Looking Back and Looking Ahead 2020 & 2021

Welp 2020 it’s been real. We’re fully into 2021 and I think we can all agree that we want to leave the darkness of 2020 behind. While 2021 already is proving to be quite a year already…yikes. I always think it is still a good time to pause, reflect, refresh and look ahead to better things. So here are my 2021 goals and resolutions.

• Read more! I find myself buying a lot of books but never finding the time to actually sit and read one. I also start a bunch of different books at the same time.
• Develop a manageable morning routine. I’m thinking something to fuel, something to move, something to set intentions, something to find peace of mind.
• Create a true wind down night routine. I want to truly be better at winding down and finding peace at night and to stop scrolling through the Alice in wonderland hole of content that is Tik Tok.
• Put my phone away more. I truly have this little gadget with me at all times. I think my phone is also a security blanket for me to know that if something was wrong with someone or with me they are a quick call away. Ugh this makes me want to just get a flip phone again! Anyone else?!
• Create a healthy meal plan. I am a “bad habit” person. I fall into bad Starbucks breakfast sandwiches to go on my morning commute because it’s easy and well I just can’t help it! I love love comfort food. I don’t deny myself from the indulgences of life but hey sometimes the 4th biscotti really isn’t necessary girl! I feel so much better when I’m eating clean but I need to stay consistent.
• Send more snail mail. I often ask for people’s addresses, write the snail mail, address it….and then….it sits in a pile of abandoned mail.
• Explore!! Now that I am in a new place I feel so excited to be able to see new corners of Miami.
• Just stop complaining. I feel that if you look for the bad it will ALWAYS be there and when you find it we can’t help but toss a magnifying glass up to it and make it worse. If we look for the good it’s there too!
• Get outside more. I feel that sometimes I feel stuck inside because I can’t make up my mind. I’m a super indecisive person and I need to work on just deciding.
• Be more patient and calm. I am…Italian. AKA I can go 0 to 100 really quick sometimes. Even when I am patient and calm on the outside I can feel the little angry Italian troll heating up on the inside. LOL. My mom says life is 90% of how we react.
• Learn to love myself again. I want to get to know myself more. I think that quarantine was such growing pains for me and I felt alone and sad. So now that I have gone through that, I hope I can look ahead to see what makes me me, what I love, what makes me feel alive.
• Develop my relationship more with Joe. Being together for three plus years and living together for two you fall into a comfortable feeling. BUT living together does not equal spending quality time together. Sometimes I feel that it’s best to keep some parts of your life private and I have tried to do that with my relationship recently! I really want to just have fun with one another and be young kids in love 🙂
• More small acts of kindness. Someone paid for my coffee in the Starbucks drive through the other day and I nearly cried. It makes me wonder about the person who has the kindness in their heart to start that chain. I hope to do more small acts of kindness in 2021 to make people smile.
• Call my family more. I must admit my mom is my all time favorite person and I call her multiple times a day. I hope to call more family in 2021 just to say hi and check in.
• Let go. I hope to let go of everything that held me down in 2020.

• Read more – definitely got more down time to try reading again! I found myself in book stores every weekend in our neighborhood in the UWS. 
• Wake up earlier – Being in Utah with a time change and having to do distance learning on the east coast….yeah you would say I had to wake up earlier. 
• Go to bed earlier….no more mindless scrolling. I’m such a night owl!! TRUE!! 
• Write more – Fell in love with journaling again. 
• Be a better listener – still working on this
• Decide what I want and go for it. Stop trying to be a people pleaser. – Woah yeah!!!
• Drink more water….as always – Still working on this.
• Don’t just vent all the time try to talk about all the positives and good parts of my day – again still working on this
• Take care of my body – not to look good but to feel good – I got really into yoga and meditating!
• Cook at home more – I got to cook with Joe’s mom and his brothers girlfriend
• Keep in touch – call more, write more, connect more with people who are far from me. Oh boy was I able to connect more with people who were far away from me. 
• Say yes to more – Sometimes I feel like I would rather lay low or do the thing that makes more sense instead of being spontaneous. Well there wasn’t much to say yes to!
• Say no – I think that saying no is just as important as saying yes. I need to be better about saying no to things that aren’t my speed or say no to things I can’t take onto my plate at that time. I guess my resolution is to find balance between yes and no. YES!!! I felt super uncomfortable with covid and really found myself having to say “no I’m just not comfortable with that yet!” real friends will respect your boundaries.
• Put myself out there – I think this goes along with saying yes, sometimes I get so in my head about what other people will think about me. I started my YouTube channel so yes!! I totally put myself out there 🙂 You can find my channel here.
• Balance grad school, work, my social life, love life and me time better…. With grad school almost done I think I still struggled to balance! 
• Aka ^^ stop procrastinating!!!
• Be more patient and calm – OH DEAR LORD I NEED TO STILL WORK ON THIS. I have a little angry Italian troll woman that lives inside me I swear. I need to be more calm and patient!
• Meditate more (I use the app headspace almost every night to fall asleep) – I got into such a good habit of meditating in early quarantine days! 

Cheers to looking back so that we can look ahead! I hope that 2021 brings us closer to normalcy and peace.

Always,

Madison