12:00:00 strikes, everyone shouts “Happy New Year”. It’s a new beginning and time to start a new journey for a lot of us. At least this is what we say. We look back at our previous year, try to remember our best moments, or even the blessings that we got. We take out our phones, scroll through pictures and try linking pictures to our best memories we had in the year. It’s a good thing, because we should count our blessings and see the many memories we made. However, with those pictures, can we remember word for word what happened in those moments. Moments like these are not just to be scrolled over only at the end of the year.

Looking ahead is the second step in the new year. Well, the first step as we know was looking at our blessings, memories and lessons we’ve learned. Looking ahead also can mean working to bring out the best version of oneself. Everyone has a certain version of themselves, but what is the best possible version? This is where it gets confusing, I mean, how do we possibly measure something like this? This cannot be quantified, right? It’s like telling someone, if you add 2 cups of awesome version, you will reach the best version of yourself. I guess you know when you are the best version of yourself, when you stop asking yourself, “Is this the best version of me?”. Now, some of you reading this are thinking, “Damn, I am the best version of myself because I have never thought of that in my life.” Well you see, after today, maybe you will think about it more. It’s a matter of time really. Almost everyone works towards a better version. They want to push forward and make the most of what they can be and do. It’s a factor of knowing whether you reach that version and you’ll know. I know I am still working on being a better version of myself. There is so much I can still do and want to do as well.

A year back I watched this video, thanks to my brother. US Navy Admiral delivered an inspirational speech about the importance of viewing situations outside the norm. This is what I want to share from the video, the importance of making your bed everyday in the morning. The first thing anyone does in the morning, is literally get off the bed. That is our first task of the day. He tells us, if you wanna change the world, start by making your bed. To me, hearing that statement, I was in awe. Literally, my jaws hit the ground and I couldn’t utter a single word. I hit pause on the video, ran to my room, and made my bed. It wasn’t just folding my bed sheet (I do that), I actually made the whole bed. I made the bed feel welcome to stay in my room, it looked new and complete. I looked at the bed, had the biggest smile in my face, and wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, that I was going to change the world. That’s how thrilled I was. Then I thought, wait this is not it, so I rushed back to my computer and played the rest of the video. As I completed the video, this is what I learned. There are many tasks we have throughout the day. If we accomplish making our bed in the morning, then we have completed the first task of the day, simple as it may be. This will give us a small uplift, a source of energy and happiness and help us to complete more tasks. By doing this one task, it will occur to us that we have completed many more throughout the day. Now the good thing about having our first task completed, is that even if we don’t have the best of days, we come home to a well made bed. Click here for the full video.

Other than making your bed everyday, what I encourage this year is a blessings/memory box. I’ve made one for myself this year. Now in this box, I write down certain memories or blessings that I had every day. Just before you go to bed, think about one thing that made your day extraordinary. I mean, you can do more than one, I am just setting it as one to start off. Another thing are resolutions. Everyone makes new year resolutions. Resolutions are just goals that we want to reach at set period of time. Resolution is a one year goal. A long term goal basically. We should always set realistic goals, not too easy or not too hard. We don’t want to set goals that we know are set up for failure. For example, one of my goals is to do half a marathon at the beginning of the summer. I took this goal, and I broke it down. Now…I want to work towards this goal, so I asked myself, “Is this realistic…hmm, should I just do 10K, and at the end of the summer do half a marathon?”. Now I have done mini runs before and do workout normally. I took out my laptop, started looking for the marathon dates, and I found the first one which is on May 26th. I looked at the date, I looked ahead and counted the weeks. I have around 21 weeks to fully train for this half marathon. I looked away from my laptop, all these plans started running in my head and I made my decision to set this as a goal. Any goal that one sets for themselves, can be achievable. All you have to do is take a moment to plan and break it down.

Write down your goals that you want to accomplish or work towards. Write it big on a poster, on the wall, or anywhere that you can see. Before you leave home, you should look at those goals to remind you what you said you’ll do. The promises that you made to yourself. The goals that you set for yourself and no one else. Imagine the day when you accomplish one of those goals, you go up to the poster and cross that goal off. You did it! You worked towards your goals. You set a path to work for those goals.

Days will pass by quicker than ever. It will roll up mid December 2019. You have your memory box ready to read them. You have your posters, all of them marked away. What you did was look and plan ahead. You worked towards a better version of yourself. They might be tiny steps, but you weren’t afraid to take those steps. It’s your year, make it memorable, look ahead, make your bed, finish those goals! Don’t be afraid to take the step, no more holding back.

Please comment and share your story.

With Love,

Benspiration