(How To) Start 2020 Off Right
Whether you had a great 2019 or a terrible one, it’s time to start looking ahead to the future. It’s time to start thinking about 2020 and preparing to crush it!
It’s always a good idea to review your year before the new year to determine what you can improve upon. Make the next year your best year yet by picking up some good habits and dropping the bad ones.
In this post, we are going to go over a handful of practices you can employ in your life to help you make 2020 a great year for you!
Wake Up Early
One of the most critical practices I’d suggest taking up if you don’t already. Waking up at 8 AM is one thing, but what about waking up between 4 & 5 in the morning?
That’s pretty insane, right? Why would you even want to do that?
It is pretty crazy, I’ll agree with that. Here’s a great video by Casey Neistat that explains waking up early in the morning.
I actually wrote an article going in more depth about waking up and going about a good morning routine in order to start your day off the right and going through a routine to actually help you wake up if you’re not a morning person!
If you’re like me, you’re not a morning person. Some people love waking up early…I am not one of those people.
When trying to wake up early, I find it much easier to wake up at the same time every day of the week instead of waking up on weekdays at say 5 in the morning then at 9 on the weekends. It’s just too inconsistent and will eventually break down your discipline, and you’ll give up on early rising. Or at least rising this early!
Follow A Passion
Find something you love to do and make time for it. I understand that you’re busy. I’m not saying you should uproot the family to drive to New York to start a pizza joint because you’ve always thought it was cool.
It’s less about that and more about just keeping your dreams alive even if you can only spend an hour or two a week.
It’s possible to follow a passion as a hobby only for it to grow so much that it becomes a full-time job. Who wouldn’t love doing what you’re passionate about as a full-time job? I would.
Even the strangest of hobbies can turn out to be lucrative.
Don’t believe me?
What’s the most useless passion you could have? That’s right, ant keeping.
There’s a YouTube channel that makes more than a million dollars a year. He posts one video a week, and his topic is his passion…ants. Ants Canada is a channel with more than three million subscribers.
Ants Canada makes an estimated $17,000 a month from advertising alone. That’s roughly $200,000 a year from ad revenue alone. Ants Canada also has a website that sells apparel and even tools and enclosures for keeping ants. This more than likely make up the majority of the creator’s money.
In today’s day and age, you can make money doing pretty much anything you’re passionate about by sharing it with others or creating a small or large brand around it.
Exercise Often
Obvious? Yes. Important? Oh yeah.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to take care of yourself. While there are many ways to go about doing that, one of the more obvious is working out and getting proper exercise. When you don’t exercise, often you start feeling kind of blah, and that’s not good or fun.
Consider finding an exercise that you love. This could be running, lifting at the gym, or even playing a sport like tennis. I play pickleball, run, do yoga once in a while, and lift. You don’t have to do only one activity to get your exercise in for the day. Do whatever you like. Try a bunch of different things. The world and by extension the gym is your oyster!
I suggest checking out the Nike Training app to help you improve your gym workouts! I’d also recommend using apps to help you improve aspects of your life. Here’s a list of the six I use every single day.
Nutrition
You wouldn’t put bread in your gas tank, so don’t put it in your body! Gluten is the enemy!!!
But on a serious note, eating healthy foods is rewarding in the short and long term. Not only do you feel better when you eat more robust, but it is usually more nutrition for your body. Eating a good meal before working out is crucial to having a quality workout.
It’s also worth mentioning that water with lemon is one of the most excellent drinks throughout the day. Water is good, of course, but why lemon? Well, the acid from the lemon helps to balance your pH levels, which can give you more energy naturally as well as maintain other internal balances that I won’t annoy you with. Just know that water with lemon is incredible for you.
Decompress
Take time at the end of your days to decompress and chill out. It’ll help you sleep better and reduce stress.
There are plenty of ways to decompress, and often times what relaxes one person won’t relax another. My suggestion, try out some different ways to chill out toward the end of your day. A few suggestions
- meditate
- read a book
- listen to a podcast
- journal
- learn something you’re passionate about
- yoga
- write
- games
Some of these suggestions may seem silly to you, but they may seem perfect for someone else. Truth is, everyone decompresses differently, and that’s okay. All that matters is that you find what decompresses you the best.
Wrapping It Up
Hopefully, one of these five practices sounds like something you’re interested in. I practice all five, and they’ve done wonders for myself over the past year.
For 2020 I have a few things I’d like to improve upon also, but those will come in another list at another time!
What other practices do you suggest to others or me? Which of these do you think are the most valuable? Let me know in the responses, and I’ll get back to you soon.
