Do you have a word to inspire your year?
We know that New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep. In fact, more and more people ditch resolutions and instead focus on realistic, small actions that eventually build new habits.
In his book “Atomic Habits”, author James Clear writes, “The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”
The one big thing I have always been struggling with when it comes to developing new habits is my commitment to the process. There are too many distractions in my daily life that can easily take me off-track. Let’s say I want to build a habit of writing 500 words daily. If I don’t set myself up to win, i.e. mastering distractions like watching a bunch of Insta stories or talking to friends on WhatsApp, then I won’t commit to the 500-word activity.
How can you stay committed to building your new habits?
So, at the end of 2019, I asked myself, “How can I stay committed to building my desired new habits?” If resolutions don’t work because we lack the proper structure to support the behavioral changes we’d like to achieve, then we have to set up our environment to support the positive habits we seek in our daily lives.
In addition to creating an environment and structure that would support my atomic daily actions, I was looking for a way to keep me motivated and on track beyond the idea of taking actions to make incremental progress. And that’s when I rediscovered Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year workbook.
Susannah’s workbook is grounded in a similar approach as James Clear’s goal-less thinking. As she writes on her website, “It’s not about hitting goals, it’s about moving in the direction of your intentions.”
By reflecting on the year passed and setting intentions – not goals – for the year ahead, we tap into a mindful approach to how we want to be and act. Susannah describes it as “magic” when you let self-awareness and a soulful connection to your innermost desires have a say in the life and business you want to create.
One of the results of spending time with the “Unravel Your Year” workbook is the clarity you’ll gain around your intentions and motivations for your next year. And all of your writings and reflections in the workbook culminate in what Susannah calls your “Word of the Year”.
Choose your word of the year
This is one word you choose that will inspire you and guide you as you are taking small, intentional actions towards your positive habits. It is the Word of the Year that constitutes the missing puzzle piece to me being committed to my daily actions. By being my purpose-filled and gentle companion on my year-long journey my word helps me create a life and work that fills my cup. Because only when my cup is full can I serve others.
So that’s why I decided to ditch New Year’s resolutions and instead embrace a Word of the Year for 2020, which will serve as my mantra and a promise to myself and to others for staying committed.
My word is KINDNESS. It emerged out of my reflection for my approach to work in 2020 where I desire to embrace a gentler, more intuitive – and yes, kinder – way to respond to challenges in my personal life, in my work, and the unknown that I’m going to accept in 2020 and beyond.
