Looking Ahead to the New Year and My Word of the Year
I love the new year. It is a time for a fresh start, a new beginning, letting go of last year’s bad ju-ju— insert your own cliche here. I am not a person who is big with making resolutions or significant sweeping promises to declare that “this year things are going to be different.” I am far too much of a pragmatist for that. In many ways, I feel that time is somewhat of a social construct to create order, rituals, and routines in our daily life. Step away from the calendar far enough, and you see that life ebbs and flows on its own timetable, and, speaking for myself, I tend to embrace the seasons of life, not just one particular day.
After all, did you really feel any different on December 31 than you did on January 1? I know I didn’t.
That doesn’t mean I don’t embrace a good reset. A time to reflect on past accomplishments and setbacks and then look ahead, with the goal of doing things better this time around. Hey, I might be a pragmatist, but I’m also an unapologetic optimist. I like to embrace this reset by choosing a word of the year. Last year’s word was BRAVE.
Brave seemed fitting for everything we were facing last year. We were in the first dark winter of COVID, and vaccines were not yet available. There were many unknowns. I knew if I were going to get through it all, I would need to put on my big-girl panties and steel up just like I knew my Grandma Frances had to do so many times in her life. Raising four boys in the 1940s on a shoestring budget while her husband traveled around the country seeking work, she had to learn to live through hard times. I lean on the spirit of her resiliency and courage more than she probably ever thought I would.
So in one way, I was being brave in the big bad world. But in another way, I was also being brave in new creative goals and personal challenges. For years I have dreamed of pursuing my creative entrepreneurial aspirations. I finally took the big step of defining a goal, executing a plan, and opening my own Etsy shop. I struggled with a lot of imposter syndrome. Not feeling like my art was worthy of being enjoyed or appreciated by others, to say anything of purchased. My Etsy shop journey is still a work in progress. The initial task of just getting it open, however, well, that took just a whole lot of being brave.
So now that we are turning the page to a new year, I feel stronger mentally and emotionally, not only with the struggles going on in the world but also with my plans and goals. So with that in mind, the word that feels right for this year is CONSISTENCY. I feel like now that I have the engine running, let’s keep it from stalling.
Additionally, I chose consistency because in truth, I struggle with it quite a bit in certain areas of my life. For example, while I have a great work ethic and am reliable, I can tend to get over ambitious in my goals and personal projects. Or to say it another way, my ambition often exceeds my ability (at least initially). This set-back can lead to a lot of frustration, disappointment, and self-loathing— all real downers when you are trying to get motivated to accomplish a big goal or project!
Consistency allows for slow and steady progress. I’m realizing now that really is the key to long-term success. Nothing (rarely) happens overnight. Everyone starts at the beginning. It’s just that “starts” are seldom what makes the headlines or gets the attention. All anyone ever seems to focus on is how well a person “finishes.” Growing up, I didn’t have any mentors or role models to help me understand this. I’ve had to learn it on my own. And that, itself, has been its own growth process and evolution.
The other thing I love about the idea of consistency is that I hope it will help me keep promises. What do I mean by that? Well, I heard once long ago (I wish I could remember by who) that unfinished things are like broken promises to yourself. Over time these broken promises build up like boulders that block your flow (to complete the metaphor) of the river of your life. I always try to keep my word to anyone I make a promise to, and it’s time I start doing that for myself as well.
I hope that consistency will help me accomplish all or at least large parts of my goals for 2022. I want to list them in the conclusion of this post, not only to share but also as a way of documenting where I’m at today. After all, you can’t know where you are going unless you know where you have been.
I have three main goals:
Continue to explore my art.
Grow my audiences and communities on my various platforms.
Connect with other writers.
I have two additional personal goals:
Organizing all my personal photos.
Learning how to mix songs.
Starting my own playlist on Spotify full of song mixes and mash-ups I create.
Of course, I have broken down each of these goals into smaller action items and projects. I am pretty pleased with these goals, though. They are less task-oriented and I am fine with that. I think of them more as “pillars” that I want everything I do this year to somehow falls under one of these goals. It shouldn’t be too difficult for me because they are things I am already doing in some form, and I really enjoy.
I’m cautiously optimistic for 2022. Let’s get to it.
