Hey guys!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today I want to share 12 ways to expand yourself in 2019.
These are just some personal growth ideas that you can add to your list for the new year.
Personally, I want to explore and experience this year.
That's my theme for the year.
So I want to stretch myself, expand myself, and see more of the world,
see more of what the world has to offer, rather than just staying at home,
doing the same thing every single day in my little shell.
I kind of want to get out of my little hermit shell a little more this year and live life.
So the first way to expand yourself is to do something that scares you.
There's this quote that says "Do one thing that scares you every day."
Basically just stretch out of your comfort zone as often as you can
because that is how you're going to challenge yourself.
That's how you're gonna grow and get better, stronger, every single day.
One thing that I did this past weekend that was scary was:
I went snowboarding for the first time in two years.
Snowboarding is something that I've done on and off for the past ten years or so,
but it's always scary going because I just feel so out of it each time I go.
And the scariest part is getting off that lift
because I've fallen so many times getting off that lift
and it's always anxious and it's a scary experience, but a fun experience for me.
So this time I went, I successfully did not fall off the lift,
the six times we went on our runs.
And I actually learned how to carve confidently.
Carving in snowboarding is when you're making that S-shape, going down the hill.
And it's actually not super easy.
I only know how to break and go slowly, and break and go slowly.
I was never able to continuously go.
And this time I had a friend who was kind enough to coach me on it.
An d that was a scary experience, making my body do something
that it was not used to doing, something that it's never done before.
I fell so many times and I tumbled.
I even twisted my ankle and knee a little bit on this one fall.
But you have to fall in order to be able to learn and get it right.
It was definitely scary.
It was outside my comfort zone, but I did it
and I'm looking forward to doing more things like that this year.
The second way to expand yourself is to read more books.
I recently made a book recommendation video that I'll put in the links down below.
Basically, reading books is, to me,
the most efficient and effective way to gain new knowledge,
because if you think about it, when a writer is writing a book,
they put so much effort and heart and time into it.
Either they're distilling years of research or life experience,
wisdom and insights into this book that you can read in a day or a week or a month.
If you can learn everything there is to learn about one person's life experience
in a week or a month, that is actually a really efficient way to learn things.
It's actually a very affordable way to learn things, by reading books,
rather than going to school or taking a class or getting a coach.
Reading a book is like $10-15 and you can really learn so much.
Read more books this year.
Make it a point.
If you have trouble reading normal books, what I would recommend is:
Try audiobooks because that's something that I've picked up in the past couple years,
and now half of the books that I read are from audiobooks that I've listened to while I drive.
I use Audible on Amazon.
The next way to expand yourself is to listen to podcasts.
If you're not into podcasts yet, get into it
because the information and the content,
it's long-form, so you have more in-depth information
and they're also really fun to listen to when you're getting ready or driving.
I'm just going to shamelessly plug the Lavendaire Lifestyle Podcast here.
If you haven't checked out my podcast, give it a listen.
You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn.
Basically anywhere you can find podcasts, you can find the Lavendaire Lifestyle.
We have amazing guests on the show.
I always get questions on what my favorite podcasts are,
so I'm going to share them here and I'll link them down below.
I love listening to "How I Built This" and "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations".
I used to really love "Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert".
In terms of business-y or YouTube-related podcasts,
I really enjoyed "#Viral" by Natalie's Outlet, "Beauty and the Vlog" podcast.
And there's one called "WorkParty", interviews with female CEOs in beauty and fashion.
I like things in those veins.
The fourth way you can expand this year is to take time to learn a new skill
or develop a current skill that you already have.
One of my favorite ways to learn new things is just by taking online classes
because they're just so easy, so accessible.
And my favorite place to take online classes is called Skillshare.
Thanks so much to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video.
If you don't know already, Skillshare is an online learning community for creators
with more than 25,000 classes in design, business, and more.
Whether you want to fuel your curiosity, creativity, or career,
Skillshare can help you expand yourself and meet your goals in 2019.
Personally, I've taken classes in art, design, marketing, and even cooking on Skillshare.
The most impactful course that I've taken is called
"Adobe InDesign CC - Essentials Training Course",
which is the course where I learned how to use InDesign,
which is how I created the Artist of Life Workbook.
Skillshare is also super-affordable.
An annual subscription is less than $10 a month,
and a Premium membership gives you unlimited access to all the classes offered.
If you want to try out Skillshare, you can click that link down below.
The first 500 subscribers to click that link will get a free two-month trial.
Alright, moving on: The next way to expand yourself is to learn a new language.
Personally, I'm constantly improving and practicing my Chinese.
So here are my favorite language learning apps with Chinese.
I'll list the names and descriptions down below.
A tip I have for language-learning is to actually consume content in that language.
Maybe you watch a YouTube video, watch dramas in that language,
listen to music in that language, even podcasts in that language.
There are a bunch of really great language-learning podcasts out there
where you can listen to conversations and learn from them.
I've just been hitting it from all angles.
Last year, I watched a lot of Chinese dramas, started listening to more Chinese music.
I think doing so makes it more fun and enjoyable
because you're just watching entertaining content,
but you're also learning at the same time.
The next way to expand yourself is to watch a new documentary or TED talk.
Every time I watch a documentary or TED talk, I feel like my brain is expanding,
it's literally growing, because I'm like,
"Wow, that's so much more new information that I didn't know before."
So it's really educational and inspiring.
So let me know down below what your favorite documentaries and TED talks are
because I'd love to watch more of them this year.
I personally feel like I haven't watched TED talks in a while.
I have a list of my favorite TED talks on my website that I'll link down below.
In terms of documentaries, I just watch whatever pops up on Netflix.
A recent one that I really enjoyed was called "The First Monday in May".
That one was about the Met Gala in New York City
and what goes into planning such an extravagant event,
and that was really fun and beautiful to watch.
The next way to expand yourself this year is to spend this time
having a deep, meaningful conversation with someone new,
someone you don't usually have deep conversations with,
because you're gonna learn so much from them.
You're gonna feel fulfilled, and it's just going to be a way for you
to see the world through a new lens, through a new perspective.
I've always gained so much value from having a real conversation with someone,
especially if it's someone – maybe a stranger or maybe a friend
that you've never really gotten in a deep conversation with.
It's always fun and surprising in a nice way.
Humans crave connection, so any way that you can connect with
someone on a deeper level, someone who is like-minded
or even not like-minded, someone opposite of you.
That could be very valuable too.
If you don't feel like you have anyone in your life that you can connect with
on personal growth or the topics that you're very interested in,
we have a Lavendaire Lifestyle Facebook group that is free to join
and you can meet people there who are like-minded and supportive, amazing.
We also have the Artist of Life Community, where it's a more engaged, accountability program.
In the Artist of Life Community, what I love to do is:
Every month, we have live chats with the group members,
and I get to speak face-to-face with one of you guys,
someone that I've never really spoken to.
And we get to share our insights and inspirations, what we've learned.
And it's just a really meaningful conversation.
You realize that, if you have similar interests,
you can really jump and talk about deep stuff right away.
Personally, I love deep conversations over surface-level small talk.
I love when I can just get deep right away.
But I know not everyone's like that.
My boyfriend is always complaining that I'm always trying to talk about deep stuff.
He's like, "Sometimes I just want to talk about nothing."
So I understand not everyone is like this.
Another way you can expand yourself is to pick up a new hobby this year.
What is something that you've been curious about, something you've been wanting to try?
Maybe you want to go hiking more.
Maybe you want to try painting.
Last year, I got into astrology and tarot.
Astrology, I was always interested in it,
but I never took the time to really learn that deeply into it.
And last year I read a whole book on how to understand your birth chart.
So that gave me more insight into all the details and intricacies of astrology.
Tarot, I wasn't expecting to get into,
but I interviewed Brigit Esselmont of Biddy Tarot on my podcast,
and she just got me so intrigued with tarot that I bought my own tarot deck
and I've been doing tarot readings for myself.
So that is just a new hobby that I've picked up
that I didn’t ever even think that I would get into.
But it just goes to say, having new hobbies like that will help add value to your life.
It's just fun.
When you have more fun, your life is elevated and you have more experiences to learn from.
The next tip to expand and stretch yourself is to learn to cook new recipes this year.
This one's a simple one and I think everyone can apply this to their life.
Just learn to cook something new, learn to make a new healthy dish.
Maybe try meal-prepping if you haven't done that already,
because there's always new ways that we can stretch ourselves.
Personally, I didn't find a joy in cooking until maybe last year or the past couple years.
Before that, I was really lazy with cooking.
I didn't bother to cook that often.
And once I moved into my own apartment,
I had so much fun creating my own dishes, creating concoctions,
because I don't like to follow recipes line by line.
I really just throw in whatever I feel like, whatever I have, and I taste it as I go.
Cooking is actually a very creative experience for me,
so I have fun trying new things and cooking.
And this year, now that I've moved back home,
I'm excited to cook more for my mom and Wilson,
because my mom was never really a big cook.
She didn't really cook that often.
And now that I know how to cook some dishes, I can cook for everyone.
The next way to expand yourself – and I think we're on #10 now –
is to commit to a mindful or spiritual practice this year.
That is up to you.
Whatever mindfulness or spirituality means to you, commit to a more consistent practice.
For me, it is meditating daily.
It could be repeating affirmations to yourself or journaling,
or just being mindful with your cup of coffee in the morning.
For me, this year, I've actually been meditating a lot more.
I've been meditating every morning and evening.
Nor every single morning, but most mornings and evenings,
which is a lot more than I meditated before.
The reason is: Wilson and I recently signed up for a Chinese meditation course
where we're attending it weekly for eight weeks.
My mom actually introduced us to this course.
My mom, aunts, and uncles, all took this course last year,
and I wasn't living close-by so I couldn't take the course.
But now that we're back home, I was like,
"Why not?
Let's commit ourselves to a meditation class, a better meditation practice."
So that's something that I am committing to and working on developing this year.
The 11th way to expand yourself this year is to ask for feedback.
When you ask for feedback, you're asking those around you
how you can be better, how you can improve.
And sometimes that is pretty scary
because you're opening yourself up for criticism and judgment.
But if you genuinely want to grow and improve as a person,
you have to open to receiving honest feedback and constructive criticism
because sometimes you can't see from your lens how you are doing.
You need an external party to give you feedback and tell you how you're doing.
So you can really apply this to every area of your life.
There's an exercise that I learned from "The Success Principles".
For example: If you're in a relationship,
you can ask your significant other to rate you from 1-10 on how well you did.
And basically, after they give you a number rating, ask them:
What would it take to make that a 10?
And then they'll give you their feedback and their notes
on how you can be a better spouse or better partner or whatever.
And you can apply this to your work as well.
As your boss or your coworkers to rate you from 1-10 and how you can be better.
This is something that I do with my Lavendaire team.
I rate each member from 1-10
and I tell them what it would take for them to be a 10,
and they rate me as a boss from 1-10 and give me feedback
on how I can be a better boss or manager, better person to work with, to get to a 10.
Finally, the last idea for expanding yourself this year is to exchange skills with a friend.
We're all different, we have strengths and weaknesses.
Something fun you can do is offer to share and teach your skills to a friend,
and ask them, "Okay, teach me something in return."
Maybe you're a pro at painting, and your friend is a pro at singing,
and you want to trade skills.
"I'll teach you to paint, you'll teach me to sing better."
This is something that I've done with a few friends in the past, specifically:
You guys know of Karen Rosalie,
the photographer who shoots all the Artist of Life Workbook stuff.
I first met Karen in 2014, I think.
And I actually met her through my boyfriend, Wilson.
Wilson had a smaller company back then
and he invited Karen over one day to teach everyone Photoshop.
And I heard this and I was like,
"Oh my god, I'm so there.
I want to learn how to use Photoshop,"
so I actually learned my first skills, the first tips and tricks of Photoshop,
from Karen, just from observing her and the little things that she does.
And later after that, we became friends.
And because I was good at video and Karen was good at photo,
we would meet and I would give her video tips and she would give me photo tips.
And every time we meet, even to this day,
we share business ideas, we bounce ideas off of each other.
We share tips on managing a team, things like that.
And it's really fun and helpful to have a friend who is in a similar field as you,
but not exactly, so you can teach each other things
and you can cross over your skills and your experience.
Find someone you can trade with because it's fun.
We can all be here to help each other and grow with each other.
Alright, so those are my ideas on ways you can expand yourself in 2019.
Let me know which one was your favorite.
And don't forget to check the description box down below,
because I've listed a ton of resources:
my favorite books, my favorite podcasts, documentaries, TED talks.
And in the comments section, please share your recommendations for all of this,
anything that you think we should check out to expand ourselves,
our knowledge, and grow and become better human beings.
Love you so much and I'll talk to you guys all down below.
Bye!