2016 Goals

I’m one of those people that loves the new year for the feeling of a fresh start and renewed possibilities, so each January I spend time reflecting on my life and making goals, both large and small, for the future. Doing this last year is what led to the creation of Gold Lion Style, as I talk a little about here, in what has been my quest to lead a more purposeful and inspired life and document it along the way. For 2016, I wrote down specific goals I’m working to accomplish and wanted to share a few here.

As many inspirational and self-help blogs, articles, etc. will reiterate, the routine of your morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. I’m guilty of getting out of bed, pouring a cup of coffee, and hopping online to browse my feeds while I ‘wake up’, and seeking out this escape or entertainment is not the way I want to spend my free time in any day. Inspired by this article which I’ve read and re-read, in 2016 I’m starting a habit of devoting an hour each morning to ‘me’ time; rather than plug my brain in to social media or start on house chores or write out my to-do list for the day, I’m going to read for pleasure (something I always wish I had “more time” for), write in a journal, or simply sit in my backyard with my coffee and enjoy the view and the crisp morning. So far this month I’ve been successful with avoiding my phone altogether after I wake up; I make sure to set it to vibrate the night before so I’m not tempted to check any notifications that came through while I was sleeping, and I leave it on my nightstand when I head downstairs for coffee. After a couple weeks of doing this, I’ve already found that my mornings feel more peaceful and enjoyable and allow me to focus on my goals for the day, rather than putting me in a reactive state of mind.

Another of my goals for 2016 is to floss daily! I’ve never had the best habits with flossing regularly but as I get older, I fully appreciate what it means to take care of your body as the one and only vessel that carries you through this life, including the little things like flossing (PSA: inflammation from the gums can lead to many more and severe health problems within the rest of your body!). I’m happy to say that this one has been a breeze so far! Once I decided that flossing was something I cared about enough to do with regularity, it really just took me shifting my thinking about it to start incorporating it into my bedtime routine each night. In the past whenever I would think about flossing (let’s face it, I usually didn’t think about it too much) I would typically skip it because it was “too late already” and I just wanted to get in bed and “didn’t have time for it”. But let’s be real, flossing takes all of five minutes and since I used to snuggle up in bed and get on my phone to browse my feeds one last time before turning the lights out (something else I’ve stopped doing), I definitely did have five minutes to devote to my gum health. It really was just a matter of setting my priorities straight, and I’ve already noticed a huge difference in how clean my mouth feels each morning when I wake up!

My final goal that I want to share is probably my most exciting and challenging one that I’ve set for myself in 2016, and it is to learn to speak Italian fluently! I studied the Italian language for four semesters while at UT and both loved it and excelled at it. While I was never fluent, there was a point that I could speak it and understand it quite well, but I’ve certainly lost some of that now that I don’t have occasion to practice on a daily basis. Enter Duolingo, one of my favorite apps that I have on my phone (it can also be used as a website!). Both Blake and I are obsessed with using this app (he’s learning Spanish); we do it for a minimum of 20 minutes a day and have kept up with it almost every day this month, excepting a few times that we forgot.

While this isn’t a comprehensive list of every goal I’ve laid out for 2016, these are three that I’m most focused on and I’m confident will help me to live with more intention and therefore create more compelling and motivating content for you! I plan to revisit these goals in a few months and give an update on how I’m doing, and I’m hoping this accountability will keep me from losing sight on how important I think these things are to improving my quality of life and happiness. Now that I’ve shared three of mine, I’d love for you to share one goal, large or small, that you’ve set for yourself this year! Don’t miss this opportunity to make at least one meaningful change in your life for the better!

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Shop the post:

FAUX FUR COAT (SIMILAR 1, 2) | GRAY SWEATER (SIMILAR 1, ALSO LOVE THIS ONE) | WHITE SKINNIES (1, 2, 3) | BLACK PUMPS (1, 2) | BURGUNDY CROSSBODY (SIMILAR, ALSO IN RED)