[0:03]Hi, and welcome back to another video. I wanted to start this one off by sharing some words by Dan Brooks. Freedom is scary because it is the freedom to become something other than what you are now. Something you cannot predict. It's easier to think of yourself as a type of person, riding along with yourself and playing out the behaviors your type does. It's comforting to think that you did what you did because of who you are, even if who you are is bad. Because nothing is more frightening than the feeling that you are about to change into someone else.
[0:52]Good morning. Welcome back to another video. I am drinking my daily lemon ginger tea. And in this video, I'm going to be focusing on maintaining some of the habits I've been doing for the last couple weeks. But there are some new ones that are very New Year focused, and some others that I really want to revisit this year. I am about to do my morning journaling, and I believe I will be finishing this journal today. I only have a few pages. I thought I'd take a second and talk about how I journal. I journal in the form of letters to God. I feel that when I have conversations with him, I feel more comfortable saying what's really on my heart without holding back. And I know that that's a key to journaling and to really reflecting on your growth is being honest when you write and being able to look back and see how much you've grown or if your mindset has evolved. But yeah, I'll just write the date. Dear God, and go. And I always end them with amen. That's kind of what I'm going to get into right now. Finish this journal. I have never really been one to look into the kind of journal that I want, and maybe I will one day, but I find myself caring more about the quality of my sketchbooks. When it comes to writing, as long as it has dots or lines, I'm okay with it. I went to a stationary store and they had one of these. So this will be the one that I'll be stepping into today. One of my plans for today is to go to the library and write some intentions. Write myself a letter in here, but I've decided maybe instead of writing the letter in my journal, how I usually do. I'm going to write myself a letter that I will open on January 1st, 2027. See how much I've grown and see how much I thought would happen this year and did or didn't. And I'll take you all along with me probably today and tomorrow to kind of see some of the habits that I've been putting in place or that I have right now in this season. So, let's get into journaling.
[3:26]Last night I finally put together the images I selected while I was in Montreal for my vision board. And I just got to the print shop. I really hope I can get the print job done now and not have to come back, but we'll see.
[3:59]I am so happy. They were able to do it in one go. So now I'm going to go to Office Depot to get some paper. I've been feeling kind of tired of my music. But for now, I'm going to play this playlist I made a long time ago. That just makes me feel good. It's called Mangosteen.
[5:08]And it ended up still writing myself a mini letter in my journal. Now the letter for 2027.
[5:37]I had a really good journaling session, and to be honest, I was just holding back my tears. There was a girl sitting right across from me, and at certain points into the letter, I could just feel myself like But that was beautiful. And if I'm already emotional writing it, I know I'm going to be a mess when I read it, and I can't wait to see how this year goes. I recommend you do it if you've never written yourself a letter. It feels really good to read it to yourself later.
[6:48]It feels so good to be done with work. I've been staring at this screen for so long. To the point where I think I'm finally at that point where I need to put my foot down and get blue light glasses. But I've never worn glasses in my life, so I don't even know what shape would suit my face. I'll look into it. If you have any recommendations, let me know. It could literally be your storefront. I'll support. I'm itching to go outside. While I was working, I could see the clouds coming in, so it's getting gloomy, but the sun might peek through for sunset, which will be really cute. I'm going to pack a little snack. I'm still full from lunch, but a little dessert could be nice. Some roobisco or some chai even, and just do some reading and relax for the rest of the day. Let's go spend some time outside.
[8:38]Cheers to my last cup of tea and the sunset coming to an end. Man, the last time I was at this park, it was one of my first ever YouTube videos that I put out. So many different parts of who I am have seen this park, and I just find it so special. I think it's one of those things I'll always return to as long as it's here. I wanted to do a sit down talk with you all, but it was getting so loud at the park, and I got shy, so I'm just going to talk to you all while I'm here. I am about to have an everything shower, and then I'm going to get into the vision board tonight. Set some candles, some incense, get some music going. I have been playing the Tracy Chapman record that I got in Montreal non-stop. Building good habits is definitely a process, and you're not always going to get it every single day. But as long as you pick back up where you left instead of giving up and ending the cycle, it always gets better. Earlier this morning, I wrote down some ins and outs for this year that I wanted to share with you all. So for my ins, I put down Godfidence, more reading, more walks and hikes, singing in the shower, dance parties at home, more solo dates, home-cooked meals, more letters, silence, and doing the thing. And for my out, I have people pleasing, saying yes to bar events, overworking into the night, snoozing, TikTok account, foul language, pushing it until tomorrow, sleeping late, overthinking, and skipping meals. One of the ones that stood out to me the most is saying yes to bar events and sleeping late. Especially during the pandemic, I used to sleep so late. To the point where I felt like I was in a different time zone. I realized that I am more creative in the middle of the night, but with life and work and being an adult, that doesn't really work for me anymore. The other one that's really big for me is saying yes to bar events. I don't go to bars very often. I am pretty good at saying no to those things, but there are times where I end up at a bar, and I join, knowing damn well I shouldn't be in there. And this year I want to be better at that, because it's been two years since I stopped drinking alcohol. It's just not my scene. The person that I am does not thrive in that environment, and I need to stop putting myself in those spaces. So that's a big one for me this year. Everything in due time. I'm excited about this New Year. I want to continue to pull my confidence from God and not feel that I have to do everything on my own. I believe that God is always with me, but sometimes I forget, and I'm trying to pull my confidence from knowing that I'm never alone when I'm doing things. Even when filming, I really want to be on YouTube, and I want to put more videos out. But I still sometimes catch myself while I'm out in public recording and feeling small and starting to ruminate on negative thoughts. And I'm trying to remember that God is right there in that moment with me, and he knows my dream, and I just need to focus on that. So that's a big one for me this year, as well as more letters. I love writing letters. Writing a letter to myself today was the highlight of my day for sure. But I also have a really good friend who moved to the East Coast, and we send each other letters, and it's one of my favorite things.
[15:46]I had to just get the table for a second. Last night I was supposed to finish this vision board, but I ran out of glue, and some of my images turned out so small. Like this one. But I'm still keeping it. And I wanted to reprint a few and grab some more glue and stuff.
[16:08]If you're having a beverage while you're watching this with me, cheers. I'm having my coffee for the day. I had lunch as soon as I got home, and set everything up to finish my vision board. I really want to play music right now, but I'm trying to stay away from the copyright. I'll turn some music on in the montage section. Something that came up for me during my walk today was the word rebranding and how often that comes up when it comes to the New Year. When I make this vision board, it's not necessarily to rebrand myself, but it's to get realigned with the things that I have always wanted for myself consistently. It's visuals of them, but ultimately there's a lot of feeling that can't be put into a photo, so that's more in my journal. The word rebranding to me sounds so much like it's for an object or a product. When people try to push rebranding on human beings, I just find it really weird and unnecessary. It's a lot of pressure, too. Although it makes a lot more sense to celebrate the new year and realignment, etc., in the spring. I am a December baby, so celebrating the new year in January makes a lot of sense. I don't necessarily rebrand. I don't think that that's healthy for us. It's okay to realign, reposition, reassess, reflect on maybe the last quarter of the year. But as far as resetting or feeling like you have to implement thousands of things, I don't think that that's practical. There's something so therapeutic about this. One day I want to host a vision board, get together situation. I'm just so grateful to have made it another year.
[17:59]And to have a chance, I work in my goals and my dreams again. Last year was a lot for everybody. And a lot of us were just trying to stay afloat. And I really hope life can be easier for a lot of us. I'm so privileged and so lucky to be able to pursue my dreams in the way that I am. I'm just trying not to let myself down, to let the people that I love down, and to just be a good friend, be a good person. Even my neighbors or people that I come across in a day-to-day. Another goal that I've had this year has been to read. I cannot believe the drastic difference in myself from just five years ago. How much I used to read and how much I read now? I think it's because I got really happy with my book selection. I remember looking at my bookshelf and thinking, if the world decided to go to shit right now, I would have all the books that I need to just mentally stay afloat. And so, I spent a lot of my time rereading a lot of books, like The Alchemist is a really good one that I go back to. All in all, this year, I'm just trying really hard not to fall into the rebranding propaganda. And the fact that I haven't ran towards giant lists or giant rebrands this year is a sign that I'm doing better. I'm feeling like those days are over. We're supposed to be working on acceptance and gratitude for what we have right now. And that's the tone that I want to enter the year with. I have Godfidence written on here twice. It's so needed. Every time I pull my confidence from who God calls me to be, I feel so much better than trying to thug it on my own. So, I'm going to keep doing that this year. All right. So while this dries, I'm going to work on a playlist for this New Year.
[20:08]Most likely for the next month, since we are towards the end of the month. I will link the finished playlist below, and I'll also link my Apple Music profile. I am aware that most people in North America use Spotify to listen to music, so last year I did make a profile, but I I go ghost a lot. I don't update it that often. And then I will do better at that, but my primary way of listening to music has always been Apple Music.
[20:43]Maybe more people will flock to Apple Music finally, and my playlist could be shared and listened to. But if you do not have Apple Music, I will make the playlist on my free Spotify account that you can listen to. I have put somewhat of a pause on DJing. I used to DJ for the last couple years. Nothing crazy or consistent, but I did want to share my love for music, so I would sign up for events or DJ for friends, etc. The way that I've been organizing my music on my Apple account for forever, every month, I'll make a playlist of the month and the year. And every single song that I find in that month, I'll put it in there. And so it'll be months, different months of playlists with different years on there. And it's fun to look back and see what was the song of that time. Or sometimes I'll play my June, July playlist of every other year and see what was the song of that summer. And right now, I'm going to be working on my February playlist, but also for just my fun feel good playlist.
[21:48]The playlists are completed. I'm going to just play them in the background and finally work on my calendar. And then later tonight, I'm meeting up with some friends for dinner.
[23:16]I just got home from dinner with the girls, and I'm going to spend the rest of the night finishing this little calendar. Thank you so much for choosing to watch this video. I appreciate the support I've been getting so far. If there's any videos you want to see from me, let me know in the comments below. I'll see you in a video soon. Thank you.
