A new year is like a blank slate, and you can fill it with whatever you want!

Unfortunately, most people make a bunch of resolutions and then let them fizzle out by the end of the first month or so. How can we overcome this, and keep our motivation throughout the year to make it as awesome as it can be?

Pick a couple and most importantly, put them into action!

1. Monthly challenges with weekly focuses. The problem with a year-long resolution is almost no one can really stay focused for an entire year. But if you break it into monthly challenges, then it’s much more doable. For example, if you want to get into shape, do a January challenge to go for a walk every day, or run three days a week. Even better: break the month-long challenge into weekly focuses … so you just have to run for three days this week. Then another focus the next week, etc. Once the first month is over, take what you learned and use that to shape your next month’s challenge.
2. Make someone else pay for your failure. This is a really powerful form of motivation. Set a challenge for yourself for a month, and if you fail, then a friend agrees to have something bad happen to her or him. For example, if you don’t run three times a week for the month of January, then your friend Amit gets an ice bucket dumped on him. Or your wife has to go three days without her phone. Obviously your friends have to agree to the consequence, but you can agree to be each other’s consequence, and pick a consequence you’d be unhappy about but willing to do. This is much more powerful than if the consequence of your failure happens to you, because you really don’t want to be the cause of someone else’s misfortune.
3. Make someone else benefit from your success. This is just the reverse of the previous idea … if you succeed at your monthly challenge, then a friend gets to have something nice happen to him or her. This is really nice, because you will be motivated to make someone else happy.
4. Start with mindfulness training. I’ve found mindfulness to be the foundational habit, because it gives you some key tools for forming all other habits. If you do mindfulness training for a month or more, you’ll have the skills you need to not fail at other habits you want to create for the rest of the year. For example, you’ll be able to see your urges and rationalizations, instead of being controlled by them. You’ll be able to mindfully put yourself in the space you want to focus on creating something, or for doing a workout.
5. Find your accountability crew. It’s possible to stick to changes on your own, but having a group of friends doing it with you is incredibly effective. Find people who want to make changes too, and agree to hold each other accountable. Use an online spreadsheet to keep track of how you’re doing each day or week, and set consequences (see above) if you fail or succeed. Don’t let your crew fall off track!
6. Make small changes. Instead of trying to change everything at once, and making drastic changes … try to make smaller ones that will gradually end up as big changes over the course of a year. So instead of trying to work out for an hour a day, try just a few minutes each day. This allows you to fit the new habit into your life easily, and as you gradually increase the changes one small step at a time, your mind won’t rebel against the change because it’s not too far outside your comfort zone. If you want to eat better, add one vegetable to your meal each week, instead of going on a drastic diet.
7. Be curious. Instead of failing and then thinking, “I suck,” don’t think of your changes as “fail” or “succeed.” Instead, think of it as a learning process, and no matter how you do, you’re learning something. Each failure is just another data point, another way to find out what works. This is a flexible mindset of curiosity, of wanting to find out, rather than thinking you have all the answers. This allows you to deal with any obstacles or changes that come up, because you’re not fixed on one outcome, but instead are curious about how things work and what might be possible.

What advice would you give us when we know we should exercise, but you just don’t feel up to it?

The answer is easy

Don’t look at it as exercise — instead, play games and sports and have a ton of fun! The main thing is just to get outside every day and do something you think is fun. You can play sports like soccer, basketball, baseball, or badminton. You can play games like freeze tag or ride a bike or do running races with your friends or family. You can go on hikes with your family or go swimming or paddling. Do lots of different things, and again, focus on having fun, and doing it often.

1. Aerobics
2. Ballet
3. Baseball
4. Basketball
5. Biking
6. Boating
7. Bowling
8. Boxing
9. Canoeing
10. Dance Revolution
11. Dancing
12. Double Dutch
13. Field Hockey
14. Football
15. Frisbee
16. Golf
17. Gymnastics
18. Hiking
19. Hockey
20. Hopscotch
21. Horseback Riding
22. Hula hooping
23. Ice Skating
24. Jogging
25. Juggling
26. Jump rope
27. Laser tag
28. Paintball
29. Ping-Pong
30. Playing catch
31. Rock Climbing
32. Roller Blading
33. Roller Skating
34. Running
35. Skateboarding
36. Skiing
37. Soccer
38. Softball
39. Swimming
40. Tae Kwon Do
41. Tennis
42. Trampoline
43. Treadmill
44. Unicycling
45. Volleyball
46. Walking
47. Weightlifting
48. Wii sports games

1. Listen To Music
   Powering up a playlist that fits the vibe of your workout of choice can help you feel more empowered to hit the gym.
2. Have Omega 3’s
   Omega-3s have been shown to augment blood flow to muscles during exercise,” which can help ease tension and allow the muscles to relax and be less inflamed.
3. Talk It Out
   Repeat your specific goal—in your head and aloud. “I will squat X pounds,” you tell yourself. Write it down and post it on your bathroom mirror, or in your gym locker. The more you say it and see it, the more you’ll believe it—and achieve it.
4. Imagine How You’ll Feel Afterwards
   Psyching yourself up to go to gym is tough when you’re just not in the mood. But don’t you almost always feel amazing afterwards? Try to envision yourself post workout – you’ve got a good sweat on, you’re feeling hella good and those endorphins are flowing – and you may just get a twinge of motivation to get moving.
5. Bring Guests
   Having family or friends cheer you on helps you draw strength the way a team does from its fans.
6. Peruse Social Media
   From workout challenges and motivational quotes to inspirational photos featuring six-pack abs, social media is an excellent motivational tool.
7. Have Beet Juice Before
   Boost your mood and energy levels before hitting the gym in order to reap major health benefits. According to a study, experts believe that beet juice might boost endurance and help supply energize for a great workout ahead.

Not that you’d ever pack all 12 — but a quick review of this list of travel accessories should help you remember the essentials no matter what kind of trip you’re taking.

1. Camera, memory cards.
2. Sunglasses, sunscreen, and Afterburn.
3. A survival whistle, if you’re going far off the grid
4. An eco-friendly, biodegradable, phosphate-free multipurpose soap to wash your dishes, your clothes, and your body.
5. Reusable cutlery and a small bowl.
6. A multipurpose tool is a compact and lightweight way to bring your kit with you. You’ll have easy access to pliers, screwdrivers, a jackknife, a saw blade, and mini-scissors.
7. Rain gear, including a cover for your pack.
8. Dissolve oral rehydration salts in water and drink to treat severe dehydration.
9. A portable solar power kit, so you can charge your electronics anywhere (if it’s sunny).
10. A money belt to hide your cash, cards, and passport.
11. A pair of aquasocks — slip-on shoes with non-skid soles to protect your feet in the water. Also can double as shower shoes.
12. Packing cubes help you fit more into a smaller space, and keep dirty clothes separate from clean ones.

The most important item on your list

Duct tape is notoriously versatile, and while it won’t help you if you forget something like your solar power kit, it’s a go-to repair tool.

They’re not big things, but each simple pleasure can translate to a great day if you use them right. Of course, you can probably come up with a thousand more, and it should also be noted that one person’s pleasures aren’t always pleasures for others.

It is a wonderful thing to have order to our lives, to simplify and have routines and systems that make things peaceful, organized, and calm.

Unfortunately, life likes to throw chaos and disorganization our way.

Things get disrupted, people interrupt, email requests pour in, our neatness gets messy, schedules get thrown into disarray, things get busy and hectic and complicated.

How can we stay sane in the middle of all this chaos? How can we take the chaos and busy-ness and messiness, and use them as opportunities to get good at handling it all?

The answer is with practice. And the practice is a method of letting go and re-centering in the middle of chaos.

The Method: Letting Go & Re-Centering

When chaos and messiness come our way, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not inherently stressful and anxiety-inducing. It’s just that our minds don’t usually like these things. We want order and simplicity.

So the problem isn’t the external situation. It’s our internal ideals. We want order and simplicity, not to be interrupted, not to be overwhelmed. The ideal of orderliness is causing our frustration, stress, anxiety, not other people, not a chaotic situation.

The ideal of orderliness causes our difficulties. And we created the ideal. Therefore, we are causing our own difficulties.

The good news is that, if we created the ideal, we have the power to change it.

What if we let go of our ideal of orderliness, and created a new ideal: the perfect situation is what is in front of us. Our current experience is perfect, as messy and uncomfortable as it is. It is absolutely perfect. We just need to see its beauty.

So in the middle of chaos, the method is this:

1. Notice that we are getting anxious or frustrated.
2. Notice that our ideal of orderliness is causing the difficulty.
3. Let go of that ideal, which is causing our pain and struggle.
4. Breathe, and re-center ourselves, so that we become calm. This is simply returning to the present moment, with no ideals, seeing the situation afresh and with new eyes and an open heart.
5. See the beauty and perfection in the moment in front of you.

That’s the method, and it is simple. But not easy.

The difficulty comes from a couple of things. First, we don’t like to let go of our ideals. We want things to be the way we want them. We want people to behave the way we think they should act. We want control over things. That we can’t actually have these things doesn’t often matter. We want them nonetheless. Second, we have difficulty in seeing the perfection in chaos and disorder. They don’t live up to our ideals, so seeing the beauty in them is foreign. We need to open up to them, but we’re not used to it.

The answer to these problems comes with practice.

The Practice: Opening Up

Whenever you have difficulty with disorder and chaos, with letting go and seeing the perfection in the moment … this is an opportunity for practice. And what a wonderful opportunity it is.

Feel the hardness in your heart when someone is behaving imperfectly. Feel the sharp edge in your chest when things start to fall apart and get messy. Feel the frustration in your torso when someone interrupts your quiet time, or leaves their things out and makes a mess.

Then see that as a wonderful opportunity to practice.

Here’s the practice:

1. Notice when you’re resisting the method above. It could be because you don’t want to let go of your ideal (what you want) or because you don’t want to see the beauty in the current moment. It’s one of the two (and they’re the same thing).
2. Sit (or stand) still. Pause and notice your resistance. Notice what’s going on.
3. Try to open your heart and mind, just a little. Be less closed off, and more open to what’s happening. How can this be your teacher? How can you open up, just 1%, to what is in front of you?

Little by little, you can learn to let go of your ideals (which are causing you difficulty) and open up to the perfection of the messiness of this moment. And as you do, you’ll get better at chaos. You’ll be the master of messiness. You’ll be the Zen center of the universe. What an amazing gift to give yourself.