That Simple Word for 2021
2021 is about to bring us a new year, and an entirely new slate to write our lives upon! In embracing this wealth of new beginnings, there comes the typical conversation about resolutions: the new diet, the new exercise program, the kicking of a bad habit…But, often these resolutions fall quickly by the wayside, as our mouths fill with treats, our treadmill becomes a storage shelf, and those old habits continue to mindlessly find their way into our busy lives.
Instead of resolutions, I’ve taken to having a word for the year. After carefully examining all the “resolutions” I want to set, I look for the deeper picture. Two years ago, as 2019 came into view, I knew I needed to remove toxic people from my life, as well as find more “me” time to focus on the things that made me healthy and happy. Putting those thoughts into actual resolutions was difficult because it was simply too vast to break down. I decided to pick an encompassing word: BOUNDARIES.
Boundaries became my mantra. Whenever I was put into a situation that felt toxic, or felt like it was against my need for “me”, I looked for the boundary that was not clear, quickly locked it into place without emotion, and found myself moving directly past the guilt or exhaustion that often came with those situations. This worked with my adult children, my employees, and with “friends” that were probably not truly friends. It also put the final nail in some past relationships that I had been desperately trying to remove myself from for years.
As I walked toward 2020, I pondered many words to express my new beginning and the days to come. My newly found “me” time had led me to a new part time home at the beach, a renewed love for painting, writing, inspiring, and a chance to once again find the person that had gotten silenced during 22 years of raising and home educating children. I was yearning to delve deeper into my journey, into my passions, and I wanted a word to reflect that. I considered several: creativity, passion, art, vision…But, being the always complex, multi-tasking type of person I am, I realized those words, at that time, would only lead me to brain fog and exhaustion as they were simply, for then, too focused.
I realized that my new lifestyle-traveling from one home to another-had me living as an “on vacation, me time, un-distracted” person for a period of time, only to quickly return to being a caregiver, homemaker, business person, who had little time or energy for the things I loved. Week to week, month to month, my life was a little scattered and exhausting. Projects lost their vision, passion quickly got forgotten, and it was tiring.
So, I needed a word, a mantra, to grasp ALL of these feelings, to pull them together, and to make sense of all those thoughts and ideas bouncing in my mind…And I found it. BALANCE!
BALANCE would become the word that I repeated in my head when making my 2020 schedules, when journaling my goals, when my heart is pulling me to a new creative project, a new travel adventure, a new marketing idea for my business. BALANCE encompasses ALL I hoped to accomplish-the writing, the beach walks, the exercise programs, the mentoring and inspiring of followers….BALANCE made it all seem possible.
When 2020 turned into a year like we’ve never experienced before, I would often think of my word and laugh. BALANCE????? What exactly IS balance in 2020? Literally, waking up daily for months on end not having a clue what that day would actually drop on us? Not knowing what could possibly happen next, and not even being able to even imagine what DID happen next? I stuck to my word, thought of it daily, and let it guide me, and it worked. I found balance in all the ups and downs, in all the uncertainty, in all of the worry and concerns. And, in doing so, was able to share it with others to bring them calm and faith that things were going to be ok. I may have not been able to bring balance to the situation, but I was able to balance myself, and those that surrounded me. I didn’t fix the crazy of the world, but I balanced my own world, and made things calmer and brighter. Perhaps, in retrospect, my word should have been “sanity”, but BALANCE helped with that as well.
As you, the reader, prepares for this new awakening of a fresh year, (and saying goodbye forever to 2020!!) search your heart and mind for all the things you want to see in your life, and find that encompassing word that holds them together…Then repeat it. Every day, every time you have a choice to make-for life is so many choices-repeat that word, use it to lead you, to teach you, to hold you to your goals.
2020 is coming to an end, thankfully! What did you learn? What obstacles did you overcome? What made you stronger? How can you take that into a fresh new year and make it the best year for you? Make this the year of YOU!
What will be your word for 2021???