Small ways to positively impact your daily life

Compiled by The Connection Editor Staff

Habits For The Creative Mid
For the artists out there, drawing everyday can drastically impact your skills. Keep a small sketchbook or journal that can be easily kept on your person or in a place that will allow you to keep up with your sketches. These drawings shouldn’t be masterpieces, merely observations, quick drawings or doodles. This also leaves space for experimentation with style and practice.
To the many aspiring writers working their ways into the field, writing every day is a great start to create a writing style. Writers should spend at least 15 minutes writing something related to the day. This way writers will stay consistent. Whether it is for creative writing or journalism, writing every day is greatly beneficial.
Small Ways To Start A Healthier Lifestyle
Break down larger goals into smaller, more manageable habits that you can work into your everyday routine. For example, if you want to improve your health, you might decide to drink more water. Create a plan to form your habit, such as keeping a reusable water bottle with you all day and refilling it at specific times, like before and after class.
“New year, new me” has never kept me in the gym or eating healthy past mid-January. This year I am taking a much simpler approach, with a focus on the small details that make for a productive day. Making your bed first thing in the morning allows you to start your day with a completed task. The little bit of extra effort in the a.m. will boil over through the day.
Diet changes can seem rather daunting to most people, especially one such as going vegan. Switching to a plantbased diet technically can be done overnight, however removing animal products from your diet in a way that is effective and will have you committed to it over long periods of time should be gradual to avoid crashes.
For any aspiring vegans, try eliminating certain meats from your diet each week, then moving on to other products like cheese or dairy altogether, while also replacing these items with whole, plantbased foods. Also try reminding yourself each morning and night of the reasons that prompted your lifestyle change. This slow approach will help to make your transition into veganism more seamless.
Managing Goalsetting
Keeping your goals simple seems to be the way to go when it comes to the new year. If you go too big or broad you won’t get anywhere, and in a couple of weeks you will feel like your goal is way too impossible to achieve. So instead of saying “My goal this year is to lose 50 pounds” you should probably go with something a little more reasonable, like “I will eat something healthy for me every day.”
Being realistic in constructing your goals is crucial. People tend to give up on their goals midway through January because the bar has been set too high. For insistence, making the New Year’s resolution to save money. Instead of saving drastic amounts of money taken from your check, try saving change and singles in a jar after every purchase. Another good way to save is to limit the number of times you eat out per week. It doesn’t seem like much, but over time a little adds up!