Hello 2022! We welcome you like a breath of fresh air! We love the fresh start that a new year brings. In the week between Christmas and New Years, Kim spent time on the dock at the lake reflecting on the year behind us and brainstorming to come up with a "word" for the new year. As she thought about the opportunities that a new year holds, the word transform kept coming to the forefront. Can you think of something in your life in need of transformation?
Are you at all like us in that you can easily come up with a laundry list of things you would like to change? Typically, as humans, we are our own worst critics. But in the spirit of new beginnings and positivity, we are going to keep our sights set on all things good. Let's not focus on what we don't do right, but rather, five things that can transform us into being an even more awesome "Anchor Crew".
transform (verb): to change (something) completely and usually in a good way
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Five Things Worthy of Transforming
Be More Kind
We will make a conscious effort to do something nice for someone every day. We often hear of people paying it forward by paying for the person behind them in a drive-through line. We find it easy to be kind and take care of those we know and love. But, we want to do more for the people we don't know. We want to do more acts of random kindness. It doesn't cost a thing to compliment a stranger when you see something that catches your eye, such as seeing them doing something kind like holding a door open, or picking up trash that wasn't their own, or giving up their seat to another on the bus or at an event. Maybe they just have on a really cute pair of shoes or gorgeous hair. Tell them. So many times we think a thought but don't take the time to vocalize it. That one compliment could totally change the mood of a person's day and might be the only nice thing they hear that day. Look for it and seize the opportunity to spread kindness. We bet that it not only transforms the random stranger's day, but it will also transform yours.
Committed Prayer Warrior
We 100% believe in the power of prayer, and one does not have to look far to find someone or something that needs praying over. We are committing to being more intentional in our prayer time to not just pray for people the people we love and know, but for people we don't know. For example, we will pray for all people in leadership positions - even those we don't agree with. We don't have to agree, but we can pray for them to have the wisdom to make the best decisions for whatever they are leading. We will be praying for all businesses (big and small) to be successful (including The Anchored Style). The past two years have been so hard on businesses of all sizes, and we will be praying that they not only survive but thrive coming out of this unprecedented pandemic.
Self Love
We will take at least 30 minutes every day to invest in our well-being. For us, we are renewing our commitment to fitness. Fitness has always been important to us, but the pandemic and launching of our new business, The Anchored Style, gave us excuses to put it on the back burner. We know that there is no better way to transform our bodies and minds than to get back to the gym and be committed to a fitness routine. Self-love can be many things, such as meditation, a massage, a walk outdoors, reading, or learning something new. Take the time for yourself! You deserve it and you are worth it!
Intensive Business Planning
In March, The Anchored Style will celebrate its 1 year anniversary! Woohoo! In full transparency, we launched it on a whim having no idea what we were doing or where we were going. All we know is we’re loving it and it’s bringing joy to our lives to hear from people all over the world who share our same passion for life by the water: lake life, beach babes, and pool vibes unite! The reality is, we still don’t know what we’re doing, but God continues to open doors to opportunity and inspire us with content to share with our Anchor Crew (that’s YOU). We are grateful to be doing business with you. For 2022, we’re laser-focused on content planning… ahead of time, so we can spend less time “throwing things together” and provide well-thought-out content and products. Our creative personalities do well at “winging it,” but we know that our most valuable projects take thoughtful planning and time investments. We want to transform our planning to bring you bigger and better things in 2022!
Overcome Some Roadblocks
We are going to open up in full transparency here. There are numerous fears that hold us back. For instance, there are several areas that we will look to transform our thinking on:
FEAR
Fear of putting ourselves out there and often feeling like our content isn't interesting enough or needs to be more special. We know that comparison is the thief of joy. In business or in life, we look to our competition or peers to see what we can improve upon. Sometimes frustration can set in and we may think we will never "get there." In a recent podcast, we heard Julie Solomon, The Influencer Podcast, state "Comparison is an act of violence against yourself. It steals your own ability to shine and show up in the world because you are so focused on someone else." Let that sink in. While it is important for us to keep an eye on our peer group and competitors, we must stay focused on reaping what will help us to be brave in our business pursuit and not let us fall into the comparison game.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Every day that goes by, we feel that we do not get everything done that we had planned and wish there were more hours in a day. If you have cracked the code on this struggle, please share your secret. We will be focused on these things to help improve our daily accomplishments:
DAILY PRIORITY LIST
Each morning we are making a daily task list that we can prioritize and be able to check in throughout the day to monitor our progress. As creative brains, we get exhausted chasing squirrels all day. Does anyone else relate? This priority list is helping us do better at staying on task. If you are needing something pretty to inspire you to map out your day, here is a journal that will not only give you blank pages to create your priority list, but also provide a daily dose of scripture or inspiration.
SCROLL LESS
Once we click on our social media accounts, it is easy to start scrolling and before we know it, we have been doing it for hours. After a full-time day job, scrolling for hours at night takes time away from those we love. We want to be more visibly present for those few precious evening hours to ensure our loved ones know they are our VIPs.
LET SOME THINGS GO
It is in our nature to jump in and volunteer to help wherever we are needed. While we feel this is a great character trait to have, it can also lead to overloaded schedules and exhaustion. Ashley read a book a couple of years ago by Lysa TerKuerst called The Best Yes. The book talks about how to make wise decisions in the midst of endless demands. We don't want to be a spoiler- because we totally feel the time reading the book is time well invested- but a quick cut to the chase is that the best yes can sometimes be NO.
We have performed an audit of our current extracurricular activities, and there are some things that we will be stepping away from in 2022. We want to be able to put any extra time we have into our new business baby, The Anchored Style. If you haven't read this book, we highly recommend you order it... life-changing and will transform your mindset.
There are many things we have learned during the pandemic. The most valuable learning is that life is short and we know that tomorrow is not promised for any one of us. With that in mind, we are fully committed to making these changes to allow for a more enriched year and more time with our loved ones doing the things that bring us the most joy! We are excited to see the transformation come to fruition.
Will you join us in transforming something you want to see radically changed? Tell us what you will be working on. There is power in putting your goals down in print. Let us help cheer you on in your transformation.
2022 begins NOW. Ready Go!
We recently shared a blogpost where we radically transformed our lakehouse in Northeast Missouri at Lake Nehai. It's our favorite transformation to date so be sure to check that out too!
