Why I Started Posting Whatever I Wanted on Instagram Again

I joined Instagram in July of 2011. I’m proud to say I’ve had the same Instagram account (with a few name changes) along the way. That means I have thousands of photos on my account. There are grainy photos of my shoes, a selfie at the last Harry Potter movie premiere, early outfit photos in the mirror, terrible food photos, and more. As time went on, I stopped using the 1970s-ish Kelvin filter and the frames and my feed morphed from grainy to slightly less grainy photos of my work day, coffee, my keyboard. When I was pregnant with Forrest, it was belly pictures—taken in my work office bathroom, documenting my outfit and belly every day. After I had Forrest, it was baby pictures.

Since around 2018, I’ve tried to do all the things the Instagram gurus suggest: planning out my content, aiming for more curated images and styling. There were periods of time I felt like I totally nailed it and then periods of time where I hated what I was doing and felt no motivation to post anything. Since my job is to plan social media for businesses, I felt an intense pressure to make my own internet presence do what I was suggesting they do. But overall, I found it exhausting and especially in the last 2 years, a lot of the joy I feel about social media has been sucked out of it for me. I still love planning other people’s content, but I realized I don’t really want to be a content creator on my own.

About a month ago, I asked myself, why don’t I just post like it’s 2011 again? What’s wrong if I only get 20 likes on a picture? Who cares? Does it really matter?

It doesn’t. It doesn’t matter at all. It’s just Instagram. It’s just my Instagram. I can do whatever I want on it.

So I did.

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I have had more fun on social media, specifically Instagram, since I started doing this. I’ve felt more creative and happy and carefree about the whole thing rather than stressing about if I was doing the right things. I have particularly enjoyed posting mirror photos of my outfits at work—are they the best photos in the world? Absolutely not. But hopefully people like seeing my outfits because I enjoy sharing them.

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Another huge reason I started doing this is really about letting go of my feelings of perfectionism. I have always felt like nothing I did was good enough: the project I received praise for could have been, or should have been better; my house could be cuter or cleaner or different.

Feeling low level dissatisfaction with everything in my life and everything I do is probably a by-product of my low self-esteem and also probably a reason for my low self-esteem. They feed into each other, creating a horrible feedback loop. When I let go of feeling perfect, when I just let myself do things that are fun, I can feel the difference. Letting go of looking a certain way, having a certain kind of house, posting a certain kind of content… it’s really freeing.

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Showing myself kindness and finding joy in little things has been important for me, especially in the last years. I still have times where I become snappy and joyless, mainly because I’m overstimulated or too anxious—but those times have become fewer and farther between. It takes a lot of work, but I’m becoming the person I always wanted to be deep down. It’s not what I thought it would look like, but it’s real joy, instead of an allusion of perfection.

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There you have it, folks: what I started posting whatever I wanted on Instagram again. Coffee cups and mirror selfies and whatever filter I have been making for my autumn pack this year. Park photos and candids and early morning breakfasts. It’s better than trying to curate it, that’s for sure.

Why I Take Elderberry (featuring New Hilma Elderberry Immune Gummy)

Elderberry syrup or gummies are one of those things that seem a little, you know, woo-y. It’s up there with charging your crystals in the moonlight or using essential oils to cure your ills, at least culturally.

However, I feel in some ways elderberry gummies have become about as mainstream as those crunchy beliefs can be. You can buy elderberry gummies for kids at Target now, of course. The formerly super hippie thing my mom did is now available OTC, which is a pretty big deal, honestly.

Hilma recently sent me their new Elderberry Immune Support Gummies. I’m a huge fan of Hilma and have written a review about them before, but I was especially excited to try these new elderberry gummies.

I have taken elderberry syrup every day for years. I usually make it myself from elderberries I buy online—however, elderberries can be hard to source and I’ve had to change where I order from a few times. As well, the physical elderberry is fairly poisonous—you can only consume the syrup, not the berry itself. So making my own syrup in my kitchen sometimes felt, well, a little more dangerous than it needed to.

Switching to gummies felt like a better idea, but a lot of gummies have additives in them that I’m not a huge fan of—like gelatin or high fructose corn syrup.

That’s what I like about the new Hilma Elderberry Immune Support Gummies—they are vegan, meaning they don’t contain any gelatin. They also don’t contain high fructose corn syrup or corn starch, if those are concerns of yours. They also have zinc and vitamin C, so you get a few extra doses of those good, immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

But enough about my favorite gummy vitamins—what are the benefits of taking elderberry? Is it something to include in your routine?

The 3 Reasons I Take Elderberry

1. The immune system boost.

It goes without saying: taking something to help your immune system is a great way to feel better. I get sick a lot and really easily. In March 2017, I had the flu for 6 weeks and that was really the breaking point for me: I was super run down and my body clearly needed a leg up. That’s when I started consistently taking elderberry. While I still get sick occasionally, I have found that I don’t get sick as intensely as I used to. This might be a placebo effect, but also… what do you have to lose?

2. A daily routine that makes me feel good.

Plain and simple, taking my elderberry every day helps me feel like I’m doing something good for my body. I might have bad days; I might have days where I don’t eat a single vegetable; but if I took my elderberry gummies, I feel pretty dang good about myself. That and my daily vitamins. If you want to make prioritizing your health part of your daily routine, something as easy as taking elderberry gummies is one really low-risk way to get started.

3. Reducing inflammation.

Ok, this one is a little bit of a departure, but hear me out. In 2008 (I know, a century ago), I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, a bladder disorder where my bladder responds to inflammation by thinking it has a UTI (but it doesn’t—it’s just that my intestinal tract is slightly inflamed, or at least that’s the best guess). I try to eat a relatively low-acid diet—that means limiting things like citrus and tomatoes. However, foods with antioxidants, like blueberries and elderberry, have been found to help reduce inflammation. I have found that taking elderberry in some form every day has been much more helpful in reducing flares than following a low acid diet or taking IC-related medications. That’s just me personally—your mileage may vary, as they say.

Yes, that’s Remus begging for my elderberry gummy. I couldn’t get him to leave me alone.

Would you like to try Hilma’s Elderberry Immune Support Gummies? You can order them here and use my code MICHELLE20 for 20% off your first order.

Going From Freelancer to Employee

There are so many blog posts out there about switching from being a full-time employee to a freelancer. I should know—I wrote some myself.

But back in December when I made the decision to accept a job (a full-time job as an employee!), I started Googling (because that’s who I am). Here are a few of my searches:

• “advice for going from freelance to employee”

• “what to know going back to being an employee”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose, but there isn’t a lot being written out there about people who go from freelance to being an employee. A lot of this is because the SEO for these search terms is dominated by people selling courses (big surprise) and a lot of this content is about switching to being a freelancer (and hey, why don’t you buy this course to help you learn how to get clients??).

People who are quitting freelance to go back to being an employee aren’t a money-making opportunity. And that’s just fine.

For me, being a freelancer was really challenging, it was outside of my comfort zone, and it helped me grow a lot as a person and in my career. Was it my forever plan? Absolutely not. I went into it absolutely knowing that. ⁠It was simply something I had to do to make money for the time being, because I found finding a job really challenging—I had really strict guidelines I wanted when it came to being both a parent and an employee.

Freelancing can be really hard. Working for yourself is not the way the Instagram gurus like to portray. Have you ever seen those ads where those same gurus brag about selling 6-figures worth of services in a month? Well, someone has to do 6-figures worth of work if they sell it--so that means they work a lot... and that’s if they’re being honest about how much they sell their services. (The truth is probably that they aren’t making that much money. There is a huge controversy right now with coaches being exposed for not making the big bucks they said they did—which basically renders their services null and void. Shockingly people who work a lot and make a ton of money at their jobs typically don’t spend time bragging about it constantly.)

This is all to say: lots of people go from being freelancers to employees and thrive because of it. If you like me are doing Google searches to see if anyone has lived that, I hope you find this and know you're not alone. ⁠

I did want to share a little bit more about what I’ve been mulling over when it comes to this big change in my life. Let’s dive in!

1. Working for yourself isn’t for everyone (and we have to stop pretending that it is).

Here’s the thing: it’s totally ok to be “just an employee.”

I feel like the mood on the internet is often that working for someone else is useless and your career is only valuable if you start your own business. I just simply don’t believe that’s true. We all find ways of feeling valuable. If owning your own business or freelancing is something that calls to you, by all means, go for it! But if it doesn’t call to you, there isn’t anything wrong with that.

As well, you might really think you’ll thrive freelancing, but then find that you don’t like it—and that’s ok too! It takes a certain personality type, to be quite honest, and some people are just better at it.

Freelancing isn’t better than being an employee. Different things work for different people and encouraging everyone to freelance or own their own business to the detriment of their personality or stress level is… bad.

2. Being a freelancer uses more energy on a wider variety of things.

Not only was I managing client’s social media and writing a ton of copy week-to-week, I was also acting as an account manager, a bookkeeper, and a project manager. It was way more mental energy every single week and for 75% of those tasks (like organizing my time sheet, invoicing, keeping track of my books, and more) I wasn’t being paid because it wasn’t client work.

Plus, at least 50% of my mental capacity went towards worrying about my taxes.

It was a lot. It was super stressful and I felt like I didn’t know how to handle it. A lot of the information on how to handle these things is, surprise, behind a paywall these days; there is no one giving clear cut, good advice on how to manage that level of stress. It’s understandable, but it makes freelancing as a profession a lot harder for people who might thrive in it. And it makes people like me, who are high stress anyway, more likely to leave freelancing.

3. I actually have more time now.

So it turns out, not working weekends hugely improves my mental health? Not having to wake up at 4am every weekday to get massive amounts of scheduling and invoicing done is a huge stress relief?

And being able to set my hours and say, “I’m gone at 5pm!” is another huge relief?

This is to say: I actually have more free time now than I ever did in the past year of freelancing and that’s really, really exciting.

3 Lifestyle Changes That Aren't About Weight Loss

I don’t know about you, but in 2020, working out wasn’t exactly on my radar. In the midst of so much turmoil, and with gym closures, it was just more hassle than anything else. I had a child home from school from March through June, I was running my own business for the first time in my life (more on this later), and I was just working to make sure that everyone in my life was safe. The most working out I did was going on roughly weekly long walks with Forrest. These were a soothing way for us to spend some time together and it allowed Forrest to get all his energy out (especially since I didn’t have 3 hours for him to go to school and play with other kids anymore).

It goes without saying: not working out for a year had a huge impact on my life. Not so much on my body, although I’ve definitely noticed more aches and pains in the last year (that might be because I’m 32, though).

There was a time where I worked out every single day, where I looked forward to it. After I had Forrest, that number shifted from every day to 3 times a week and I’d take him walking in his stroller frequently. The older he got, the less time it felt like I had—plus, I couldn’t just pop him into the stroller with a snack anymore.

When 2020 started, I remember feeling a surge of guilt about my gym membership: I still had it, but I wasn’t using it. After I got laid off, I just didn’t feel like I had the time for it. I was working all the time and burnt out at the end of the day. Plus, as Forrest got older, he stayed up later and bedtimes somehow became more difficult. There were a lot of things happening.

This is all to say: working out hasn’t been on my radar for the last year or more. But all those aches and pains I’ve been feeling have made me think about it more and more as well. Plus, I’ve been doing the (challenging, difficult, strenuous) work of removing the link between “working out” and “losing weight” in my own mind. (I encourage you, as well, to take on this work, although, as I said, it’s really, really hard.) That meant not working out. That meant looking at my life and how I think about my body differently. All good things. Powerful things. Things I needed to do.

On January 1, 2021, for the first time in my life, I did not set a goal about my body. Instead, I wrote about my anti-resolutions and how one of mine this year is to not try to change my body—but rather to work with it, to treat it with respect and kindness. For me, this is a huge moment and I want to hold space for myself to feel however I need to feel about it.

When we talk about wellness, and diet culture, and health, we often hear the phrase: “lifestyle change.” Lifestyle change has, like wellness, become a codeword for weight loss. In that way, I don’t love the term “lifestyle change”—but I think there is potential for us to rethink what lifestyle changes are and can be, how we can use them in our lives. When the New Year comes around, we all have this desire to try to make the best of our lives—and how else can we describe that other than… a lifestyle change?

Without further ado, here are 3 lifestyle changes to consider for 2021 that have nothing to do with weight loss and everything to do with honoring yourself. All of these lifestyle changes have to do with improving your life in ways that are meaningful to you and prioritizing your mental health.

1. Incorporating activity into your day

The thing about working out that I’ve learned over my life is this: if you don’t enjoy it, you will get nothing out of it. So when I say, “incorporate activity into your day,” I mean doing something you like. Do you enjoy yoga? Then do yoga. Do you like going for walks? Go for a walk! I used to force myself to do cardio and lift weights every single day and while I looked forward to it, I also hated it—and I don’t think, at the age of 32, I’ll ever be able to force myself to sweat out 45+ minutes of cardio ever again. I simply don’t have the patience.

What I can do is bike for 30 minutes a day. Or use my standing desk throughout the day. Or go for a hike on the weekends. There is so much activity that I do enjoy and I no longer wish to participate in the parts I don’t like.

By incorporating activity into your day in a way you enjoy, you get all the positive aspects of working out without any of the kind of ucky ones. That being said: if you aren’t at a point in your life where working out works for you, or you don’t have the energy, or it is too triggering, there are so many ways to be “active.” Taking an evening walk. Cleaning your kitchen. Dancing to your favorite song. These are low stress ways to honor your body without being too intense.

On this note, I firmly believe in treating yourself. If incorporating activity you love into your day is something you’re interested in, then I have a few recommendations for gear. I’m a huge fan of leggings and sweatshirts (It’s what I wear… every day?) Here are a few favorites from Adidas.

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2. Adding journaling to your day

Listen, I love journaling. I will never stop writing about journaling, talking about journaling, and encouraging others to journal. Journaling in a way that makes sense for you—whatever that means for you—is something I’m so passionate about.

Here’s why: I think journaling is a great way to self-reflect, to reduce your own stress, to show gratitude not just to yourself but to others and your body and your world. Journaling is so many things. You can read all of my blog posts about journaling here.

I know many maybe wouldn’t consider journaling to be a lifestyle change—but I think by making time for yourself, even just 10-30 minutes in the evening, can be a huge lifestyle shift for lots of people. By taking that time to yourself, to journal in a way that is comfortable for you, you are changing the future of your life: you’re telling yourself that you’re allowed to take up space, to take up time, to prioritize your mental health and well-being. And that’s incredible.

If you’ve ever wanted to add journaling to your life, but just haven’t taken the plunge, I think there are tons of ways to do this. Here are a few ideas:

• Using a paper-and-pen journal that you keep at your desk. Every morning, you can use one page for your to do list and one side for your journal. Don’t think of journaling as “I’m going to write out my whole day”—but rather, I’m going to reflect on my day or the previous day. You can write a whole page or a paragraph or however much you feel like.

• Use a Google Doc.

• Use your Notes app.

• Use a day planner and just fill in that day’s square.

• Text yourself.

• Email yourself.

Like I said: there are tons of ways to journal that aren’t just sitting down to write in a journal, like a Dear Diary scene in a movie! You can use a Passion Planner to memory keep, a day planner, your Google calendar—so many options! These are just a few. If you want to start with journal prompts, well, I obviously have a ton of those as well.

3. Working on a daily schedule

There were some days between March and July that were just… whatever. Whatever worked! Candy for breakfast, bread for lunch, something low energy for dinner, the TV on at 7am and not turned off until 7pm, watching movies in bed with popcorn. Whatever. It was survival.

But I don’t thrive in that kind of life and neither does Forrest. Since September, we’ve been working to get back to a daily schedule—not the same thing everyday, but at least something where he (and I!) know what to expect out of each day. This is the day we go to school, or this is the day we go get groceries, or this is the day we go for a long walk.

This is a massive change to your lifestyle. If you’re struggling with burn out, with a lack of self-care, with feeling like you have no control over your life, I can’t recommend working on a daily schedule enough. It gives your day structure.

I feel like this is something a lot of moms learn pretty fast. After you have your baby and you have this very fragile, squishy newborn in your house, you can quickly get overwhelmed and the parts of your life that used to be so sure just… fall away. It’s harder to just run to the store; it’s harder to make breakfast, and morning coffee; it’s harder to get out the door to work; it’s harder to find purpose in each day when you feel totally overwhelmed. Trust me when I say: a schedule helps. It helps so much.

I have a whole series of posts about establishing a daily routine or schedule. These will help you determine what you want in your day, how to get started (the truth is: you just start!), and a few other things to consider.

10 Journal Prompts for 2021

I love journal prompts. I’ve written a few lists of my own journal prompts, as well as writing prompts (which you can use as journaling prompts, natch). I’ve also reviewed, and praised, the 52 Lists books by Moorea Seal more times that I can count.

For 2021, I wanted to start the year on a positive foot—with a focus on self-reflection, not changing myself based on fear, and keeping my self-care routine top of mind. For me, that comes down to journaling.

I wanted to share 10 of the journal prompts I’ve been following this year to help me narrow in my focus for 2021. I hope these journal prompts help you relax, help you think, and help you think of ways you can keep 2021 positive, no matter what happens.

10 Journal Prompts for 2021

1. How did you feel about your home in 2020?

2. What feelings do you feel when you think about home?

3. How was I present in 2020?

4. How was my work in 2020?

5. When I focus on work, how do I feel?

6. What were my biggest struggles in 2020? What can I learn from these?

7. How did you take care of your body this year?

8. What is one way you can think your body this year?

9. How did you nurture yourself this year?

10. What resources helped you thrive most in 2020?

I hope you find these helpful! Let me know if you use them in your journal.

Do You Have Anti-Resolutions?

Are you anti-resolutions? Do you think New Year’s isn’t a great time to make a change to your life? Do you get tired of the jokes about “I start today—just kidding, next year”? Did you grow up seeing late night talk show hosts joking about New Year’s Resolutions? Well then, you’re in the right place!

I’m kind of anti-resolution myself. I think the idea of the New Year being a time to completely change your life is a tough one. But that being said, there isn’t something about that “New Year, New Me!” feeling. January 1 is a great time to set goals for the year, decide what you want to achieve, and work on changing things.

This year, I decided to do something different in my journal. I didn’t just set my yearly goals. I set anti-resolutions: things I don’t want to do this year and things I don’t want to change about myself. Yeah, that’s right: I did the thing that goal setting experts always say not to do. But I found it really cathartic.

Why I Think Setting Anti-Resolutions is Good for 2021

If you’ve been struggling this past year (and truly, who hasn’t been?), you might think there was nothing good about 2020. Nothing positive. And while I whole heartedly kind of agree with you, I do think it’s important to look at the things we’ve learned about ourselves, about our place in the world, and about our community and decide what we want to be moving forward.

Anti-resolutions are a way of telling yourself: in 2020, I was enough. Even if I didn’t achieve what I thought I would. Even if I gained weight. Even if I stopped doing XYZ. Even if, even if, even if. In 2020, you were enough, regardless of what you did or did not do.

How to Set Anti-Resolutions

First things first, look at your past year with a critical lens. What did and did not work for you? What was the most difficult part of the year for you? What did you learn about yourself this year?

Write those things down. Journal about it. Get really into your feelings about it. Write down the things you’re scared to write down. The things you were most challenged by.

Now, look at everything you’ve written and ask yourself, really: what would you not change about yourself this year? What was something that defined the last year in terms of you? Your resilience? Your strength? Those are your anti-resolutions: the parts of yourself that stuck around when you needed them most.

Here are a few examples that I wrote down for myself:

• I will not be bogged down by diet and body talk this year.

• I will not work to shrink myself.

• I will not stop being over-the-top when it comes to at-home activities for Forrest.

What are your anti-resolutions? Let me know in the comments!

Setting Intentions for 2021

Happy New Year!

Woof! What a year 2020 was, huh?

Have you felt like we’ve been saying that since, like, 2015? It feels like the last 5 years have been “the worst year ever” and we all hopefully look towards the next one. (Although, to be fair, I think 2017 and 2018 have been my two best years on record in the last 5 or so.) I wonder when this cultural shift happen, or do you think this is something that always happens during times of social upheaval?

No matter what: 2020 is behind us.

What did you learn this year?

And what of those lessons do you want to carry in 2020?

For me, my main takeaway from 2020 is this: I can do challenging things. I need to learn to say “no” and set boundaries. I need to start being intentional with my time to avoid burnout.

All good things.

This year, I decided to not set strict (or SMART) goals for 2021. That feels like maaaaybe just a little too much. (On this note—is anyone bracing themselves for March 2021? I feel like March 2020 has become the litmus for when things really changed.)

Instead, in 2021, I’m setting intentions. And that works because my word for this year is, well, intention. Be intentional. Have intentions.

We’re all learning how to grow as people in this new world of ours. That’s sort of the fun thing, isn’t it? That we’re all figuring out what’s normal now, what we can reasonably achieve, how we can impact others in real time, right along each other. There are no experts, no one who is ahead of the curve. We’re all flying blind beside each other. It’s kind of a nice feeling.

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For the sake of public pressure (yes, I am that kind of person—I need to tell other people my intentions or goals to make them “real”), here are my intentions for this year.

• Drink more water. My husband and I often joke that I’m a succulent. To be completely honest, I don’t drink much of anything all day. I will have a cup of coffee in the morning and then not really take a drink of anything else until the afternoon. At night, I try to drink water, but mostly just so my mouth doesn’t get dry when I sleep. This is a bad habit and I’m an adult, not a succulent, and I have to start trying to drink water.

• Redo the Curated Closet. I bought the Curated Closet Workbook last year and was working on it in February and March. Then, obviously, I didn’t leave my house for 6 months? I’m working on redoing it and learning a bit more about myself in the process. It’s one of my goals to also start posting outfit photos on my Instagram again. Big scary!

• Spend more time on my hobbies. Like this blog, embroidery, reading, and journaling. 2020 was a year where I worked a ton and it became rapidly clear by around September that I was suffering as a result. I took on too much; I was so burnt out I couldn’t even start a book, let alone finish one; I started and didn’t finish probably 20 embroidery projects. However, once I took a break December 16 and stopped working entirely… I was able to read 4 books, work on an embroidery project, and actually watch a movie without scrolling on my phone. It was really eye opening. Part of this spending more time on my hobbies means also being really strict about work boundaries and giving myself weekends again.

• Save money for Disneyland. Isn’t it crazy that in 2020, my husband and I had more disposable income (a combination of me being paid more for my work and us not really being able to go anywhere for 6 months when I was making said bank), and yet we literally couldn’t do any of the things we always wanted to do once we had more disposable income? What a trip. Anyway, if Disneyland is ever able to open again, we are going and I am saving money in order to give myself the trip of my dreams. C’mon vaccine!

That’s it! Those are my only intentions for 2021. I’m keeping it simple this year, y’all: hobbies, fashion, not being a succulent, and going to Disneyland.

Tell me: what are your intentions (or goals) for this year? What do you want to achieve?

How to Set Goals for 2021

Am I being really wild by suggesting goal setting for 2021?

I think if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that life can change in a second. Your goals can shift from getting a big promotion to just staying afloat in the matter of a week or two. It’s always good to have things put in perspective and I feel like this year has taught us that too. Things can change; our lives will change; and sometimes, we’re not in control of those things.

But that’s ok.

Here’s my dirty little secret: I did kind of hit one of my goals for this year. In early January, I set a goal of having 2 additional clients by the end of the year.

This year, I grew my business from 1 single client in February (I started my contract with them in late February and the pandemic hit 2 weeks later) to 7 total clients in December. These are clients that I work with on a month-to-month basis.

I didn’t necessarily set out to meet this goal; I didn’t really even think of it every day. I just did good work; I kept going; I journaled my feelings; and I went to therapy. That’s about it. On the way, I was sent referrals from clients, past mentors, and more.

It always feels a little selfish when I say that, despite some hiccups, I’ve had a really great year professionally. 2019 was an extreme “down” year for me, at least for my career. But 2020 has been… amazing. For the first time in my husband and I’s marriage, we have disposable income. We can fix all the things in our house we’ve been meaning to fix! We can splurge occasionally! We can buy Christmas presents without scrimping and saving! It’s kind of wild, to be quite honest. Because while all that is happening, we aren’t able to travel, or go out to restaurants, or celebrate in anyway.

All this is to say: I think it’s totally possible to set and meet goals in 2021, even when things still feel so up in the air. You can both plan for anything and set goals for your own growth at the same time.

Here are my tips for setting goals in 2021.

1. Keep things broad.

Focus on the bigger picture. Normally when it comes to setting goals, I try to keep things larger. Instead of SMART goals, things something larger, more overarching. This might mean setting a goal of establishing a daily routine, rather than saying “I’ll do XYZ every single day.”

Here are a few broad goals:

• Buying a planner and checking in every month.

• Creating a daily routine that works for you.

• Finding an exercise you love by November.

2. Now more than ever, keep goals realistic.

Are you going to save 1 million dollars, meet the Queen, and travel to all continents in 2021? Probably not.

But will you be able to meet some smaller goals. Absolutely.

One thing about setting goals is that you should always focus on what is realistic. What are you actually able to achieve in 12 months?

Maybe you want to go freelance in 2021 or 2022; a great goal to set would be to start networking throughout the year, emailing contacts, and building up your LinkedIn profile.

Maybe you do want to travel more in the future; a good goal in 2021 would be to work on your savings account, research places you want to go, and follow accounts that help you do that. We still might not be doing much traveling in 2021… but we can dream about it, definitely!

3. Your goals should reflect growth.

Your goals should be about growing as a person—not becoming a better version, not about punishing yourself.

When we think of “New Years Resolution”, we often think of weight loss. But I want to encourage you to think about this differently: will losing weight make you happy this year? Will it help you grow as a person? Or would it be more beneficial to focus on the things you can improve in your life? Finding an exercise you love, making more nutritious choices about your food… these are all things we can control and that can help improve our lives, without putting the onus and focus on deprivation and punishment for our bodies.

As well, setting goals that are restrictive in nature—”no more THIS” or "less THAT”—are found to be ineffective. These are the goals that people tend to fall off track with. It’s really easy to do that, because we don’t like to be restricted or to feel like we’re missing out.

Final Thoughts

What goals are you setting in 2021?

For the sake of transparency, my goals for 2021 are: to work on establishing a better work from home routine; to clean up my bookkeeping (it is a constant source of frustration); to release at least 2 paid products; and to begin adding working out to my daily routine again.