New Year – New You!

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If you want to be better and grow as a person you must work on yourself.

Your life, your choices, who you are is highly customizable throughout your lifetime.

When you identify, accept and use the personal power within you to affect change within yourself, you will see incredible rewards and changes in your life, relationships and overall fulfilment and happiness.

Explore yourself, gain awareness and set your mind to create a better you!

When you think about becoming happier in your normal life, what do you think about?

Chances are, you think about what you can change. Not necessarily what to change about yourself – though that is definitely part of it – but what you can change in your life.

Journaling is a wonderful tool for this, because not only are you learning more about yourself and how to make positive changes and work on a more positive mindset for happiness, but you can also identify and achieve your goals.

How Journaling Can Change Your Life

Whether you’re dealing with anxiety and depression, or simply going through a rough patch in life, journaling can serve as a free and entirely self-managed form of therapy that’s actually quite effective.

In fact, keeping a journal can be beneficial even when you’ve managed to reach and sustain a state of emotional balance and mental peace.

Following are several, significant ways in which journaling can change your life.

Evoke A Sense of Mindfulness

Far too often, people move from day to day without ever stopping to smell the proverbial roses.

Not only are they failing to feel and express gratitude for the many wonderful things that that are happening in their lives, but they’re also overlooking a number of tremendous, learning opportunities.

Writing in a journal forces you to stop and reflect on seemingly minor events that might otherwise go overlooked.

This practice isn’t just about noticing the positive things in life either.

During the process of writing about your day and your interactions with others, you may notice negative patterns repeating themselves in your thoughts and deeds, problems within your personal relationships, personal needs that you haven’t been paying attention to, and alternative ways of responding to both internal and external stress that you haven’t been using.

If you had a magic wand what would you change right now about yourself?

Establish a Positive Mindset

When you keep a journal, you have the power to fill it with any type of material that you choose.

Spending time to reflect on the small blessings in life, however, can automatically move you from a negative and self-defeating mindset into a more positive and proactive one.

You might be swimming in debt, struggling in your inter-personal relationships, or barely hanging on at your job, but you also have the ability to walk, run and jump, which is something that many people lack.

You have another day to affect change in your life, strong mental abilities, the power of self-forgiveness, and more.

Taking the time to list out things that establish you as stronger, smarter, and more enduring than the problems that you’re facing at the present moment will give you the strength, and the right attitude to keep pushing forward.

Do You Need A Journal?

I have created some lovely ones for you to check out…

Order online for convenient and quick delivery to your door.

You can check my JOURNALS out here:

Simple Journals

Gratitude Journals

Daily Thoughts Journals

3 year Line-A-Day Journals

Annual Dated Journals

Get Some Help – Simple Hacks To Help You Build New Habits in The New Year

Creating new habits for a New You isn’t easy but these tips will help

Use them until you’ve internalized the new habit and don’t need them anymore.

Schedule It And Put It On The To-Do List

Sometimes we forget to do that new thing we were trying. Maybe we forget that we’re supposed to be having eggs for breakfast instead of a stack of waffles, or that we need to get that daily walk in.

Schedule your new habits or make them part of your daily to-do list until they become something you do automatically.

Make It Public and Be Accountable

Let family and friends know what new habits you’re trying to establish. They will call you out if you don’t stick to your plan and get you back on track.

You may even go as far as sharing it publicly on Facebook or write a blog about your new journey. Knowing that others read it and know about it might be just enough to keep you going when you feel like throwing in the towel.

Piggyback On A Habit You Already Have

Whenever possible, add the new habit to one you already have. For example, if you fix a cup of tea or coffee at 4pm, and you want to get in the habit of taking a daily walk, make the new ritual to go for your walk and then come back and enjoy your tea.

It’s much easier to amend an existing habit or ritual than creating an entirely new one.

Make Slipups Costly

Here’s a fun idea. Put a jar on the kitchen counter and each time you slip back into your bad habit or forget to stick to the new one you have to put five dollars in the jar.

It will quickly help you remember to skip that sugary food and motivate you to go out for that walk. For extra motivation donate the money to charity at the end of the month or hand it over to your spouse to go spend on him or herself.

Give these simple little hacks a try. Keep using the ones that you find helpful until you have made new habits you can stick with without the help of any tools or support.

Start Forming New Goals

Journals are also great tools for overall life planning.

If you’ve ever wondered how some people seem to have their whole lives figured out, you should consider the fact that these individuals may be keeping journals.

The best part about using a journal to establish and pursue life goals is the fact that this process can be an entirely informal one.

This is merely a platform for bouncing ideas around and helping them take shape.

Once you’re ready to make an actual commitment to a new life effort, you can always take notes from your journal and use them to draft a more formal plan.

Overall wellness is important as I go after goals. I make time each day to eat right, rest, and exercise.

Improving Yourself

There is definitely a middle ground where you fully accept and acknowledge all of your traits, but still want to work on yourself.

This can be a tricky one, because there is a delicate balance between accepting who you are, and wanting to change.

Think about it like this – you want to be come the best version of yourself. Not different, not better.

You still want to be you, but at the peak of who you are and what you can accomplish.

This requires a lot of self-reflection and clarity, which is what you are going to get from journaling. It is also not something you will learn the first day you write in your journal.

This is more of the long-term process of journaling, where every day, you understand more about yourself, flaws you don’t like, things you love about yourself, and things that you believe changing will improve upon your life.

Am I ready to change? If not, what stops me? How will I overcome these roadblocks:

Circle any of these character defects that apply to you:

• Resentful

• Self-centered

• Angry

• Self-doubting

• Close minded

• Self-pity

• Arrogance/Self-importance/Egocentric

• Self-condemnation

• Dishonest

• Envious

• Selfish

• Obsessive

• False pride

• Phony/fake/dis-genuine

• Jealous

• Laziness

• Procrastination

• Negative Thinking

• Perfectionism

• Judgmental thinking

• Greed

Am I ready to change for a New Year – New Me?

Don’t Think About it as Being Better – But Happier

There are some mindset tricks that can make you feel better or worse about yourself.

You shouldn’t think of yourself as flawed in a negative way.

Don’t tell yourself you want to be a better person, but just a happier person.

Someone content and more fulfilled in your daily life.

Someone who has found peace in who you are and what you do and the people you surround yourself with.

This mindset shift is very important moving forward.

Maintaining a journal keeps me on track towards my objectives.

Creating Your Self-Care Routine

A self-care routine is something you do each day, typically around the same time each day, that is meant to be just for you.

This can be as simple as watching a movie, taking a bath, or walking your dog. You want it to be something that makes you feel at peace, reduces stress, and helps you to spend at least a few minutes a day to yourself.

Everyone needs to unwind and relax at the end of the day (or the beginning), but far too many people get wrapped up in their busy lives, they don’t even take the time out to do it.

Make yourself a priority, and you will see what a drastic difference it has on the rest of your life.

There is no right or wrong way to have a self-care routine. It can include just one thing or a combination of things each day that will help you practice self-care and do something for you.

Remember that it isn’t meant to be something that makes you feel selfish, but is important your for emotional wellbeing.

The self-care routine is going to be unique for you, but here are some things you might include:

Writing in your journal.

Having a morning cup of coffee or tea.

Writing in your planner.

Taking a hot, bubble bath.

Meditating with an essential oil diffuser.

Going for a walk.

Sitting outside for a few minutes of alone time.

Relaxing on the couch with a good book.

Become More Creative This Year

The act of journaling can be an incredibly creative process as well.

After all, you’re not just writing about the things that have happened or are happening in your life; you’re also writing about the way in which you want things to be.

This flexes your imagination, enhances your creative skills, and promotes new and far more interesting ways of thinking.

For some people, journaling has even given rise to some fairly impressive works of fiction and fan fiction.

If you’re a writer or aspire to be a writer, a journal gives you sufficient private space for writing without fear of judgment.

Journaling Prompts

Use prompts to help you become more self-aware

If you really want to get to know yourself, there’s a few prompts you can use. For example, find one of your favorite inspirational quotes and then create an entire blog page about it.

You can also ask yourself questions such as “what do I feel is missing from my life?”.

Any deep questions which require a well-thought-out response will help you to discover more about who you truly are.

Remember, the more you use the journal, the more you’ll discover about who you are.

Here are some suggestions to help inspire your creative writing:

1. Write a journal entry about your first week (month, year, etc) of journaling.

2. What is 1 goal you can achieve this month? Write about it.

3. What do you hope to achieve by having a journal?

4. Write the first thing that comes to mind with a 5-year plan.

5. Where do you want to be in 10 years?

6. Are you happy in your life right now?

7. What do you feel would bring you peace?

8. Describe your ideal self-care routine. How can you make this happen?

9. What is a challenge currently holding you back in life?

10. Detail a memory you really want to hold onto.

Take A Few Baby Steps Toward Your Big Goals

Big goals can be scary.

It doesn’t matter if it’s losing a significant amount of weight, paying off a large chunk of consumer debt, or changing careers.

When we look at those big goals, we get intimidated. We put off working towards them because we either don’t know where to start, or because the task simply seems too daunting.

The key to reaching any goal, no matter how big or lofty, is to get stared and take baby steps. You can reach any goal and make any change if you consistently take small steps towards it.

The best part is that you don’t’ have to have it all figured out to get stared. You don’t need to know exactly what you’ll have to do at every step along the way. You don’t need to come up with a plan to pay off your entire credit card debt.

You don’t have to figure out how exactly you’ll lose all of those 65 extra pounds. You don’t need to know what it will take to buy your dream home. And you don’t need to know everything there is to know about opening and running your own bakery.

Goalsetting for a new You:

Start by looking at your big goal, the changes you want to make, or what you want to get out of life.

Know what your end goal is, but don’t worry about everything you need to do to get there. Just make sure you have an idea of the general direction you want to head in.

At this point, it’s fine to simply decide that you want to lose some weight and improve your health, or pay off those credit cards and student loans to give yourself some financial breathing space.

Now come up with one or two little things you can do right now that help you move into the right direction. It doesn’t matter how small those steps are.

They may seem insignificant when you look at the big picture, but they will quickly add up. Most importantly, they get you started.

If your goal is improving your health and losing weight, your baby steps may be to go for a 10 minute walk each day, or replacing soda with sparkling water.

Maybe it’s trying some new healthy recipes and getting into the habit of eating a salad or steamed veggies with two meals per day.

If the goal is to save money or pay off debt, it could be to have $20 per month auto drafted into a savings account or to pay the principal of your debt.

Or maybe it’s going through bills and cutting out some monthly extras like canceling magazine subscriptions or downgrading your cellphone and cable bills.

Maybe it’s skipping the coffee shop in the morning and packing your lunch. Find one or two places where you can save a few dollars and start applying them towards your financial goal.

If you want to change careers or start your own business, read up on what you need to do or find someone to talk to who’s done what you want to do for direction.

In short, do something today that will move you in the right direction. Then do more of that. Step by baby step, you will become the best you can be, and be happier, healthier overall.

Dont wait another year to begin becoming a better you.

There are many ways to begin

I hope you got some tips from this page, but there are also many other online guides that show you how to begin a journey of self development to becoming the best you can be.

My selfhelp guide here is a great place to begin: Self Development Plan Sample

And you can learn how begin using journaling for selfgrowth by reading this:

Journaling For Beginners

If you need help with how to set your goals check out:

How To Set Goals

And also how to Change Bad Habits

My self help superstore site www.DiscoveryHub.net is filled with free guides on how to live better and be happier.

I’m also a lifetime advocate of using mindful writing and journals to monitor and motivate myself to be the best I can be and live my life to the fullest. I’ve even created some of my own, which are a big variety to suit every need. You are sure to find one that resonates with you!