Creating Your Vision For 2020

This coming new year is also the start of a whole new decade! As the seasons change, and we start thinking about the end of the year, we can set our sights ahead on what’s yet to come.

We wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you to create your vision for the future, not just for 2020, but further than that.

• What do you want to create next year?
• What do you imagine creating by the end of 2020?
• What would you like your life to be like 10 years from now?

The Days are Long, But the Years are Short

In 2013, I (Gareth) left my job in management consultancy to dedicate my full time to the School of Natural Skincare and family life with Gail and our children, the first of whom was on the way.

I had been with the same company for just over 9 years. As I left the office for the final time, I walked home and suddenly wondered what had happened to the last 10 years.

What had I actually done with my life? Where had it taken me? What had I truly and honestly achieved?

I was stumped.

Silent and dumb-founded as I considered these questions, I made a pledge, a promise to myself that in 10 years time I would not look back on my life and wonder what on earth I had achieved.

Of course, during the previous 10 years, I had done a lot and achieved a lot—but not really anything grand, or amazing, or groundbreaking, or wonderful, or memorable. The last 7 years by contrast have been unbelievably amazing, and I promise myself this: The 2020s will be the best ten years yet.

Right now, with all of that in mind, I am creating my vision for 2020 and beyond. What about you?

It’s About the Journey, Not the Destination

Best selling author, motivational speaker, and life coach, Tony Robbins, said something once that has stuck with me for years. It was something about how people are happiest when they are growing, learning and developing, when they feel like the are improving, advancing, looking forwards and going somewhere.

This isn’t a verbatim quote, but it is the essence of what he was saying.

To him, the feeling of happiness wasn’t just about reaching a goal, achieving a milestone, or gaining some marker of success, but it’s about the progress.

I love the energy and potential surrounding this philosophy, and I wanted to write a personal note to anyone who wants to read this to encourage them to spend some time in contemplation about the future, about next year and about the forthcoming decade to uncover the mystery of what it might look like, feel like, and sound like.

What might your life be like next year? What about ten years from now, in 2029?

How are you going to grow and develop? What are you going to learn? What are you going to embrace in your life, and in return, what do you expect to experience? Where will all of this take you?

Moving On, Letting Go, Embracing Change

Remember, in order to grow, develop, learn and experience more, or different things, we may also need to leave things behind, let things go. In your exploration, consider what things can be left behind so that you may move forward.

If you don’t know where to start, the best thing to do is to begin at the beginning.

What do you love?

Do you love essential oils? How about looking at aromatherapy? If you love working with herbs, how about looking into taking some herbalism courses or becoming an herbalist, or just finding out ways to use herbs at home?

Do you want to look after your body a little more, get in shape, become a little stronger, fitter, healthier, more vital and flexible? How about yoga, pilates, tai chi, qi gong? How about swimming, running, walking, hiking? It doesn’t have to be a huge first step, but even a small step in the right direction will get you going.

Are you missing a connection to the natural world? How about going walking? Explore the areas where you live, whether they are woodlands, riverside walks, hiking some hills and mountains? How about forest bathing? How about finding some adult workshops that embrace nature and the good outdoors?

Maybe you’d like to be happier in life? What choices can you make right now to help move in the direction of that future you want?

You can choose to take some time out for you to be you, just listening to your own mind and being present with your goals. Or, you could go to a spa, set up regular self-care treatments, move your body, go dancing, practice some yoga, tai chi, qi gong, pilates, or other movement that speaks to you.

If your goal is to work on your mind and shift your current way of thinking, you can seek out some Positive Psychology, NLP, or EFT.

Caring for your mind, heart and soul is just as important as caring for your body—it’s all connected, after all. Famous public speaker and life coach Jim Rohn is a huge advocate for giving the mind as much of a workout as the body.

It is easier for us to work our bodies, and most people know how to do this, but when it comes to giving the mind, heart, and soul a bit of positive attention… we’re not really sure what to do or how to do it. It takes time, and practice, and intention. But it is so important to look after the whole person—body, heart, mind, and soul.

Get out in nature, or even try a laughter workshop—yes they exist!

You could learn (or re-learn) a musical instrument, take up a new hobby, spend more time with family and friends, or just do something that makes you feel good for the sake of feeling good.

Pamper yourself. Don’t push. You’re stronger and more capable than you know, and you can change, even if you feel stuck in a rut. As they saying goes: Little by little, great oaks from acorns grow.

You don’t have to start on January 1st as a mighty oak. But find the seed, and plant it, and be intentional. By honoring your inner self, and listening to that call, you can start to grow into something you may never have dreamed was possible.

A Vision of Natural Health and Wellness

As the School of Natural Skincare, we’d be missing an obvious opportunity here if we didn’t talk about the impact that making your own natural beauty products can provide.

There’s something deeply satisfying about making things with your own hands, using those products, and not only seeing results but feeling the love, care, and attention put into them.

If you’ve always wanted to get started, now is the time! Our students often tell us how they wished they’d found us years ago, or how they’d wished they had enrolled on one of our courses earlier.

Or, you can commit to taking your existing product making skills to another level.

Either way, when we ask our students what they are most proud of, what they are happiest with, and what they’ve accomplished this year, they tell us about how far they’ve come, how much they have learned, how good their products are, and how their whole vision for the future has shifted.

They tell us how they see new potential for their hobby, how their skin is better, how it’s improved. They tell us how excited they are when their latest ingredients and equipment arrive, and how eager they are to get started making new products.

When we teach students to formulate like a professional, we teach them to begin with the goal in mind: What skincare problem do they want to solve, for which type of end user, and how will that user’s needs be met? That informs their choices all throughout the formulation process.

And at the end, we consider how those problems were or were not addressed, what can we improve, what can we do better. It’s not too dissimilar from the bigger-picture questions about life, and the future.

• How have you changed?
• How do you want to change?
• Where do you want to go?

If you do the same thing for yourself, and take the time to explore these questions, what would that be, and what would you do?

And if there are things you want to change, what would it look like if you embraced that change?

Make 2020 Your Best Year Yet

The answer is up to you.

It may take some time to consider it, and that’s good.

And of course we’d love to have you come study with us, but that doesn’t have to be your best answer. What matters is what you are passionate about, what is moving and meaningful to you?

• What do you love?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• What makes your heart sing?
• When are you at your best and when do you feel the happiest?
• What are your hobbies… or what hobbies would you like to take up?
• How could you do more of the things you love?
• How could you live more in tune with you values and beliefs?
• How could you help yourself and contribute positively to other people’s lives?

This is our invitation to you to start considering these questions, and making the active choice to make this coming year your best yet, and to make the 2020s your best decade yet.

We invite you to make this the decade where you decide to do more of the things you wanted to, and move towards the life of your dreams.

One thing is certain, when you reach the life of your dreams, you’ll have other dreams and it will never end, but it will make the journey of life a more magical one.

Free Resources to Get Started Today

On a serious note, while you’re here: If it is skincare that excites you, and you want to know more about how to get started making your own natural and organic skincare (and haircare!) products, we’d love to hear from you.

Please check out our portfolio of online courses to see if there is something there that you would love to do, please email us at hello@schoolofnaturalskincare.com to make contact and let us know how we can help.

If you need some more time or if you want to check us out for a bit first, we have stacks of free resources like our Beginner’s Guide to Formulating Natural Skincare Products and our Free Natural Beauty Recipe Book!

Also, please do check us out on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. We’ll be launching our YouTube channel soon, so stay tuned for that!

And to all of our readers, we wish you a joyous, peaceful, and abundant new year. Happy holidays!