There are few months left of the year 2023. I’m here to let you know that it’s not too late to start. Better yet, you owe it to yourself to do something incredible with this time. Let’s talk about 5 ways to prepare for the year 2024.
5 Ways to make the most of the rest of the year.
1. Invest in your Joy.
The first way to make the most of the next few months; is by investing in your joy. Joy is defined as the feeling of great pleasure or happiness. If this year has not been good for you so far, now is the time to work on mental wellbeing. One way to do this, is by doing things that bring you joy.
Enjoy Yourself
The first thing you need to do is start enjoying yourself more. Doing the things that you enjoy is good for your emotional wellbeing (NHS). These things can vary from going to watch a movie, going for a jog, sitting at the beach, reading a book, or meeting your friends for fun activities or lunch. Something that my friends and I do that is very enjoyable is booking extremely affordable holidays for a few days.
NHS website recommends avoiding doing things that seem enjoyable at the time but make you feel worse after, like drinking too much alcohol and junk food. Try to make a habit of doing things that are beneficial but don’t make you feel bad about yourself. Remember that working on your joy is about the inner working.
2. Growing Stronger in your Faith
I don’t hesitate on talking about faith because part of well-being concerns your spiritual well-being. So another way to work on your joy these next few months is by growing in your relationship with God. He will help you as He is able.
“For his anger is but for a moment, and his Favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Pslam 30 vs 5
3. Tomorrow Starts Today.
Now is the best time to start. If you have been telling yourself that you will start in the new year. Here is your reminder that starting now is the best thing that you can do for yourself. I have quickly learnt the wisdom of starting my ideas as soon as I conceive of them. The moment you tell yourself that you will do it later, it usually goes down from there.
So, in other words, start working on your new year resolution goals now. Do this, so that by the time the new year comes, you will have a head start. Remember that it takes 21 days to build a habit, if you start early, you will be giving yourself time to grow, learn fail and try again.
4. Community
We are social beings which means that community is a central part of our human experience. Of course, not every communal space is conducive for you, so wisdom has to be applied. But, having a community of people who you can talk to like friends or family is very important. A lot of us have replaced real life community and relationships with interaction online.
So, for the next few months try and build a community of people that you trust. I cannot reiterate enough how important the sense of belonging is. I know there is a whole thing about introverts and extroverts but there are several researched studies, that show that community remains a fundamental part of our well-being.
5. Health and Fitness
It is important to reach certain level of fitness in our everyday living. Obviously, the intensity and extent of this exercise dependent on your capabilities, age and health (consult with a healthcare professional if you have underlying health condition). For most of us, however, NHS website recommends 150 minutes of exercise weekly.
I always say that it is important to see exercise as necessary for overall health rather than something we do when we have goals only. By all means, go for your fitness goals, but remember there are many more benefits of exercising.
5. Start planning ahead.
I have already touched on this point but another way to make the most of the year is to start preparing for the next year. There’s no better time than now to start creating and envisioning the life that you want for yourself.
O’L Final Thought
Three months is all that you need to do a transformative work in your life. I am ferociously going for the things that I procrastinated throughout the year. I keep telling myself, what better time to start than now. This is something that you can also apply to you life. Let us make the most of the last three months of the year.
Above all, I hope that your mental well-being improves in this last quartile of the year. If this year has been tough for you, my encouragement and hope is that you will be able to feel joy again in your life.
