Hi, ladies! I hope you girls aren’t burnt out on New Year’s content yet because I have another one for you today! If you’re just catching up, I previously shared the 10 best-selling products of 2020 and the most popular blog posts of 2020 – two posts I love putting together year after year. It’s always super informative for me to see what you all are loving most! Today shifts gears a little bit to focus on some of my favorite ways to start the year off right!

This is a topic I wanted to touch on because I love a good New Year, New Me post, but I think it can be easy to get swept away with big ideas and goals and forget about the foundational stuff. Last year I started out the year with so many intentions and resolutions and things I wanted to do differently, which was great, and I feel like I really leaned into a lot of them despite the crazy year. However, 2020 taught me life is much more out of my control than I realize [both in good and bad ways]. So, this year I’m going in with a… lighter, less controlling approach [for all of my Enneagram lovers, this will be somewhat challenging being that I have such a strong one wing, ha] and going back to those foundational basics.

So today I want to encourage you to check in on the basic things in life like your finances, health + wellness, de-cluttering, mindset, etc. Because as much as I’d love to reinvent myself and go crazy with resolutions, and maybe that’s in the cards for you this year, which is great, I’m going to instead spend some time looking at and reflecting on some of the basic things in life. Hopefully it’s helpful for anyone also just wanting to check in on themselves, stay on top of things and start 2021 off with all your ducks in a row!

Reflect on the previous year + set intentions for the new year

You don’t want to go into a new year with a blindfold on as nothing’s ever going to change if you don’t identify what you want to be different in your life moving forward and have a clear vision of how you want this year to be different. Everyone does this differently but I recommend:

USE JOURNAL PROMPTS: If you like to write your thoughts down, I’ve used this one and this one that I found on Instagram to help steer helpful reflections on the past year [you could even use these at the end of each month].

SET INTENTIONS: To set intentions, you can either select mantras, a word of the year to lead you throughout 2021 [my 2020 word of the year and my 2021 word of the year], or do it old school by choosing resolutions! All of these help to guide you through the year to ensure it turns out the way you hope that it will compared to years prior.

BE REALISTIC: It takes a while for a habit to stick so maybe simplify bigger goals by breaking them down into baby steps over the course of a few months. For example, if you want to run a marathon but you haven’t run in years … you’ll likely need to set smaller goals to get you to that bigger goal. So, break your bigger goals down a little bit in order to be realistic and prevent disappointment.

Clean up around the house

• DECLUTTER AND MAKE DONATIONS: I did this last year before my move and can assure you, it feels really good to give back and create a little more space in your own home. Remember, the point of decluttering isn’t to quickly fill it up again so try to also be slower to make purchases to keep your space feeling lighter longer. Also, highly recommend donating to smaller thrift stores to ensure that the items you’re donating actually do get put out to be repurchased as the larger ones sometimes receive too many donations to the point that they just package things up and send it all to landfills. Not ideal for the environment!

• FINALLY TACKLE PAIN POINTS IN YOUR HOME: Ours is our utility closet so I finally ordered some acrylic bins to organize all of the stuff that just hasn’t had a set ‘home’. I know y’all love a good organization moment so I pulled some baskets and bins I thought you might like!

• TIDY YOUR WORKSPACE: I also like to make sure I cleaned up my workspace by throwing away old receipts or old papers I don’t need anymore. I always like to purchase new folders, notebooks, pens, highlighters, and a planner in order to feel like I am ready to tackle a new year!

Take a look at your finances

• CHECK-IN AND SET SAVINGS GOAL FOR THE YEAR: This is never something I particularly enjoy but am always glad I dug into it when I see the benefits come through later on. If you address things now and decide what money goals you want to set, you can spend the year executing and following through. If you’re not sure where to start, I shared some simple ideas to cut spending and save a few months back.

• SET UP AUTOMATIC TRANSFERS + PAYMENTS: I always set one to automatically transfer into my savings account. I decide on an amount I want to save each year and then divide that by the number of months in the year and make that my automatic transfer AS LONG AS it works with my budget and whatever is left over after my monthly expenses [monthly bills, credit card payments, etc] can handle that hit. If I need to adjust, I do, but I will say I have been the proudest of myself when I have stretched myself and tried to save more than felt comfortable. Consider it a challenge from me to you to save as much as you can this year!

Identify health + wellness goals

• ADD MOVEMENT TO YOUR DAY: This is one I’ve always kind of struggled with. I’ve never been a huge workout person, however, I want to push myself in this area so I’ve been doing yoga through the Obe app [when I have a new discount code, I’ll let girls know]. If I’m honest, I’ve really been loving it! Obe has tons of different workouts so if you prefer HIIT or dance cardio, they have classes like that too. I’m also aiming to go out on lots of walks until baby comes [and after!], especially now that we are mandated to stay inside. If you want more on this topic, I wrote a post last year featuring lots of online workout options and people to follow like Rachael’s Good Eats, Megan Roup and more!

• START EACH DAY WITH WARM LEMON WATER + VITAMINS: Drinking water first thing in the morning helps you get a head start on hydrating your body which, in turn, helps you think more clearly and stay focused. Coffee actually does the opposite but, hello! I get that we can’t go without coffee if it’s one of our vices so I drink water first then coffee after and keep my water bottle next to my coffee cup 😉 But … back to the warm lemon water!  The lemon adds health benefits such as cleansing toxins from your system, promotes gut health throughout the day and purifies your blood. And then of course it’s so important to make sure you’re getting all the vitamins you need, especially vitamin D during this time of year! When it comes to vitamins, I’m personally a fan of Ritual and have been for well over a year now. I was finally able to get my hands on their pre-natal vitamins, after being sold out for awhile. I also went ahead and stocked up on their postnatal vitamins, as well. I love them because their vitamins never make me nauseous and because of the value they place on traceability of the ingredients they use to make them. If you’ve been looking for a good one to take [they have a wide variety of vitamins from kids to men to pre-natal to teenage girls], try Ritual and enjoy 10% off your first three months with code HALEY10.

Are you ready to kick off 2021?! I know we’re almost a couple weeks in already but I like to think of the whole month of January as a time for reflection and then kick things off starting in February ;). I hope these basic ideas gave you some encouragement for what to think about as we head into another year. Until next time, friends! xo.