ROMANELLE: Better Me

10 Things You Need To Do before 2018

Quick intro. Let’s close the year right and let’s get started.

Clean up your space

Clean your place and collect the things that you never use for the year and the things that have seen better days. Sell, donate or throw it away those items. In short, let it go. Its such a breath of fresh air to be totally free from stuffs. If you need some guide clearing out, you can refer to my previous blog post.

Clean your heart

It’s not just our house that needs cleaning but also ourselves from within. Let go of all the negative emotions that you have towards other people. Whether you have settled the matter with them or not, do yourself a favor and forgive them. Holding on negative emotions is just an unnecessary baggage. Remember, you cannot control other people, but you can control your thoughts and your thoughts can change how you feel. Tell yourself, “I forgive you because I don’t deserve to carry trash emotions in my heart. I have so many things to be grateful for and I’d rather fill my heart with all those goodness.

Clear your head

Any thoughts floating in your head, just write it down. Don’t let yourself get distracted by pending projects, unaccomplished goals, errands to run. Don’t hold it in your mind. Use a pen and paper or go digital if you prefer and start to brain dump. Write down any thoughts you have and clear your mind.

Know your habits

At this point, I want to say evaluate your success and failure this year. However, I realized that we have tendency to underestimate our success and overestimate our failure. So instead, lets take a more objective route and take inventory of our habits. What habits contributed to your success this year? Is it waking up early, doing food log, working out? It’s the small things that we do each day that shapes our life, and little did we know that these small things bring us success.

Take a look on the failing habits too. Do you still procrastinate? Do you spend money on nonessential, so your credit card bills build up? This is more like digging on the root of the problem than just looking into problem. Write down your habits, good or bad and get to know your habits.

Count the learning

Recall all the new things you have learned this year. Did you learn new skills? Have you read a good book or attended a lifechanging seminar or training? Take inventory of your greatest discovery this year.

Know your numbers (finances, health, relationship)

I love numbers because the saying is true, numbers never lie. It tells you exactly whether you are accomplishing something or not. Two numbers we must know before the year end is your net worth and body measurement.

Let’s face it, two common goals we set each year is related to our health and finances. Before setting goals let’s get into our status first.

Net worth is computed as asset less liabilities. Asset is anything that you own (house, savings, investment) while liabilities (mortage, credit card loan ) is anything that you owe. With this I hope you’ll have a positive result. But don’t feel bad if you get a negative result, rather see it as an opportunity for growth for next year.

For the body measurement, aside from your weight, find out your BMI and Body fat percentage too. I won’t go into details as there are tons of resources in the internet on how to compute those numbers.

Plan your organization system

Organizing might be a dreaded task, but as an adult, we all have to master this skill. As Tony Robbins says, “if your life is worth living, it is worth recording”. Plan out how you can plot your days, month, year, how you will keep track your goals and record your progress. I always prefer to go old school with pen and paper, but you can definitely use apps if that’s works for you. Just make sure you know the tolls for organization before a new year begins.

Think of your ideal 2018 (Dream time!)

Setting goals can sometimes scares people or bring them to default (losing weight, earning more). So instead, I want you to imagine your ideal year. A good start is to ask yourself this question, “Wouldn’t it be great if _______?”. For example, wouldn’t it be great if I weighted 50 kilos in 2018? Wouldn’t it be great if I’m improving my photography skills? Let yourself dream again and believe like a child!

You might be tempted to check online for inspirations, but I would say DONT. This is your life so don’t let the world or the internet tell you what your dreams are supposed to be. Listen to your inner thoughts and let yourself decide on what you really want.

Write down success habits to go with your ideal year

Remember the habits inventory we did in step 4? Bring it out again and pick those habits that will help you achieve your new year’s goals. Think of the habits you need to form to fulfill your ideal life. Goals are achieved by actions. You don’t need motivations, you need habits. Form habits that will make you closer to what you really want to get.

Be thankful!

Finally, as the old saying goes, count your blessings. You may not have the best year this 2017, you may have had faced huge challenges, failures or disappointment, but remember if you had eaten 365 meals this year, you still live a better life than a thousand of people. There is always, always something to be thankful for.

I remember a short Goldie and Bear episode I watched with my son. Bear with me, this is good! Bear went fishing with Daddy Bear and Goldie, and he was so upset he can’t catch any fish. What’s the good in fishing when you can’t catch any fish? Daddy bear told Bear that fishing is not just about catching fish. It’s also about getting into the boat, fishing together with your family and friend, enjoying the scenery, enjoying the view and most of all, creating memories.

It doesn’t matter if you didn’t catch enough fish this year. Its good if you accomplished all your goals but It’s still ok if you didn’t. At the end of the day, it’s not just about the goal, its about who you become while reaching those goals.

This will be my last post for the year. I hope you found something valuable in my blog this year. Thank you for spending your time with me and I look forward to having you again next year. May you have a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

6:00:00 AM
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HOW TO BUILD THE CLOSET YOU LOVE

Beauty

I used to have a jam-packed closet but I always felt like I have nothing to wear. If this sounds familiar or if you need a help organizing your closet, keep reading!

We sometime keep clothes for wrong reasons. We all have this one thing we purchased just because it looks good in the store then eventually realize it doesn’t fit our style. Or it could be a dress we keep holding on swearing to wear it when the occasion is right, but the occasion never comes. Or a shirt given to us as a gift that doesn’t really suit us but we feel guilty getting rid of it. Or an old college shirt we keep for memory sake but had seen better days.

We should be intentional on what we keep in our closet. It’s like your fridge, if it’s filled with unhealthy foods, you’ll tend to be unhealthy, but if it’s filled with power foods, most likely you’ll be fit. Dressing up is a part of life and it shouldn’t be a chore. It should be something we enjoy and we consciously choose for ourselves every day. So if your closet is filled with random stuffs, you know what to expect.

Whether you like it or now, the way we dress ourselves represents who we are. We can’t keep people from judging us on how we choose to dress, its instinct, and human nature. That being said, let’s represent ourselves well by being intentional on how we dress. Of course, it will all start in your closet.

The solution is simple - Capsule wardrobe. Simply put, capsule wardrobe is a compact collection of essential and timeless pieces of clothing that you’ll use for a particular season. The intention is to simplify getting dressed with quality clothes that you’ll actually wear. Studies shows that you only use 20% of what’s in your wardrobe so in essence we already have the capsule wardrobe in place, we’re just unaware of it.

In the book Lessons from Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott, she shared her observation about the way of French people when she was in Paris. She realized that French people wore the same clothes in heavy rotation – unapologetically and with great panache. This proves that it’s really not about the quantity, but the quality of the clothing we have.

Ready to create your capsule wardrobe? Here we go!

DEFINE YOUR LIFESTYLE

Are you working in a company that requires wearing corporate attire? Let’s fill your clothes with the right number of corporate outfits. Corporate attire might be boring and monotonous but that’s not the reason to deviate. I’ll tell you later how to conform yet still stand out. How do you spend your weekend, pretty casual or more formal affairs? Take note of that as well. With a more defined lifestyle, you know what clothes you need to wear.

Now, let’s take a step up on your clothing requirements. Many offices today allow wearing casual clothing. However I would say to aim for smart casual.

Personally, I worked from home but I don’t wear loungewear all day long. I still dress up a bit. Although no one sees me, the way I dress myself affects my mood. If I’m in my jammies, I tend to be lazy but if I dress up, it sets the atmosphere of productivity. Not to mention that I’m always ready for unexpected errands.

Remember, the way you dress defines you. It won’t hurt to step up your dressing game just a bit.

DEFINE YOUR STYLE

Imagine your outfit you feel most confident about, what’s the style? Is it shabby chic, androgynous, boho chic or classic? Find the style that works for you and incorporate it to your dressing requirement. If you’re office requires corporate attire and you’re style is boho chic, you can wear a boho dress and pair it with a structured blazer and heels. Another way is to incorporate boho chic through color palette.

There are plenty of ways and you can browse all over Pinterest for inspirations. Why reserve your style for special events if you can incorporate it on your daily life.

Love this quote from Coco Chanel, as it says is all.

“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little—if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”

CULL YOUR CLOSET

Now that we define our style with our current lifestyle, it’s time to evaluate your closet and find that 20%.

Check each piece of clothing and decide which one to stay and which one to get rid of. Be as honest as possible when doing this and let of the “WHAT IFs”. Also, consider giving up your favorite dress if it has seen better days! Let go of the worn out clothes.

If there are still pieces you’re unsure of, put them in a bag and keep it for six months. If you didn’t reach out for it within that period, it’s a good sign to totally get rid of it. Be ruthless when you do it. What you want is to see your closet with clothes that defines your style and personality.

ORGANIZE YOUR CLOSET

Last and finally, organize your closet. I know, this is the boring part but hear me. If you strictly follow the first three steps, this is an easy part. Why? Because you’ll be organizing fewer clothes and clothes that you really love! I tell you, it’s not that hard.

There are tons of ways to organize your closets on line but the best method is the Konmari way of folding clothes. It’s like Science, so get the book, it’s worth it! She teaches the folding of clothes in a way that it stands vertically so you see all the clothes at once when you pull out the drawers. Also, when you take out a piece, the rest will hold its place as it is standing vertically. There’s even a way of hanging clothes.

That’s about it. I thought this post is timely for Spring Cleaning. Give it a go and share it to others too! Let’s step up the dressing game for everyone – one closet at a time!

See you in my next post! And remember, you can always live the life you’ve always wanted!

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