Jan 14

Jan 14 My 2021 Habits Review and New Goals for 2022

Hello beautiful wellness seekers, I'm Liz Moser, and I'm a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

In today's blog, I'm starting a new yearly tradition that I’m very excited about, and frankly, I can't believe I never thought of it before.

I reviewed all 52 weeks of my 2021 nightly checklists, and I'm about to share with you how I did. How many days did I sleep past my 5 am alarm? How many meditations did I skip? Did I make my bed 365 days?

Yes, I’m about to come clean with all my habits!

After my true confessions. Ha! I'm going to share my goals and intentions for 2022.

First things first, I didn't miss one day of filling out my 2021 nightly checklists. However, there were several weeks when I was late printing them and used the back of the previous week’s list. Trust me, those week’s are sloppy mess, but I recorded my habits skipped or completed every day. So, yay me!

OK, so I had six habits that were either added to the checklist, taken off, or morphed into something different as the year went by:

First habit 1 - Walking Outdoors: This was on my checklist from November 10, 2020, through June 13. I probably took it off because it was summer, completely beautiful, and you couldn’t keep me inside if you tried. I no longer needed the accountability a nightly checklist provided.

2 - Recording Steps: I started in January with a specific 70,000 steps per week goal, then on April 19, I changed it to record my daily steps without a weekly tally, pretty much hitting around 70K as a habit.

3 - Sit Time: Recording my sit time began on October 13 after reading the Alzheimer’s Solution, intending to sit for less than 3 hours per day. I shot multiple videos about this book, and I'll put links to them in the description below.

4 – Practicing Piano: On September 13, I added a box to check if I practiced the piano. No stipulation of how much time I should spend. Between September 13 and December 31, I missed 14 days. So that's 14 days of no piano during 110 days, or I practiced piano 87% of the days. There is nothing wrong with that, per se, but not the stats I want to see going forward. Stay tuned for a specific piano commit in 2022.

5 - French: I started recording the days I studied French on November 1. And I haven't skipped a day. Honestly, it’s addicting in a super fun way. If anything, I need to limit my time! Ha!

6 – Cardio: recording the minutes spent per day in my cardio zone and my peak zone, with the goal being at least two hours per week. I began this on November 29. Every week, I've overshot this goal between my morning 20-minute moving meditation and my three weekly Tonal workouts. Check out the video I shot about my beloved TONAL.

Therefore, the two actions on my nightly checklist at the beginning of 2021 that I let go of are: walking outdoors and a weekly step goal. And the four habits I added during the year and will continue with this year are recording my sit time, practicing piano, studying French, and recording my minutes per week of cardio.

So, what didn’t change? What's been on my nightly checklist the entire year and in some cases for a heck of a lot longer than a year?

1 – Wake at 5 am: I was up at 5 am every day in 2021 except for four days. And I’m not sure why I slept in on those days. I didn't take notes. The good news is that on those four days, I still completed my morning routine. High-five me! But still, if I can't remember the reason why I slept in on those days, then it couldn't have been a serious reason. There's really no valid o valid reason this isn’t 100%.

2 – Morning Gratitude practice: Writing down three things I’m grateful for each morning. That action happened every day for 365 days.

3 – Twice per day 20 min meditation: My morning meditation has morphed from sitting to my current jogging moving meditation. I talked about this in my vlog Meditating in The Real World. I meditated every morning in 2021. One day was shorter at 15 minutes. I missed four evening meditations while three others were shorter than a full 20 minutes. So out of 730 possible meditations, I missed 3. Good job, Moser. You can tell this is a foundational habit for me.

4 - 10 minutes in my red and infrared light with affirmations. Five days per week with the lights turned on and two days were reciting affirmations only—every day except for four days when we were in Oregon. So, 361 days out of 365.

5 - 10 minutes of morning exercise – weights, stretching, and yoga. Now I have my TONAL, so it’s simply 10 minutes of yoga, stretching, and practicing my new yoga moves. Forearm stand, I'm so close! I didn't miss one-day last year. So trust me, skip the coffee and social media time or whatever you do in the morning, and add a few minutes of stretching instead. Your body will thank you!

6 - Make my bed – every day. Every single day I make my bed. Period. I'm kicking myself that I didn't add this to my list of possible actions to adopt for 30 days (Check out last week’s vlog) because that’s how pivotal I consider this habit to be. On the crazier days, I've been known to make my bed before I get into it at night. For me, getting into an unmade bed feels as uncomfortable as going to bed without brushing my teeth.

7 – Exercise: Recording what kind of exercise I did that day in addition to the early morning 10 minutes of stretch yoga, weights, and TONAL. I may not have worked out every day, but when I did, I recorded it, what we pay attention to flourishes.

8 – TV: Recording how much TV I watched. TV is an unsupportive habit I want to limit or eliminate. Therefore, I’ve been recording how much tv I watch in a day, and I’ve been doing it for several years.

9 - Lunch affirmation: This is a lovely grounding tradition. Checking it at noon and saying my mid-day affirmation while looking in the mirror is a quick burst of positivity and self-care. Out of 365 days, I missed 43 days. Or 12% of the time. At night when I'm filling out my checklist, if I forget it, I'll repeat the mantra at that time.

10 - Mantra or prayer before meals: Of the 3 x 365 or 1095 mantras I had the opportunity to recite, I missed around 109 or around 10%. If I miss saying it during the day, I’ll repeat it at night as I’m filling out my sheet.

11 - 5-year journal: I didn't miss a night, and my last entry with my current 5-year journal will be this September 20. Pretty cool, huh?

12 - Evening written affirmations: I write out whatever affirmations feel relevant on a page and ½ of my journal. I did this every evening for 365 days.

13 – 3 blessings: I wrote three things that went well that day in my gratitude journal, and I did that every day for the entire year.

14 - Sleep Affirmation: Every evening for 365 days, I affirmed that I would sleep deeply and soundly, waking at 5 am bright, refreshed, and looking forward to a new day. Every night. Like clockwork.

15 - Reading something inspirational or educational every day. I missed six days out of 365 or about 2%

For last year, the habits I didn't miss one day of were my morning meditation, morning 10 minutes stretch/yoga, making my bed, five-year journal, morning written gratitudes, evening written blessings, and sleep affirmation. The other habits I missed a bit were reciting my lunch affirmation with 12 % misses, and my evening meditation had the fewest misses at three days or 1%.

And now (drum roll, please) my nine goals and intentions for 2022.

1 - 15 minutes of piano per day. I've skipped days, and I practiced for only a few minutes on other days. I'm currently at a level 1 Intermediate in my SKOOVE app; where will I be after I’ve practiced 15 minutes for 365 days or an additional 91.25 hours? We will see!

2 - Studying French every day. As of January 1, I had 77 days in a row. So January 1, 2023, I predict I will have 77 days + 365 days or 442 consecutive days. I can't wait to see where I my French skills at the end of 2022. Woohoo!

3 – TV: No tv viewing alone. Just with my partner. Arg, this is so hard! I have several series I watch without him. However, it’s such a time suck, and this is the compromise I'm committing to make for a more productive 2022. You guys are my accountability buddies for this. I'm committing to not watching any tv alone for 365 days. Gulp! 😊

4 - 3 Tonal workouts each week. This is already my habit as of the last eight weeks, and I’m going to keep it up!

5 - 3 yoga classes a week. Currently, I'll take 4 or 5 yoga classes on a good week. You know I love all things yoga, but with the strength training, I need to be mindful of my time. So, I’m committing to at least three yoga classes each week for 2022.

6 - 2 hours in my cardio zone per week. I've been recording this since November 29, and I'm going to keep it up for the following year. With my morning moving meditation practice and TONAL workouts, I have no problem hitting the 2 hours a week goal, and it's usually almost double that amount. In addition, according to Fit Bit, my resting heart rate has decreased from 61 to 58 over the last two months. Woot, Yay me!

7 - Recording my sit time with the goal of three hours or less. I've been recording this since October 11, and I’m going to keep it up. I consider this a vital part of my physical fitness.

8 – Coaching blogs/vlogs: Last year, I wrote and recorded 47 weekly blogs and vlogs. Hmm, aren’t there 52 weeks in a year, not 47? Yes, there are! My goal was one per week or 52. I was short by 5. I can and will do better! I'll have more time this year since I'm giving up my Netflix, so I have no excuses. I'm committing to 52 coaching videos! You heard me say it, so now I'm accountable!

9 - Continue with my established habits: Up at 5 am, gratitudes, 5-year journal, affirmations, red land infrared light therapy, meditations, no sugar or flour, alcohol or caffeine, etc. All of it. I'm going strong, and I’m going to keep it up! 😊

2022 will be about honing my French and piano skills and focusing on my physical fitness while upping my coaching video game. Woot woot! And to support this, I did something unprecedented. I went ahead and printed the entire years’ worth of nightly checklists.

Printing out a year of checklists makes me nervous because what if I want to add or change something? However, this review showed me that I made way less significant changes in 2021 than I thought I had, and this way, I have all of them ready to go. Furthermore, there is nothing like printing out a year’s worth of nightly checklists to show all of you and myself how committed I genuinely am.

Well, thank you for hanging in there for my 2021 nightly checklist review (yes, I made my bed and meditated every day!) and for being my commitment accountability partners for 2022. Will I practice the piano for 15 minutes a day? Will I never watch tv alone? And will I create 52 new coaching blogs and videos? Tune in a year from now to find out.

In the meantime, I’ll see you next week with another blog and video.

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog reviewing my 2021 habits and setting my goals for 2022. If you have any questions about this blog, health, wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com.