“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”

– Jordan Belfort

As I am doing my best Leonardo DiCaprio impression from The Wolf of Wall Street movie, I thought starting and ending with a quote from there was a great way to start my first blog post in the new decade.

I love this time of the year because it always feels like a fresh new start. A new start to the year (or in this case, decade), can be taken as a time to worry over what had happened last year, and years before that, or look forward to what is to come this year and make it your best year yet. It is all a mind set, is the glass half full, or half empty? Or, is it just a glass of water?

It is so often that we will make a long list of goals and accomplishments, and become unmotivated or bored of them. So this year I am setting just four of them.

1) Keep wearing your heart on your sleeve, because that is who you are, but do not let it affect your mindset.

Last year I found myself overthinking about situations. Things such as: what someone had said to me, noticing people following and unfollowing or ‘de-friending’ me on social media platforms, not hearing from someone for a long time, and wondering if people still like me. It is not hard to say that I am, and always have been, a people pleaser. I care a lot about every living being that comes into my life, and this is probably part of the reason why I am so good at my job. 

However, you cannot make every person happy, and not everyone is going to like you because we all have different interests and ways of thinking. So, this year I am going to keep my heart on my sleeve, but I am going to be more mindful of what is worth getting worked up over and what I need to just let go. Because it is exhausting and causes unnecessary stress on your body which effects your overall health. So, smile and nod and accept the things you just cannot change.

Let go of things that cause you stress and ultimately, do not matter. If your future self won’t remember or care about what is going on right now, then it is not worth the energy and time of your present self.

2) Get back in the gym regularly, no matter how tired your body feels. You have a new training style to smash out for your half marathon this year.

For those of you who do not know, I have been spending the last three years healing my gut after a diagnosis of celiac disease. There are times my body feels very fatigued and sore, this could be due to residual inflammation or just because of how physical my job is. But none the less, I have slacked off on my usual routine of going to the gym and staying active. I have also found it very difficult to find the motivation to get back into routine. So to counteract this, I have done something I never thought I would do, which is sign up for a half marathon. I do not run long distances – but I knew this would be the perfect motivation as there is one thing about me I know for sure, and that is, I cannot give up.

If you are in a similar situation, maybe not being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, but just lost motivation; start small and bring yourself back to a regular routine. Believe me, I know it’s hard, so maybe you need to do what I have done and sign up for something you need to work towards like a marathon, a sports team, crossfit, or some kind of physical competition like body building.

If that is not your forte, another idea that is quite successful, is to try getting a gym buddy. Typically if you have someone to commit to, you are more likely to go because you do not want to let them down.

Just rememeber, great things never come from comfort zones.

3) Do not make a new year’s resolution or monthly goal you cannot keep up with.

Every new year brings new resolutions, and we either keep up with them or we do not. I think the biggest reason as to why we loose motivation is the simple fact that we put too much pressure on ourselves. How many times have you given yourself a new years resolution that is not feasible? 

“I will loose 40 pounds this month.” “I will go to the gym every day, twice a day.” “I won’t eat sugar, carbs, meat, gluten, grains, caffeine, soy, corn, eggs, alcohol, or dairy for the rest of the year.”

The fact of the matter is, things change and unexpected outcomes happen. If you put too much pressure on yourself to accomplish goals that you cannot control or keep up with, you will feel defeated and you will give up too soon. How about instead of cutting out everything in kitchen, you try one or two items. Or! How about you do something new by thinking, ‘I will try a new food each week instead of cutting something out.’

Being a member of the celiac club, I do know a thing or two about elimination diets and cutting out foods that you may be intolerant or allergic to. That is clearly a different story if it is an allergy or autoimmune disease and you have to cut it out for your lifetime. But sometimes you can cut certain foods out for a few months until you are back to full health and try to reintroduce them to see if your body agrees with them.

It is a great idea to try something new and see if it works for you. However, do not put so much pressure on yourself to complete something everyday. Sometimes if you do not get around to it, you end up beating yourself up and in a negative mindset. This doesn’t get anyone anywhere. So try something new for a bit and if it does not make rainbows explode out of your butt like a unicorn’s, smile and move on to try something else.

4) Cash is King but your nutrition, health and mentality is the Emperor.

I may have to copyright this one, as I think it could be my best quote of 2020. Joking aside, I think this one is the most important for me this year.

In other words, if you work yourself to the bone and let your health go to the back burner, you will never succeed. Now, that is not to say that you can strive to be a couch potato and not work at all. There needs to be an equal amount of working hard and making your health a priority. By making something a priority, you make it something that has to be done and you make time for it. 

I have spent the last two weeks off from work with a staycation, and it has been exactly what I needed. I did not realize just how burnt out I was until I stopped. I have been sleeping better, my digestion is improving, energy is returning, I am able to get out of bed again, my body has had time to heal, and I’ve had the motivation to do things I have not done in a long time, such as the gym and reading.

On a regular basis I am bending over backwards for my career, extending my hours and taking time away from my own self care to make extra money. However, if you think about it, all of the extra income that you are making may eventually have to be used later in life for doctor visits, extended health and hospital visits. Also, not to mention, most of it ends up going to the tax man.

Therefore, my last and final resolution for this year is to make my health and wellness my top priority, by spending anywhere from 20-120 minutes a day in the gym, out in nature, traveling, meditating, reading, writing in my journal, making blog posts, self care, watching a movie, playing a video game, just basically anything and everything that does not have to do with work. Yes, I do not have any children or pets, but as I said, it is about making it a priority. You are the only person that can take care of yourself, and if you are not well, you cannot take care of anyone else to the best of your ability.

This will be the year of balance, a healthy lifestyle and leaping out of my comfort zone; all without unnecessary pressure on myself. 

“97% of the people who quit too soon are employed by the 3% who didn’t.”

– Jordan Belfort

Bring it on 2020.

LEW 

xxx