With a new year already here and a few weeks behind us already, it is a good idea to reflect on what you want this year to look like and what you want to accomplish. It could mean reflecting on where you are professionally speaking, with your health, beauty, or wellness, if not all of the above. Awareness of where you are right now and where you want to be can help you break down your year into quarters or seasons to help plan out what you need to do to achieve your goals.
Momentum Building Strategy
Begin with the easy and shorter tasks at first. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself and take on too much at one time, it can take a toll on you and discourage you from continuing to pursue your objectives. Essentially take it one day or week at a time. Break down your long goals and complete tasks toward accomplishing your pursuits. For some of us, getting started is the hardest part. Breaking tasks down into baby steps forward can ease any anxiety about reaching set goals.
Those who have executive dysfunction especially struggle with this. Building momentum when you have executive dysfunction can feel daunting since sometimes you simply cannot get started. There are many tools and tips to work around this, but for each person, what works can be different. From taking medicine, using apps, calendars, or attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) recommended planners. Not all people who have executive dysfunction have ADHD, however, this doesn’t mean the tools provided by therapists and others who struggle won’t help. You can do it!
Beauty and Health Vision Board
Creating a vision board for the year is a good way to keep your goals top of mind. Not only do you want to create a vision board, but keep it somewhere you can see it daily. Seeing it every day as a reminder of what you want and where you want to be, encourages you to take the steps necessary toward meeting those long-term goals. Vision boards can focus on broad goals or specific ones. We, at ScissorsCut, made vision boards that focus specifically on beauty and health inside and out.
How to Make a Vision Board
Considering what matters to you most before starting is essential. What do you want to focus on this year? What do you want to do, achieve, and succeed in? In our case, we focussed on Beauty and Health, therefore, our vision board really concentrates on how to take care of our bodies and minds because we not only want to look good, but we want to feel good too. You can break down your vision board into long-term and short-term goals as a starting point. Once you’ve done this, you can start gathering images in magazines and online that visually represent what you want to do.
For our vision board, we added images of superfoods, vitamins, workout equipment, skincare products and good practices, spas, yoga, and other wellness class images. Beauty and health aren’t solely about standing on a scale to be sure you’ve lost weight or putting on makeup each morning. Beauty starts from within, from mental health to what we eat and what we do. Understanding this and visualizing it every day is a goal we want to focus on this year. When you feel good, you are better able to assess other goals and take steps to get to the finish line. Beauty isn’t simply surface level or shallow, it goes hand in hand with being satisfied with yourself and happy.
Accomplishing Goals
How do you take steps to meet your goals? Getting started is the part whether you have executive dysfunction or not. Starting any new task can feel scary and anxiety-inducing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it!
Tell Someone
Talking to someone you trust and sharing your goals and dreams can help you stay accountable. It is a great way to motivate yourself to stick to getting tasks completed.
Push Forward
Understand that sometimes there will be setbacks. Don’t let this discourage you. It can be very frustrating and disheartening, which may make you want to give up. Allow yourself to be upset and even cry if you need to, but then pick yourself back up and remind yourself that sometimes there will be obstacles to get around, but you will find a way to get through.
Maintain a Checklist
Keep a checklist of what you have completed and what is yet to be accomplished. You don’t necessarily have to go in a specific order (unless your goal requires you to) –simply getting any steps done is an achievement in and of itself. Each task you check off is one step closer to reaching where you want to be!
Celebrate the Wins
Don’t forget to give yourself praise. Every so often, give yourself credit for everything you’ve been able to check off your list, whether you wrote it down or simply keep a mental list of tasks. You deserve to remind yourself that you’re doing everything you can to accomplish the goals you made for yourself. Treat yourself to your favorite dessert or drink.
Take Care of Yourself
Completing some tasks, dealing with setbacks, and living your day-to-day life can be tiring and even draining. Take care of yourself, know when to take breaks, and give yourself some grace. You can’t meet your goals if you burn out. Be sure to practice selfcare and cut yourself some slack when necessary. Once you re-energize yourself, you can keep moving forward.
Reassess Goals
If you have achieved short-term goals, it’s time to reassess them and figure out next steps. Is the goal complete? Is it time to set new short-term goals to keep getting to your ultimate goal? Do you have new pursuits you want to take on now that you’ve accomplished set objectives? Now is when you reflect on how far you’ve come and decide what’s next for you. We are always learning and growing; it’s what makes this life beautiful.