Happy New Year Everyone!
I love new chapters. New days. New hopes. Blank pages.
Every January we have the opportunity to start fresh. Reboot. Re-think our priorities and start over. Anyone reading this blog for a while knows how I love do-overs.
What I don’t love are New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t believe in them as they have never worked for me.
Back in 2009 the woman who would later become one of my greatest mentors, Christine Kane, taught me how to choose a word for the year instead of making a resolution.
Ever since then, each year I have chosen a word and each year I have experienced huge shifts moving my life forward.
The year I chose Courage, I ended a relationship that had caused me pain for years. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.
The year I chose Vision, I discovered the vision of becoming a life coach (and here I am so you know how that one worked out!)
Last year I chose Success because I wanted to define success for myself. I spent the year asking, “What does success look like for me?” So many answers came it was like a waterfall of success washing over me. Now when I decide to work on projects or accept invitations, I have a clear compass of what authentic success is – helping people, teaching, feeling on-purpose – all of those values came from a deep examination of what success means to me.
This practice has been so powerful I developed a whole workshop around how to choose a word. If you are signed up for my email updates, you will be notified the next time I teach this in depth. If you are not signed up – enter your email in the magic box and you will get all the inside scoop and ultra-special First Access Notice whenever something fun and exciting happens in ModernMarriedLand.
In the meantime, here is my personal recipe, refined over the last few years of practice for How to Choose One Word to Turbo-Charge Your Year:
Ask Questions. If you only ask one question, ask this one: Who do I want to be? If you like to linger inside the answer of a beautiful question, here are some more to spark your imagination:
- How do I want to feel?
- What excites me?
- What makes me smile?
- What makes me feel relaxed and at peace?
- What is my Highest Vision for my life this year?
- If I achieved one Goal next year that would make me feel like I accomplished something great, what would that Goal be?
But seriously all you need to ask is Who do I want to be? And see what comes up for you.
Be with the feeling. Put on your favorite inspiring song. For me it’s Daniel Nahmod’s Everything New. Put on a song you can close your eyes to and just feel the feeling of who you want to be.
Choose a word. Or let it choose you. Sometimes you close your eyes and the word pops into your head. Sometimes you need a list of words to choose from. Some of my favorites are included in the graphic above.
Trust that the word that comes to you is the word that will bring you the greatest growth. It may not make immediate sense, sometimes words choose us because they provide fertile ground for our growth.
Complete these sentences:
- I love this word because:
- The effect of this word in my life is:
- Where can I put this word so I see it daily?
Share your word. With someone understanding, someone who will support you in experiencing the effect of the word you have chosen. If the hubby is available, tell him, if not, tell a friend or share in the comments. Describe in as much detail as you can the feelings and accomplishments that living into the intention of this word will bring you this year.
Stand in the power of your word. When a building is under construction, the first thing that happens is a foundation is dug deep into the ground. During this phase of construction there is dust, debris and general chaos. This is normal and to be expected. In fact, the taller the sky scraper, the deeper the foundation. Imagine your life is a sky scraper. You are building the foundation by living into the energy and intention of your magical word.
Be ready for challenges. Remember what a construction site looks like. There are drills and cranes and large scooping machines clearing out space for the new structure. Sometimes it’s dirty, noisy, messy and not pretty. When our life is like that we think there is something wrong. Let’s declare it something right. What if we thought: Oh! We are under construction! That sky scraper is coming up and it’s going to be Awesome!
Take the Oath – Repeat out loud with a mixture of solemnity and delight the following words:
I hereby commit to living my word this year. I will remember to BE the person I want to be. I will DO the things I want to do and then I will HAVE the results that represent Authentic Success to me. I will take Baby Steps towards my goals. When I feel “under construction” I will declare it good. I know my skyscraper is being built. Every day I will look for and find Inspiration and Power in my Words, Feelings, Thoughts and Actions. And so it is. Amen.
Christine Kane – who taught me this process in depth has a great free “Word of the Year Discovery Tool” that will walk you through her complete ritual and guide you into a higher level of intention for creating your year.
This post contains affiliate links. What that means is if you click the link and buy something from Christine someday, I will get a thank-you-for-referring-someone-fabulous commission with a side of really good karma and some dark, delicious chocolate. Actually, I try to have dark, delicious chocolate as often as possible, so that would happen anyway.)
Are you choosing a word this year? Tweet me your word at https://twitter.com/modernmarried!
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Now go love and be loved. XO
