What are you doing New Years Eve?

New Year’s Eve.

It’s hard to believe that we’re at the end of another year. Not only the end of a year, but the end of a decade.

This time of year brings a lot of reflection for most people. It’s a time to look back and assess whether we believe things went well or not.

Many people set resolutions for the new year, so today serves as a time to check off the “to-do” list so to speak.

I was never really one to set resolutions. It didn’t seem productive to me. Especially since it’s common for people to break their resolutions before February starts! Which feels to me like you would start off the year with a “failure.”

Setting a resolution in my opinion, starts from a place of something being wrong. And quite frankly, they tend to be the same thing every year – lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, read more books...etc.

To me, repeating the same resolutions every year and then not following through longer than January seems like a vicious cycle of regret and failure.

I’m not saying these are bad goals to set, I just don’t agree with the process.

I like to focus on my main goal. The goal that drives my journey in life. My purpose. What do I want to do, who do I want to be and how do I want to feel when I get there?

I’ve always felt that setting resolutions that weren’t tied to actions that would help you achieve your overall goal would be a distraction.

What I started doing a few years ago is to reflect back on the past year. I take note of successes and misses to determine what worked and what didn’t work. I like to look month-by-month and really determine how I spent my time. More importantly I like to determine if the places where I spent most of my time moved me closer to my dreams and goals.

Thankfully I’m a planner person and who writes everything down, so this task isn’t really that daunting.

Once I’ve assessed the year, I can determine where I can make changes or adjustments.

Then, instead of writing down a list of goals, I choose a word that reflects how I want to feel in the coming year. (I should say when I’m open to the process, the word chooses me). A word that reflects who I want to be and how I want to show up in the world. A word that represents the energy that I want to put out.

Sometimes it’s a word that is necessary to teach me and help me grow. My word for 2019 was committed. When the word started bubbling up during yoga and meditation, I felt very resistant. It didn’t feel like my word. It conjured up thoughts of being committed to an institution rather than being committed to a goal. But it would not let go and reluctantly I accepted that committed was my word. As the year progressed I realized the purpose of the word. I hit a few rough patches and realized that my first instinct when things got hard was to run or to hide. The word committed made me realize that I needed to stay and see it through to the end. I needed to learn to be committed to my life and business, even when things got hard.

This year, while on my mat in a very reflective yoga class, I found my word for 2020. During the class I kept conjuring words in my head and writing them down. All of the words were good, and appropriate. But none of them came from my soul so to speak. Suddenly the word HOPE bubbled up from deep inside me. I started to cry with joy knowing that this was my word.

The past two years have been wonderful and horrible at the same time for me. I’ve had a lot of personal growth and growth in my business. But the growing anger and divisiveness in the country made me feel helpless. While I kept my focus on kindness and love and growth, I will admit that often I didn’t have hope that things would improve.

The word hope reflects how I want to feel, not just for the country and the world, but for me personally.

With hope I can feel the positive energy that my business will continue to grow.

With hope I can feel like my voice matters and I can make a difference.

With hope I can be secure that I have the knowledge and courage to pursue new adventures.

With hope all of the work I’m doing to get myself in a better place financially will pay off.

With hope I can believe that there will be more bright days than dark days in this new year and new decade.

I can be fearless and committed and work diligently but without hope it all seems fruitless.

Now as I sit here looking at my vision board from 2019, I’m excited to see that my word and my actions moved me so much closer to all of my dreams. Staying committed helped me to accomplish most of what I had planned for this past year.

With hope, I move forward into 2020 looking to continue my journey of growth.

What’s your word for 2020?