5 Places to Live Actively + 5 Places to Live Passively in the New Year
You can focus on creating multiple streams of income or waking up early to finish the laundry. While both need to happen at some point, they are not both a priority. Your to-do list is long, and time is limited. Make the most out of each day by knowing where to spend the energy and when to let things slide.
You can’t force motivation. It’s just not realistic to expect yourself to wake up each day with a laser focus on being productive, and the energy to follow through. But your heart is in this, and you can retrain your brain little by little until being your best self is only a matter of “I woke up like this.”
When?
Even if you’ve struggled to stick to New Year’s resolutions in the past, the fact remains that this is an incredibly opportune time to make a change. We’ve been told over and over that this is a chance for starting over and bettering ourselves, so the perception is already ingrained in our psyches. It’s not a date you can push back and put off, and the aura of change will be all around you. Plan to start making little changes on January 1.
I changed my life January 1, 2016 and you can plan to do the same in 2017.
How?
You know how they say it only takes 21 days of doing something until it becomes a habit? It’s like that. You make the change. You fight for it. Every living day. And to start you can majorly change your life by making minor adjustments in how you approach the different parts of your day to day.
It’s all about active vs. passive.
These are terms you’ve heard a million times before, but did you ever consider redefining your life with them? You can’t resolve to be on your game, 100%, every day, but you can change how you approach your day to start getting the most out of it. As a working mom, you can do this by organizing the parts of your life into active or passive categories. What deserves your full attention and engagement, and what is better being overlooked?
You want to live actively in the parts of your life that call for it most-- the activities that benefit your mental health, wellbeing, and financial success. Dedicate your time and attention to the things that have the greatest positive results. Anything that doesn’t move you forward or positively affect your life should be regarded passively, with little acknowledgment and even less emotional significance.
Here’s where to start:
5 PLACES TO LIVE ACTIVELY:
1. Getting Out of Your Routine
There’s much to be discovered when you deviate from the beaten path, especially when the beaten path is the one you travel day after day, without much enthusiasm. Boredom and apathy come when you know exactly what to expect, so even if your daily routine isn’t horrible and painful, you’re still doing yourself a disservice by repeating it for too long. Stimulate your creativity and curiosity and make a change. I did things that freaked me out. Scared me to tears - before and after the activity. I fell and was foolish. I was embarrassed and I was terrible. But then guess what happened - I created some successes too. How did you start a podcast? How did you get so many listeners? How did you put yourself out there? How do you earn money from it? Do something that freaks you out. The mere fact that you will survive it - is eye-opening and can be life-changing too!
Even if it’s just trying a new restaurant for lunch, or going to the grocery store on a different day of the week. You never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll see, and that’s exciting all on its own. If you could choose, wouldn’t you want your life to be more Alice in Wonderland than Groundhog Day? Good thing you can choose.
2. Driving Sales
Boosting sales is a cause and effect type deal. Do what you haven't done before. Hello! Put yourself out there in a new way. Every business owner has to play an active role in accomplishing this, or sit around and hope a celebrity gets photographed with your product in US Weekly. Devote more time to researching marketing trends and implementing launch strategies. Start implementing ideas for multiple streams of income. Set up social media accounts for your business and go after meaningful business connections Reaching out to customers and influencers online is one of the easiest, cheapest methods of becoming active in this category.
3. Reducing Wasteful Spending
Ignoring the pile of receipts won’t make them go away, but actively addressing your spending habits will. Take a look at your spending history and see how many of your purchases were for essentials, and how many were a matter of impulse. What items could’ve been avoided if you had planned ahead? Even downloading a spending analyzer app is an active step toward cutting back on wasteful spending.
4. Being With Your Family & Friends
This is dual-sided, because it takes a deliberate effort sometimes to not only set aside time with your loved ones, but to be actively engaged when you do. If your life is so regimented and busy that it means scheduling family time in your planner, then so be it. Just make sure you can commit to a few hours of being there mentally in addition to physically, aka setting aside your phone. Family time is an important investment that can be overlooked without a little effort.
5. Living a Powerful Life Everyday
Fake it ‘til you make it, believe it until you achieve it. You can be wealthy without trying, but you can’t live a powerful, impactful life without actively pursuing one. Wake up everyday and tell yourself that you are powerful!
Then reinforce that mantra by living actively where it matters. Make choices that you can feel good about, and always look to move forward.
5 PLACES TO LIVE PASSIVELY:
1. Technology
For all of its benefits, there are just as many downsides to technology. It’s necessary for running a business in the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean you need to invest your personal life in all of the online happenings. Adopt a passive, almost uninterested approach to the internet and all of its trappings (see: the phone glued to your hands at all times). You don’t need to get involved in the comment war on Facebook or check Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat every hour on the hour. Contrary to popular belief, you can go to sleep without scanning social media for everything that happened online that day- and will probably sleep better because of it. You don’t have to cut yourself off from the outside world, just make sure it’s not on your priorities list.
2. Laundry
Disclaimer: please do not give up on your hygiene. But is forcing yourself to wake up early on Sunday to fold socks going to better your life? Let chores like laundry fade into the background instead of taking center stage. It will get done, just not before the things that help you reach your goals. You’re much more than a housewife, so think beyond that. You have much greater priorities. Besides, if you have school-age children or adult family members, the role doesn’t even have to belong to you at all.
3. Grocery Store
If you go to the grocery store because it’s Sunday, and not because you actually need anything, then you’re not living passively in this area. I know that most people make trips to the supermarket based on a schedule, but think of how much time that wastes! Grocery shopping doesn’t have to be a weekly outing that must be done above all else. Let it become a part of your life that you treat passively, meaning it gets attention only when warranted… such as when K-Cups go on sale.
4. Returning Every Email
I know how powerful the Pavlovian response to that little red notification box can be on your mail app. Maybe if it was a different color, we wouldn’t all be so anxious about opening and responding to emails as quickly as possible- I’ll write a letter to Apple. But in the meantime, decide to live passively in this situation. Having email capabilities on your phone is supposed to be a convenience, not an obligation. A powerful life is not one bogged down by tedious email responses. Your time is important, and you only need to give your time to the important emails.
5. Watching Every Show
It’s nice to be up on the latest pop culture trivia, but it’s better to feel accomplished in something with real value. Passivity here means watching TV when you have time and want to decompress, instead of blocking out your entire weekend to binge Orange is the New Black. There are too many streaming services and recording options to justify putting off something important in order to catch an episode. Besides, we all know it’s never going to be just one episode- not with THAT cliffhanger! Make a list of the shows that have piqued your interest, and catch up on them on your sick day, long weekends, or flight (Netflix now lets you stream offline!)
These past few weeks we have talked about doing work that is important to you, finding out what is important, how to make such decisions and why you need to. Today is just the beginning for creating space and making room in your life for achieving these things that you are deciding to work on. There IS room in your life for all these things - you just have to decide what you want and actively go for it.
