Happy New Year 2013! The New Year is an exciting time to re-evaluate life. For me, I have decided on just ONE goal and that is to be the best ME. This means being the best in every area including relationships, finances, family, and professional. Here I am going to focus on sharing two areas- finances and relationships.
I like many other naturals I know struggle with having balance between enjoying great products and managing money. There is ALWAYS some new product that is tempting us to buy. Pretty packages, promises of awesome performance, and that one product review is like dangling a carrot in front of a hungry rabbit. But, in order to become more financially sound we can't throw ourselves off our own fiscal cliff.
NOW Goal #1.Have a financial plan for managing product indulgence. I've decided to only buy what I need to re-stock my staple items BUT splurge one time per school quarter. There are four quarters in my school year (I am a teacher) and we are currently at the end of the 2nd quarter. That gives me technically 3 passes left to splurge until the end of the school year. If you are a college student and on a semester schedule then you may give yourself one pass per semester and one during the summer break. Adjust your spending schedule to meet YOUR financial goals.
My second area that I am focusing on is relationship. More importantly, my relationship with myself. It is my belief that I can't even begin to love and accept others until I first wholly love and accept myself. I am my own worst critic. I admit that I beat myself up TOO much and focus on things that don't matter.
NOW Goal #2. Engage in DAILY affirmations to boost confidence, love, and positive energy. I used to post and read my inspirational scripture everyday. It gave me a positive start to my day. My mother gave me one of those little Bible scriptures for any situation type of books. I need to revisit that and write down the ones that apply to whatever I'm going through.
NOW Goal #3. Garbage in, garbage out. Managing my own perspective and narrative about myself will help me become the BEST me that I can be. If I am reading a book or watching a TV show or movie then it must have some type of optimal benefit to me whether it is super entertaining, informational, or inspirational. Also, I have decided to stop watching media that sheds people of color, particularly African Americans in a bad light. Why? Well, frankly I'm now seeing the world with new eyes and I see too many examples of colorism, racism, sexism, and classism. As an African American woman I now that I am not the world's standard of beauty, but I am beautiful, created by God and I don't need negative images to tear at my psyche.
What "now" goals will you aim to work on in 2013?
I have several NOW goals this year:
ReplyDelete1. Spiritual - this one is a top priority for me, as you already know. I've allowed too much time to pass on it.
2. Emotional - I know it'll take a while, but I really want to heal from all this depression and anxiety I've had. It's inhibiting me from reaching out to others and keeps me focused only on myself. Need to get out of that funk.
3. Physical - I have a host of diseases on both sides of my family, and I shouldn't be the size I am. I'm taking control of my health and activity and I'm determined to lose at least 30 pounds this year.
4. Financial - I keep spending all my money on hair products, and then I have no money to do things with my friends or buy books for my students *le sigh* I need to stop checking out product reviews because I know what works well for my hair already. Time to get this spending in check! I'm in the Finish to Buy challenge on CN.
5. Educational - I'm done messing around - this will be a 4.0 semester. No staying up past 11, endless time blown on weekends, hours on YT and CN, doing what I want because I don't "feel like" doing homework...school matters. Time to act like it.
I think that's it for moi lol :-D
Those are some GREAT goals. I definitely can relate to all five. I've found that breaking my goals into mini goals help. For example, my goal this month is to lose 2 lbs. That is way less stressful than focusing on the 50 lbs I need to lose by my bday next year. I wish you the best with your goals! :)
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