šDecember Lookback: Appreciating, Getting Organized, Hanging, New Year Goalsš
Time to lookback on December!
Hey! Super excited for you guys to read my blogs! Welcome back to my journey on growing, learning, and interested in everything! Stick around! š
Looking back at the month of November, thereās been so many things that have happened!
quote of the month:
"Christmas-time!ā
- me
APPRECIATION
I definitely want to talk about appreciation. December is always a great, jam-packed, month for me and I never really took the time to think about it. This December, I thought about all my friends, sports, opportunities, affiliations, goals, etc that I had accomplished this year. I had trouble getting these thoughts out, every time I felt appreciative I didnāt know how to make it feel real. So how did I implement appreciation in my day to day?
1. Journaling! I was never a big journal person, but during December I thought Iād give it another try. Although it was hard to implement, I stuck through it and tried different avenues like journaling online, free-write, prompts, writing on receipts, notebooks, etc. It was so much fun, trying to switch it up. I continued this habit and found it helpful, not just for appreciating, but just to have a place where I could brain dump.
2. Saying Thanks. It sounds simple, but I had a goal of saying thank you at least once, everyday in December. I thought it would be easy, but I wanted a significant, real, thanks everyday. This led me to continue my habits of going to fitness classes and thanking the instructor and people around me, saying thanks to all customers entering and leaving at my job, etc.
3. Self isolation. Not in a bad way! When I was looking around and asking for advice on being appreciative, I got pointed towards self-isolation. āGo to a park, beach, open space, and just sit there. No distractions, nothing to do.ā Later that day, I got off of work and went straight to a park and sat in the grass. I thought it was so easy. 2 minutes later, I was shivering because it felt like it was freezing. I started thinking, āI shouldāve brought my jacket, I shouldāve brought some food, I should leave.ā I sat there for 10 more minutes and ran back to my car, thankful I had a car with heat and a house with food. I would definitely recommend this though! Even though it was hard, it gave me a real good, in-person, scenario.
4. Spirituality! As far as spirituality goes, I wanted to introduce new things to myself. I wanted to really appreciate my opportunities of having a car, having places to go, having new things to try. After a couple days of thinking, I realized I wanted to go to church as an adult, by myself, for the first time. I went with my family when I was younger, but that was it. I donāt know where I stand with religion, but I still wanted to go and just get the experience. It was fun, there were a lot of inviting people, and a great community. Appreciation and gratitude was definitely emphasized and I got a whole new perspective.
GETTING ORGANIZED
Getting organized is something very important to me this year. Outer and inner organization, are very different, but very similar (in my opinion). This is what I mean:
Inner organization ā Having my goals lined up, action items, being intentional, valuing physical, mental, and emotional space, being intentional, etc.
Outer organization ā Acting on goals, keeping my space clean, drinking water, being well-prepared the days before āxā activity, spending time intentionally, etc.
Along with this, I have looked at inner and outer locus of control. This is more about mindset, however, helps a lot with organization and planning. Having an internal locus of control is having the mindset that YOU make things happen, YOU have control of your future. Having an outer locus of control is having the mindset that things happen to you and you have NO control over the situations. I am striving to accept a majority of internal locus of control. Making sure I acknowledge that almost all situations, I have control over. Of course, there are very few circumstances that you can not control the exact event, but how you react to it.
HANGING
Throughout this month, I wanted to hang out with all my friends as a lot of them returned from university for their winter break. I planned out weeks of hanging out with no real plans, just planning to hangout with people and enjoy their company. I kept proposing activities like going and walking around the park, walking around target, getting some ice cream, etc. I tried to apply the intentionality and agenda-using mindset to not āwasteā a hangout. However, this mindset for just hanging out seemed so difficult. I didnāt know what we would want to do together and a lot of them said, āIām down to do anything.ā what. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN. Either way, going with the flow (I think) made the hangouts so much more worth it. There wasnāt any pressure on achieving something or getting done with an activity. We just sat in the park, sat in my car, walked around the mall. Weird things, just catching up. It felt nice in a way to not do anything and just spend quality time with my friends. However, getting back into a routine was very difficult. After like three weeks of pure, daily, hangouts, I missed the feeling of just sitting in my car and listening to music with friends. I set a goal to make more friends and āfulfillā the loneliness feeling I had when most of my friends left to go back to school. After having a lot of conversations with mentors and other friends, forcing myself to go to school socials, talking to friends online, I built a cool, little, community. I love and appreciate a lot of my friends so having a good support system and just the act of building up courage and talking to people, was so cool. My newer friends have helped me with a lot of feelings, emotions, situations, and just hanging out and having fun with people.
NEW YEAR GOALS
After Christmas, the only thing I thought about was how do I become a better in 2024? I wasnāt too specific, I just wanted to grow in all areas of my life. Through Velocity, I did a year-flashback review and absorbed all the information I had on it. Experiences I loved, experiences I did not, mindsets I had, things I could improve. After this, I had a good idea of things I wanted to change, not bring in to the new year, habits I wanted to implement, etc. Some include:
1. mental: I want to grow stronger mentally. Overcome trauma, obstacles, and mental blocks. HOW? Talk to medical professionals or mentors for guidance and keep consistent with journaling about my feelings/days/gratitude.
2. physical: I want to grow physically stronger. Enhancing my sports skills and ability and health-wise for eating nutritionally and consistently working out. HOW? time block and accountability! time blocking and reserving my fitness classes and gym time, meal prepping/staying inspired to eat and try healthy stuff, and joining some of my friends on their gym journey to help motivate!
3. emotional: I want to grow emotionally. Stop reacting when not necessary, control my emotions, feelings, outbursts, reactions, etc. HOW? There really isnāt a cut-and-dry solution, but definitely just monitoring my behavior. Making sure I can note why I reacted that specific way and what I can do instead.
Overall, December was such a jam-packed month and is launching me face-first into January. I enjoyed many, many things, throughout this month. So much is in store! Stay updated with me through my WEBSITE! Thanks for reading! š