These are the tips and challenges I’m going to follow in 2020.

I challenge you to start by doing one of these challenges each day over the next 14 days.

1. Daily Ritual

Create a daily ritual where you put yourself first. Ensure every day you are doing something that fills your cup up—ideally, first thing in the morning—and then head into your day feeling energised and charged up from self-nurturing.  

You can not give from an empty cup; you can try, but you will burn out quickly.

Action challenge: Create a list of things that you love doing and aim to do three things daily from this list. (This could be something as simple as waking at sunrise and having a cup of tea.)

2. Working Hours

Commit to specific hours and adhere to it, ensuring you switch off in the evening.  Communicate to those around you what your capabilities are so you can place a boundary if they cross it.

When you’re at work, be at work. When you’re off duty, be off duty.

There are 24 hours in a day. Bring an element of balance into your schedule, with eight hours of work, eight hours of play, and eight hours of sleep.

Action challenge: Take a different route to work, or, if you are a nomad, go to a different cafe to work from.

3. Fun, fun, fun

Create time every day to do something you love; this will charge your tank right up. Be it a sport, going for a walk, swimming, running, spending time with loved ones, building relationships with those around you, or, most importantly, spending some time self-reflecting and growing.

Action challenge: Have fun. Go on a day adventure with someone you love and care for. Do this at least once a month.

4. Boundaries

Stop overcommitting. Learn to say no to what doesn’t feel right or align with you and no to what you don’t have capacity for. It’s so easy to get caught in the trap of people-pleasing, rather than saying no to something you don’t have capacity for.

You might lose friends, which can be challenging, but your true friends will respect you for it. If in reading this you are recognising you don’t have boundaries, it’s time to pay attention and get clear on what’s a boundary for you and expressing it with the people in your life—family, friends, colleagues, and everyone else in between.

Action challenge: Next time someone crosses your boundaries, instead of sweeping it under the carpet, say something. This could be really easy for you or really difficult. Either way, say something. If it’s a challenge, you could lead into the conversation with, “This is really difficult for me to say, but when you did [blank], it made me feel [blank].”

5. Values 

Get clear on what your top five values are. This will help you place boundaries when people cross them, as you are aware of what’s most important to you.

Perhaps you have been people-pleasing for so long that you don’t even know you’re doing it.  That’s okay. It’s a fairly easy process to recognise what your values are and then a journey to implement it.

Action challenge: Define what your top five values are.

6. Vision

This is what gets you out of bed in the morning. Get clear on what your vision is in life and take steps every day to move toward it. Anything that isn’t in line with it, either limit it or don’t allow time for it in your life.

If you don’t have a vision, you are just wandering around aimlessly and most likely feeling unfulfilled and lost in life.

Action challenge: Define what your vision is, or, if you have one, does it need fine tuning?

7. Five-minute “blah” buddy

Vent with a friend, mentor, coach—someone you can speak to when you’re losing your mind and who can bring you back to balance in less than five minutes—rather than imploding on yourself over time.

This is a great tool to dump it out of your head rather than stew on it. And to do it with someone who is going to hold the space for you to release it without judgment and help you to come back to yourself and your vision again.

Action challenge: Find a five-minute “blah” buddy.

8. Accountability buddy

This is different than a five-minute “blah” buddy. This is someone you speak with for 30 minutes each week when you create your game plan for the week ahead of what you want to achieve in your business and personal life as well as review the week before.  

Keep it short, sharp, succinct, and focused on your vision. The purpose of the accountability buddy is to keep you on point, to a higher standard of accountability, and moving toward your vision. Someone who will also call you on things when you need it.

Action challenge: Find an accountability buddy and discuss what new things you want to try to push your limitations and grow as a person.

9. Vulnerability

Stop trying to do it all yourself. Open yourself to your loved ones with the support and love that is on offer around you. Be real with how you are feeling. If you need support, ask for it. 

It can get super lonely at the top; sometimes the leaders need leading too. It’s not a sign of weakness saying you need support; in fact, it’s a sign of strength.

Action challenge: When you are struggling, get vulnerable with those around you (use discernment of who can be trusted), instead of keeping it to yourself.

10. Sleep

Ensure you are getting enough rest at night. If you aren’t, something is off and you need to readjust some things. Have a feel into what you need, and take action toward getting proper rest.

Action Challenge: Create a bedtime schedule and commit to it for 30 days.

11. Exercise

Ensure you are getting at least 30 minutes of movement in a day, whatever that looks like for you. Sign up to classes, join a boot camp, commit to a minimum of five hours of exercise a week.  

Moving your body helps release endorphins and stress; it also helps create strength and a clear head to keep you focused on business.

Action challenge: Sign up to do that class or challenge you’ve always wanted to take, but always promised you would do it later.

12. Diet 

Clean, healthy eating makes a massive impact on our moods, energy levels, and our output for life. How is your diet? Are you eating too much, too little, foods that aren’t nourishing, eating late at night? Have a review of your diet and see the areas where it could be improved. Seek guidance if you need it.

Action challenge: Consider going vegan/vegetarian for a month and see how it shifts your energy. Watch this film on Netflix: “The Game Changers.” It’s an eye-opener around elite athletes and how their results drastically improved from shifting to a vegan/vegetarian diet!  

(A sneak preview of the film for the males out there: going vegan/vegetarian increases the strength and longevity of erections. Just sayin’…if you need motivation.)

13. Move from hustle to heart

You will burn out if you do not operate from the heart. It’s simply a matter of time. You can still hustle from a heart space; however, fulfilment is created as you are doing it from a space of alignment and what’s actually true for you rather than following an agenda or coming at it from need or lack.

Remember: Hustle without heart leads to burnout.

Action challenge: Get real with yourself: Are you operating from hustle or heart? If hustle, where can you stop, reflect, and pivot accordingly so you can move from heart?

14. Focus on you

As within, so without.

Stop trying to change everything around you. Go within, do the work, and things will rapidly shift around you to reflect the changes you made internally.

Rather than trying to force or make things happen, things organically come to you. It might not necessarily pan out the way you want it to, however, when you go within to make the changes, the outcome is irrelevant as you are grounded and centered within yourself. Nothing outside can shake you as you are strong to your core.

Action challenge: Take a moment to reflect and go within. Is there anything within you that needs addressing?