envision your future self – looking ahead at January 2020
How often do you get to a new year and plan out where you want to be by the time the year is over?
I can honestly say I’ve never done that before. Oh sure I’ll set a New Year’s Resolution like drink water, or get in shape, but those fade away as life takes over and they never actually happen.
This is the first year I’ve intentionally envisioned myself in January of 2020, and asked myself: What does that person look like?
Not only that, I envisioned myself in 5 years from now, even 10 years.
What is different about her?
What does she do every day?
What has she accomplished?
When you ask yourself those questions, verses just asking yourself what you need to fix in your life, its a lot easier to live your year intentionally going somewhere you want to go.
At the beginning of this new year, I asked myself those hard questions, and I’ve listed out below what I want my year to include. I’m listing below what I want to achieve personally to become the best version of my future self.
I’m also including a tangible goal to get me there. This is a goal I can measure to see if I’m achieving it.
Physical & Personal Health.
For years I’ve secretly wished I could be one of those people who exercised, LOL. I hate exercising mostly because I hate being uncomfortable. I get winded walking up my stairs at home so I avoid them at all cost. I may be a small person, but I’m FAR from in shape and healthy. I’m FAR from physically strong.
If I envision myself at the beginning of 2020, I would like to be physically stronger, and therefore healthier and emotionally stronger. I would like to have more energy and I would like to take better care of my body. I don’t want to join a gym, I know I won’t go, but I have tools I can use at home to workout (like an elliptical and a Beachbody On Demand membership).
My goal is to add in a thirty minute workout at the beginning of every weekday PLUS a thirty minute movement (walk, hike, swim, etc.) on the weekends.
I’ve already been successful at adding in thirty minutes to my morning to practice daily gratitude, so I’m pretty confident I can add in another thirty minutes to exercise. By knocking out my workout in the morning, I think I will have more energy through my day plus I won’t have to add it into my already full schedule.
In addition to exercising, I would like to work on my personal health by finally getting the dental treatment I’ve been putting off for a decade. When I see myself in 5-10 years, I have beautiful, healthy teeth. To get those teeth, I need A LOT of dental work, including TWO YEARS of metal braces. (NOOOOOO!!!)
I’ve scheduled my orthodontist appointment in a couple of weeks, and I’m getting those braces, and I’m finally going to get these teeth fixed so that by the time I’m 40 years old, I won’t have to worry about it anymore. Wish me luck!
Writing My Second Book.
My version of me in January of 2020 has two published novels. I want to publish one book a year, so in order to that, I need to write my second book. This is a pretty hefty goal for myself. My first book took two years to write, so writing one in a year is an uphill battle. In a perfect scenario, I would like to publish my second book by Fall of 2019. That means I need to write one hour every weekday during January – May in order to finish this book.
I’m well on my way with this goal already. I’m curious to see if I can push myself and complete it!
Continue Blogging + Growing My Blog.
I spent the end of 2018 intentionally trying to experiment with my blog. I’ve been trying to figure out what direction I’m going for a while, and to do that I’ve had to try a lot of different things. While I started out in 2015 as a book blog, I’ve also tried Lifestyle blogging, Movie blogging, Fashion blogging, and Design blogging. I’ve tried it all. I’ve experimented on my Instastories, making videos, hair tutorials, affiliate marketing, and even product influencing.
I truly believe in trying everything, the path you are supposed to take will reveal itself.
I had a big Ahah moment during the first week of January, and my path revealed itself by smacking me in the forehead. I LOVE it when this happens!
I learned that the people who are really successful in the world get there because they are working in their sweet spot. All of the things I’ve been trying have shown me one thing: They are NOT my sweet spot.
No, I realized last week that my sweet spot is in marketing. Its what I KNOW. My other sweet spot is leading by encouraging and sharing my personal story and knowledge. Its what I do NATURALLY.
In realizing these things, I’ve decided to change my blog content to include more marketing discussion and more sharing what I’ve learned, am learning, and what I’m doing. You’re going to see less products, less craftiness, less movies, and less fashion.
In every journey, its important to be able to shift. Its important to follow your audience. Its important to follow your path as you go and not force things that aren’t working. That’s how you become who you are supposed to be, who God created you to be.
I’m super excited to try this for a while and see where it takes me. I hope you love the new content, and my tangible goal for my blog is to create four blog posts per week and to grow it to 10,000 followers by adding value for my audience. Its a BIG goal!
Sharing My Story + Personal Growth.
I have a servants heart. It’s always been there, and if I’m not serving others than I’m not being my best self. I believe I can use the skills God gave me to live out my calling to serve others in supporting, inspiring, and encouraging women. This is something I want to continue to do in 2019 through my writing, blogging, and living by example. To do this I want to share through social media and my blog 1-2 posts per week on my personal journey, plus I want to add elements of my personal story in my new novel.
I dove headfirst into personal growth in 2018, and I have no plans to stop. By tackling things like my past, my negative habits, and my negative self talk, I’ve been able to transform my life and help my family in so many ways. I am going to continue to work on my personal growth in 2019 by staying in therapy, reading, listening to podcasts, attending conferences, and attending webinars such as Rachel Hollis’ Life Coaching, which I’ve already started.
Continuing My Education.
It’s funny, but I thought education ended when I graduated college. I’ve learned this year that that is far from the truth. There are so many ways to learn with today’s technology and with our world moving so fast, we need to keep up. I’m challenging myself to keep learning in two ways:
- To expand my knowledge on topics I already have strengths in, like marketing for instance. I want to learn more about writing, blogging, and online marketing.
- To expand my knowledge on topics I’m weak in, like business finance. Ugh! I’ve told myself for years I am not a finance person. By listening to people like Brendon Bruchard and Rachel Hollis, I learned that you need to stop saying you aren’t good at things, and instead dive into those topics and learn more about them. If I want to own a business one day, I need to know business Finance.
I’m going to continue my education by listening to podcasts in the car, reading books at night, and listening to Webinars. I signed up for Rachel Hollis’ Business Coaching classes already and they are exactly what I needed.
Creating My Own Income Streams.
Here’s the truth – with my blog, my book, and all of my trials and errors – I’m way in the hole monetarily. I haven’t made ANY profit from anything I’ve done. Luckily I’m blessed in that I work for my husband’s company which gives me freedom to try things I want to try. But the truth is, I DO want to make my own money. I want to own my own business one day. I want my own team. I want my own office. I’m an entrepreneur at heart. Once I accepted that this is who I am, and that its okay to want these things, I felt so much better. Accepting your true self is the first step toward self love and acceptance.
In order to do this, I need to start selling something, LOL. I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to figuring out how to do that. I don’t know if it will come in book sales, or marketing webinars, but I feel like I’m inching my way there.
My goal in 2019 is to focus on selling my books, growing my audience, and learning how to make money in teaching marketing.
Now, as you can see these are all PERSONAL goals for myself. I haven’t included here my goals for being a wife or a mother or goals for my family. I have those too of course, but I specifically wanted to share with you what I envision for MYSELF, as Tiffani, in 2019.
I think women, Mom’s especially, tend to base their own personal goals around everyone around them. Its hard to differentiate ourselves as a PERSON who is separate from those we take care of. What I’ve learned (the hard way) is that we have to take care of ourselves FIRST before we can take care of others. By living out life as the best version of ourselves, we can give to others way more effectively. Plus we teach those around us to be their best selves, including our children.
So I have a challenge for you friends:
Envision yourself January 1st of 2020. One year has gone by. What does your future self look like? What is she wearing? What is she doing? How does she feel? Give her a big I LOVE YOU SO MUCH hug, and then write down some things you want for her (typing that sentence totally made me cry). 😉 I love you so much!
Challenge yourself.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
I’m here for you, doing this with you. Share me your ideas and let’s hold each other accountable!
