I’ve always been big on New Year’s resolutions. So big, in fact that I do them twice yearly, once on New Year’s and again on my birthday six months later. And they’re not some simple “loose 10 pounds” or “go to the gym” type of resolutions either. They are a multi-category, multi-goal, multi-step extravaganza. Thing is, just like everyone else, by the time the next new year rolls around, I just wind up putting the same old things back into the same old spreadsheet (yes, I’m that girl). Maybe I change a few words here or there, like the name of the novel I swear I will finish this year, or swapping yoga for chi gong, but nothing really changes and the song remains the same. Until this year. Thanks to some wise words from some fellow bloggers, and the new perspective that comes with remaking your entire life.
This year I will set no goals, list no due dates, make no resolutions. This year, instead, I chose a theme. One word that sums up what this year will be about for me. 2010 was all about looking at my life and figuring out whether the life I was living was the one I wanted to live. It wasn’t. In 2011 I changed almost everything in my life in order to give myself a chance at the kind of life I’ve always dreamed of. I quit my job, I moved, I hunkered down. Call this tiny casita a chrysalis, if you will. It is time now, to bust out of the shell.
2012 is the year of EMERGENCE. Of stepping out of the shadows. Of bringing my work out into the world.
And how about you? What will the theme of your year be? Here are the articles that inspired me in case you need a little inspiration as well:
- Liberated Life Project: How to Do a Reflection and Intention Process for the End of the Year
- The Art of Non-Conformity: 2011 Annual Review: The Beginning
- Zen Habits: Quashing the Self-Improvement Urge, 100 Days with No Goals, and How to Have the Best Year of Your Life
Already I’m learning how much I can accomplish when I stop focusing on the goals and just do the work.