new year – Tracy Dee Tips

5 Things to Focus on in the New Year: Reflection and Gratitude

Posted on January 1, 2022June 17, 2024 by tracydee

This is part 4 in a 5 part series of posts (reflection and gratitude). The first 3 parts were time management, self-love, and learning a new skill. As we move into 2022, it almost feels unreal that it’s been almost 2 years of living through a pandemic. While the time dragged, it also flew.

So the 4th thing I’m going to focus on for the new year is reflection and gratitude. These could possibly be two separate posts, but for me, they are often combined actions. So here we go.

Why should we give gratitude?

Gratitude is an important action in our individual journies to happiness. According to Merriam-Webster, gratitude means a feeling of appreciation or thanks. Many research studies explore the topic of gratitude in relation to happiness and motivation. Expressing gratitude can lead to being happier, higher motivation levels in yourself and people around you, and better sleep. Overall, being grateful can help increase your mood and general sentiments of positive well-being.

reflection and gratitude — Photo by George Dolgikh @ Giftpundits.com on Pexels.com

Integrating Gratitude and Reflection

There are many ways you can incorporate gratitude into your daily life. For me, I like to write down a few things in my notebook either first thing in the morning or before I go to sleep. It is also part of my affirmations practice because it is important to be thankful for what you have when you are trying to manifest the things you want.

One new digital app I am utilizing this year is called Notion. In it, you can create templates to organize your life. I have a daily journal section. In this section, I will write my gratitude list and reflect on my day. The great thing about writing down reflections is that it allows you to see where you want to change. Or, it shows you the good things you have so you can appreciate them more.

Wherever you are in this process of gratitude and reflection, I encourage you to explore ways of being thankful and sharing your appreciation with others.

Goal

5 Things to Focus on in the New Year: Learning a New Skill

Posted on December 31, 2021June 17, 2024 by tracydee

This is part 3 of a 5 part series (learning a new skill). Part 1 was time management and part 2 was self-love. If the last two years have taught us anything is that the future is digital. And it’s time for us to adapt. Our students and kids are already digital natives, oftentimes teaching us adults how to use apps and programs and devices. My suggestion might be to learn something digital, but you certainly don’t have to. What you can do, however, is utilize digital platforms to learn your new skill for free!

Learning a new skill? Is it ever too late?

No! It is never too late. And in fact, it’s good for our brains and cognitive functions to continue learning new skills. In a research study asking older adults to simultaneously learn new skills, the researchers found that their cognitive abilities improved to someone 30 years younger. I don’t know about you, but if continuous learning can help my brain stay active and young, then I’m in.

So how can you start learning?

As I mentioned earlier, the future is digital. So, there are many websites you can go to in order to learn new skills. Here is a post I wrote about four sites I recommend. Simply going to YouTube and typing in what you want to know will yield thousands, if not millions, of results.

One new skill that I’m focusing on in 2022 is language acquisition. I’ve been living in Norway for 3 months and have been using Duolingo to learn Norwegian. I also used to be fairly advanced in Spanish and am practicing that as well so I don’t forget it.

Whatever skill that you have been thinking about doing (piano, language, art, coding, etc.), just start by researching how. And once you find a way, then you create your plan and you go for it!

crop ethnic manager with multimedia devices watching time on wristwatch

Goal

5 Things to Focus on in the New Year: Time Management

Posted on December 31, 2021June 17, 2024 by tracydee

This is part 1 of a 5 part series (time management). As 2022 stumbles upon us, many of us will reflect on what that means moving forward. For me, I like to pick several items of focus to organize my life and set goals for my future.

And one of my biggest life areas of improvement over the last several years has been time management. So what are some key things to focus on to improve time management in the upcoming year? For each of us, that might look a little different.

Why is time management important?

Poor time management can cause all sorts of problems in our lives. We can feel more stressed and anxious. There can be disappointing times when we don’t accomplish all we set out to do or even need to do. So if procrastination is something you struggle with, then perhaps it’s time to start tackling the planning side.

What are my big tips for moving forward in the new year?

Effective time management is a skill that anyone can learn. It takes intentional practice and sometimes sticking to things over a longer period of time to make a habit.

Reflect – When you find something taking up a bit chunk of your time, ask yourself if this is how you want to spend it? For example, maybe you should check your screentime and find out if social media is taking up more time than you realize. Or, scrolling through Netflix for hours each night is preventing you from starting that business or taking a step into something new. Don’t get me wrong. We all need our downtime and our own ways of de-stressing. I just know for me, personally, time passes way faster when I’m doing those activities.
Plan – If time management is something you struggle with, start small. Wake up and plan your day. Then, move to planning a week. Then, a month. Then, start filling in your calendar for the year. To do lists, Google calendar, and time-saving strategies are your friends.
Follow simple time management tips to get started – This was one of my first posts on this blog earlier in 2021. I wrote about 5 quick time management tips here and it was a pretty popular post. Check it out!

So, whatever stage of the time management process you are in, there is always room for reflection, planning, and following some simple tips along the way. Best of luck in your journey!

art arts and crafts board game conceptual

Goal, Manifestation

Dear 2022, We need to have a word

Posted on December 31, 2021June 17, 2024 by laurynshealthyliving

Guest Post by Lauryn Woodman

Instructional Designer, Educator, Accessibility Advocate

Visit Lauryn’s Website

Well, that happened. I think we can all agree that 2021 was kind of a whirlwind. In any event, whatever it was for you, it’s over now. With the end of a year comes closure, reflection, excitement, and hopefully some semblance of focus and vision.

Woman thinking — Photo by kevin turcios on Unsplash

What do you want to do in this year ahead? Who do you want to be? In a perfect world? Well, what would that perfect world be? What would it look like?

What went right or wrong in 2021? And how can you make sure that 2022 brings you positivity, peace, and happiness?

I don’t love the idea of New Year’s resolutions. I never set them, and even in the past when I had I always failed almost instantly. What I’ve started doing over the past few years is setting a word of intention. Something to focus on. Something to ground me. Something to bring me back to my purpose, to keep me going through the year.

After the torment that was 2020, that saw so much loss and so much pain, I chose to focus on the word peace for the first six months of 2021. I sought peace in every aspect of my life, in all my interactions. I thought hard about my situation, my relationships, and evaluated if they were bringing me the peace that I wanted and needed. Weirdly (or perhaps intuitively), as I started to embrace peace, and started to turn away from the things that didn’t bring me that peace, I found it and I found myself at ease. Peaceful.

And so having made it to the mountaintop by midway through 2021, I decided to choose another word, and that word was free. I had found peace but I still felt caged and restricted. A lot of that was having a job that was no longer serving me or my purpose and feeling really uninspired. I wanted to break free. There were also a lot of relationships that I felt trapped in. I was “keeping the peace” but I wasn’t free to be myself.

Finding myself and remembering who I was, and learning to manage those relationships played a key role in helping me feel free. By the end of 2021, I had a new job that valued and inspired me. I have some new and different and stronger relationships with people who support me and my freedom and my peace. And the year ahead looks really bright. There’s a lot of opportunities. And when I look back to a year ago, my life on the surface might seem similar but it feels so different because I have peace and I have freedom.

person sitting on top of a mountain — Photo by Fagner Trinca on Unsplash

As we approach 2022, I challenge you to take a look at your life. Think hard about what it is you want. Who you want to be, how you want to live, how you want to feel. Then choose a word to focus on as you move forward into 2022. I find that focusing on a feeling is much more profound than focusing on something tangible. You might think that you want more money, but why? What’s the goal? Do you want to be able to provide? Do you want to feel fulfilled? Do you want the freedom that comes with more money? We should be chasing those feelings rather than their tangible outcomes. If you seek fulfillment in the feeling, no matter what the tangible outcome is, you’ll feel fulfilled.

So what will your word be?

Tag: new year