The Cheerful Mind 2018 Themes: Simplicity and Visibility

Holy crap. It’s 20-freaking-18. I sit here in silence in my kitchen reflecting on all the days in the last few months thinking about how 2018 was going to be the start of a new era in my life and business, and had some dreams about what that would look like, and now that it’s here, it feels really weird.

Yesterday, New Year’s Day, I wanted to start on a productive foot. I wanted to get back into routines after a WILD week of being the biggest bum ever (I played to the 900th level of a game on my phone, went bowling and played Super Mario World on the Wii a bunch with the family, stayed up WAY past midnight and slept in every day, watched TONS of TV, ate on a messed up schedule, and completely ignored my email – which by the way, is at 800 unread emails now!). But I stayed up until about 3am watching all the various new year’s shows and performances, and then deciding it would be fun to binge watch Netflix, which meant I stayed in bed until noon on New Year’s Day instead, so decided to extend the bum mentality for one more day. And I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt about it! Now, I slowly started to get moving later in the day, trying to get the house organized, but balancing with a slow pace. I knew I had a 7:30 workout class the following morning, so I couldn’t stay up too late. I set my intentions for the following day. Went to bed at 12:30am.

So here I am now, workout done, and feeling great and ready to conquer the world. Looking back at yesterday, it’s funny to think I’m starting my first blog post of the year talking about being pretty darn unproductive. But here’s the thing….it’s TOTALLY in line with my 2018 themes: Simplicity and Visibility. Let me explain.

SIMPLICITY

People who know me well know that I don’t tend to default to the easy path. I like to make things WAY harder than they need to be, which ends up sometimes wasting quite a bit of time that I don’t always have (I will admit though, that sometimes I have to waste time to find the quicker solution later). I love getting lost in details and processes, and it is a part of the “perfectionist” side of me that thrives here. People also know that I LOVE dabbling in a gazillion different projects at the same time, in all areas of my life. While I don’t want this to completely change, I acknowledge that I really want to focus on going deeper with some key projects in 2018 to challenge and change my trajectory, and not let certain things get too overwhelming and jam-packed, as per my general tendencies. (I did better on this in the latter half of 2017, so I’m just building on this idea.)

As a part of this theme, I will be committing to key initiatives in my life and business that are simple, but impactful. And part of that requires NOT committing to much detail: My top priorities in 2018 are my family, spreading positivity, and furiously serving my current and future clients. There are a couple rules that I have committed to doing to help with these priorities (i.e. monthly family vacations, my upcoming show Cheerful Conversations, and my Accountability Success Circle), but the details are a bit murky, by design. I’ve never planned SO LITTLE in my life, but I want to keep things open and simple, to prove to myself and others that I can be just as successful, if not MORE successful with a simpler plan. And if at the end of 2018 I feel like I had more “unproductive” days but still accomplished a ton, then I know I did the right thing.

VISIBILITY

This is a theme that will be a huge challenge for me this year. I have always allowed myself to be vulnerable and open in the public eye, but it always came with a hint of “people-pleasing.” In other words, I withheld some of my personal thoughts and opinions because I didn’t want to hurt other people’s feelings. People know me as a quite non-judgmental and open person, and of course that is true, but I also have been the type to avoid talk about more polarizing topics because I didn’t want to deal with an opposing view, which meant that my truth almost always stayed hidden. I know there is a way to respectfully honor other people’s perspectives and values and beliefs while not squashing mine, so “visibility” is not just about getting myself out there, it’s more about really, speaking my truth. This is scary for me. I might hurt people’s feelings and I’m surely going to feel bad about it. But, my mission has ALWAYS been to instill more positivity in the world, so I want to engage in more serious, meaningful conversation that can shift the negative vibes of this world – and I’m finally ready for a little bit of healthy conflict if that means we can all get along better and be more happy.

I hope to be in heavier creation mode more regularly in 2018 (I’m finally over my writing burnout from Finding Success in Balance!), and use my platform as an outlet for the things I see in the happiness/productivity space. I will also share my personal triumphs, learnings, and “failures” of this year, and I will do my best to not hide, even when I want to.

Whatever you choose to do for 2018 (share with me in the comments below!), I know it’s going to be an epic year. Let’s do this!