Hey everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
2019 is right around the corner, so let's do some planning.
Here, I have two Artist of Life Workbooks.
One is 2018 and the other one is 2019.
So I think I'm going to do some planning in my new Workbook today.
I haven't touched it yet.
It's brand new.
But first, let's review the goals I had from 2018: what worked and what didn't work.
I'll just briefly go through what actually came true and what did not come true.
The goals that I did accomplish is 2018 was:
1) Create the aesthetic apartment of my dreams.
2) Hire a new video editor and podcast editor
And 3) Finish my 2019 workbook design.
Aside from that, I put some ongoing goals that I don't think I could ever cross off as complete.
They're just there as a reminder for me to keep doing these things.
For example: Create high quality content that's engaging, helpful, beautiful, meaningful for Lavendaire.
That's something that's going to be on my goals list every single year.
And also: Create space for my self care daily.
Make time to morning pages, meditation, reading, all that stuff –
which is still something that I'm currently working on.
And then here are the goals that did not happen.
I did not write my book which – I wanted to write a book this year.
I did not get abs.
I wanted to have abs and get really fit.
I was just not as committed as necessary to make that happen.
So that's an update on my 2018 goals.
And I'm pretty proud of myself.
I mean, I fell through on a few things, but I feel pretty happy with what I achieved this year,
so I am so ready to move on to 2019.
Let me open up this book.
Before I dive into goals for 2019, I'm going to set my theme for the year.
Last year, my theme for 2018 was "Lead with light".
I wanted to bring light into everything that I do, everything I create,
and that's still something that I want to keep on the top of my mind.
But I decided my theme for 2019 for me is going to be: Explore and experience.
And the reason why I set that as my theme is because I want to do more traveling next year:
personal, solo travel where I go abroad, network, meet people, collaborate.
I want to see the world on a deeper level more, and I want to get out of my safe space.
I felt like this year, I grew really comfortable creating in my own apartment,
not really going outside that much, not exploring too much.
Because this year, things have become more stable for me,
I feel like I have the freedom to be able to travel and work from anywhere in the world now,
which has been one of my dreams for my entire life.
Now I'm going to go through each of these questions,
and then I'll speed through and share my answers with you in a bit.
First question is: What can I do to live my theme in 2019?
As I mentioned earlier, I really want to do more travel:
purposeful travel, where I go abroad to work and meet people.
So I want to go to Australia in the beginning of the year,
and then I'm going to Asia later on in the year.
And probably try living in Shanghai, I think for a month or even longer.
We'll see where it takes me.
I also put things like try new hobbies/activities, read more books,
take artsy photos/videos just for fun.
That's something I really enjoy doing, but I never make the time to.
And lastly, just meet more people, connect more, learn from others.
The next question is: How do I want to feel in 2019?
And I love answering this question every single year.
I want to feel light-hearted, joyful, free, youthful.
Excited, creatively inspired, motivated for my soul.
Confident, have self love, nonjudgment, be kind to myself.
I want to feel calm and have inner peace.
These are all the things that I want to feel.
The next question is: What do I want to invite into my life in 2019?
Personally, I want to invite new experiences and memories.
Strength, courage, and fire – and what I mean by "fire" is that extra oomph
to be a little more daring, take a little bit more risk.
I also want to invite curiosity, see where life will take me, openness, and trust in the universe.
And lastly, anything exciting opportunities that align with my soul and purpose.
The next question is: What will I let go of in 2019?
I really want to stop checking social media so often.
There definitely has to be a balance since it is my job.
I have to post and engage a bit.
But I definitely want to be more conscious and stop checking it out of habit.
So when I post a photo or new video, I usually tend to just refresh,
refresh and check and see how it's doing.
But I'm going to stop doing that.
I'm already kicking the habit of not looking at social media in the morning,
so I just want to continue on to next year.
Hopefully, it just improves.
I also want to let go of the need to impress or please others,
including my audience and the people who follow me.
I just want to be myself, be authentic and real,
even if it's not perfect or even if I'm not super great at whatever I'm doing or creating.
And I just want to stop caring about what others think, in general, in life.
Lastly, I genuinely want to let go of comparing myself to others.
This year I struggled with it and I definitely made a lot of progress
compared to the beginning of the year.
And I just want to keep that progress and keep letting go into next year and definitely,
instead of having the mindset of feeling competitive
or just comparing myself to the people around me,
I want to have the mindset of being supportive,
bringing love into the community and lifting everybody up.
Ultimately, I realize that comparing yourself to others comes out of insecurity
and I still admit that I do have a bit of insecurity in me,
so it's just learning to be confident in myself, love myself,
feel worthy in myself even more, and just grow into that every day
so that I don't feel the need to compare, because there's no reason to compare.
We're all amazing.
Now let's move on to my 2019 goals.
And I want to put it out there that, when setting goals,
it's commonly recommended to set SMART goals.
And SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant,
and within a given Timeframe.
And I'm just going to be honest that I do not always set SMART goals.
I know it's taught that you need to have a timeframe.
I don't know, I just like to do things my way.
Some of my goals are ongoing and I just want to put them in my goals list
to remind me every single day that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
My first goal in 2019 is the same goal I have in 2018, which is:
Continue to create engaging, high quality content for YouTube and my social media.
And this is ongoing, I want to keep improving – continuous improvement: kaizen guys.
Just be smart and strategic about it because it's genuinely fun for me
and I like learning and getting better at this.
Next I want to travel and work abroad in Australia and Asia – I already mentioned that.
After that, I want to make sure I keep on with my daily habits
of doing morning pages, meditating, reading, and exercising.
Exercising, I want to do three times a week.
The other stuff, I want to do daily.
The next goal is to wake up before 10 AM and get in bed by 12:30 AM.
If you saw my sleep GYLT challenge video, you'll understand.
Next, instead of setting this major goal of "Write my book",
I broke it down and put "Write my book outline and first chapter, and then pitch it".
I set my own personal date by March.
After that, I have a goal to get my workbooks and planners in store,
and I want to figure all of that by May, because this is for 2020's version.
You just gotta start real early on that.
After that is my health goal to be fit, feel thin and confident.
And in parentheses: abs, because I really put abs every single year on my goals list.
And I feel like I'm improving, but it's one of those things that I just haven't committed to.
But yes, I set the date by May.
We'll see how I do.
Another goal I have in 2019 is to confidently do a yoga inversion by June.
And I've always wanted to do a headstand, tripod headstand, even a crow pose – confidently.
I've been doing yoga for over ten years, but I'm just –
Upper body is very weak, my lower body is strong.
Just one of those things that I think, this year, I want to do more yoga and work on that.
So after that, I set some career goals and money goals,
but I personally don't feel like sharing it because I don't want to jinx anything,
but it's, you know, specific target numbers that I want to hit by certain dates.
Lastly, I just put this note on the bottom as a reminder to myself
to feel creatively fulfilled throughout the year,
whether I need to do something outside of YouTube
or just dabble in music, dance, art, things like that,
because sometimes I feel like I need another outlet
and I need to practice my other hobbies, rather than just working all the time.
So those are my goals for 2019.
As you might be able to see, I'm not super strict about myself.
I write these things down as reminders and inspiration to reach for these goals,
but I am not hard on myself at all if I don't get these goals.
That might not be a good thing, but that's just how I am.
Also, I just have to note that, in my career, I'm so happy with where I am.
I feel abundant and blessed, I have all the material possessions I could ever want.
I have enough finances to be able to travel the world and do everything that I want.
So I'm very happy I'm blessed.
Maybe I used to be stricter with my goals because I was striving for something
very far in the future, but I think now, I'm honestly living my dream life.
Everything I want is just a nice-to-have on top of all the great things that I already have.
So I think for me, moving forward, it's just little micro-improvements,
and it's focusing on improving areas of my life outside of my career,
like my health and creativity and you know, reading more books,
meeting more people, things like that.
Alright, so if you're still watching at this point,
I just want to let you know that I love you so much.
Thank you so much for being a loyal viewer.
I am just so grateful for you, so I'd like to do a pop-up giveaway.
I'm going to be giving away three Artist of Life Workbooks, the 2019 version.
All you have to do is be subscribed to my channel, follow my Instagram @lavendaire,
and comment below with your 2019 theme and, for a bonus, your top three goals for 2019.
So as long as you comment your theme and your goals for next year,
you'll be entered into the giveaway.
And we'll be announcing the winners –
I'll just reply to your comment on YouTube – in a week.
So check your notifications for that.
Make sure you hit the bell so you're notified of everything that Lavendaire posts.
That's it for today.
Love you so much.
Bye!