2024: The Year of Habits and Self-Love

Habits. Self-love. Those are my two words for 2024.

I came up with habits a while back, but I wanted another, more spiritual one. When I was telling my therapist about it, she suggested self-love.

I agreed. Self-love is something I need to work on. For a long time, self-love wasn’t something I even considered. In fact, I’d argue that I pretty much hated myself. It sounds harsh, but ask any person with depression, and they’ll understand.

Over the last few years, I’d say that my self-hatred has significantly dissipated, and I’m more in a self-like zone now. I definitely don’t hate myself anymore, but not at the self-love level I’d like to be at.

And the interesting thing is that self-love comes from good habits. However, that revelation wasn’t immediately clear to me.

When I chose habits, I was feeling overwhelmed. I had experienced serious burnout in the first half of 2023, so I wanted to avoid that again. I also had a lot of ideas for my business and mental health advocacy work, but I needed more accountability.

I know that habits are a huge part of reducing overwhelm and being accountable. So, I thought 2024 would be the year I would implement better habits in my business, personal life, and daily routine. With better habits, I can work more efficiently, feel better mentally and physically, and execute some of those big ideas.

Yet, I didn’t equate any of those goals with self-love until my therapist suggested the word. Then it dawned on me. If I can implement better habits and achieve all those goals, I’ll feel better about myself and be in a better position to love myself.

Like anything worth doing, I know this journey to self-love will be just that — a journey. I’m sure there’ll be moments when my habits fall by the wayside, but it’s just a matter of continuing to push forward. Just like I did when I started my business, quit alcohol, started my meditation practice, and any of the other challenging things I’ve accomplished.

Self-love might be the hardest one out of all the goals I’ve set for myself, but I’m determined to make it happen.