At the start of every year, Maha and I sit down and write down what we want to focus on for the next 12 months. It’s a little ritual that we’ve been doing for too many years to count! We go out for brunch (with our notebooks and diaries in hand!) and map out the year ahead. We write down all of our personal, family and work goals, determine our focus for the year and generally just re-group after a usually hectic festive season. We always leave that brunch feeling so light and like we can conquer the world.
Rather than goals or resolutions, our focus for the year is usually a word that encompasses a lot of little things that make us happy. Then, whenever we do something throughout the year, we ask ourselves whether what we’re doing is contributing to our word. For example, your word might be ‘create’ or ‘family’ or ‘health’ or ‘friendships’.
It was only recently that I came across a video that highlighted the importance of self-care and valuing yourself, which made me realise that I need to focus on self-care and valuing myself this year. The purpose of the video by Australia’s leading life insurer, TAL, is to connect people with the realisation that they often undervalue themselves and it’s only through the eyes of others that we understand our true value. The video uses real couples to tell each other what they value about each other. Well, can someone please pass me the tissues because at the end of the two minutes, I was sobbing! You can watch the video below but be warned that you will need a tissue or two!
After watching the video by TAL, it was obvious that our word and focus for 2018 was going to be self-care. After an incredibly busy five years running SWIISH and an even busier 2017 expanding the business and juggling life as a family of four, Maha and I both wanted to focus on something that is about ourselves. I think that so often we get caught up in the day to day running of a business and a family that we can forget to look after the person who most likely needs the most attention: us! And it’s not until you get incredibly sick that you realise that if you’re not 100%, you won’t be able to give 100% to your job, your family or your friendships.
After watching the video, Maha and I were inspired to write down what we value about each other so that we can better understand the true value of ourselves and then do something about it!
After writing our lists and seeing what we value about each other and in turn, value about ourselves, we are determined to love and value ourselves more.
If you’re in the same boat as us, we encourage you to write down what you value about yourself and then do something about it! This is what we have implemented into our lives this year so that we can focus on self-care:
Go for a quick twenty-minute walk whilst listening to your favourite podcasts.
Organise your finances. Whilst this doesn’t sound like self-care, it absolutely is! We have just read The Barefoot Investor and we couldn’t recommend it enough for getting all of your finances in order. Self-care isn’t always about massages and manis; think about how good you will feel after sorting out your super or filing those tax returns!
Consider taking out life insurance to protect yourself. We insure our cars, our home, our pets, our contents and our health, but one thing that so many Australians often forget to insure is their most important asset: themselves! TAL is Australia’s leading life insurer and what we love about them is they don’t believe that the fear of something going wrong should be used to motivate people to consider life insurance and protection. Rather, TAL want to motivate more Australians to reconsider how much they value themselves. And that is something we are 110% on board with.
Read a book a month or more. I’ve just finished reading You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero and it was so nice to focus on that for the month. Obviously, if time permits, read as many books as possible!
Start a hobby or try something new that you’ve always wanted to do! One thing that I am trying this year is Italian lessons (I love pasta and pizza so much that it only makes sense haha!). But whatever you’re interested in, do it! You could try a sport or go to an art class.
So here’s to 2018, to self-care and to loving ourselves! We would love to hear how you are looking after yourself this year in the comments below.
This blog post is sponsored by TAL, Australia’s Leading Life Insurer but all opinions are our own.
