faster than this instinctive system. Rewind thousands of years, and we needed to be able to run away from a sabre-toothed tiger or find the courage to hunt for food.  Nowadays, we have a lot of imagined fears. For example, the fear of being seen to fail stops us from even trying.  That’s why it’s powerful to inspire children to have a healthy relationship with fear where they can combat it with courage - knowing it’s OK to ‘fail’ [because you can always try again].  In turn, they’re less likely to get in their own way… and if they do, they’ll know how to get out of their comfort zone.  Empower children to cultivate a growth mindset, and they’ll learn new skills, discover more of their potential, and ultimately become their best self.  Be a good role model I saved the obvious one for last!  Children learn by observing probably more than they learn from hearing.  That’s why it’s so important to walk your talk and demonstrate the things you hope your children will be. You have to be the embodiment of your advice - not just the spoken version.  With that in mind, demonstrate the power of good habits. Follow through on your promises. Be a person of integrity—practice self-love. Follow [and achieve] your dreams and live your life fully.  Be an example that inspires them of the possibilities for their life.  It could be the greatest gift you ever give to them.  [Make an impact]

September is Self-Improvement Month, which sets a great reminder that taking care of yourself is a vital part of feeling your best and living a life that you’re proud of. Self-improvement can happen in the form of self-care, and can be implemented in many forms, including physical, mental and emotional practices. Each derives a different area of improvement that is associated with your body’s performance and mental health and can bring you to a stronger and healthier state of mind. Self-care involves participating in an activity that boosts your overall well-being. These can be things that you enjoy doing on a daily basis, like reading, drawing or going for a walk. Everyone’s self-care regimen is different based on lifestyle and personal preferences, but just as long as you’re incorporating the things that make you feel like your best into a schedule, you’re leading yourself to a happier and more well-rounded version of yourself. Although Self-Improvement Month is within a specific timespan, this does not mean that you need to reach every single self-care goal you’ve set for yourself within one month, or go back to an old or unhealthy way of life after the month is over. Instead, it gives you an opportunity to kickstart self-improvement goals that can be reached over a longer period of time. Yes, it’s possible to have a “glow up” within 30 days, but realistically it could take years for an individual to properly prioritize personal care and recognize their self-worth depending on their life experiences. To learn more about what you can do to spark a self-care transformation, here are some tips to follow: Start a Writing Journal Journaling your daily thoughts can help you reflect on both the positive and negative situations you’re enduring in your life. This is especially beneficial if it’s challenging for you to communicate to others about what you’re going through. Writing improves your mood, calms the body and helps you identify the frequency of certain thoughts that are heavy on your mind. Journaling is an extremely beneficial self-care technique. It helps to clear your mind of self-doubt and gives you time to reflect on certain life experiences while taking a deeper dive into your emotions. What you write about can be anything you want it to be. As long it helps you improve your mental, emotional and spiritual wellness, you can count this self-care regimen as a success. According to Penzu, it’s important to set a time for how long you want to write. Ideally, this should be between 5-20 minutes, and done consistently throughout the week in a quiet, non-distracting space where you can relax and focus. If it helps, put your smartphone or laptop in another room to avoid hopping on social media or answering phone calls and text messages. If you need a background noise to be able to write to the best of your ability, there are plenty of zen playlists on Apple Music or Spotify that you can utilize. Depending on your music preferences, you can also customize a playlist for journaling so you’re listening to some of your favorite tunes when you write. Begin a New Hobby Hobbies are a great way to get yourself involved in the community, and an even more fantastic way to meet new people. It might be helpful to look online for organizations and teams that are in need of assistance. This could be within recreational sports groups, volunteering services and classes that are hosted by people who are passionate about providing to society. You can join Facebook groups based on your interests and chat up individuals who have been involved to get a glimpse into their experience. Knowing that you are involved in the things that you enjoy participating in or giving back to creates a spread of positivity change, resulting in a more powerful self-reflection and appreciation for your own personal growth. During the time of COVID-19, it may be difficult to find a hobby that is open to the public depending on where you’re from, but at-home hobbies can be just as fun and simple. If you're a crafty person, start a small-business to spread your creativeness to others. If you enjoy fitness, find online yoga or exercise classes to improve your physical health. Do you like spending time outside? Find local hikes to visit when you want to be in nature, or build and maintain your own garden to have fresh foods available nearby when you want to cook a nutritious meal. This might take a few trials to find exactly what you enjoy, but once you do, you’ll find that you’re happier and involved with people with common interests. Dive Into Your Finances Financial health can be a trigger to emotional and mental stress, as without a saving and spending system in place for your personal finances, it can make you feel overwhelmed that you won’t have enough in your checking account to provide for yourself. Due to the challenges that could be associated with underlying money management issues, like late bill payments or overspending, it’s important to incorporate personal finances into your self-care routine. Ultimately, we want to have full control over our finances, and to be able to comfortably create short- and long-term financial goals. But when you’re not organized, your mental health could take a toll and result in depression, anxiety or even anger.Developing financial habits isn’t a simple walk in the park at first. It takes time to learn how to organize your bills, create a spending plan and to properly invest your money. Whether this stress is coming from your source of income or poor financial wellness, there are many resources that can help you self-improve and adjust to a better financially friendly lifestyle. With smartphones completely taking over today’s world with apps, information and digital tools, financial-technology is boosting in popularity and giving people a savvy way of managing their finances. Along with expense tracking apps and personal budget software’s, there are app-based banking solutions without a credit check that can help you manage your money regardless of how challenging your financial situation is and how far along you are with developing a self-care routine. By utilizing your mobile device for organization, you can simply access thousands of resources meant to reduce money-related stress and anxiety from anywhere, and in seconds.  Participate in Random Acts of Kindness To cultivate kindness is to create a positive environment for yourself and those around you. When individuals view you as someone who spreads good vibes and remains calm through difficult situations, they are more likely to emulate your behavior—creating even more generosity among a wider population. There are many ways you can participate in random acts of kindness, even something as simple as complimenting another person goes a very long way. Other options include sending a card to a friend showing your appreciation for them, making a donation to a cause that you’re passionate about and even treating someone to a coffee or lunch once in a while. Spreading kindness doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but rather a simple conversation or plan to show your family, friends and others that you care. Read or Listen to Podcasts Self-help and motivational books consist of tips and tricks that can help you improve certain areas of your life. Depending on your topic preferences, you can find books for almost every subject—from relationship advice, to nutrition and exercise, to career growth. Reading about the parts of your life that you want to improve on can give you additional insight into more ideas that can help you achieve your goals, and even reading books on the same subject by different authors can give you numerous perspectives too.  Podcasts are another great outlet for self-improvement advice. These can be found on music subscription websites like Spotify or Apple Music, or on blogs and other media outlets that provide personal wellness content. Podcasts can be listened to while you’re working, driving in the car, hiking or even when you’re hanging out around the house. If you’re struggling to find one that you like, ask other people about what they’ve listened to, or read reviews online about what others have to say about certain podcasters and how they frame their conversations. Some individuals talk about personal topics and life experiences, while others share general information and life tips. Don’t be afraid to listen to a preview before following a podcaster to ensure you know that it will be something you enjoy. Sustain a Daily Routine  Beginning your day with something productive, health-oriented or an activity that brings you joy is imperative to maintain. Mornings are a crucial part of your daily routine because what you do with the first few hours of your day can depict how the rest of your afternoon and evening play out in terms of your productivity and mood. Start with something simple like waking up and going to bed at a consistent time to keep yourself on a better sleeping schedule. Eating healthy meals is another vital part of feeling your best on a daily basis. Avoid skipping one to keep your energy levels high and to avoid head and stomach aches from a lack of nutrition.  In terms of organizing your daily schedule, use a planner to map out the hours of your day and check off each completed task to visualize your success.  Using colored pens, sticky notes and labels can bring more creativity and organization to your planner, and can make it easier for you to categorize the different components of your routine, such as exercise, meals and work related tasks. If you’d rather use a digital method to craft and keep track of your plans, look into calendar apps or other internet services that provide online planners that are compatible with all phone providers. In some cases, these apps can be used on a laptop, phone and tablet, which extends your ability to use them across all of your devices. Self-Improvement Month is the perfect time to envision, create and share a new and improved version of yourself. This process doesn’t have to happen overnight, and can take some time. The more you focus on yourself, for yourself, the better you’ll feel about the person you are becoming.

Each day in our lives is composed of thousands and thousands of tiny habits. We go through these habits automatically, without even thinking about most of them. And for the most part, this is an advantageous behavior. We don’t have enough brainpower to think about every single thing we do in our day. Habits free up mental energy for the tasks that do require intense thought, putting everything else on autopilot. However, the greatest power of habits is also their greatest danger. If we build up self-destructive habits, then they can be very difficult to break, even if these bad habits make us unhappy. Just look at the common bad habit of watching too much TV. We may know that watching TV is taking away time from pursuing more important goals, but if it’s become a habit, it’s comforting. The converse is also true — it’s painful to stop watching TV. And if you use that TV watching as a way to cope with something else you’re struggling with (as is usually the case), then it can go beyond a simple bad habit and turn into a vicious cycle: Each time you experience the thing that causes you stress, you turn to TV as a way to relieve the pain. This is where vicious cycles are born, the ones that keep us in self-defeating patterns. If we are to break free of repeating outcomes, we need a reflection practice to help trigger the small steps we need to change our self-destructive behaviors. The question is, how do we recognize our actions and their outcomes to break the cycle? Vicious Cycles vs. Reflection Practice As human beings, we all have our own vicious cycles. We have particular triggers that instigate specific destructive actions like procrastinating on important work, staying up too late binging Netflix when we should be sleeping or hitting the snooze button for the fifth time. They build into one another, killing our productivity, straining our relationships and beating down our self-esteem. It’s frustrating because we know they’re there. We experience their pain again and again, yet we can’t break the cycle. In fact, if a cycle is around long enough our minds become predisposed to automatically react a certain way when a trigger appears. Our actions in response will be the ones most commonly taken, even if they’ve always lead to an undesired result. Don’t worry, our brains aren’t trying to sabotage us. It has our best interests at heart. It’s utilizing a system of creating an automatic responses to make sure we have the resources available to react to events we aren’t familiar with. In nature, this process is essential for survival, but it comes with a catch: Our brains make no distinction between healthy and self-destructive behaviors. For example, maybe you use eating as a way to cope with stress. You know this isn’t good for you, leading as it does to weight gain and other health issues. But the deeper, more ancient part of your brain doesn’t make this distinction. It just experiences the threat (stress) and then grows accustomed to the way you use to cope (the pleasurable feeling of eating junk food). This builds into a vicious cycle, one that only solidifies the more you do it. To achieve what you never have, you must do what you’ve never done; you must achieve a mindset shift. To stop and reprogram these automatic reactions we must catch ourselves in the moment of a vicious cycle. This is extremely hard work. A reflection practice allows us to set up a plan to stop the automatic response when it’s triggered. We can reflect on many different levels, but the best place to start is in reflecting on the past year. This higher level view will help us see the bigger patterns we have, the good and the bad. Once we see them, we can find positive ways to change them. What do you think? Want to give it a try? Special Gift: A Guided Reflection Practice From the Inner Circle Start by looking back on the past year to figure out what went well, what didn’t, what you enjoyed and what you learned. With these insights, you can create your benchmark and lay the foundations for the plans that will help you design your best year yet. STEP 1 OUTCOME Complete this step to consolidate your learnings from the previous 12 months and create your baseline from which to plan your year ahead. With your reflection complete, you will know exactly where you are starting from. This clarity will help you set up the year ahead for success. ESTIMATED TIME: 20-30 minutes TOOLS NEEDED: End of Year Reflection Worksheet Why Reflect? The 10 Step framework to your Best Year Yet kicks off with reflection. This is one of the most important stages of the entire process — you can’t move forward until you’ve first looked back. Reflection is about the best way to consolidate everything you’ve done and learned in the past 12 months. If you put your foot on the gas without reflecting, you’ll miss out on all the insights and knowledge the past 12 months have gifted you. In turn, you’re more likely to make needless mistakes, move forward slower and even make the wrong decisions. That’s why reflection is a personal development practice promoted and practiced by some of the world’s top performers and athletes. They know it's an effective way to learn from their mistakes and set goals to make better choices and decisions in the future. It’s the reason football players spend weeks poring over every minute and analyzing every play of every game. By understanding who played well and why, they can make informed adjustments going forward and keep improving their performance. And you can do the same. It’s why reflection is an essential component of your best year yet. So let’s put this theory into practice with an Action Step that you’re going to like a lot. Action Items This reflection exercise is one of our favorites. It’s something we always do at the end of a year — and if a 13-week road map has been particularly significant, we’ll do it again. It’s a quick and easy way to sense check where you are and give yourself a springboard from which you can move toward gaining control. To help you reflect, we’ve prepared a worksheet for you to download. It’s called the End of Year Reflection worksheet and you can download a copy below. You’ll see from the worksheet that we’ve broken your reflection down into simple categories. For this step, you’re going to reflect on four things: • What brought you JOY• What brought you SUCCESS• What made you DISSATISFIED• And what FLOPPED! To make your reflection easy, grab: • Last year’s calendar• Any Self Journals you used over the past 12 months Go through them — week by week — and pull out any events you want to list on your End of Year Reflection. Your goal is to create your best year yet, so think about all categories — not just your work achievements. This might include: • Your relationships• Your health and wellbeing• Your personal growth• Your financial situation When you’re finished, look for your patterns. For example, is there a correlation between what brought you joy and success? Finally, analyze your results by answering the final two questions on your worksheet: 1. How far have you come over the past 12 months? When we’re hustling after goals and checking items off our to-do lists, we can spend too much time thinking about where we still have to go. As a result, we overlook and undervalue the distance we’ve already traveled. So take a few minutes to appreciate the progress you’ve made. 2. Get a sense of how you feel about your current trajectory If you were to change nothing, would you be happy with where you’d end up in 12 months time? For example: How would your physical health be? What about your business or your career? Or your relationships? Why You Should Fill Your Day with Energizing Activities To create your Best Year Yet, you have to fill it with things that bring you joy. When you craft your day-to-day around the things you enjoy and excel at, you start loving and being proud of your life. Why fill your day with stuff that drags you down if you don’t have to? Remember, you’ll always do your most important work, have the most fun and enjoy the most success when you’re motivated and energized. The opposite applies, too. Tasks that leave you dissatisfied absorb a disproportionately large amount of energy. You need to dig a lot deeper to get things done. What’s more, you’re more likely to procrastinate and waste time. You probably won’t do your best work. You’ll feel more drained at the end of the day, too. So for a better-performing year, you’ll need to proactively pay attention to the things that bring you joy and success. Swap out things that flopped and left you dissatisfied and full of anxiety. It’s a simple formula that lays the foundation for your best year yet. Inspire Others Big or small, we aspire to accomplish things in our lives that matter. We want to do more of what makes us happy, gain self-confidence and feel fulfilled with our life choices. We all struggle, find success and change as we grow. Make no mistake, those lessons can help others as much as you. Let what you’ve gone through help others on their own journey. The smallest insight can change a life!

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein Gratitude is one of those things you know you should focus on, but when you’re hustling to build your business and brand it can be easily overlooked. But did you know that learning to focus on feeling grateful can affect your success as a founder? Here are a few major ways gratitude and success are connected.   Feeling Grateful Improves Your Mental Health "I try to be grateful for the abundance of the blessings that I have, for the journey that I'm on and to relish each day as a gift" - James McGreevey Several studies have shown that practicing gratitude has definite psychological and even physical benefits. When you feel gratitude, it can increase your feelings of vitality and optimism and reduces feelings of depression, while also giving your overall well-being a boost. It’s easy to imagine how this can lead to more success both professionally and personally: the more vibrant, alive, and healthy you feel, the more energy you will have to dedicate to your business as well as your personal goals. Plus, if you begin feeling more positive feelings, you may be more inclined to take a few of those leaps of faith which are so often necessary when taking your success to the next level. This is one of the major reasons success and gratitude go hand-in-hand. Feeling Grateful Shifts Your Focus “Speak only endearing speech, speech that is welcomed. Speech, when it brings no evil to others, is a pleasant thing.” - Buddha Have you ever noticed that the more you focus on the negatives - daily inconveniences, setbacks, hurdles, etc.- the more those things seem to grow and consume your time? By choosing instead to focus on positive developments in your life and business, and cultivating a deeper appreciation for those good things, you will shift your focus toward appreciation for the things that turn out well. As you notice your successes more often, you will probably notice that your success grows the same way setbacks used to when that’s what you chose to focus on. Plus, by becoming a more grateful and positive person, you will become someone other entrepreneurs and business people feel great being around, which can lead to more opportunities for collaboration. A Grateful Attitude Promotes a Positive Company Culture "In the household in which I was raised, the themes were pretty simple. Work hard. Don't quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor." - Michael Keaton According to polls, less than 15% of people regularly express gratitude to work colleagues. What might happen if you decide to become the exception to that depressing statistic and find ways to thank and show your gratitude for team members, staff, clients, and vendors on a regular basis? Most likely, they will get a boost from feeling appreciated and feel even more motivated to do a great job. Not only will this contribute to the overall success of your business, but it will also promote a healthier and more positive company culture. People will want to work with you and for you, because they will feel appreciated. In turn, they will be more likely to express gratitude for you, which can boost your own motivation. Practice Gratitude to Improve Your Life and Business Making gratitude a priority not only feels amazing, but it can also help you become more successful. If gratitude does not come naturally to you, don’t despair: anyone can learn to be more grateful and make gratitude a habit, even if your tendency is to be a pessimist. One simple way to incorporate gratitude into your daily life is to keep a gratitude journal. Start and end each day by jotting down a few things you feel grateful for. Perhaps you are grateful for how well your presentation went, for the beautiful weather outside, or for the fun time you just spent with family. It may feel silly at first, but this simple gratitude practice will, with time, help you to feel gratitude more easily.