Pushing Past Limitations in 2021

2021: Pushing Past Limiting Beliefs

As we’re a couple of weeks into the new year already, I’ve felt the need to explore what goes into setting yourself up for a successful year. Sometimes it’s hard to discern what you should be doing, what goals you should be setting and what (if anything at all) you should plan for. There is even debate on whether or not a “new year” has anything to do with starting anew. Let’s dive in:

Thank you (2020), next

It goes without saying, 2020 was rough. For so many reasons, it was a difficult, painful, worrisome year. And accepting that is okay. Tough seasons will be experienced regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you do. It just so happened that this was a global season of discomfort. The world suffered together in so many different ways, and individuals experienced their own hardships because of it. I don’t know your story and I don’t know what 2020 looked like for you, but I hope that at the very least, it taught you valuable lessons.

At the end of every year, I love to reflect before I start planning for the next. My journaling gave me the opportunity to relive some of the amazing moments of the year and come to peace with the painful ones. As I stated earlier, it’s okay to be overjoyed that 2020 is over. What is important though is to keep moving forward. I can’t pretend that the turning of the calendar is going to magically fix everything that’s wrong, but I can have hope for a brighter future. Whether you believe in the “magic” of a new year or not, it does provide a global sense of opportunity. Through these dark times, setting goals, having faith in a better tomorrow, and trusting that there will always be light at the end of a dark tunnel can be some great ways to ground yourself.

Control what you can, find peace with what you can't

An idea I’d like to present you with is this: life is uncontrollable. As much as you have on the calendar or “set in stone” to happen, nothing is guaranteed. I spent many of the early months of quarantine grappling with this concept. I thought that 2020 would be a HUGE year for me, with a graduation, senior trip, traveling, exc. When all of that came to a halt, I mourned for normalcy. I used to trust so much in traditions and planned events because I never ever considered the future to be so transient.

Do you know what is beautiful about this, though?

I truly learned to appreciate the now. Living presently is a wonderful way to ground and respect yourself. I also believe that being present with the people around you is the highest form of compassion and love. Older generations love to tell millennials and Gen Zer’s that we are too attached to our technology. As ironic as it is, I started to realize that social media, mindless scrolling and time-sucking apps can distract us from the relationships we should be nurturing. Obviously, this isn’t the case if you live alone and have had to quarantine by yourself; Im sure that technology brought you much closer to your loved ones when you needed them most. For those of you who are around your friends and family often, take some time to think about how much of your energy is really with them. You might come to find that the quality of time you think you are giving them is actually being stolen by the device in your hands.

Training yourself to be present has a very nurturing effect on your mind as well. For me, it has soothed anxious thoughts and taught me to appreciate the smaller, menial things in life. Instead of waiting for the next big trip or “living for the weekend”, I’ve learned how to find joy in my daily habits and routines.

These tips that I’m mentioning all boil down to controlling what you can. Ultimately, the only things that are truly yours, and yours alone are your thoughts and your actions. You are the only one with the power to choose what you think and how you act. The mind is an incredible source of power, with the ability to change behavior, by changing thoughts. I will say, I am not expert on this topic but it is one I love to learn about. If you are curious about this concept I highly recommend researching Peter Crone, who has coined himself as a “mind architect”. He is truly the expert on training your thoughts and bringing about change in your life. His work is a wonderful place to start if you are looking to learn more about the power of the human conscience.

Are New Years Resolutions Worth it?

This topic is inspired by a podcast episode that I listened to recently. In the episode, Dan Harris, host of the Ten Percent Happier Podcast interviewed Dr. Laurie Santos on the topic of New Years resolutions and goal-setting. In general, I feel that there are two very distinct camps of people when it comes to resolutions: those who spending hours cultivating their perfect goals and those who absolutely distain the socially-constructed behemoth of resolution-setting *maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but I think you get the point*. I fall somewhere in the “perfect goals” category and I attribute this partially to the societal expectation, but mostly to my upbringing. My family has a tradition of sharing our goals for the year and reflecting on them on December 31st. In all honesty, most of the goals hardly make it past February, let alone all the way to December. That being said, I don’t find it pointless and here’s why:

Having aspirations of self-improvement is never a bad thing.

I think the mistake that most people often make is setting incredibly unrealistic expectations for themselves based on how they think they “should” look, live or act. Let me tell you my friend, resolutions are far from a one-size-fits-all. If you made your intentions for the year solely based on what others are doing or encouraging, I want you to take a step back for a second. For a little while, sit with yourself and make some decisions about what you want your life to look like. Distance yourself from the beauty standards, financial expectations and societal pressure, to tune in with what you need. What you just went through in 2020 was hard. Is it really time to start a new crash diet? Or is it time to mourn for what you’ve lost? The truth is that we aren’t out of the water yet. Though there is hope on the horizon, we need to realistically consider that there could be a few more months (maybe years) of this pandemic. Keeping that in mind, consider a change you can make in your life today. Maybe, that means waking up an hour earlier to journal, going for a walk or just putting on a nice outfit a few days a week. Starting small is okay, in fact it’s one of the only ways to change your life sustainably. I would love to believe that drastic changes work every single time and that I could just magically live my dream life tomorrow, but change takes time, dedication and patience. I hope that you’ll keep that in mind as you set goals for 2021.

Limitations -> Opportunities

If you’ve made it this far, I applaud you. Not just for reading my post, but for entertaining the belief that you are worth it this year. I hope that in the very least, I have planted the seed in your head that you have the power to change your own life.

The last point I would like to speak on is another way to change your perception. Often times it’s easy to get wrapped up in the things we can’t do and it can be hard to appreciate silver linings. Yes, I wholeheartedly believe that we need to feel our emotions, be it pain, anger or sadness. We don’t have to stay there, though. Give your emotions the time they need to be expressed and then move on.

When we focus on all of the things that are going wrong in our lives, it tends to breed more chaos. Although, when can lean into gratitude and appreciate the good, more good follows. Let me explain:

Suppose that I told you to that I was in the market to buy a new Subaru and I needed your help looking for one. Before, you may have seen a couple here and there driving around. Now that you have a reason to be looking for them, they seem to be everywhere. It’s similar to a game I played as a child, where a friend and I would try to spot different colored cars. When we were focused on red cars, we saw more red cars than we ever had before.

Okay, so you might be thinking, “what do red cars have to do with mindset?”

What you focus on becomes your reality. The red cars and Subarus were always there, now you’re more attuned to pay attention to them. I encourage you to try this with different areas of your life. Having a gratitude practice is a wonderful way to start; I find it especially helpful in the mornings. Pay attention and show appreciate for the things that you want more of. If you’re looking for more work opportunities or you need more money in the bank, practice affirmations of personal and financial abundance. Focus on the good, the good gets better.

I truly appreciate you taking the time out of your day to bless my little space on the internet. This post was more chatty than usual, but I hope that it gave you some helpful ideas. For awhile, quarantine had me in a mindset that kept me from opening my blog at all. Since the new year has started, I’ve felt much of that mental fog lift and I’m eager to get back to writing.

If you have any tips that you would like to share, or if you’re inclined to continue the conversation I welcome you to do so in the comments. If there are topics you would like to read more about, I encourage you to suggest them there as well.

I hope you have an amazing rest of your day/morning/night and I wish for you much happiness, abundance and connection in 2021.

This is your year to shine, believe it!

Much love,

Genevieve <3