Sarahritchie17 I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, etc. Now it’s time to look to the new year! We’ve made it to the last Sunday of 2020, and with it, the last genuinesunshine blog post of 2020. It’s time to shift our focus to our goals, aspirations, and intentions for 2021.
What’s your vision for the new year? What do you hope to achieve in the next 12 months? What are the habits you want to make and the ones you want to break? What are your priorities?
Now, I want you to stop reading and grab a sheet of paper and something to write with. I want you to write down everything that came to mind when you read those questions above. Just take a few minutes to think about what you want in the year ahead of you and physically write it down on paper. There’s power in the practice of writing your goals down. Here’s what mine looks like:
If you want to stop here, that’s fine. Just taking the time to write down some of your goals is enough. But wouldn’t it be nice to have something organized, concise, and aesthetically pleasing to look at every day to remind you of your vision?
Each year since 2018, I’ve created a vision board for myself to help keep me focused and on-track towards the goals I’m chasing. My vision boards are a bit different than ones you’ve probably seen from others because mine have words instead of pictures. Pictures can be inspiring and motivating, but words are more tangible for me.
You can find my previous vision boards here: New Year Vision Board – My 2020 Board and How to Craft Your Best Year Yet.
This year, I’m in the process of moving, so I won’t be reunited with all my craft supplies until 2 weeks from now. I’ll update this post then with a picture of the final product, but in the meantime, I wanted to get started on the reflection piece and build out each of the elements I’ll be putting on my board this year.
Vision boards are meant to be personal, so you decide how you want to organize your thoughts. Maybe you sort your goals into personal and professional; or maybe it’s physical, mental, and emotional; maybe your vision is focused on places you want to travel or skills you want to learn.
The elements I’ve decided to include on my board this year are:
- Priorities
- Monthly Resolutions
- 3 Power Quotes
- Affirmations
- Books to read
- Distance Promises
Priorities
I’m going to start with priorities because those will be the overarching themes for building out the rest of the board. My priorities for 2021 are to learn to fly and maintain a successful relationship. If you’re setting priorities for your year, I recommend keeping them concise. Pick only one or two things.
12 3 Resolutions
In the past couple years, I’ve set an resolution or intention for each month of the year. This worked super well for me in 2018; I met all 12 of my resolutions in their respective months, and I was even able to maintain some of the habits I’d built throughout the whole year. 2019 and 2020, I only stuck with about half of my intentions per year. The problem I had in 2020 was things were changing and evolving so rapidly that I didn’t adapt my plans to reach the goals I’d set at the beginning of the year. Instead, I focused on entirely different goals. For example, when my triathlon was cancelled due to the pandemic, I didn’t search for a different one to replace it; instead I signed up for OrangeTheory’s Hell Week and Marathon Month Challenges because they were more accessible and easy to work into my lifestyle at the time. So this coming year, I’ve decided to set my intentions/resolutions quarterly so that I can focus on what’s most important for me in each season. Here are my first three:
- January – Read 2 books
- February – In bed by 10 PM
- March – Daily gratitude practice
3 Power Quotes
I like to include quotes on my vision board that align with my priorities and will keep me motivated towards my goals. The ones I chose for 2021 are:
“She took the leap and built her wings on the way down.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
Leonardo da Vinci
Affirmations
I’m sticking with the same affirmations I’ve used the past few years. I know them by heart now, but it’s still nice to put them in front of me every day. Reading them is a daily reminder to be grateful of the privileges I have.
- I am happy.
- I am healthy.
- I am strong.
- I am safe.
- I am worthy.
- I am positive.
- I am blessed.
- I am thankful.
- I am loved.
- I am confident.
- Today will be great.
Books to Read
I always find myself adding books to my list way faster than I can read them. These ones have been on my list for several months now, so I wanted to add a book list to my vision board to remind me of the ones I want to get to this year. I’ll likely add to this list as the year goes on.
- Get Out of Your Own Way – Dave Hollis
- Straight Up – Trent Shelton
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
- Make Your Bed – William H. McRaven
- Untamed – Glennon Doyle
- City of Girls – Elizabeth Gilbert
Distance Promises
My boyfriend and I will be doing long-distance again, and maintaining a successful relationship is a priority for both of us in the new year as we move apart. I wanted to set a few intentions and promises.
- Phone calls no less than 30 minutes per week
- Visits no less than twice a month
- Equal driving
- Never lose trust in each other
- Communicate any struggles and celebrate the highlights in each of our days
Those are all the things going on my vision board this year. The next step is crafting a bulletin board to display it all. I’ll update this post when it’s done! I hope this post inspires you to create your own vision board or at least think about what intentions you want to set for yourself in the new year.
Update
I had tons of fun creating my vision board for 2021. Here’s a time lapse to show you the full crafting process!
And here it is!
If you like what you read here, follow @genuinesunshineblog on Instagram and look for new posts here at genuinesunshineblog.com every Sunday to start your week with sunshine!
Cheers!
Sarah
