Life Hacks: 7 Steps To Make 2017 The Best Year EVER!

So, we’re all bidding adieu to 2016. While New Year’s is a great time for popping champagne bottles, kissing strangers and drunkenly singing Auld Lang Syne, it’s also a great opportunity to reflect on how much ass you kicked this year (even if you made a few mistakes) and get ready to kick even more in the coming year.

In an effort to make 2017 the year of YOU, leave the past in the past and look forward to the future, we put together some tips that will help you take on 2017 like a boss. So long, 2016.

1. Review the year that’s passed

Your first step? Take an honest look back at this year and think about the good and the not so good parts. Honesty really is the best policy in this instance, so look back and recognise your growth, your achievements, and your experiences. Remember to include personal and spiritual growth, and how you did professionally too.

Here are a few areas key areas to review. Grab a pen and paper and jot down where you are with each one:

• Career
• Creativity
• Finances
• Health
• Relationships
• Personal growth
• Development

2. Look ahead

Next, it’s time to gaze into your crystal ball and use the full power of your imagination to envision the year ahead. What if it could be exactly as you wanted it to be? Get very clear on what you’d like to achieve: Do you want to improve your fitness, get promoted at work or travel to your dream destination? Jot it down, and visualise it regularly, to keep that goal fresh in your mind.

3. Find new inspiration

Next on the agenda? Find yourself. Sounds like a chore, right? It can feel like that at the beginning but it’s a worthwhile pursuit. But you don’t need to jet off on a working holiday visa or take a 1000-mile hike. Nuh-uh, just take a retreat by yourself. Even if it’s just a three-day weekend, go somewhere you’ve never been before. It will give you a different outlook on life for sure.

4. Be grateful

People who count their blessings sleep better, feel more satisfied, and have higher self worth, all of which translate into better health and well-being. So appreciate all the deadly things you already have in your life: great friends, a job you dig, loving parents, amazing hair…whatever. Even better, make a point of expressing that gratitude to people you’re thankful to have in your orbit.

6. Think positive

You’ve probably heard it before, that your mind is like a muscle and to keep it sharp you need to exercise it. Make this year the year you switch out your negative thought patterns for positive ones. Start in the morning, by thinking of at least three things you’re happy about right now. It could be something simple like the fact you’ve packed a deadly lunch for the office, for example.  Start small, it takes practice, but practice makes perfect.

7. Go it alone

The key to being alone without being lonely is wholeheartedly accepting yourself. With alone time, you’re forced to reflect on YOU and on your thoughts, and with practice you won’t feel the need to run away from either of those things. Is there a new movie out that you’ve been dying to see but your friends think it’s lame? Is there a cool new restaurant opened in your area? Go by yourself and indulge in your own company.  The world is your oyster, girlfriend.

By Jennifer Conway

• 2016
• best
• motivation
• New Year