Welcoming 2019!

I just finished my 30 days Social Media Fasting and Less Use of Gadgets Project this week.  This is one of my #nyla30thingsat30 lists. I started 10 days before Christmas and ended 15 days after the first day of the new year. This experience gave me a lot of time reflecting on the most important lessons from 2018 and directed me to some of my awesome goals I would like to accomplish this 2019! Here are some of my realizations that I hope can inspire you.

1. Your most important responsibility each day is to take good care of yourself. You cannot give what you do not have. This year, I established my "first 5 first routine". These are the 5 things I do when I wake up in the morning so I can keep myself happy and positive the whole day as I face my daily challenges. I learned this year that looking presentable and feeling beautiful every day can affect our actions. When we look great, we conduct ourselves gracefully. I made a commitment to look pretty each day. Being pretty also means being healthy. Avoiding unhealthy foods and cleansing once in a while is a must!

2. I also made a goal to lessen my screen time from 5 hours daily to an hour. This goal is specifically for my phone. I thought at first it's going to be hard. However, it resulted in a better screen time management protocols for myself. My original purpose for my facebook account is to give an update to my family and loved ones on the happenings in our family. I also use my account as storage for our photos. But since I have plenty of friends now who do not need to know such updates, I created a facebook account for Zephrine. This account is only for our immediate family members. I will start posting our family activities there instead. My facebook account will be used for my advocacy #livetoinspire. I would like to share inspirations and from time to time important events in the family which is okay to share in a bigger audience. I will also upload videos on my youtube channel for our family history. This is for our children and children's children. I have two (2) Instagram account; the_refinedwoman and my personal account. I realized that I need to set protocols so I can discipline myself. With fewer distractions for the past days, I accomplished a lot of my important tasks before their deadlines! I want to keep this kind of life so I made the following commitments:

• Social Media fasting every Sunday. I've been doing this for a while na but there were times when I failed! 
• I will open my facebook account in my laptop ONLY while Zephrine's account can be open on my phone. 
• I will keep the 1 hour screen time limit daily. I dedicate my phone for calls, text messaging and messenger.
• Instagram is 30 minutes total weekly every Tuesday and/ Thursday. 
• Facebook is 30 minutes total weekly every Monday and/ Friday. 
• 1-2 blog posts every month and 1 video/month.
• Checking of Social Media which includes Facebook, IG, Youtube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest will start at 1:00 PM onwards unless needed in the morning. 

3. I was able to set goals with my husband too. I love our weekly planning session together/family council meeting and the learning sessions as a family. We established our goals for 2019! We are also loving our companionship planners! Thank you to our dear sponsor. I was able to make our vision boards for the next 10 years! I love more time with my loved ones especially with our daughter Zephrine, my husband and our immediate families. I committed myself to teach my daughter daily and to be tender with my husband every moment. 

4. I also generated ideas on how I can make things better at work. I am very grateful for the overflowing inspirations and the support I am getting from my co-workers. We were able to improve a lot of things in the Human Resources Department and other standard operating procedures. I completed my  Meeting Schedules for the whole year of 2019. I distinguished my important focus. I committed myself that I will empower the leaders and will add value to every employee in the company. 

5. We should live intently for the people and things that bring us eternal happiness. We should live with purpose. Every minute counts. TIME IS TRULY ONE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCES. I pondered a lot on how I can set a limited time for short-time, instant joys! I thought of ways on how to deal with negativity, to forgive easily and to avoid procrastination. It's true that the earlier we can accept that challenges are a part of our continuous growth, the faster we will find solutions to our problems. It will also help us stay happy while overcoming them. Our lives are different from each other but we all can write our own happily ever after. Live intentionally and your life will be the kind of story you would like to have. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL!
Remember that true happiness comes from the inside.
We must lay the foundation of our Self-worth on the sources of an unwavering Love.