Hi everyone!
Happy New Year!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It’s so good to see you again.
I hope you had an amazing, beautiful holiday season.
Today we’re going to talk about my 2017 goals and theme for the new year.
If you haven’t heard of the concept of a theme, I actually made a video last year
about my 2016 theme and I’ll link that below so you can watch it.
But basically, last year my theme was to be bold and to be consistent.
So I kind of had two themes, a macro-theme and a micro-theme last year.
Last year, in review, I think I did take my theme to heart.
I did do a lot of things that were bold, and whenever I had a big opportunity,
I didn’t hesitate I would accept it and say yes and go up for the challenge.
For example last year, a few bold things that I did were: give my first TEDx talk
which was amazing, literally a life goal of mine;
I signed with an agency; I launched my first podcast, the Lavendaire Lifestyle;
I also took a spontaneous trip to Europe with my friend Judith,
where we only had like two to plan so that was crazy;
I got invited into YouTube’s NextUp program which was amazing,
I got to meet a lot of new people, learn a lot of stuff;
and I launched my first product, the Artist of Life Workbook
which many of you know about.
If you don’t know about it, it will definitely be in the description below
and I’ll talk about it later also.
I feel like this was the year where I was more bold with my body,
in terms of, I was 25 turning 26 last year, and I felt like that was the age
where I felt like a complete adult, like I could make my own decisions.
For example, I got Lasik which was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.
And this may be TMI for some people
but if you watched my birth control/contraception video,
I finally got an IUD which was something I’d been wanting to do
but have been so scared to do for so long.
And some other fun things, like I got my eyebrows tattooed
and I’ll talk about that later in my December favorites video
which I’ll shoot right after this.
I feel like I made a lot of bold decisions this year
and I said yes to a lot of big new things, and it was a big year for me.
My life changed a lot, and I have so much momentum now and it’s really exciting.
Now let’s talk about the other theme, consistency,
because this is where I had my fallbacks.
I was pretty consistent the first few months of the year
where I was meditating, journaling, reading, and doing all those healthy habits daily.
Consistency is always something that’s tough for me to work on,
especially keeping up so many different habits.
Towards the end of the year, November-December, I got real lazy,
even stopped doing yoga.
There was a time, most of the year,
I was going to yoga 3-4 times a week.
I was really good for a few months and then I just completely fell off and got lazy.
Holidays came.
Really, my life got thrown off and that’s okay.
I just realized I can’t have too many consistency to-do list.
I really have to tone down the habits.
So next year, I still want to be consistent but I’m going to choose one thing.
I’m going to choose “Meditate daily.”
I’ll talk about that when I talk about my 2017 goals.
First let’s talk about my theme for 2017.
Going into this year, my theme for this year is Space.
I want to create more space for myself.
I was deciding between the words Balance and Space
and I kept going back to the word Space.
I want to create more room in my life, more space.
So in November and December, I really got thrown off.
I wasn’t really centered on doing things that were benefiting my well-being.
I think I focused a lot on work and my career and making that workbook.
That whole workbook, I literally worked all those two months on it
and it stressed me out at some points, but I mean it was super rewarding
but at the same time I found myself working like 15-hour days
where I would wake up, go straight to work all day,
only take breaks to literally eat and sleep at 3:00 AM.
I didn’t make time to take a break, go outside, exercise, do yoga.
I didn’t even take a break for relaxing.
I just felt like I got into that very hustling mode
where I was focusing just on creating work which is not necessarily bad
but at the same time, it was very imbalanced.
I wasn’t giving time to myself, I wasn’t exercising,
I was very unhealthy in the way that I was eating.
Moving forward, I’d like to step back and relax
and not be in that state of hustling anxiety, if you know what I mean.
Sometimes I can get real ambitious and I can get into that mode,
and it’s great, maybe I’m productive but at the same time I don’t feel amazing,
I don’t feel calm and centered and balanced.
That’s what I want for 2017.
Also I want to create more space to make time for things to do
just to make me happy, things that are just purely for fun.
Last year I had these things on my list that I never got to,
like learning to watercolor paint and taking dance classes.
I didn’t really do that much.
I did some but not as much as I wanted
so I think this year I want to create more time to just do things for fun
instead of just thinking about my career.
Hopefully this year I can create more space in my life:
space for me to breathe, relax, enjoy the little things in life,
the beautiful things, and just have more time for myself
and for the things I want to do just for fun and really have a more balanced life.
Success at the speed of balance, that’s always been a quote
that I’ve told myself.
It really is just learning how to incorporate that,
learning not to go too fast to have some space
to just enjoy the present moment in front of me.
Let’s move on to my 2017 goals.
In alignment with my 2017 theme to create more space,
my number one habit/goal of this year is to meditate daily.
Ideally I want to meditate in the morning.
I’ll start with ten minutes and see if I can build from there.
If I don’t get to meditate in the morning, I’ll do it at night before I sleep.
I feel like ten minutes out of your day is really not so much.
It’s just hard to have been consistent with it in these past years
but this year is my year to prioritize meditation
because I feel like that is the number one thing
that can help me kind of detach myself from that go-go-go mentality,
learn to relax, sit back, and enjoy life a little bit more.
My second goal this year is to create two videos a week for YouTube.
Previously I just did one video a week and this year I’m going to up it to two
and upload on Wednesdays and Sundays.
I’m excited because I have so many ideas
that I realize I can’t get them all out if I’m only doing one video a week.
It will be both a challenge and a way to explore my creativity a little bit more
and create more videos that I’m proud of.
My third goal is the big project of the year
and that is to write my first book.
Yes, I want to finish writing my book this year.
I kind of told myself this last year but of course I pushed it back.
I did come out with an outline and a table of contents,
but I think I’m not confident in it yet so I have to revise that.
First work on the book proposal that I want to finish by February
and then once that’s done I can tweak that and get feedback
and write the book.
So stay updated on that.
I really am just going to maybe set aside time
every Thursday and Friday to do book-writing because I like to block my days.
Mondays through Wednesdays, I’ll be working on shooting, editing videos.
Thursdays and Fridays will be podcast and book-writing days.
We’ll see how that goes.
My fourth goal of the year is a creative one
and it’s to do daily posts on Instagram.
I’ve never been really good at being consistent on Instagram
but this year I really want to practice taking better photos
because I just love that medium and I love visual content.
I want to get better at it and it’s a way for me to practice.
I also read this book last year: “Capture Your Style” by Aimee Song
and this book really motivated me to use Instagram as a creative outlet,
as something where I could explore my creativity for fun.
I also want to artsy videos to post on Instagram,
maybe “Life as Art” or some visual, pretty vlogs.
I just want to experiment more with my creativity and put that on Instagram.
The reason why I can’t put it on YouTube is
I’ve learned some things from YouTube camp
and researching that you can actually upload videos
to your channel that can hurt your channel.
For example when I upload vlogs, they’re not as popular,
they don’t get as many views as my other videos.
When that happens, the YouTube algorithm
kind of demotes your channel and it doesn’t recommend your stuff.
So this is why big YouTubers have a separate vlog channel.
It’s because sometimes certain types of content
can hurt your channel and bring it down.
It kind of sucks, but I realize I have to be more strategic on YouTube.
I have to make everything high quality on YouTube
and kind of be picky about what I put on YouTube
VS. on Instagram, I’m seeing that as my creative art platform
where I can literally post whatever I want.
Just so you know, FYI: YouTube will be more strategic,
Instagram will be pure art and whatever I feel, whatever I want.
Sorry for the tangent, but I wanted you to know.
My fifth goal of 2017 is to exercise three times a week
because I want to move my body more.
I feel like I’ve been so lazy lately and I want to get back to the gym,
I want to dance, I want to do yoga.
I’m going to do a habit tracker where the end of each week
or maybe as the week goes on I’ll be checking off the times I exercise.
I think that visually will help me to stay motivated.
My final goal of 2017 is to limit my time on social media.
I’ve spent way too much time being distracted on social media that this year,
I’m only going to check all my accounts morning, afternoon,
and evening, so three times a day.
I feel like that’s enough time: you can catch up in the morning,
you have a midday check-in, and then right at night
before you get ready to go to bed.
This year I feel like I waste too much time checking notifications
and responding to comments and emails throughout the day,
and it’s getting harder and harder for me to respond to everyone.
I really want to use my time wisely to be productive,
to create content because that’s what I love to do and I like to create.
Spend less time on checking on what people are saying and things.
I notice that every time I check on a notification
it leads me on this rabbit hole to check other things
and then 15-20 minutes go by and I’m like, “What am I doing?”
Limiting my time on social media will also help me create more space,
it will let me be more productive, and it will have more structure to my day.
There you have it, those are my 2017 goals and my theme for the new year.
Let me know what your goals are and what your theme is.
Post them in the comments below, I’d love to see them.
Also, quick plug here: shoutout to my workbook community
because I love you guys so much.
You know how inspired I am by all of you.
If you guys haven’t heard, I have a 2017 Artist of Life Workbook
which is a product that can help you plan your most intentional year
by going through all your specific goals and answering all these questions.
If you’re interested in that, the link is in the description below.
Basically we have a private facebook community
where we all get to interact, encourage each other, share ideas.
I’m amazed at how you guys are so inspiring and so helpful.
There are a lot of good resources in there.
So thank you, thank you, thank you for contributing.
I’m just really excited for this year because it’s my first time
being in this mastermind group and we’re all going to encourage each other
to achieve our dreams throughout the year.
That will help me be consistent this year.
I need more accountability, guys.
You need to make sure that I practice meditation daily
and I follow through with all of these other goals.
Remember these goals and if I fall off track,
you can let me know and maybe it will motivate me to get back on.
Thank you guys for watching and stick around
for so many more great videos this year.
Love you, bye!