New year resolutions are BS
Here’s what you can do instead…..
I have, for years been making new year resolutions and setting goals for myself at the beginning of each year, treating January to be some sort of a phase where metamorphosis is guaranteed. But the reality is that it’s just another month. Why does it have to be the month where we take a look at ourselves wondering what we want to change about us and how we can go about doing that. Any month or any day will work right?
Considering this point, we still definitely need direction or a destination…. if you will. Without it, we are just mindless travellers in this journey called life. But do not feel too pressured or anything. After years of goal setting and failed attempts at making those goals work, I came upon this marvellous idea of working with a ‘word of the year’ instead. I cannot take credit for it and I wish I could remember where I learned it from but I unfortunately do not. A word of the year brings in a kind of method to the madness. It’s easy to choose a word and then put it up on a vision board and have it remind you every day of what your focus should be for that year. That word can apply to your personal life, your professional life, your health — mental, physical or emotional. It gives you a bit of wiggle room to interpret it in any way you would like to. It’s a lot less restrictive than a New Year resolution for sure.
Last year I had a very interesting word of the year and boy did I follow through. It was ‘PLERK’.
I know, it sounds like a random sound, but stick with me. It is formed from the words, Play and work. It reminded me to not take myself very seriously and to just enjoy the work I did.
My wonderful mentor Lori Hammond taught me this word. I recall her mentioning that she learned it from someone else and that domino effect can go on and on but I would like to give her credit because she is whom I heard it from for the very first time and found it hugely inspiring. So, I plerked while I wrote my blogs, and worked for my mentors and did several ghost writing projects — both fiction and non-fiction. I also plerked while I worked on my own content that focussed on hypnosis and mental health.
All that I needed to do my job was my laptop and I can work from anywhere in the world (I tried this thing called manifestation…it is soooo cool). Through this process I also get to be my own boss and choose my own work schedule. Isn’t that very exciting? Enough about last year though. We are in 2023 after all, so let’s focus on the here and now.
This year my word is DETACHMENT. It isn’t as impersonal as it sounds. It goes deeper. It means that I will continue to do all the work I love and also work doubly hard in growing my own business and creating more awareness on mental health, narcissistic abuse, and hypnosis. But while I do that, my goal is to remain detached to the outcome.
So many of us are tied to the outcome of what we put out there in the world. How many people engaged with it, how many new followers, reshares, likes we got. It definitely slowed down my progress last year and discouraged me a lot. I do not want the weight of these expectations to steer me away from the progress I want to make. I see a vision of being able to help people through their struggles and be a catalyst in helping them make the changes they desire.
I was in a deep dark hole just three years ago but the version I am now barely recognises that girl. So, I shall plough through and put in the work. But I will detach from what it is getting me. My main intention instead will be to see what it is giving you and how I can add value thereon.
If you presently feel overwhelmed just sit back and think of how you see yourself by Dec 2023. And in order to reach there in a dozen months, what is the word that deeply resonates in your soul. Don’t be too picky. Just pick the one your subconscious mind throws at you the moment you have this vision. That’s your word. Write it in big bold letters and put it up at your work table or on your closet or bathroom mirror. Let it be your north star reminding you through the passage of time about the vision you hold in your heart for yourself. So that the images that come up turn into action and the actions you take help you make slow, consistent progress towards that version of you that you desire.
If you feel like this is all too much to do right now, do it in February or March. The month does not matter. Make it an eighteen-month vision and not a twelve-month one, if that doesn’t work for you. The calendar is just a construct like we said, but you are your own person. Do what feels right to you and keep that word at the forefront of your mind. I have been doing it now for a whole year and it truly works. Trust me….
A happy new year to you and yours…..
P.S — If you want to borrow my word, GO AHEAD. I don’t mind AT ALL. :)
