Are you feeling very unproductive during this pandemic? Many of us are in the same boat. It’s very hard to stay motivated, feel good about yourself and be productive when you’re home all day because of quarantine. Many people only focus on the outer glow up, but the inner glow up is more important!
You can put tons of makeup and dress up, but if you are not taking care of your well-being, it will be just a bandaid on a growing problem. Start with taking care of your health and lifestyle.
Here are 12 Transformative Ways to Glow Up in 2021!
1. Have a consistent nighttime routine and sleep schedule.
The first step to glow up is getting enough sleep because it is the foundation for everything! If you aren’t getting enough sleep, it really sets the tone for the next day and affects all your other routines. A good amount of sleep is different for everyone. Sleep until you feel well-rested, then you’ll be able to have the mental capacity and energy throughout your day.
A nighttime routine is also essential to prepare yourself to be able to get a good night’s rest. Do whatever calms you down and slows down the pace of your day. Dim lighting is helpful to notify your body that it’s night time and you should be going to bed soon. It’s best practice to stay away from your technology and anything super bright at least an hour before you go to sleep.
Other things that could be helpful would be lighting candles, using an essential oil diffuser, taking a bath to relax your muscles, listening to slow instrumental music, journaling, reading a book, drinking a hot cup of tea, spending time with loved ones and putting on your cozy pajamas.
2. In addition to a nighttime routine, have a consistent morning routine too.
Your morning routine sets your mood for the rest of the day. Are you guilty of eating junk food or an unhealthy sugary breakfast every morning? You might want to cut back on that as it could make you feel tired throughout the day. Try to eat a healthy breakfast every day even if it’s as simple as making a fruit salad with yogurt.
Activities in your morning routine could include: exercising, making breakfast, getting ready, having a cup of coffee or tea, playing upbeat energetic music, listening to a podcast or inspirational video, and staying away from social media for the first hour.
3. Goal Setting and Planning
Planning for the day is best done the night before as you want to be prepared right when you wake up for everything on your schedule. Keep a journal or use an online task manager to plan your day.
For goal setting, try not to have more than 3 – 5 things on your to-do list to not discourage yourself because of all the things that you have to do. Pick your top must-get-done tasks and aim to complete them for that day. Focus on ONE thing at a time. We lose productivity when we focus on too many things and overwhelm ourselves which increases our chances of procrastinating.
Reward yourself for what you have completed and figure out how to implement better strategies to meet your goals at the end of each day when you start planning for the next day. Also, take note of how long it took you to finish a certain task so that you can set realistic goals for the next time you have to do the same thing. You don’t want to say you’re going to complete a task in one hour that usually takes you four hours.
4. Don’t rely only on motivation. Rely on habits.
A huge reason why we procrastinate is that we rely mainly on motivation to get us through the day. But relying on habits will get us through the times that we are not motivated. It’s already an established routine, so you expect it to be done every day or week. Stop spending all day trying to find articles to motivate you to do something and start actively trying to build habits.
How to build habits?
- Get out of bed. Do not stay in your bed when you are working. Your bed is for relaxing time.
- Have a dedicated workspace that you do nothing there but work. Keep work separate from free time.
- Reward yourself each time you complete a major task.
- Do not rely on others for motivation and rewards.
- Create realistic time blocks each day to dedicate time for specific tasks starting with the tasks that are most important.
- Schedule the hard tasks for when you are most awake and productive.
5. Keep Educating Yourself
Just because you graduated from high school or college, doesn’t mean your education should stop there. The world is forever changing at a rapid rate with all of the technological advances and the skills you know will be outdated in a couple of years. Keep your mind sharp by constantly reading the latest articles and books in your industry, taking courses, obtaining professional certificates, networking in your industry, etc.
If you possess the skills that most don’t know, you’ll be more valuable to employers than someone who expects their diploma to get them the job. And with the value of the Bachelor’s degree going downhill, investing in your soft and hard skills is going to become more important than ever. Stay ahead of the curve and prepare yourself for the changes before the competition learns it.
6. Be Bold. Do something you were always afraid of, but really wanted to.
Step out of your comfort zone this year and try something new. The whole point of why you should glow up is to become a more transformed version of yourself. What fears do you have? Question yourself why you have those fears. Most of the time it’s just your inner voice criticizing yourself and you actually have the capability to get started.
Our fears are all a part of our mindset. Stop limiting yourself to a fixed mindset, thinking you are stuck where you are given your living conditions and your skillset. Start having a growth mindset and know you can completely change your life if you address your fears and figure out how to get there one step at a time.
Related article: Learn how to glow up, chase your dreams and build your empire here.
7. Practice mindfulness and take a break from the chaos.
With all of the craziness that is happening in the world, we all need a social media detox. Make a plan to shut off your social media for a certain amount of time each day or you can go longer and turn it off for weeks. If you want to go further, you can even delete your social media profiles. Many people are taking this path to enhance their mental well-being. If you want to glow up, try to stress less because too much stress ages people faster.
Spend more time on your self care, not necessarily buying a bunch of self care products to use. Instead, first focus on your mental health, your physical health and emotional health. What is making you the most stressed right now and how can you address it? What are ways you can decrease that stress and calm yourself down? Learn the art of self-soothing and see if you can make an appointment with a therapist if you have access.
Everyone that has access should see a therapist at least a few times a year. You might learn of some unconscious traumas that need to be addressed that you would’ve never realized on your own. Therapists can be a huge help to finding out better methods to practice mindfulness.
8. Increase Your Financial Knowledge & Diversify Your Income
Obtaining more knowledge of how to get better at adulting should definitely be a part of your glow-up. The downside of public schools is that they don’t teach the financial skills you need to survive in the world, basic skills that every adult should know. Now, you have to take control of your finances or your finances will control you. Once you increase your financial knowledge, know how to budget well, and spend within your means, your financial anxiety will start to decrease.
If anything we learned from this pandemic, it’s diversifying our income. A 9 to 5 job is not going to cut it anymore. Unemployment rates are like a roller coaster ride and you never know when you could be laid off. You should always have more than one income source to be able to get through times like this. Many recommend 3 – 7 sources of income. It’s a great time to start a side hustle.
Some side-hustle ideas include:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Consulting / Coaching
- Freelancer (for any skills that you know)
- Teaching a skill you know through an online course
9. Re-evaluate if your friends are actually real friends
At least once a year, evaluate your current friend group. Is there anyone that you consider toxic? Toxic in a way that makes you feel bad about yourself. Those friends that never show up and support you, but come to you for support only. Those are energy vampires. Stop letting them have so much access to you. If you are trying to glow up, you should be quick to cut people out that will prevent you from doing so.
Would you want to stay in a one-sided romantic relationship where you’re the only one giving and not receiving? No? Then treat your friendships the same way. Friends won’t always be able to be there for you. Life happens. But when they are hardly ever there for you when you need them, those aren’t friends.
Start re-evaluating what you consider friends into something more healthy. Never focus on the quantity of friends, always focus on the quality. It’s better to have 1 great friend than 10 fake friends that leave you feeling more empty than without them. Your close friend group should include those that challenge you to be the best version of yourself and give equal effort.
10. Work on your appearance and become confident in your body.
After you have worked on your confidence in who you are, you can start to focus on your outer glow up. Learn how to create nice hairstyles for your own hair, do your own makeup, style your own clothes. Do whatever makes you feel confident and rock your sense of fashion. Try a new style and have a fashion show.
Look in the mirror and tell yourself “I am beautiful. I am confident in my body.” Speak affirmations, words of self-love and anything you love about your appearance often. Fight those negative thoughts of insecurity and start looking at all of your beauty. You’re beautiful, Queen.
Skincare is the foundation before getting into makeup. If you have issues with acne and use makeup to cover the blemishes, you need to first tackle your issue with skincare. Get to the root of the issue on why you are having skin problems and seek out a dermatologist if you can.
11. Network with those that have been in your shoes.
You might have a friend group that you can somewhat relate to, but do any of them have the experience and answers to your top life problems? You want to surround yourself with those who have lived through the challenges you’ve been through and overcame them. These people will be a good source of support for when you are feeling down and unmotivated.
Consider getting a coach or a few coaches that can hold you accountable to seeing your goals through, at least one for your career. Find someone that has more experience than you and has valuable advice. They don’t have to be crazily successful.
If you are nervous about networking, start small and work your way up. Create small goals and approach those that seem less intimidating. Practice this several times a month and read articles on the art of networking. The more you practice, the less intimidating it will seem. And these people aren’t criticizing you the way you are criticizing yourself. More often than not, you’ll find them highly interested in giving you advice.
Finding a great mentor or coach will be one of the best things for your career. Spend quality time finding the best one for you.
12. Stop caring what everyone else is doing on social media and start living the life you want!
Almost all of us go through an identity crisis in our 20s and feel like we are so behind at our age compared to others. We feel like our friends are experiencing major glow up as they post on LinkedIn their new job at a top company. While we are not sure what to do with our lives after leaving school and transitioning into the work world.
Is it embarrassing that I still live with my parents at 25 years old? What career is right for me? Why can’t I meet a good person to date while my friends are getting engaged? Those are questions many of us have and we criticize ourselves so hard over that.
We constantly compare ourselves to the people on our social media timeline. “Wow, so and so is living her best life traveling the world while I’m stuck at home in all this debt.” We become so focused on other people, that we forget what truly makes us special.
Each and every one of us has our own flaws too. You don’t see all the struggles those people on social media have. For example, that person traveling the world could have a bunch of debt from constantly traveling.
Focus on yourself and don’t compete with anyone. Only compete with yourself. Write down where you are now in life and where you want to be. What can you do today to become the best version of yourself and glow up?
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