16 steps to take to make 2022 the best year ever

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The new year is in full swing now. We are coming into week two already. I have been thinking a lot about how I want this year to go and I have big ideas for what I want to achieve and accomplish in 2022. This year I’m determined to make this the best year ever.  I don’t want another year to go by and still be in the same situations that I have found myself in.

Not that I have a bad life. I know that I am blessed in many ways and I’m grateful for the good things in my life. I just no that I can do more and achieve better. So I have really spent a lot of time over the last view weeks reading up on setting goals and also how to actually get those goals accomplished.

I know that just wanting things to be different or better is not enough. I’m really going to have to work hard and do things differently if I want this year to be the best year ever. So I’ve put together a list of the things I want to work on and do this year. So that I’m able to make the most change and see better results.

These ideas and steps aren’t just for me. I know that anyone can take some of them and apply them to their own lives. So read through my list of 16 steps and choose the ones that work for you and hopefully they will help you to have your best year ever as well.

1 stop comparing yourself

I’ve realized recently how often I have been doing this. I know it is one of the things standing in my way. It’s hard when we have so much access to other people’s life on social media. We see things we don’t have and want that someone else has and it leads to not feeling good enough.

I do this a lot in the area of blogging. I see other bloggers who haven’t been around very long getting massive success and it makes me feel that I’m not doing very good. Which leads to not feeling very good about myself or my blog. It’s very frustrating and one area of my life I really need to work on and try and remind myself more of what I’m doing right and what I have accomplished.

2. pushing past comfort zones

This step really applies to both my personal life and my blog. It is so easy to just keep doing what is comfortable and not go past that. The thing is that I know I wont achieve any kind of greatness or success if I just keep doing the comfortable or easy thing.

I know it’s going to be really difficult at times and very uncomfortable but I need to push past the uncomfortable and try new things that I haven’t done before. In the hopes that those new things will make me happier and improve my life in new ways.

3. doing what everyone else does

Just like in step one where I need to stop comparing myself I also really need to work on not trying to do what other people do or modeling myself after others. I haven’t ever actually copied someone else. You should definitely not plagiarize or steal what someone else has done. That is very wrong and a big mistake as a blogger and really in all areas on life.

What I mean more is looking at someone else that you find inspiring or has been successful and trying to be more like them. I have done this too often and it’s one thing I’m really hoping to stop doing in the future. Of course getting inspiration from others is a good thing and is going to happen.

I just want to stop thinking that the way someone else is doing something is the best way and that I should be doing it that way as well. If I stop trying to be like other people then maybe I will discover what really works for me.

4. stop being afraid

For 2016 I chose fearless as my word of the year. I tend to let fear prevent me from doing things, I think that many of us do that. I know in my heart that I shouldn’t and that you shouldn’t either. There are of course things out there in the world to be afraid of. Things like being hurt, losing people we love, disasters, etc.

The thing is that those fears aren’t really the fears that hold us back in life. The fears that hold us back and prevent us from doing the things we are capable of are. Being afraid of failure, of looking dumb, of not being good enough, that people wont like us, etc. Those are the fears I want to stop having.

5. finding more balance

Finding balance in life is an issue that I know many women and men have.My parents didn’t always make a lot of time for themselves and were always really busy with work and life . I was always determined to not be too busy. In the past when I was younger I let myself take on too much and get too busy and overwhelmed. It ended up really effecting my health in a negative way

So after that I was determined to always make time in my life for fun and to take care of myself. The problem then became the opposite. I stopped pushing myself to do things and get more done and accomplished. I started playing too much and not working on my business and life enough.

Which is also a bad thing and not that good for my life either. Too much work and too much play don’t help us create the best lives for ourselves. So now it’s about finding balance. Taking breaks when I need them. Letting there be enough time for fun but also making sure to spend the time on things that need to be done and doing them well.

6. being true to myself

Even though this year is going to be about trying new things and taking some risks I think this is a really important step. We are who we are at the core. There are some pieces of us that aren’t going to change and shouldn’t be forced to change.

We need to be true to who we are. By that I mean we don’t need to compromise our beliefs or values. Those areas are more sacred and should be appreciated. I want to try new things but I have to own who I am and be ok with who I am. So do you.

An example of this is that I’m a pretty sensitive person. I always have been and I imagine always will be. So to try and change that part of me or fight against my nature.  Would just be a very painful experience that would go nowhere. It would be more worth my time to learn how to accept that part of myself and how to deal with situations that make me sensitive and upset.

7. dream bigger

We need to stop being afraid to dream big. It’s the first step towards actually achieving big I believe. It can be scary to really let ourselves dream big. What we dream seems impossible but great and amazing things can happen and why can’t they happen to us?

They can happen to us and we have to start allowing ourselves to have big dreams. So I’m letting myself really imagine bigger and more wonderful things happening in my life. I know that not everything might happen. That’s ok though, I think it puts me in a better place by letting myself dream these big dreams. Then I will have to do the work to actually achieve these dreams but first I have to dream them.

8. try something new

This goes along with many of the other steps because it is such an important piece I think to having the best year ever. If I continue to only do things I’ve done before than nothing in my life is going to change. I will just keep making the same progress I’ve made in the past and life won’t improve and get better.

So it’s time to shake things up in our lives and try new stuff. Whether that means going to new places, meeting and interacting with new people or changing up our routines, etc. That’s what I’m going to figure out this year. I’m going to let myself experience new things and take the risk of things not going well. So that hopefully there will be some new stuff that goes really great.

9. set goals frequently

I try to set weekly and monthly goals. I let the monthly goals inspire what I should achieve during the week. That way by the end of the month hopefully I have gotten a lot accomplished. I am a big believer in setting goals for yourself just like I believe in dreaming big.

I think that by always keeping your goals and dreams on your mind you start to influence what you do on a daily basis. I’m always setting goals so on days that I don’t want to do much. Where I just want to have a relax day I still feel the need to get up and do something. Even something small just so I can be moving towards a goal. Unless I’m really sick or in need of rest then I try to give myself credit for what I already have accomplished and remind myself I need the break.

10. Learn new skills

I love learning new things. In school I always loved the learning and did great on tests but I was the student that hated homework. I still probably am not the greatest at homework but I do love to learn new skills and information. As a blogger and entrepreneur I am amazed at the amount of things I can learn and I am always trying to learn a new skill or new information.

I’m always looking for new courses and at any given time I’m probably taking a couple. I also read a lot of books to learn new things. As well as finding lots of great information

11. Start scheduling my days to get more done 

This step goes along with my really getting organized and being able to do more this year. I realized how little of my time was actually going towards things that really needed to be done and how much time I was really actually wasting. No wonder I wasn’t accomplishing my goals and being successful.

So I knew that I need to make some major changes to how I used my time. I don’t want to live my life on a rigid schedule with every minute planned. That is not my style and I know that I would end up rebelling against that kind of over structuring. I know I can add more structure though and make a loose framework to my day.

So I use Google calendars and block my day into 1.5-3 hour blocks. Each block is a type of tasks for my personal or blogging life. Even if I don’t follow it exactly it is a constant reminder to get back on real tasks if I start getting distracted by other things. I have reminders sent to my phone so I’m reminded all day and I can add appointments and other things into my day as well.

12. Take better care of myself and improve my health 

I think this step is one of those things where I know what needs to be done but I just don’t want to spend the time or energy doing it. I have to though. Especially with my past health issues I know how important it is to take care of your body. To be honest I’m just real lazy and don’t want to work out and I don’t want to give up soda. Other than that I’m doing ok.

I’ve really gotten myself better at drinking more water. I use to hardly drink any but I do fairly good with water now. Always room for improvement though. I don’t tend to eat a lot but what I do eat isn’t very balanced. I drink a lot of calories with soda and frappachinos. That and being inactive are the reasons why I am unhealthy and need to lose weight. I know that once I do that I will feel better and have more energy.

13. get control over my finances

This is always on my list of goals for the year and so far I’ve never been able to get it together enough to really have my money in order. Having money stress and chaos in your life can end up making everything in life harder and make you more stressed which hurts you in so many ways.

So since I haven’t been able to do this in my life yet I figure the problem is that I must not know how to handle and get control of my money the right way. So I’m going to learn how to do things new ways and discover new systems to find what works for my family and our finances. So I am reading a few money books this year.

Here’s my list. I own all these and have started my reading.
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey 

Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life

Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner

I know there are so many more books out there about how to handle money and get financial control. These are just a few that I have heard good things about. So I’m starting with these ones first. Hopefully all this reading will teach me a lot and this year will finally be the year I get control.

14. Make and use lists more

My mom always made lists while I was growing up but apparently that trait skipped me and went straight to my daughter. Since she started writing a few years ago she has loved making lists. My mom finds it adorable that she takes after her grandma in that way. I have to force myself into doing it more. It doesn’t come quite as naturally to me.

I use to make lists more often before I lost the ability to write 6 years ago. I didn’t have a way to make lists for awhile but soon discovered great ways to make lists using apps on my phone. I like using Evernote a lot and it’s what I use the most often. I keep running lists of blog post ideas, blogging tasks, tasks for at home. I also keep grocery lists and lists of things that I need to buy in the future.

I think that using lists more often will help me to get more things done and stay more organized. It will also help me with my finances by buying only the things I actually need and not as many impulsive buys. So I’m making more lists and trying to start using them more often so that I can be more organized and also being more productive.

15. Minimize our belongings so we have less stuff and more space

I, like I’m sure many of you, have way too much stuff. Where does it all come from and how do we end up with so much of it? I really don’t know but I have to figure out a way to get rid of a lot of it and stop more from coming inside the house. Most of my house is fine but there are spots that are crammed with junk and just knowing it’s there, even if I don’t see it is stressful.

I keep saying that we will have a yard sale and then donate whatever is left. But we keep putting it off and it doesn’t happen and more stuff shows up. So I know that this year I have to finally do this and get rid of things we don’t use or need. It will make things more peaceful in the house and give us more space which we need.

I’m getting better at keeping our house clean but its the getting rid of things part that I struggle with the most. So if you’ve got any tips I would love to hear your tips in the comments. Let me know if you have yard sale tips or tips for how to purge things.

16. reach out and connect more with others

I’m lucky to have a  healthy and happy marriage and a really great daughter. Our little family of three is happy and we enjoy spending time together. I also am lucky to have a big extended family. Though I do wish that I had better relationships with a few family members. I know that after my stroke a lot of my relationships with family were weakened and some of them have never fully recovered.

I really struggle now with connecting to people and I wish that I was better at developing and maintaining friendships and relationships with family and friends. Some of my problem is that I struggle with interacting with people due to the changes that took place in my brain. I’m a big mess of overly sensitive, struggle with depression and anxiety.

So my goal this year is to work on fixing broken relationships so that they can be stronger and healthier. I also want to work on making new friendships. I feel insecure because of my issues so I struggle to connect with people. It takes a long time for me to feel safe and trust people enough to open up and be myself around them.

My plan is to start reaching out to old friends who I’ve lost touch with and try to work on those friendships. Also I want to start putting together some blogging friends and grow my blogging tribe. I want to work on getting to know other bloggers and developing relationships with them. So that I can have friends that are involved in this world of blogging. So that they can understand what it means to be a blogger, the good and the bad of it.

So there are my sixteen steps for the best year ever and how I plan to accomplish more and make this year a great one. I know that the harder I work on these steps the more amazing and wonderful my life will become this year and in the future.

I also want you to have your best year ever and to start getting things done and being really happy and successful. So I hope you can apply these steps to your life and start working on them today.

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