Personal Development Archives - Page 23 of 31

15 Ways To Become A Sophisticated Woman – Tips for Modern Women

If you are a sophisticated woman, it is easier for you to attract a high-quality life, including a high-quality soulmate.

But how does a girl from next door turn into a sophisticated woman? Do you need decades of life experience to fit the role?

Don’t worry, while more life experience certainly helps, you can speed up the process by intentionally pursuing specific skills and traits.

No matter who you’ve been so far, you can become a sophisticated woman if you set your mind to it.

So let’s get into the different steps.

1. Be well-dressed

If I think about sophisticated women, the first thing that pops into my head is impeccable style.

Whether we like it or not, we humans can’t help to judge a book by its cover.

And our cover is the way we dress.

It will be next to impossible to pull off the sophisticated woman aura if you turn up in hot pants with a rip that shows your ass and a see-through top.

So I advise dressing to impress.

One of my favorite ways to do that is through 2-color schemes or even monochromatic style.

Every outfit looks immediately so much more elevated and thought through if the colors match and exude harmony.

Anyway, you should take some time to analyze what you could improve styling wise.

I have a few blog posts to help you with that:

Read also: 11 Fashion Hacks For Stylish Women

2. Pursue broad interests

Sophisticated women pull people towards them like a magnet.

One of the things that makes them so lovely to interact with is their ability to talk about a wide variety of topics.

Think about it; I’m sure you’ve met at least one of those people who seem to be interested in just a handful of topics. It is bloody difficult to hold a conversation with them.

Now, the best way to be able to talk about many topics is to have broad interests.

You should set time aside for personal development every day and a little time to pursue your current interests.

And this doesn’t mean you have to take up a hobby or join a club.

This can be as simple as listening to ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire‘ by Billy Joel. Suddenly, you find yourself interested in what exactly happened with Walter Winchell and Studebaker.

Allow yourself to pursue information without direct use for them.

You don’t have to write an exam about something to spend time diving deep into it.

One way that always gets me interested in new topics is listening to interviews with celebrities that I like.

For example, I love Formula 1, and on their Beyond the Grid podcast, there are some amazing up close and personal interviews with the drivers. A few of those interviews have sparked new interests in me.

3. Be well-spoken

I’m always blatantly in awe of people that can smoothly express themself.

I frequently find myself repeating phrases of movies or series characters that I really liked.

A great way to broaden your vocabulary is through reading a lot. Personally, I am an advocate of reading books. Still, as a Fanfiction addict, I can definitely attest to the value of reading Fanfiction as well.

Just read! Focus on the way people express themselves.

If I’m honest, this topic is currently a very sore spot for me. For some reason, I tend to stumble over my words or mix them up.

Ridiculously enough, I feel more eloquent in English than in German, and that definitely needs working on.

With that being said, I also believe that a sophisticated woman can speak a few different languages.

Personally, I love languages, and I’ve been working on my French for a while now.

What new language could you pick up? Implement it into your daily life by watching a series in that language with subtitles.

4. Don’t swear

This, of course, does somewhat belong to the ‘well-spoken’ category, but it’s important enough to deserve a separate mentioning.

Swearing like a drunken sailor manages to ruin a carefully crafted image quicker than anything else. It belongs in a category with burping, farting, and picking your nose.

Now, don’t understand me wrong I don’t expect you to be a saint that says ‘dang’ instead of ‘damn it’ or ‘fuck’.

But there is somewhat of a severity system between the swear words. I’m sure you are easily able to differentiate between the more vulgar ones and the common ones.

At any rate, you shouldn’t use too much of the common ones either. If you say ‘fuck‘ and ‘fucking‘ three times in a single sentence you will have trouble being depicted as a sophisticated woman.

5. Never stop learning

Sophisticated women love learning. They see themselves as students for life.

I always find that it starkly shows whether a person has stopped learning once they finished school. It shows in the conversations you have with them and the lifestyle they lead.

Don’t make that mistake!

Successful and sophisticated women are students for life. They don’t need a curriculum to motivate them to grow and fill their mind with information.

6. Be independent without having to prove it

A common struggle for women is the urge to be independent.

Because for so long, women were dependent on men and told that they couldn’t achieve the same things as their male counterparts, we had to fight extra hard for our independence and show our strength.

At the beginning of the emancipation, this was undoubtedly necessary. Nowadays, in countries with female leaders, female entrepreneurs, female engineers, and tacticians (even though there are always pay gaps), it isn’t so much anymore.

For you, as a sophisticated woman, that means you can embrace your independence without a struggle. Buy yourself that apartment of your dreams, change your flat tire on your own, and build that business.

However, don’t fall into the trap of proving your independence to anyone.

A lot of women’s inner conflict is that they want a soulmate who gives them their jacket when they are cold, who opens a door for them, and pays for the dinner.

Yet, at the same time, our habit of proving our independence makes life so much harder for chivalrous men.

If a man offers to carry something heavy for you, it doesn’t mean he thinks you are weak and dependent on stronger men. It merely means he’d like to help you out.

This was just one quick example. But try to observe yourself when making decisions.

Do you ever get that almost unconscious urge to play tough and show your strength? I know I have in the past, and I am always working on it.

Next time that feeling comes up ask yourself if life wouldn’t be easier without proving your independence. Does anyone even question it?

Be honest with yourself!

7. Recieve gracefully

How do you react when someone offers you a compliment or offers to drive you somewhere or pay something for you?

Do you say ‘thank you, that really wasn’t necessary‘.

Or perhaps you try to reciprocate immediately saying ‘thanks, I love your style too!”

Maybe you even try to play it down, saying ‘this old thing, pfff, it’s nothing special but thanks.‘

A sophisticated woman has mastered the art of receiving gracefully and gratefully.

Because she always gives freely, be it in the form of compliments or favors, she doesn’t feel bad about receiving either.

8. Declare your self-worth

This is a pretty new concept for me that I am currently working on. I’ve learned it in the Transform Your Wealth course.

I’m sure most of us know that we are worthy, simply because we exist. We have an intrinsically human worth.

However, if you are striving for an extraordinary life, you can’t merely be ordinarily worthy.

That won’t sit well with your subconscious, and you will sabotage yourself any time you could accomplish something above average.

To attract great things in your life, you need to know why you are worthy of having them.

Sophisticated women don’t expect others to declare their worth for them. They take matters into their own hand and make sure to know their worth without anyone having a say in it.

So what about you? What makes you worthy of having the extraordinary life of your dreams? What do you bring to the table in all areas of life?

You should write this list down regularly to make sure you never forget your self-worth.

9. Assume ignorance before malice

A sophisticated woman assumes ignorance before malice. She doesn’t lash out at people who are rude or make mistakes because she knows that nobody is perfect, and the least people are aiming to be malicious.

Life gets much more manageable and brighter if you follow this principle.

10. Honor your privacy

Privacy is one of the most valuable assets we can have in this digital world. That’s why a sophisticated woman takes her privacy very seriously.

She knows precisely where her privacy starts and where it ends, and she isn’t afraid to draw a line if necessary.

You won’t find any nudes or scandalous stories of family feuds from a sophisticated woman.

She doesn’t feel the need to share every part of her life with the public.

How private are you?

Read also: 11 Easy Ways To Honor Your Privacy

11. Master the art of body language

Your body language can intimidate people, make them feel superior, or make them relaxed around you. Your posture can even alter your own emotions.

There are many ways body language can help you in daily life. Yet, most of us use it unconsciously.

A sophisticated woman recognizes its power and makes a conscious effort to use it to her advantage.

Personally, I find it interesting to watch body language analyses of fictional characters in movies or series. It is a fun way to learn a lot.

12. Be on top of your finances

You need to handle your finances!

The moment you give up control of your finances, you give up control of your life.

There was a reason once upon a time, women needed the approval of their husbands to open up a bank account.

That’s why a sophisticated woman doesn’t shy away to take her finances into her own hands.

She might hire accountants and brokers along the way to free up more of her time and leave increasingly complicated work to specialists.

But successful women make sure to know the basics about their income, taxes, investments, debts, savings, and everything else concerning their finances.

13. Protect your energy

If you are available for everyone, whether they are high vibe or toxic, it will deplete your energy and keep you from doing something meaningful than brings joy.

A sophisticated woman values her energy and protects it accordingly.

She doesn’t stand for toxic people be it in real life or on social media.

She accepts that there are times when you need to deal with them, but she keeps those moments to a bare minimum.

14. Be kind

Be kind, just because.

Seriously, if you have to choose between being an ass or being kind, why would you ever choose the former?

Don’t let your bad mood out on undeserving people.

Instead, try to make someone’s day by simply being kind to them. Who knows, it could very well be the best thing that’s happened to them on a shitty day.

We all need more happiness and kindness in life.

15. Learn how to read a menu

Ok, there is no way you don’t know that situation:

You go into a restaurant and read the menu, and there is at least one word that you just don’t know.

Of course, it’s the 21st century, and you can just quickly google it.

But there is something very sophisticated about people who know their way around food and beverages.

It speaks of worldliness – that they have experienced a lot and tried out many different things.

So learn your food and beverage vocabulary!

Well, I hope this gave you some new goals to work on. If you are reading this, you are already much closer to being a sophisticated woman than most other women are.

So pat yourself on the back.

I wish you much success on your quest to becoming a stunning personality.

Until next week!

Sophie

27 Journal Prompts To Reinvent Yourself

Blog, Personal Development

Journaling is a highly underestimated tool for personal growth. With the right journal prompts, you can reinvent yourself from the inside out.

That being said, not everyone takes to journaling immediately.

I always feel like you can’t really force yourself to journal and expect a valuable outcome.

If I don’t feel like it, I journal poorly and ineffectively.

That’s why I wanted to deliver you multiple journal prompts that have the potential to light that spark of transformation inside you.

Read through them all and start with those that interest you the most – but beware, some of them are meant to be answered in order (you’ll understand which ones easily).

Alternatively, if you really don’t find it in yourself to journal, don’t dismiss those journal prompts quickly!

Very often, I swap journaling for talking to myself about those prompts. That’s how I often come to great solutions to any problems I have to solve or decisions I have to make.

Just try it out.

Read also:

1. What talents do you have that you’d typically brush under the table?

When someone asks you about your talents, you are probably thinking about ordinary things like drawing, dancing, writing, or the like.

But try to think outside the box for a moment. You do have talents! You just most likely don’t consider them as such.

A few examples:

Anticipating plot twists
Being so imaginative you start to laugh out loud at your daydreams
Never forgetting where you parked your car
Looking at things objectively

2. If from tomorrow morning on, you’d had to dedicate your life to one occupation that is of value to humanity, what would you choose to do?

Honestly, imagine you are in that situation. There is no possibility of changing your decision later on.

What would you choose?

If you can’t think of anything, write down the things that come closest to it.

3. What challenges/problems in your life have you overcome/solved?

Again, you are most likely not aware of the many problems you have solved in your life.

We all go through struggles inevitably. Life is full of them.

So which ones have you successfully overcome?

A few examples:

acne
allergies
learning difficulties
Sleeping difficulties
Studying for a difficult degree

4. How can you teach others to do the same – through text, video, or audio?

Now that you know about the struggles you’ve overcome, you also know that you do have some expertise to teach others.

You might still doubt that, but imagine if someone would have told you at the beginning of the problem everything you’ve learned so far about it.

Would it have helped you even just the slightest bit?

Most likely.

So why would you try to withdraw that opportunity from others?

Go out there and talk about the things you’ve learned!

Start a blog, youtube channel, podcast, or whatever.

You don’t have to do it to build a 6-figure business (although you could).

Primarily do it to help people and learn how to write blog posts or edit videos and podcasts.

Before you know it, you will have other expertise to teach.

5. Why are you worthy? Which of your character traits make out your self worth? What do you bring to the table?

Self-worth is a tricky topic.

In essence, most of us probably think we have good self-worth. Yet when we genuinely dig down to the core of it and ask ourselves exactly why we are worthy, we struggle to answer.

Make a list. Write about all the things you bring to the table, all the things that determine your self-worth.

You should cover all areas from career, finances, romantic and social relationships, mind and body, spirituality, and contribution.

I urge you to push yourself.

When you feel like you can’t come up with anything anymore, try to find at least 2-3 more characteristics that make you worthy.

6. What did your mother/father/another essential family member you grew up with believe about money and people with money?

You might never have considered it, but your family’s beliefs around money have shaped you significantly, whether you want it or not.

So what did/do they believe about money and people with money?

Did you grow up hearing things like ‘money doesn’t grow on trees‘ or ‘money is the root of all evil‘?

7. Which of these beliefs did you adopt?

8. In what way do they impact your life? What decisions are based on those beliefs?

What are the thoughts that go through your head when:

you want to buy food
you would love to buy a toy for leisure
you see rich people with bags full of purchases
you see expensive cars

9. Should you let go of some of them?

Be honest with yourself. Are those beliefs of use to you? Have you ever heard of financially successful people that have that belief?

10. What are you insecure about?

List everything here, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

11. Do you have reason to feel that way?

I know that logic is not a very effective way to get over insecurities, but sometimes it does help diminish them at least a bit.

So, has anyone ever even commented on that trait that you are insecure about?

If so, did they do it just because they were emotional and wanted to insult you, or was it an honest critique?

12. Are there people just like that, that you look up to?

Especially with physical traits like crooked noses or thin lips, it is pretty easy to find some celebrity that you would consider as beautiful that has this specific trait.

13. What first tiny step can you take to diminish that insecurity?

Think about the tiniest step possible.

The tinier the step, the easier it will be for you to get started on this topic.

14. What troubles your mind currently? What weighs you down?

Writing down and articulating your worries is the first step to releasing them.

15. How can you make it just a little bit better?

Again, think about the tiniest step you could take towards a slightly better future.

You might find that step ridiculously tiny but do it anyway. Only then can you take the next tiny action and the next and the next.

16. What has been annoying you that you consider just a “normal” part of life?

I’m thinking of things like PMS or taking ages to read through a textbook.

17. Does everyone suffers from this annoyance, or is it merely common?

Just because many other people have the same struggle doesn’t mean you should settle with it.

Just because something is common doesn’t mean it is normal!

You deserve better! The first step for this is noticing that what you currently experience is unacceptable for the extraordinary life you are striving for.

18. How can you take one tiny step closer to the lives of those who don’t have to bother with this annoyance/problem?

There are always people who are one step ahead of you and have stuff figured out.

So, what are they doing differently? How can you copy them?

Make an action plan!

19. Who are your idols? Who do you envy? List them all!

It doesn’t matter whether they are famous or not.

20. Why exactly do they fascinate you so much? What is it that you envy about them and their lifestyle? List everything!

Try to be as specific as possible.

Do you like that they are smart and strategic, that they have found their soulmate, that they have a ragingly successful business, that they drive expensive cars, or what has caught your interest?

21. What are the common factors between those people?

Now that you know all the things that make you admire and envy those people compare the items on your list.

What are the common factors that draw you to them?

Are they all musicians, athletes, or do they all have dogs? Find the things that cause your envy.

At one point, I suddenly noticed that all the people in series and movies that I was fascinated with shared many similar characteristics.

That realization can be immensely eye-opening because it tells you more about what you actually want in life, whether you’ve consciously noticed it before or not.

22. How can you get one tiny step closer to being like that or having this life yourself?

And again, determine the tiniest step you can take in the direction of acquiring one of these traits or items.

And when I say tiny, I mean tiny.

For example, if working out each morning is your goal, the tiniest habit to start implementing is putting out your workout gear.

The next tiny habit would be putting those clothes on each morning.

Then going to or setting up the place of your workout.

And then starting the workout.

Then doing it for 3 minutes, then 5, then 10, …

It might seem ridiculous, but those tiny, tiny goals turned into habits that can bring you much faster to the end goal than having to convince yourself to take a big step.

23. How can I be more organized?

The creators of Transform Your Wealth taught me that money flows to where it’s organized most.

So, how organized are you in your life and especially in your finances?

Where could you improve?

24. How can I be more focused?

Focus is a crucial component of any endeavor to succeed.

So you should regularly ask yourself, how can you be more focused?

Perhaps taking up a regular meditation practice would help. Or you could reduce your screen time.

Just find one thing and implement it from today on.

25. How can I be more disciplined?

Even the most perfect life is full of things we don’t feel like doing.

Even though I am all about being in the flow, even I know that sometimes you need raw self-disciple to get sh#t done.

So be honest with yourself – where could you improve on that?

26. How would I feel once I’ve reached that goal?

This journal prompt will introduce you to the art of scripting.

The goal here is to write as if you’ve already accomplished that goal.

Imagine yourself in that situation. How would you feel? What would you do? Where would you be? What would you think?

Try to put as much emotion in there as possible.

You should really feel it. Mere thinking is not enough.

Try to make yourself laugh out loud or shed tears of gratitude. Give it everything you’ve got.

27. What would my next goal be?

Often we delay our plans until something has happened. We don’t dare dream about them because we don’t want to be disappointed should we never get the opportunity to act out on our dreams.

Well, right now, I want you to allow yourself to dream.

What would you do once you’ve accomplished the goal on your list?

For example, once I get a certain amount of monthly blog visitors, I will apply to an ad network. And once they have accepted me, I will use the money to start a YouTube channel.

So, what about you? What are your next steps?

Dare to forget for a moment that you are not there yet and allow yourself to plan out your next steps.

I hope you found some aha moments in these journal prompts.

I advise you to revise them every now and then. At different times these questions will bring out various realizations.

Until next time!

Sophie

11 Easy Ways To Honor Your Privacy

Blog, Personal Development

As our world becomes more digital each day, privacy has become a real luxury. But how can you honor your privacy?

I know that this whole privacy topic sounds very technical and daunting, but I want to show you that it doesn’t have to be that way.

In fact, there are many small things you can start doing today that will ensure you greater privacy.

If you are curious about what those things are, read along!

1. Set clear limits and stick to them

First off, you need to determine precisely how private you want to be. What does ‘privacy’ mean to you?

Are you determined to keep your income, love life, and business moves private?

Or perhaps you don’t mind sharing your growing income with your tribe, but you’d never let them know about the specifics of your day to day routine.

Privacy can mean a variety of things to you. Ultimately there is no right or wrong here; you can determine how private you want to be.

However, you should definitely become clear on that and not just decide based on the day’s mood.

Here are a few topics you might want to consider concerning your privacy.:

Your relationships (friends, family, partner)
Your location
Your finances (debt, income, savings, investments)
Your web history
Your documents
Your thoughts and feelings on politics
Your body (how much skin do you want to show with outfits; nudes)
Your plans
Your status quo

2. Post delayed

One thing I like to stay very private about is my status quo, so what I am currently in this moment up to.

I love letting the people close to my heart know what I am currently doing, but I am very selective about who those people are.

So, in essence, I don’t do Snapchat or Insta Stories or anything the like.

And if I’d do them, it would be in a delayed fashion.

So I’d take the pictures at the moment and then post them a few hours or days later.

I’m much more willing to share what I’ve been up to in the past. But somehow, sharing what I am doing at this very moment feels very intimate to me.

An advantage of this is, of course, that people can’t purposely interfere with what they don’t know.

And that puts me more at ease in the present.

3. Don’t announce new goals

The same goes for any goals you might have – especially new entrepreneurial or career-related ones.

I’ve said it often, and I’ll repeat it: My decision not to tell anybody about this blog until it succeeds was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

If you plan anything significant and new, you are most likely a bit nervous and very excited about it. But then, as you work towards it, things will go a bit haywire here and there, and doubts and frustration will come up.

If that happens, the last things you need are ‘helpful’ friends and family or strangers with unsolicited advice and critique.

You probably struggle with your commitment to the goal and faith in the journey, so you don’t need any additional stones in your way.

If you keep quiet about your goals, you only have to deal with your own worries, and you don’t have to justify any delays in the process to others.

Sure at times, it is better to have an accountability buddy that keeps you on track when you stray too far away from the path.

But I imagine you know yourself well enough to determine whether or not you are self-disciplined enough to manage without one or not.

Another way to honor your privacy is to not give disproportionally to what you get.

Sometimes you might feel like sharing a lot with a friend of yours. However, if you keep being the only one who shares, you should seriously question yourself.

Does someone who doesn’t let you see much of their private life deserve to know about yours?

Sure, someone has to make the first step. I am not trying to discourage you from doing that. However, if time passes and the other person doesn’t follow up, it’s essential to realize that.

I’ve experienced that most often around grades in uni or school.

I’m rarely secretive about my grades. If I’ve done well, I say so without bragging, and if I’ve done badly, I won’t hide it either.

I only recently had the experience of telling a friend my grade only to get no information about their grade back.

And it’s like, sure, I didn’t ask directly for it, but they’re not that oblivious. Also, my grade wasn’t the best either, so what’s to hide? And if I initiated the talk, they don’t need to feel bad about sharing their possibly outstanding grade with me.

So now that this has happened a few times, I was suddenly painfully aware of this onesidedness. It makes one overthink how close you really are to that person.

And this doesn’t have to be a bad thing at all. I won’t cancel a friendship over that, and I like them just the same. But now I know to keep my grades a bit more private unless they initiate a talk about it.

5. Create secret accounts

A fun way to keep some of your interests (or stalker activities) private is by creating ‘secret’ social media accounts.

At least on Instagram, you can create multiple accounts. I have one for business and a private one, and I know people who also have a secret one that nobody knows about.

I like the idea of that because you can browse through Instagram carefree of people seeing who’s pictures you’re liking and who you’re following.

This is especially nice if you let just anybody follow you on your private account.

6. Use a VPN

A VPN grants you anonymity on the internet. It hides your IP address and location so that hackers and governments can’t get access to your data that easily.

Especially if you use public hotspots for business-related topics a VPN might be worth considering.

7. Use a different business address

Sometimes in business, you have to name an address, in the footer of your emails, for example.

Now, most likely, you don’t want every random person that subscribes to your email list knowing where you live.

However, if you work from home and don’t have an office, that’s probably the only address you have.

So in cases like these, it’s helpful to have a virtual business address that you can name.

It’s straightforward and cheap to get one on sites like reship.com.

8. Turn Your Spotify Playlists Private

Have you ever checked whether your Spotify playlists are private or public?

Perhaps it wouldn’t bother you so much for other people to know the kind of music you listen to.

But some songs and playlists can be really personal to an individual. After all, music can show a lot about our interests and the type of person we are.

That’s why you should at least consider making specific playlists private.

9. Use private browser taps

If a person were to go through your browser history, they could almost write a biography about you.

It is honestly ridiculous how telling those websites and search results are. They reveal your interests, passions, projects, goals, hopes, dreams, friends, how you spend your day, what you buy, and more.

But even just giving someone your phone and they open up safari or Google and see the taps you’ve currently got open is often an uncomfortable situation.

So do yourself a favor and use private taps for more delicate or personal topics that you want to google.

In safari, you can find the ‘private’ button very quickly at the top or bottom of the app, when you can choose between the different open taps.

In Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Firefox, you have to click on the ‘…’ button in the top right corner, and it will show you the ‘private’ or ‘incognito’ option.

Beware, if you use a private tab, there won’t be a search history for you to rely on should you accidentally close a tap.

10. Decide whether or not to support a cause

One topic that is always very prickly is politics.

Since there are so many conflicts and judgments with any political opinion, it can be beneficial to keep them private.

However, your voice does matter and not just during votes. So you shouldn’t force yourself to hold back on becoming politically active just to keep your life comfortable.

To honor your privacy, you should decide beforehand what causes you want to support and on which fronts you instead keep quiet publicly.

11. Don’t use the same password everywhere

Look, I get it, we need seemingly millions of passwords, and we can’t possibly choose such complicated ones and remember them all.

Nowadays, tools like the IOS system propose complicated passwords to you and save them, so you don’t have to remember them.

But should you like to choose your password, I recommend you to start a system.

Let’s say you create an Instagram account. Your password could be _Insta#Gram_2020.

So the system you imply could be:

_(first half of the name)#(second half of the name)_(year of creation)

This was just an example I came up with on the spot. Of course, there are infinite possibilities to choose from.

But once you have decided on a system like this, it becomes easy to create different passwords and memorizing them.

I hope this gave you some ideas on how to honor your privacy – one of your most essential assets in the digital world. Don’t you ever forget that!

Do you have any additional ideas on how to honor your privacy? Please share them in the comments down below. I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time!

Sophie

11 Things To Do Before The New Year

Blog, Personal Development

The new year is just around the corner, and it’s an exciting time for a fresh start. But, before we dive into the festivities of new year’s eve, there are some important tasks to tackle to make sure the upcoming year kicks off on the right note. If you’re tired of just coasting into the new year with fireworks and toasts, I’ve got a more intentional approach for you. An approach that lets you take the reins and design the year ahead according to your own dreams and goals. If that’s what you’re after, hang on tight, because we’re about to take this journey together. Let’s make it the best year yet!

Read also: 14 Books I’ve Read This Year

1. Ticking off your Bucket List

Many of us start the year with high aspirations and a list full of New Year resolutions. At the same time, most people have the bad habit of not accomplishing most of these goals.

These last few weeks before the ball drop offer a golden opportunity to tackle those lingering items on your bucket list. By accomplishing them, you not only wrap up the year on a high note but also kickstart the next year with a sense of determination. No more carrying the weight of unfulfilled resolutions into the new year!

So, what’s left on your list?

2. Tidying up your home

As fun as the holiday season can be, it often leaves a trail of mess in its wake.

If you are organizing a big Christmas dinner, your kitchen might look like a tornado went through it.

Maybe you are letting close friends or family members stay at your place for the holidays. And don’t forget about all that ripped-off wrapping paper and the presents lying around everywhere.

You get the point.

When crossing over into the new year and with it a fresh start, you want to do it with a clean slate. Literally.

So clean up! There’s nothing quite like the feeling of waking up on January 1st to a clean and organized home, ready to start the year on the right foot.

3. Going over your yearly expenses and planning ahead

The start of a new year is an excellent time to examine your financial situation. Many expenses recur annually, such as rent, insurance, and maintenance. By forecasting these costs, you can alleviate the stress of unexpected bills. Understanding your financial obligations for the coming year allows you to plan your budget more effectively, helping you save, invest, and spend with greater confidence. It’s a crucial step in your journey toward financial peace.

4. Reviewing the successes and lessons of the year

Even the most successful year ever will bring some small failures you can draw lessons from.

Before you bring out the champagne and shoot your fireworks, you should celebrate the past 12 months’ wins and what lessons the year taught you.

Whether big or small, write them down, so you can review and truly memorize them.

And don’t feel bad about these mishaps! You should feel excited about the opportunity they provide you with.

Each new lesson you’ve learned reduces the chance of you making mistakes. So celebrate each lesson as another step towards a wiser and more successful self.

5. Writing your goals for the next year

This is always a fun part of entering a new year.

A new year gives you 365 new chances of accomplishing things to be proud of, something that takes you closer to your dream life.

So what do you plan on accomplishing next year?

But remember, you want to set goals and not just resolutions. The difference is that the latter is achievable, and you commit to following a plan to accomplish that goal.

Resolutions are often vague hopes that people have already forgotten by January 21st.

Depending on your goals, you have to decide between setting S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, Time-Bound) or more loosely formulated goals that leave a lot of room for the flow of life.

Personally, I am not entirely happy with S.M.A.R.T. goals. I’ve tried setting goals like that once. It didn’t work for me.

It was hard for me to anticipate how much I could actually accomplish in a year concerning tasks that were entirely new to me.

It’s easy to set the goal to pass an exam with at least 9 points. But it’s harder to grasp how much money you will be able to make in one year with your new blog.

So, just find what works best for you.

6. Updating your vision board

When was the last time you refreshed your vision board?

I can guarantee that you have evolved in the last year – you are a Felicity Seeker, after all.

The new year is a perfect chance to embrace that new you and its new dreams. Even better, you can leave your old dreams behind by throwing out the vision board images from the past year that don’t inspire and excite you anymore.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s create a vision board for a successful new year.

7. Decluttering your phone

Digital clutter often goes unnoticed, but it can impact your well-being.

But I can almost certainly say that your phone, tablet or laptop is overflowing with stuff.

Take a look at your pictures. Do you need them all? Of those you do not need, which ones don’t make you happy when you see them?

Take a look at your social media. Are you only following accounts that inspire and motivate you, or also the ones that make you feel bad?

Delete or mute those toxic accounts. Tools like social media are meant to benefit you and not make you feel bad!

What about the apps you’ve downloaded? Which ones haven’t you used in the last 6 months? Could you perhaps order them in a more structured and less cluttered way?

Does the background image still inspire you and make you happy? If not, change it!

And lastly, make backups and update your devices.

Oh, and thoroughly clean your phone! There have been genuinely gross statistics about the bacteria on our phones. So at least clean it before the new year!

8. Choose your word/mantra of the year

Consider adopting a single word or mantra to guide your journey throughout the year. This word serves as a touchstone, a reminder of your overarching theme, and a promise of what’s to come, regardless of life’s challenges. The power of such a word or phrase can provide strength, inspiration, and resilience on your path to personal growth.

This year my mantra was ‘Grace and Ease.’

At the end of last year, I was incredibly stressed with uni since so much was going on. All the stress was fuel to the fire that is my acne-prone skin.

So, all in all, I decided that enough was enough. I had to work on my stress management. I was simply sick and tired of stressing over such unnecessary things in the grand scheme of things.

So I dedicated this year to flow through life with grace and ease.

Every time I was nervous about something, I used to tell myself, ‘I will rock this with grace and ease.’ I remembered that mantra so often throughout this year.

And you know what? I not only managed the stress around uni AMAZINGLY! I also had an overall very successful year!

So what word or mantra does appeal to you? What do you want the overall theme of your life to be?

9. Change calendars and note essential dates

As the new year approaches, remember to replace your old calendars with fresh ones. Make sure that you transfer essential dates and commitments from the old calendar to the new one, including birthdays and significant events. This simple act keeps you organized and prepared for the year ahead.

10. Start a new project ahead of the New Year

For some reason, we are all always waiting for the new year, the new month, or the new week to start something new.

It just feels like this is the perfect time to start.

But guess what? The time you spend waiting for that moment to come, you could already have been working on that new project.

They say it takes 10.000 hours of focusing on a topic to become an expert. How many of those 10.000 hours could you have already ticket off had you not waited for January 1st?

I found myself in that situation in 2019. I wanted to step up my Pinterest marketing game and planned to buy a course to help me with that.

Ultimately, I decided not to withstand the urge to wait until the new year and instead started the course a few weeks prior.

Thank god I did because otherwise, I’d be a few weeks short of where I am now.

So stop waiting for the new year’s day and start already! Get that head start!

11. Truly Relax

When the New Year comes around, we are all motivated to start the year on a high and hustle our butt off.

As noble as that goal is, it won’t do you any good if you are already in a stressed and tired state. Truth be told, the holidays before the end of the year can be exhausting.

Family get-togethers, the hunt for gifts, cooking extravagant meals, having other people sleep at your place, and such can keep you from thoroughly relaxing; especially if you are leaning more to the introverted side of the spectrum.

That’s why it’s so important to give yourself the rest and quiet time you need and deserve. If you do that, nothing can stop you from crushing the beginning of the next year!

As we wrap up these simple yet effective steps to prepare for the new year, remember you’re not alone in this journey. We’re all striving for a fresh start, setting new goals, and looking forward to a year filled with opportunities. So let’s raise a glass to decluttered homes, well-defined goals, and refreshed vision boards. And let’s not forget the power of a single word to guide us through the upcoming adventures. This is your chance to embrace the future with open arms, unburdened by digital clutter, and well-prepared for the year ahead. It’s time to enjoy the holidays, take a deep breath, and enter the new year as the best version of yourself.

Do you have any additional tips on what must be done before the new year? Share them with the community down below!

Cheers to a fantastic year filled with personal growth and exciting opportunities. Here’s to a great year ahead!

11 Books I’ve Read This Year

Blog, Personal Development

Another year has passed – a year full of fantastic books!

I know that at times we all need some new inspiration on what our next read should be. That’s why I love book lists like the following so much.

That’s also why I’ve created my Reading List for Personal Growth as one of the Blog’s first posts.

So if you want a more extensive and ever-growing list of non-fictional books to read, you should definitely check out that list.

However, if you want more details on those books’ content and my opinion, you should look out for these kinds of posts.

With that being said, here are the books I’ve read this year:

1. Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

I started off the year with quite a demanding book.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a mixture of a novel, an autobiography, and a book on philosophy written in 1974.

I purchased it because one of my favorite YouTube Channels, Alux.com, recommended it as a philosophical must-read.

I have to say, my feelings towards it were mixed.

First of all, I have to mention that there was indeed a lot of motorcycle maintenance talk through the first third of it—much more than I expected.

Also, the storyline was somewhat weird and dull initially (for me, at least).

But through the second half of it, my interest was peaked, and things got much more enjoyable. Mostly as I figured out that the story was somewhat of an autobiography.

2. Girl Code by Cara Alwill Leyba

After that demanding and lengthy first book of the year, I decided to go for something more light and inspiring.

Girl Code by Cara Alwill Leyba was everything I hoped it to be.

Easy to read and with inspiring stories, it got me full of Boss Babe vibes and ready to create the extraordinary life of my dreams as an empowering woman.

I’ve been listening to Cara’s Podcast The Champagne Diet for a while now, and I love her mindset and vibes.

If you want to know what she’s like, listen to a few of her episodes – actually listen to them anyway, whether or not you intend to buy the book.

I’m sure you’ll love her just as much as I do.

3. Goddesses In Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Next, I took upon rereading a more demanding book: Goddesses In Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen is a book on women’s psychology.

The author uses seven of the main Roman goddesses (Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter, Artemis, Athena, Persephone, Hestia) as archetypes for female behavior.

Through them, she created behavioral patterns typical for relationships with parents, children, friends, lovers, your goals in life, your academic path, and more.

She also names famous (although nowadays probably not anymore widely known) women as examples of this archetypal behavior.

The book fascinated me.

I was genuinely able to see some of the women’s behavioral patterns around me explained in the book.

And even more critical, the book provided me with more inside into my own psyche and the archetypes that I embody.

It’s definitely an exciting read for any woman!

4. Love Her Wild by Atticus

My first dip into poetry!

If you read quotes on Instagram or Pinterest, you might have stumbled over some of Atticus’ work already.

It’s a perfect coffee table book and nice to look into every once in a while.

If you like his poems, you might also want to check out Nacked On Cashmere, a Podcast where these small poems are read aloud.

5. The Rational Optimist

I’m sure you can discover a pattern by now. This year I somewhat alternated between more demanding and lighter reads.

The Rational Optimist is definitely among the former group of books.

You know how the news and a lot of literature paint such a negative image of the world’s future?

How so many people are like, “I wouldn’t want to bring children into this world” and “Everything was better in the past.”

Yeah, well, those opinions have always p#ssed me off.

That’s why I feel particularly drawn to those rare people with a positive yet realistic outlook on the future.

The first book I read in this direction had been Factfulness by Hans Rosling, which I can HIGHLY recommend to everyone.

The Positive Optimist also uses facts, sometimes from studies but mostly from history, as the foundation for its optimistic outlook onto the future.

This book truly challenged some beliefs I’ve held for a long time now and made me overthink them.

After reading this, you won’t feel anxious anymore when the next wave of apocalyptic prophesies are broadcasted through talk shows and social media.

You will have a well-informed tool kit that allows you to create your own – most likely optimistic – opinion on our future.

6. The Lost Symbol (#3 Robert Langdon Series) by Dan Brown

You most likely heard about the Illuminati or the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. First, the book was a bestseller, and then they even made a movie with Tom Hanks about it.

The Lost Symbol is the third book in the Robert Langdon series, and I have to say it was AMAZING!

What I love so much about this series is that they are not merely thrillers but include so much of accurate information about architecture, history, numerology, science, religion, and more.

The books never fail to introduce me to new topics that pique my curiosity. In this particular book, I was introduced to Noetic science.

This science field conducts experiments and research around topics like the limitations of our consciousness, the interconnectedness of mind and matter, and transformational experiences (like healers that can heal simply with their touch and thoughts).

In the book, there is also some talk about how much the soul weights.

This science reminds me a lot of the law of attraction.

Anyway, this is just one of many exciting topics that Dan Brown dives into throughout the thrilling chase through Washington DC.

7. In The Flow by Alisa Vitti

This is an ABSOLUTE must-read for every woman out there!

Alisa Vitti teaches you that period issues of any kind are NOT normal. They are common, and that’s why everyone believes they are normal, but this couldn’t be further from the truth!

It’s time we truly learn to appreciate our second clock, the 28-day cycle and learn to treat our body in the best possible way.

We need to stop buying into quick fixes like the pill that don’t actually solve our problems but merely mask them while simultaneously creating many more issues.

If you are ready to take back the control over your body and live the best life possible without medications that could damage organs or cause depression, this book is for you!

Check it out!

8. The Prince by Machiavelli

Over the years, I’ve read one or two good quotes from Machiavelli. So I thought I should check out one of his works.

I went for The Prince. It’s a nice short booklet – perfect for introducing you to Machiavellis writing.

I’m not sure what exactly I expected from the book when I started reading it. But it surely wasn’t a how-to-guide on becoming a successful ruler and maintaining that position.

Still, it was quite interesting to read about the strategy and psychology that comes with that endeavor.

Particularly since Machiavelli based his tips on many historical examples, that were sometimes more sometimes less familiar to me.

If you’re interested in the strategy behind war and politics, this book should interest you.

9. The Titans Curse (#3 Percy Jackson Series) by Rick Riordan

If you love greek mythology and Fiction books, you HAVE to start reading the Percy Jackson Series!

I originally started reading it somewhen in my early teenage years, I think. Anyway, I didn’t make it further than the second book for whatever reason.

And as my interest rekindled this year, I decided to continue with the third one. It was just as great as expected!

I love how each book introduces me to new mythological stories and how I can test my knowledge through it.

Give it a try!

10. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

This book I had been eying ever since it was on those bestseller bookshelves in the book stores.

Finally, I got around to reading it.

I have to admit, I’m not entirely happy with it. Don’t understand me wrong. The rules he mentioned are definitely wise. They were elucidated through many exciting stories, biblical interpretations, and historical analysis.

However, sometimes I felt those chapters got a bit lengthy when he could make his point more quickly. But hey, maybe it was just me being in an impatient phase.

Anyhow, it is definitely worth a read.

11. Limitless by Jim Kwik

After over two decades of helping people improve their memory, reading speed, and overall brain performance, Jim Kwik has finally gifted us with a book that sums up all of his experiences and tips.

Since fast learning is becoming increasingly important in today’s informational age, this is a must-read for everyone.

This book also gives you some tools at hand to keep your brain healthy even throughout old age.

And Jim Kwik is a great teacher. So get out your wallet and get yourself that book!

That’s it. Those are the books I’ve read this year.

What did you read? Comment down below your favs from this year.

Also, what’s on your reading list for next year? Mine is steadily growing, it’s not even funny even more -_-

I hope you have a fantastic day!

Sophie