20 tips to ROCK 2015 -part 4 /4

Fit & Training door thijs

Last week I gave you tips number 11 till 15. And now I present you the last 5 tips of the 20 tips to ROCK 2015. We are only a few days away of ending the old year 2014 and stepping into 2015! Read the last 5 tips to prepare your goals! :)

16. Get more (Fit) Girl time

Women run the world! But we already knew that ;) And in order for us Fit Girls to run the world we multitask like crazy. Between our work outs we also work, sparkle and shine, study, run errands, have our beauty sleeps, catch up on our literature, Vogue - Men’s Health ;) - Cosmopolitan, be fabulous, do epic sh*t and spend time with our families. Finding the time to have girl time with your girlfriends could be a challenge. I know it has been for me in the last year. So it’s most definitely a goal to get more girl time with my girls in 2015 because they rock! YEAH! There are tons of reasons to get together with your badass girls, not just for relaxation and laughter but it can also boost happy signals in your brain (by raising serotonin levels) and helps your fit body as well. But hanging out with your girls while going to the club, playing with your Smartphone or cute boys getting in the way isn’t actual girl time. So schedule an evening / night with just your girls and have fun because it will help to reduce stress and is good for your emotional and physical health.

 17. Breath in the future, breath out the past

We can’t change the past, despite how hard we wish we could, mainly when we experienced sad or not so cheerful events. Our past determines for a great part who we are, and that could be tough sometimes. Because we can’t shake the past away like our “arm chicken wings” ;) we need to learn how to embrace the past and use our experiences (good or bad) to influence your future. For instance living in the past costs a lot of energy, which you could better use to invest in other activities and projects that make you happy. This is why tip number 17 is: To literally breath in the future and to breath out the past. And I do mean literally, go outside, find yourself a nice scenery, preferably with a lot of wind (makes it more dramatic ;) ), and take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds and let it all out… repeat it over and over again until you feel relieved! Because this exercise has helped me a lot I would like to share my “breath-in-the-future-breath-out-the-past-spot”;
- in my hometown, Rotterdam, we have the Erasmus Bridge, which has a beautiful scenery and a great lookout over different parts of the city. You can walk from side to side and I love the contrast of the busy life represented by the cars driving across, people trying to cycle the bridge, public transportation crossing with a lot of noise and the buildings standing peaceful at the side of the dock and the water finding her way in between the water traffic. Find your spot or practice at home, but breath out your past and breath in all the opportunities 2015 will have in store for you!

18. Always say YES to dancing

I would have been a ballerina if I have not had pied my tutu when I was five years old during my trial out class. OOPS! Back then it was cute, now it would be embarrassing so I stopped doing that ;) whahahaha. Anyway dancing makes us humans happy, cheerful, forget our daily worries, relax, smile, crazy and it is a great fun exercise for your body. When I am at a concert, festival, club or place where people dance I like to watch around, because it cheers me up seeing people moving to music. It’s actually pretty funny if you think about it. Somehow we allow ourselves to move “funny” in company of others (who we don’t know) and surrender to the music. It makes me happy and it feels like everybody is dancing together. That’s why tip number 18: to always say YES to dancing. If your weekends are not filled with clubbing you should most definitely gather your Fit Girl friends and boys and have some serious dance nights in 2015. Because besides getting so cheerful dancing has a lot of health benefits:
- improves the condition of your heart and lunges
- increases muscular strength
- weight loss
- stronger bones
- better coordination and flexibility
- increases physical confidence
- improves mental functioning (if you are not drunk ;) )
- greater self-confidence and self-esteem
- better social skills.
So let’s agree we all dance our way into the New Year. Because I will! And it’s a great start of 2015! :D

19. Crack the code: Balance your work and life

Do you live to work or work to live? I am going back and forward. Two years ago I almost had a burnout. Which sucked big time, I had a stupid job, no appreciation and it felt like everything in my life was falling apart because I was trying to keep 1000 wall balls in the sky. It was then that I decided not to want to live to work but work to live! This change of mindset really helped and therefore 2013 and 2014 were epic! But Fit Girls who want to rule the world will be having trouble finding balance in their work / study /work-outs and living their life’s. We get overworked and take more on our plates other than our funny looking veggies. Tip number 19: Crack the code and find your balance. This is not adding another fulltime job to your life, because you fail making time for your friends, family and your other interests. No, this is getting aware that when we add things to our calendar that make you SMILE, we should also diminish another activities in your life. There are only 24 hours in a day, make them count and be wise about how you spend them. If you’ve got a job that you love, that’s great, but don’t forget to take time for yourself!

20. Don't forget to fall in love with yourself first

I believe tip number 20 is the most important tip that I would like to give to all of you. We share our love with a lot of people. Family, boyfriend, girlfriend, the hot guy / girl at the gym but with all this love spreading we sometimes forget to love ourselves. Instead we are trying to be these superwomen and are only satisfied with ourselves if we manage to do everything and more. And only when we make it, we are happy with ourselves. To make it worse, we then set the goals even higher. This is nice but I believe we can only truly enjoy everything if we love ourselves for who and what we are.
So STOP trying to be perfect (it’s boring), STOP comparing yourself to others (no one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you), STAY true to who you are (because you are unique), TAKE the time to love yourself (the whole point of life is to improve yourself, so you have at least 100 years), START believing in yourself (than anything is possible) and ALWAYS forgive yourself (to live is to forgive). So make sure that in 2015 you take yourself on a romantic date, send yourself a sweet postcard, buy yourself flowers and gifts, send yourself happy text messages, surprise yourself with an own cooked 5 star dinner and give yourself free hugs as much as you can! And you will definitely ROCK 2015!

Hopefully I have given you lots of inspiration to ROCK 2015 in your own fabulous way in the last four weeks! I wish you Fit Girls a sparkle, badass, with cherries and glitter on top New Years Eve!

Happy New Year and don’t forget to be awesome!

The end!