January is for Reflection and then Intention
Take time out to reflect on the year gone by before making another list of goals... here's the exact questions I went through
This new year's energy has got me feeling all jazzed up! Anyone else? I love this energy as it gets me in a creative space to plan and design how I want to live and feel for the year ahead.
But much of this month has still been in reflection mode on 2023 and all the things we have accomplished as a family. I’ll share at the end the questions (read till the end) 👇🏽we went through in an evening conversation Tony and I had (actually on NYE), which was so much fun to do being parents who are very tired, trying too hard to make it to midnight without passing out.
During this time of reflection, we have also been doing a lot of BIG DREAMING of our future life. As I mentioned when I started my substack, we will be going on a road trip in 2025 if all goes to plan. But our BIG DREAMS also go beyond that and get into all the details and fun bits of how we can make some things happen this year and leave the rest for the future.
Honestly, I love dreaming big and making visual boards to help me, and Tony understands what we are working towards when it comes to house design mood boards and mapping out places to go on our road trip… NOTHING thrills me more than to be in a creative space.
Being in this creative space has stopped me from writing because I wanted to map out and design my writing for the year. Still, I just felt like I kept putting it off, and I just wanted to come on and say hello, so this is my very quick hi. Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I hope you are all enjoying this time of year. Whether in the cold winter or the HOT SUMMER like us, you are taking it easy.
Instead of writing, I have been visualising the future and calculating the past. Calculating how much we spend isn’t exactly fun and something I don’t usually do, but since last year, I have shifted my Lazy Money Mind to Loving Money Clarity. It became a popular article out of last year's writings. Following this practice of loving money clarity, I felt it would be wonderful to see how we managed to spend our money. It was unique to see where we spent big chunks of money and last year we didn’t really map out our intentions and pretty much just “winged it” for the beginning of the year as my dad not being well and travelling to Canada changed things for us.
Hello to anyone new here…I’m Yogi Kim, a Filipino/Canadian mother of two boys under two: Phoenix, a 1-year-old and Memphis, a newborn. I am married to my Cypriot/British husband Tony and live in a small 64 sqm home in Perth, Australia. I write about living your best life by design and how to CARE MORE about prioritising yourself, your HEALTH and the planets. I hope to inspire you to learn and rediscover yourself. Make sure to subscribe to not miss out. Thank you for supporting my creations for $10 a month...
Finding out we were pregnant in Canada was so unexpected that we came home trying to navigate through it all, which was A LOT! We had no plan in 2023 until our plan became getting ready to welcome another member into our family.
Looking back now, I think we didn’t stop and pause enough to reflect on how everything was getting away from us. I guess being parents for the first time and having time to pause on anything is a luxury commodity, but an important one to practice to make sure what we are doing is essential and with our true intentions at the forefront of our decisions.
For me personally, I can say 2023 was a year of growth
on multiple levels…
physically growing a human and delivering him at home,
emotionally caring for baby Phoenix, who turned 1,
mentally learning how to navigate life on 1 income, being a FIFO wife and how I was going to become a mother of 2 under 2
spiritually letting go of my beloved business when I physically took down the Yoga Tent, and it all became real that I closed my business, and it was heartbreaking. It has left me feeling in this place of unknown… which is why I loved finding Substack to share this new uncharted waters with my community to feel connected to you all listening and reading my articles.
I have always been an ambitious goal/intention setter in my life. I love designing my future and then just letting go of that plan and seeing what happens, as I know nothing ever goes according to plan, but some things do happen the way they are meant to. We wanted to have another child, but we didn’t realise it would happen so soon for us. Also, having a home birth was our plan, and it turned out even more beautiful than I could have imagined it to be.
With all that being said, AMAZING things can happen in your life that are not planned.
But also AMAZING things can happen in your life that are planned.
There is no right or wrong way to go about it. I believe that if you have goals or intentions, whatever you want to call them… it works well to have a road map (aka a plan) to help you/your partner/family navigate your journey through life to HELP you get to your destination (goals) always making sure you enjoy the journey from the beginning stages of planning to the end of completion.
Let yourself indulge in life and getaway (Busselton Birthday Trip) or do a staycation (which is something I want to do one day)
Make sure you spend TIME and MONEY on the things you made a plan for and less on the distractions in life.
At the end of the year, I finished reading a book called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which was a different book for me. Still, after learning about minimalism, I was curious to understand the difference between the two and learned a lot. The main takeaway was how to make decisions more simple and effective to benefit my life and the outcomes I require—saying NO more than yes is perhaps better to achieve the things I want to get done. Many other insights were helpful as he explained how to make things more manageable and took away the guessing game that happens a lot inside our minds. It teaches you to focus on what is only essential in life.
I encourage you all still reading to take time and reflect this month. It’s NEVER too late to answer the questions I’ve shared with you all below. Do it with someone. It’s way more fun; get a bottle of wine or a cup of tea, light some scented candles, put on some awesome background music, and get comfy.
Then, take what you learned from your past year and include the good bits in your planning process for next year. I could write about this topic more, but I won’t unless you would like to hear more; please HIT reply, and I’d love to share with you what I do as I’ve changed it from just making goals every year in a list there is WAY more too it now that I am loving.
Also, if you want to share it with someone, I’m happy to be that person, so please hit reply with some or all your answers, and I’ll reply to you as I would love to hear from you all.
2023, I’ve labelled it as GROWTH now after the fact. But this year, I want to give myself a word at the beginning, and I think it will be ABUNDANCE. I will share more on this word in another article and what I have planned for 2024.
Reflection questions to do with a partner or a best friend
you can do this solo, but I highly recommend doing it and then sharing it with someone. It feels nice to share your experiences with others and listen to what others think of their accomplishments, as it can be inspiring.
Top 3 best moments in 2023 (The photos in this article are my answer to this question)
Top 3 accomplishments
What are 3 things you did that you would change or do differently?
What are 3 things you didn’t do this year and wish you did
Top 3 memorable (funny moments or milestones that will last a long time in your life, not just this year)
Best moments as a parent/partner/friendship/work 2023
Top 3 Goals 2024
1 goal you want for the other in 2024