Set yourself up for success in 2019

Happy new year! I hope your year is starting off as great as mine is! I’m here to share with you why it's already been so good and how you can have an awesome year too.

Somewhere in our history, making new year’s resolutions became a thing. It seems to always follow the same cycle. Make a resolution that we truly desire to adopt and change ourselves for the better. Then we get about a week in and slowly, bit by bit, we’ve let go of the resolution. I used to resolve to eat better or exercise more only to break it almost immediately. Then, I was totally disappointed in myself and already beaten down before I even got going. Does this sound familiar? Welp, this year let’s resolve to break the cycle! Here’s how we’re gonna do it.

I’m pretty sure we can agree that we’d like to avoid the sad feelings we get when we break our resolutions. So, let’s set ourselves up for success by setting realistic intentions. Ok, so what the heck do I mean? Let me explain. Intentions are more like goals. Simply put, intentions are things you intend to do. Sounds pretty simple, and it is, if you understand why they are different from resolutions and the steps to take to make them a reality instead of a broken promise to eat more broccoli. By making your intentions clear to yourself and the universe you can start taking steps toward them. For me, clearing out the stigmas I had associated with resolutions by getting rid of that concept and introducing a whole new way of seeing things as clear and concise intentions has really helped me stay on course this year. I can truthfully say, I am fully working on each one of them still and I have actually already accomplished one, which I’ll share more about later.

So, how can you set yourself up for success with your intentions? I’ve outlined the steps below so you can follow them to your dreams whatever they look like for you.

1. Write out your clear intentions. I like to write 3-7 really specific goals that are realistic. Specific means that instead of writing, “Become famous,” which is very vague and leaves a lot up for interpretation, you’d write, “Start acting class and get representation.” This is also a more realistic way to start out on your path to becoming famous. Baby steps people.
2. Make a vision board. This is the fun part because you get to play arts and crafts! Find photos to illustrate your intentions. If you intend to meditate more, get pictures of people meditating. If you want to climb the highest mountain in the world, get pictures of the highest mountain in the world with hikers on it. If you want something less obvious like better time management, think about what that looks like to you and find the images that work to represent that for yourself. Then make a collage of all the photos. I like to also write out what each thing symbolizes. Once you have your vision board finished, make sure you hang it in a place you see every single day. This is the most important part. It needs to be in front of you and reminding you what you’re working for.
3. Start a motivation journal. Here is a private place where you can gather motivational quotes, ideas that get you pumped, people that inspire you to reach for the stars, or even pictures of family that keep you going. Use this as a place to keep yourself jazzed up about your intentions, why you're working for them and what you're doing to get there. 
4. Meditation. This is very important. Give yourself 5 minutes a day to slow down and visualize your intentions. Really picture yourself living your intentions. If you want to be a famous actor, put yourself on set with the other actors you aspire to be. If you want to stay fit, picture yourself working out and eating veggies. Go to the place you desire to exist. Alright, I wanna give a little trick to anyone out there that is thinking, “I’m too busy to meditate.” I don’t doubt that you are busy, we all are. Although I would strongly recommend making time to grow a meditation practice and at least meditate in a quiet place, you can also take advantage of some time you spend doing mindless things to visualize. Maybe when you’re driving to work, or walking to the subway (obviously this would be visualizing with your eyes open). Maybe when you’re taking a shower or on your coffee break. Maybe put down your phone ten minutes earlier every night. You know, make it work is what I’m saying.
5. Make a good ol’ fashioned list of action items that you can do today (or in the very near future) to take steps toward accomplishing your intentions. Little, tiny baby steps are a-ok here.
6. Be receptive. Sometimes we have our mind set on things happening a certain way and that’s just not how it actually goes down. Be open to taking a different path than you may have pictured on your way toward your success.

I know this list is sort of long, but I want to help you guys and explain everything so you can kick butt in 2019! I’ve already used these steps to accomplish one of my intentions this year and I’m super excited to share it with you. In 2018, every piece I sold was connected to a specific charity. I had a lot of people ask me if I represented diseases that were important to them. But, as much as I’d like to represent and raise money for every disease with my designs, it’s just not possible. This is mainly due to the restriction of images available for common use. So, in order to represent more causes in 2019, I’ve made it possible to donate to your choice of 14 different charity partners regardless of the piece you buy. It’s a new year with a whole new way to give!

Now, that I’ve laid all this out and shown you how intentions can work, do you think you’ll give it a try?