6 Monthly Challenges To Help You Crush Your Goals in 2023
Falling into a social, professional, or financial rut can make it hard to regain a sense of purpose. Kickstart your life with these free 30-day challenge printables courtesy of Mint.com today!
A New Vision, New Resolutions: Self-Improvement Tips for the New Year
Self-improvement conjures up images of a lean, trim, muscular body and at least 12 months of robust physical health. There’s certainly nothing wrong with striving for a healthier you every day, but instead of limiting your efforts to physical improvements, what about expanding your definition of self-improvement? After all, there are many aspects of your life where self-growth can be beneficial and may lead to new personal and professional opportunities.
Feed Your Curiosity
Admit it, you’re curious about a great many things but you don’t pursue them due to a lack of time and responsibilities in your personal and professional life. Reassess that belief this coming year! You’ll probably find there’s more time to explore, read and research than you thought, so let your curiosity run wild. It may lead you to a life-changing new interest, perhaps something that dovetails nicely with your skills and likes.
One of the coolest things about indulging your curiosity is that there’s no limit on where it may take you. One interest leads to another, and another, and another. Before you know it, you’re making time to read and spending more time online researching all those awesome new interests. If something calls to you, dive right in and see where it takes you.
Break Out of Your Rut
Life can devolve into a series of ruts if you allow it. For many people, that means coming home after a long day at the office, flopping onto the couch and reaching for the TV remote or gaming controls. While that may be one way of escaping the trials and tribulations of the day, it isn’t healthy, and it robs you of so many other experiences. In the coming year, make a self-improvement resolution to break out of your routine.
Instead of heading straight for the couch, grab your running shoes, hook up the dog and go for a relaxing after-work walk or jog around the neighborhood. Get some fresh air and spend some time alone with your thoughts. Maybe listen to a podcast and learn more about one of your new interests while you walk. Or why not invest in a new fitness watch that measures your every move so you can have real-time updates on your progress? Seeing results in real-time can provide some incredible encouragement to stay active!
And instead of binge-watching your favorite Netflix show before bed, spend an hour reading that interesting book you recently picked up. Or, better yet, use that time to go back to school to obtain that degree that’s always in the back of your mind (online universities make this easier than ever to accomplish, by the way). Breaking out of a stagnant pattern is healthy and can open you to a whole new world of possibilities.
Get Reacquainted with the Dentist
If, like many people, you put off seeing the dentist as long as possible, you’re probably in need of dental attention, whether it’s for a cleaning, a new filling or something a bit more involved. Medical science has made a clear connection between dental health and other parts of your body. Did you know that poor oral health can lead to heart disease? This coming year, don’t blow off that visit to the dentist’s office. Bad teeth can hold you back socially and physically, so get the care you need now. If getting there is inconvenient, look for a practice a bit closer to home, or research dentists that don’t charge quite so much if cost is an issue.
Build Confidence
Good dental health is one good way to restore your self-confidence. But it also helps to set attainable, incremental goals instead of deciding this the year you finally lose 50 pounds and go on a coast-to-coast motorcycle odyssey. Recite a mantra affirming your new outlook, decide to read a book every month, begin learning a foreign language, or register for a class at your local university. Sometimes just getting started can feel like a major accomplishment, a proactive move toward a more resolute you that naturally boosts your confidence.
Want an even bigger boost, why not treat yourself to a professional photography session? This is an incredible way to build your self-esteem, especially when you work with a skilled photographer who can help you show your unique personality through a timeless fine art portrait that you’ll be proud to display in your home.
At AustinBollinger.com, we believe that it’s never too early or too late to make a resolution. So, look for ways to reinvigorate your initiative to give yourself a much-needed boost. It doesn’t have to be physical; it could be an emotional lift or an intellectual activity that makes you feel smarter. Either way, you’ll be on the path to a productive new chapter in your life.
How to Make Protein Shakes Taste Better: Protein Pitfalls, Tips, and Tricks
A few weeks back a friend sent me this text: “Protein shakes taste like @$$. Please tell me you have some tips to make protein shakes taste better.” Well, I did and this blog post has them all!
Overcoming the Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19
Mental health. An ever-important topic has recently become even more crucial and top of mind with the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
As I’ve gotten older and older, mental health is something that has become increasingly important to me. When I was young, like most kids, I just felt the way I felt.
Sometimes I was happy, and other times I was sad. I felt the occasional stress, anxiety, lack of confidence, and anger that most kids experience while growing up. I felt my feelings, but I didn’t always understand or acknowledge them.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve come to learn and understand my feelings and emotions better. However, 2020 has brought so many things to the surface—isolation, new fears and anxieties, and feelings of uncertainty—to name a few.
And it’s not just me. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people all over the world have been suffering from increased feelings of depression, sadness, and isolation. These things have always existed, but from what I see in the news, these feelings are growing every day.
Now, one great way to deal with and overcome these types of negative emotions is through counseling. According to Hudson Valley Community College, counseling can help with several things, including:
- greater self-acceptance and self-esteem
- ability to change self-defeating behaviors/habits
- relief from depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions
- increased confidence and decision-making skills
- ability to manage stress effectively
With COVID-19 still running its course, I think we could all use some help in some, if not all, of these areas, but with so many places in lockdown, quarantine, or under mask orders, getting out is more challenging than ever before.
And even if you can get out and about, it can still be stressful and scary, right? The last thing we need is one more thing to feel anxious about.
Lucky for us, the folks at BetterHelp have built “the world’s largest counseling service,” and it’s 100% online. Excellent news, right!
“But, I’m not sure I need counseling or therapy. Don’t other people have it worse than me?”
How severe or subtle your mental health symptoms are isn’t a factor when considering counseling—it’s available to everyone, anytime.
You don’t have to feel like your problems are worse than anyone else’s to take advantage of counseling, and you don’t have to feel ashamed for wanting help, regardless of your mental state.
The BetterHelp therapists can assist with anything you might be experiencing, from increased stress and anxiety brought on by isolation to depression or thoughts of suicide. Their team is 100% in your corner from the time of sign up and beyond.
Best of all, you can set your preferences for a counselor that meets your exact needs, from what you want help with to the type of person you’re matched up with.
COVID-19 has been rough on everyone, some more than others. So, if you feel that talking with someone might be beneficial to you, don’t hesitate, join BetterHelp today. I know you won’t regret your decision.
The more you understand how you’re feeling and why you’re feeling the way you’d do, the more in control of your emotions you can be. And when you’re in control, there’s no telling what you can do or achieve.
Good luck, my friends. Stay well.
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I hope this article has helped you in a significant way. I always aim to provide useful content, but I’m not a trained mental health specialist.
If you are experiencing depression, sadness, or suicidal thoughts, I encourage you to please seek help. You are not alone, and there is no shame in the feelings that you’re experiencing.
Mental health is crucial and should not be avoided or hidden.
If you need help in the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
How BetterHelp Counseling Online Can Unlock Your Potential
There are a lot of things that can boost high performance, but what if I told you that BetterHelp counseling was one of the keys to unlocking your potential?
At Daily New Year’s, I talk about goal setting, mindset, prioritization, focus, and many other high-performance strategies, but I also talk about mental health. Having a positive, healthy mental state is incredibly important to long-term success, and the folks at BetterHealth counseling are making getting help easier than ever.
I know, I know—if you’re focused on high-performance and self help you probably don’t think you need counseling, and you may even actively avoid it. I get it; there’s some stigma around mental health and counseling in general, but there really shouldn’t be. Mental health is far too important to ignore.
Consider this: from birth, we all begin learning and absorbing information from all around us, and this information begins to shape who we are as people and how we react to the world around us.
We all have different experiences and we’re all born into different situations. We all have different belief systems, attitudes, behaviors, fears, self-limiting beliefs, personalities, and more. Some of these things we’re aware of. Others, we’re not, and how these things impact our lives is incredibly important.
For example, if you grew up in a household that had trouble with finances, you might develop some fears and insecurities around money that either holds you back or causes you to sabotage yourself and your financial goals.
If you grew up in an environment that encouraged finding a secure, good-paying job as opposed to taking the risk of starting a business, you might find yourself being risk-averse. (I know I do!)
Many of the beliefs we have as an adult come directly from how we’re raised as children. Most of these beliefs are subconscious but still have an enormous impact on our lives.
So, if you want to tap into your best self and live a life of success and high performance, wouldn’t it be beneficial to learn more about yourself? Wouldn’t it be nice to understand and acknowledge the potential baggage and weight that’s holding you back?
Personally, I think the more you can learn about yourself, the more in control of your life you will be, and the more success and happiness you can have.
Me? I’m risk-averse and I have fears around lack of money.
In fact, there are a lot of things I’ve discovered about myself over the years that were a complete surprise to me (I won’t bore you with the details), but now that I know these things, I can keep an eye on them and prevent them from controlling my life.
But how can you learn more about yourself? How can you uncover the things that might be holding you back?
One option: BetterHelp counseling online.
I know—going to counseling might sound scary or hard, but it doesn’t have to be, and there’s certainly no shame in it. Actually, there’s a lot of power that comes from talking to a mental health professional. Better yet, the folks at BetterHelp have made counseling a 100% private and online experience.
The BetterHelp counselors are matched to you based on your profile and needs. When you sign up on their website, you get to identify the areas you want help with. You also get to pick the traits that will make you the most comfortable with your counselor.
So, if you feel like something has been holding you back, or you feel sad, anxious, depressed, or don’t seem to feel anything at all, BetterHelp counseling might be the very thing you need to get things back on track.
Or, if you still feel like counseling isn’t something you need, I encourage you to give it a try anyway. Often, like with coaching, counselors can help you discover things about yourself that you never knew were there, good and bad.
I’m not a BetterHelp affiliate, so I don’t earn anything by sending you to their site—I just wholeheartedly believe that counseling is something we can all take advantage of. And with COVID-19 and everything going on in the world today, why not take advantage of a private, secure, online counseling platform? To me, it’s a no-brainer.
Check out BetterHelp counseling today. I know you’re going to love it.
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I hope this article has helped you in a significant way. I always aim to provide useful content, but I’m not a trained mental health specialist.
If you are experiencing depression, sadness, or suicidal thoughts, I encourage you to please seek help. You are not alone, and there is no shame in the feelings that you’re experiencing.
Mental health is crucial and should not be avoided or hidden.
If you need help in the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
BetterHelp’s Online Counseling Services are Making a Positive Impact
Counseling: it’s something that so many people struggle to discuss, but with everything going on in the world today, it’s an increasingly important resource to take advantage of on, and BetterHelp is making it easier than ever with their online counseling services.
For some, needing counseling might be considered a bad thing—a sign of weakness or instability. For others, it’s a resource that changes their lives for the better, and they’re proud to admit it, regardless if it’s in person or if it’s online counseling.
For a lot of other people, counseling is something that other people need. “Other people have far worse problems than I do,” I’ve heard people say. Or, “My problems just aren’t that bad.”
For me, however, I believe counseling is something almost everyone should take advantage of. We all have a variety of things going on in our lives, from everyday stress and anxiety to adult issues that stem from unknown childhood experiences.
I believe that personal development and counseling share a common goal: to help us better understand ourselves and our emotions so that we may better influence the direction and outcomes in our lives.
But when is the right time to take advantage of counseling services? What kind of counseling do you need, and where do you find the right counselor for you? How do you get started?
These are several common questions that stop people dead in their tracks. At first, it just seems to difficult to get started, and it’s easier to put it off for later. BetterHelp is changing that with their online counseling services.
BetterHelp is the world’s largest e-counseling platform, and they make it extremely easy to get started with counseling.
Best of all, their mission is “Making professional counseling accessible, affordable, convenient – so anyone who struggles with life’s challenges can get help, anytime, anywhere.
That’s right! You can start getting the help you need (or maybe even help you didn’t know you need), from dealing with everyday stress to overcoming trauma, right from your own home. And it’s affordable!
No more calling around your community looking for a counselor that fits your needs and personality. No more wondering if the people you know will find out that you’re engaging with a counselor—it’s 100% confidential.
When you sign up from their easy-to-use start page, you will be guided through a short, 2-3 minute self-assessment. Once you’ve activated your email, you can choose your counselor preferences, from male/female, religious/non-religious, to LGBTQ/straight, and even older/younger.
BetterHelp also lets you choose your counselor’s areas of expertise, so no matter what you’re dealing with, you’ll find someone who can help.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation. If ever there was a time to take advantage of online counseling services, it’s now.
Whether you feel sad, depressed, alone, isolated, or you’re indifferent as to how you feel, I believe that everyone can benefit from some level of counseling, if for no other reason than to verbalize and release some of your everyday frustrations.
So, if online counseling sounds like something you would be interested in, give BetterHelp a try. The BetterHelp counselors are professional, experienced, and are there to help—all they need now is for you to sign up.
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I hope this article has helped you in a significant way. I always aim to provide useful content, but I’m not a trained mental health specialist.
If you are experiencing depression, sadness, or suicidal thoughts, I encourage you to please seek help. You are not alone, and there is no shame in the feelings that you’re experiencing.
Mental health is crucial and should not be avoided or hidden.
If you need help in the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
How to Free Yourself from a Negative Belief System (3 Steps)
Is your belief system negative? Is it holding you back? Positive beliefs give us the freedom to explore all that life has to offer. Negative beliefs build walls in our lives. Free yourself today!
Social Comparison: Overcome the Thief of Joy & Reclaim Your Happiness
Social Comparison is the ultimate thief of joy. If your happiness is suffering, learn how to overcome comparison for good using three powerful, everyday practices.
Where Did DNY Go? A Look at the Summer Goals that Kept me From Blogging.
From running a half-marathon and writing a book to renovating a den and building a deck, my Summer goals have kept me too busy to blog. Let’s catch up!
What is Learned Helplessness and How Do You Overcome It?
Learned Helplessness is a negative mindset that can hold you back from great things in life, and it’s especially difficult to spot. Learn what it is and how to overcome it today!
