Four Ways I’m Simplifying My Life

I’ve spoken in a previous post about how I love new years resolutions. It’s the perfect time to reflect on how well you did achieving your goals last year and to set new ones.

To be honest, I’ve done well achieving a few personal goals this year, and I’m very proud of myself.

But I also made several mistakes along the way.

The biggest mistake I’ve made is trying to make far too many changes at once. I know I can’t be the only one who is like this, but it can really kill your enthusiasm and drive for change.

It can also trick you into thinking you haven’t come along way, that all the changes you made were for nothing and that there’s no point continuing making new changes. The mind is ridiculously manipulative!

I’m not going to do this anymore.

I’ve decided I’m going focus on one thing for a few months before I move onto the next. Hopefully this way they become part of my routine without me feeling like I’m forcing change.

I have narrowed my new goals to the four things I’m going to focus on to simplify my life. Here’s what they are.

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Wake up much earlier.

I’m a morning person – I love having the whole day ahead of me, hearing the sound of the birds in the morning, seeing the sun rise… but this doesn’t mean waking up early is easy! It’s still a chore.

This year I found waking up early has helped me more than anything. Having a proper sleeping routine gave me more energy, and having more time in the morning helped me get more done.

I’ve started to lose this recently and have been getting up closer to the 7:00am mark, which is ridiculously late for me.

I’m going to focus again on waking up before the sun rises. It’s my number one priority.

Spend much less money.

I really haven’t spent a lot of money on material things this year, but I still spent a lot of money on things that weren’t necessary. Eating out, travel and other luxuries that I really didn’t need to feel happy or complete.

Going forward, I want to be different. I want to see if I can forgo all my spending outside of things that aren’t essential for living.

I’ve already booked a vacation early next year (here – can’t wait :D), so this goal will have to wait a bit to be fully actualized.

I’m trying to be clever on my beauty and food spending too and I’ve been working out clever price and product hacks. Like I’ve recently got into coconut oil as I can buy one big jar for cheap and use it for so many reasons, cutting back on many food and beauty products. There are many ideas here.

I also want to spend less money on things that are wasteful – plastic namely. Hopefully this will lead me to living a near zero waste lifestyle soon!

Play the minimalist game.

Have you heard of this game? It’s 30 days in length and the objective is to get rid of one thing on the first day, two things on the second day, three things on the third day and so on until day 30.

It’s a great way of de-cluttering your home and seeing what is really important to you. Do you really need to hold onto that old pair of socks just ‘in case’?

I tried playing this game earlier in the year but I found it too difficult past day 8. I was too attached to my possessions.

I’m going to give it another go!

Keep a journal.

I’ve always liked writing down my feelings and getting things out of my head and onto paper. It’s a great way to relax.

However I’ve never done it consistently.

When I look back at things I’ve written, I can started to see patterns of behavior that I could have picked up on earlier had I been paying attention.

This is why I’m going to start keeping a daily journal. Maybe I’ll learn something new about myself!

How are you going reaching your new years resolutions and what changes do you still need to make? I want to know below!