Business Insider/Samantha Lee
If you don’t yet have a plan for 2018, you might be in trouble.
Lucky for you, we’ve already made that plan for you. Above is our 30-day guide to starting off a healthy, wealthy, happy year. Each day is accompanied by a different task, along with a quick explanation, below, of why it’s important.
Read on to find out how to set yourself up for success.
January 1: Ask yourself: What do I want that I already have? What else, if anything, do I truly want?
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Katherine Schafler, a NYC-based psychotherapist, wrote about the “ambition trap” in a post for Thrive Global. It’s the tendency for getting everything we want to make us unhappy.
“The more self-aware you are, the easier it’ll be for you to distinguish between what you like, and what you actually want to acquire,” she writes. “But how do we make that distinction? As human beings, we’re so used to wanting more as a default mode. More food, more money, more friends, more sex, more stuff, more time, more attention. So how do we start wanting less?”
It starts with the questions posed above.
January 2: Stop hitting the snooze button
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It might feel as though pressing the snooze button in the morning gives you a little bit of extra rest to start your day, but the truth is that it does more harm than good.
That’s because when you wake up, your endocrine system begins to release alertness hormones to get you ready for the day. By going back to sleep, you’re slowing down this process. Plus, nine minutes doesn’t give your body time to get the restorative, deep sleep it needs.
January 3: Start keeping track of your net worth
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One of the easiest ways to keep track of your financial progress is to monitor your net worth: everything you own minus everything you owe.
As a financial planner in New York City, Business Insider’s Lauren Lyons Cole says one of the first tasks she asks clients to complete is their “current financial snapshot,” an overview of every aspect of their financial situation, including account balances. Once you can see all of your money in one place, you can start figuring out what you want to do with it.
Added bonus: Getting organized frees up brain space so you don’t have to think about money nearly as much.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
