Happy New Year!
There is something almost magical about the start of the new year. The fresh possibilities that comes with turning over a new calendar is something that puts us in the majority of people who use the renewed optimism to make changes in order to live life in the new year in ways that are more organized, more healthy or more present. What is extremely depressing about New Year resolutions is the statistic that only 4% of resolutions are followed through past February. 4%! One of the main reasons that people don’t follow through is that they are often setting unstructured goals (I want to lose weight sound familiar?) without figuring out the concrete steps to achieve them. One of the common things we noticed when reviewing our friends and families resolutions is that they all boiled down to one theme: all of them, without fail, related to wanting to improve their overall happiness and/or well-being. We were super excited to hear this because, well, that’s what our blog is all about!
The core tenet of our blog, and our belief, is that everyone deserves and can have luxury in their life. While we spend lots of time defining what luxury means to us on our blog, we believe luxury to be a little different than what many traditionally think the definition is. Luxury, to us, means something that is inessential but conducive to pleasure and comfort. And it’s why we fundamentally believe that adding luxury to your everyday life is not only achievable, but it will greatly impact your overall happiness and well-being.
Over on our blog, the Refined Side, we talk about how to do this on a regular basis – but we thought we’d share five of our favorite tips with Allyn and her readers on how you can live a more refined life in 2015 as a sneak peek to what will be coming on our site this year.
Tip #1: Find what you love
While you might be able to answer this question instantly, many people we meet are unable to provide us with a list of things that they are passionate about. And we don’t mean answers like “my kids, my friends, my job”. While these are all, of course, at the very core of what life is all about, we mean the things that are important to you, and you alone. As an example, for one of our editors, this meant the ocean. For another, it meant being able to steep the perfect cup of tea. Take a few moments and think about what things in life you simply can’t live without, and/or that make you feel alive.
Tip #2: Stay true to yourself
Once you’ve figured out the answers to the question above, this is where the fun part comes in. Take the things that you are passionate about and curate them into a hobby you simply can’t live without as it makes you unbelievably happy. We have a dear friend who is passionate about wine; he’s been able to tell different varietals from a single sip of any wine we’ve challenged him to. But he really only began finding a deeper happiness in his life when he immersed himself in his passions. This friend saved up all his vacation days and spent a month working on a vineyard in France learning how to make some of the finest wines that the world had to offer. He came home from this trip with a renewed sense of life and approached everything in his life – friendships, relationships and even work- in a different manner. It’s why one of our editors now has a savings account set aside to purchase a beach home (and makes as many pilgrimages there as she can in the meantime) while the other spent weeks in England testing every tea she could get her hands on. Finding what you love is one thing, learning how to embrace it is quite another.
Tip #3: Refuse anything but the best
This little tip has helped us out in incalculable ways. Why would you settle for something that doesn’t make you happy? Why don’t you deserve the best? If you’re anything like us, you’d be shocked and amazed at how much money you spent in a year on clothes that were of throw away quality. When we added it all up a few years ago, we discovered that we were spending a small fortune on clothes we didn’t love and that our budget could be easily transferred into buying fewer, but high quality clothing. Sure, we’re not saying that you’re going to magically be able to fly around the world first class, but you’d be surprised at how you can examine your own life habits and expenditures and then divert it into the best quality you can afford. Another example is a friend who loves chocolate, but often bemoaned the high cost of buying quality truffles. While out shopping one day, we noticed her throw 4 bars of chocolate from the grocery store into her cart, saying that they were for “cheap snacks” since she couldn’t afford the “best”. Amazingly, when you took the cost of those 4 bars, she could have purchased a small box of truffles from the chocolatier down the street and satisfied her craving with just a piece of good quality chocolate – and helped her waistline in the process! Quality always trumps quantity.
Tip #4: Celebrate the everyday
One of the saddest things our Editor Amanda discovered when cleaning her grandparents home after their passing was a box of dishes she’d never seen before. Amazingly, her grandmother had saved her “fancy” dishes for a fancy event that never happened – she died with unused, brand-new dishes still sitting in the box they were gifted to her in. This imparted a very strong message for Amanda, who now uses those very same dishes whenever she gets the chance. Life is unfortunately unpredictable and there is usually no point in saving things for a celebration. Those fancy bottles of champagne? Pop them open because it’s Thursday and you’ve had a rough week. Those dishes you’re saving for when the Queen of England visits? Use them to host a dinner for your girlfriends. That perfume you’ve been saving for a big romantic date? Wear it tomorrow and create your own romance. Carpe diem!
Tip #5: Embrace the present
While this may sound ironic coming from bloggers, something we’ve both identified as a passion by the way, spend some time every week unplugging. Turn off your phone, unplug your computer and spend time with the people in your life and not your devices. Have dinner with your significant other without the TV blaring in the background. Play with your kids in the yard without checking your e-mail. Have dinner with a friend and have a deep conversation. Read a book, uninterrupted. One of life’s most simple, and free, luxuries is enjoying the moment. Hard to do with the demands on modern life, we get it, but start small. We started with one evening a week where we had to put away everything and enjoy the company of friends and family, and have to say that it’s made those relationships stronger and we look forward to it.
Now that we’ve shared these 5 things, we’d love to hear what you think about living life with a little more refinement this year. In 2015, we will be defining and sharing the things that are luxuries to us – and helping you do the same. We’ll be showing you how to incorporate the things that give you immense pleasure into your everyday life to make your life more refined and luxurious- does that not sound like a great plan for the new year? Be sure to join us on the Refined Side.