We spoke with Coach Kitty Dulay-Ferreria – founder of Your Awesome Year. She shared with us practical and actionable principles on how we can achieve more mindful and purposeful days in 2021, despite being locked down at home.

1. The Power of Pause & Presence

In the hustle and bustle of life in this new normal, most of the time we forget to take a pause. Work deadlines, household responsibilities, and other worry factors can really hinder you from being your best self. Coach Kitty advises us to be “Mind-Full” – instead of always worrying about tomorrow, your mind should be full of the PRESENT. Ask yourself, when was the last time you gave yourself a meaningful pause?

2. Focus on the Essential

“It will be no use to DO & BE everything.” Coach Kitty says.

What is it that you really want to achieve this year? Is it a financial goal? To have deeper relationships with your family? To put up a business? Whatever our goals may be, we must not focus our efforts and energy on the things that will really not get us there. What you focus on, grows. 

3. Nurture Relationships

Our relationships are like plants, if we don’t take care of them, it will not grow, and worst – it will eventually die. On a scale of 1-10, how well did you nurture your relationships last year? This year, let’s make it one of our main goals – to nurture our relationships with our family and friends. At the end of the day, the people in our lives are the ones who will help us achieve our awesome year. Take care of your relationships, because it is the most important thing.

4. Self-Care

“Self-care is not selfish” – It’s true. A lot of times we do everything for the people we love. Even if it means that we have to do overtime at work, to travel one to two hours every day and grind with other commuters along the way, or to give every penny that we earn and leave nothing for ourselves. Coach Kitty says “You cannot give from an empty cup.” The more we leave nothing for ourselves, the more we become empty. And when we’re empty, what can we give to the people who need us? This 2021, love and take care of yourself more, so you can take care of others.

There are 2 types of self-care:

• Recreational Self-Care – These include sleeping more hours, exercise, massage, beautification, etc.
• Transformative Self-Care – Practicing mindfulness, prayer, doing what you love, etc.

5. You do You

“We are constantly invited to be who we are”

At the end of the day, it is our own personal responsibility to create an awesome year for ourselves. We cannot rely and depend on other people to make an awesome year for us. We are accountable for our own actions and decisions.

These 5 principles are simple, yet they are not that easy to consistently apply. That’s why we at The Spark Project community encourage you to continuously and deliberately surround yourself with like-minded people who are also eager to pursue their passions.

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