There are only 67 days left in 2020. SIXTY-SEVEN! Part of me is thinking "Thank god. This year needs to be over!" But another is saying "BUT WE HAVE SO MUCH LEFT TO DO!"
The end of the year is often a really difficult time for motivation with holiday stress and colder weather impacting our mental health and energy. That doesn't change the fact that we still have things that we need to do and that we need to show up as our best selves for! Today I want to share some of my top tips for keeping motivation through the end of the year.
Have Specific Goals
When there is so much going on in the next two months that doesn't normally happen in the other ten, it is so important to set goals and turn them into plans so you don't lose track. I have quite a few things that I want to accomplish in November and December that if I don't plan out how I'm going to do them, will get lost in the holiday chaos.
In this week's email I shared some of my goals for the rest of this year. One of those is to hit my reading goal for the year of 150 books. As of today I have read 133 books in 2020, which is technically 11 books ahead of schedule according to Good Reads, but we all know that during the holidays we don't always have time for the same reading pace as the rest of the year. There are 11 weeks left in the year and I need to finish 17 books. That's about a book and a half a week. Now that I know that, I can be sure to schedule the time to read and choose books that I can finish at that pace from my giant TBR.
Setting goals is going to give you some structure in an otherwise chaotic time.
Be Realistic
But it is important to be realistic with your goals! Don't set yourself up for failure with something you couldn't possibly achieve in 11 non-chaotic weeks.
One of the other goals I shared was that I want to hit 500 YouTube subscribers by the end of year. Now in my Start Today journal I write down "I reach 10k people via SBK" every single day. That is my ultimate goal for StyledByKaylaXO in general (including YouTube, this blog, Life, Styled, Insta, all the platforms), and I can't wait for the day I get to change it to "I have 10k subscribers on YouTube", but as of today I only have 490 subscribers, so that is NOT realistic for 2020. 500 however, is EXTREMELY realistic since I could do that in 1 minute if everyone who follows me on Instagram subscribed.
Do I hope I hit more than 500 subscribers this year? DUH! Do I want to read more than 17 more books? DUH! But those two goals are ones I know I can achieve in 67 days, so they stay as they are! If I surpass them, awesome! But I'm not going to aim for something that is not completely manageable for the next 2 months.
Surround Yourself With Encouraging People
The holidays often come with F^3 - Forced Family Fun. This means you are often surrounded by people, but it may not always be those that you chose. When you are trying to reach goals and stay motivated, having people around that don't always understand what you are doing can make it difficult. That's why it is important to have an easy way to access those people who do support you available at all times.
Maybe you need to tell a friend or coworker your deadlines and ask them to check in on you. Maybe you need to have someone on speed dial who you can bounce an idea of. Maybe you need a friend to show up at your house at 7pm on Friday with a bottle of wine and make you turn off your computer.
Figure out what you need from your people and make it happen!
Schedule Joy
This one is probably the most important of all of my tips. The end of the year has so many opportunities for fun and joy surrounding the season, but it is also important to make time for the things that bring you joy year round.
For me that means reading, movie marathons, baking, wine nights, and lot's of Target trips. Figure out what those things are for you and schedule time for at least one of them EVERY. DAY. You need to have a little bit of joy every day even if it's just watching one episode of Gilmore Girls or taking a slightly longer shower or making a microwave mug cake!
Have Backup Plans
If I know anything about the holiday season it is that things are bound to go wrong. Make sure you are prepared for hiccups that may come up at work or at home. Now is definitely a time to over-prepare so you don't accidentally add extra stress to your life.
Know Your Why
Before you start moving forward on any major goals for the rest of the year, you need to stop and think about WHY you have those goals. There is so much going on this time of year that anything else you are adding to your load needs to be intentional and important.
Knowing your why will also keep you motivated to keep working towards those goals. So for every single goal you make I want you to write down these four things:
The goal
Why you want to achieve this goal
Your plan for achieving this goal
A mantra to use to remind yourself of your why and your plan
So let's use my reading goal as an example:
I will read 150 books by the end of 2020
I want to achieve this because I love reading, love posting to my Bookstagram and I have SOOOOO many books to get through
I will schedule enough time to read at least 1.5 books a week
It is okay to take time to achieve a just for fun goal, I love to read, I can meet this goal.
Use your mantra whenever you feel "guilt" for taking time out of the typical November/December schedule to work on this goal. If you know why you want to achieve a goal then it is worth taking the time to do!
Let's finish 2020 strong and start 2021 off feeling strong and motivated!
xo,
Kayla
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