Life CHANGED: My Month with MakseLife
It’s the end of January and by now, we know what stuck from the New Year’s resolutions. I’ve been there - buying the perfect planner, Atomic Habits, and a new pair of gym shoes to transform me into a “better” version of myself come January 1st. And then promptly abandoning all of my resolutions when things got hard.
Here’s the thing: change is hard! And it isn’t just a matter of your physical capabilities, there’s an enormous mental component.
As a planner company, MakseLife tries to teach you how to develop a growth mindset. It requires mental toughness, patience, and time from the user - definitely not something for someone wanting a casual planner they pick up every once in awhile. The key to the MakseLife system is that it operates on building upon small weekly actions. For example: If you wanted to become a runner? Here’s some small weekly actions that I’d do first.
Get measured for running shoes
Research running trails near me
Find warm-up and cool down exercises
Block out time in my calendar for my weekly runs
The point of this is to get rid of any excuses. You’re truly putting in the preparation to succeed and making sure that you have resources to maintain your progress. Then you go for a run! Maybe there’s some walking involved, maybe it’s short, it doesn’t matter. And afterwards, reflect. Did you enjoy it? What could you would make it better? (And if at the end, you realize that you actually hate running? You can CHANGE THAT GOAL. It’s your goal, not anyone else’s)
Full honesty here, I used the MakseLife system in early 2022. I set my yearly and monthly goals, but either set infeasible weekly actions or didn’t set them at all. And to no one’s surprise, I didn’t reach my goals! I wasn’t directing my energy towards incremental progress, and I wasn’t reflecting on what did and didn’t work. Trying something that isn’t working again and again without adjusting is like running on a hamster wheel and expecting to actually get somewhere. It was when I actually started using the system as intended that I’ve seen results. And that doesn’t mean that everything is perfect and sunshine-y for Emm, but it means that I’ve made actual progress towards my yearly goals. That passport renewal that I’d been putting off for over a year? Dropped that shit in the mail and it’s somebody else’s problem now.
And you know what’s even better? You don’t have to pay a dime. They offer free printables if you sign up for their emails -though full disclosure, you’re probably going to want to buy a planner. I use their companion notebooks and LOVE how functional it is for my goal-setting process.
So let me know, what’s your big scary goal for 2023? That thing you’ve been putting off forever but really dream of achieving. And check out me planning my goals for February here!
