Happy new year! Is it too late for that now? I know it’s February, a long ways away from the sparkly bright hope of January 1st. But this year I felt the need to start the year off slow so while everyone was getting busy welcoming the New Year I was busy hibernating. (or at least trying to).
My slow start helped me realize something though; starting the New Year off rushing around is not for me. First of all, I live in a snowy, cold climate (at times -30 Celsius cold) and it is dark for a lot of the day, so my body naturally moves slower. I also crave more relaxing time, warmth, coziness and creativity.
So instead of jumping into the New Year I slowly welcomed it. I took time to reflect on 2017 and let me tell you there was a lot to unpack and digest.
Every year I pick a theme I want to embody for the year. Last year my theme was laser focus, while I did okay in some ways I found that the theme didn’t fit how I felt the year went. 2017 was a crazy year, there were so many things pulling my attention in so many different directions. From the women’s march, the times up movement, focusing on my health, building a business and crazy leaders with buttons to big scary weapons, there was a lot going on last year.
2017 felt a bit unsatisfying, while a pretty good year personally, all the things that went on in the world made it felt like an energetically crazy and challenging year. I was far from having laser focus.
While reviewing my year I didn’t feel like I accomplished much, which made me feel like the year kind of passed me by, (not how I want my year to go). But when I reviewed what I wrote for my theme and corresponding intention at the beginning of last year I realized that my goals were not specific enough. I didn’t really set any specific goals or have any experiences that I committed to.
Having said that when I took the time to write out what I experienced in 2017 I realized that I did a lot more that I realized. I made a lot of strides in my self-care and I am exercising in the mornings which is huge for me. I feel capable, happy and content. I’m gaining more trust in myself, I trust the strength of my body and my ability to create the life I desire.
I also had some great adventures and experiences I went to Japan and Korea, hung out with friends, went on a couple of hikes and went on a few local road trips. Despite the lack of focus and the crazy stuff going on there is a lot to appreciate about 2017.
So, when I went to create my intention for this year I took what I learned from last year and went more in depth in how I want to feel and what I want to experience in 2018.
My theme for this year is nourishing self-love and loving connection and my intention is to feel healthy, energized, joyous, calm, accomplished and pleasure. Both my theme and my intention for how I want to feel this year will direct the goals and experiences I want for the year.
I have a lot of big goals this year, some of them are getting big projects completed and some are the many new adventures and experiences I am planning. To decide what I wanted to do and experience this year I looked at how I wanted to feel and I designed my goals and experiences to compliment that.
This year is going to be an amazing year, along with my big goals I am planning a few amazing experiences for myself. Some of the things I plan on doing is meditating, I am going to knit, go for more hikes, learn new things, I will nourish my body well, I will travel, have adventures, be with the people I love and take exquisite care of myself. Because I have a better plan and clear outlook for the year, it will make it so much easier create the year I desire.
What about you? What is your year going to be like? What do you want to do, how do you want to feel?
If you need a little help, here is the process I used this year to help me create my intention of what I want for the year.
First ask yourself what you want your theme for the year to be. When you pick your theme, you don’t want to think about it too hard you want to feel into it. Your theme is your overarching intention and what you hope for the coming year.
Next you want to decide how you want to feel this year, how you want to experience your theme. By focusing on how you want to feel it will help you direct your actions during the year.
After that you want to decide the big goals that you want to accomplish for the year. Make a list of what you want to accomplish and put the list from most important to less important.
Then decide what you want to experience, this is connected with your big goals but is more about how you want to feel. While goals and experiences are pretty similar there is a difference for this exercise.
Goals are about getting something done, it’s the destination, the completion of something. Your goals are the things that have to be done. They are the desired effect or result of something you partake it.
Experiences are about a feeling, it is not necessarily about the destination or end result. They are an an event or occurrence that leaves an impression you.
For example, a goal can be to knit a blanket for a friend and the experience can be the act of knitting. The goal is about the end result, the completion of the blanket but experiencing it is about the act of knitting not the completion of a project.
So, for me I have a goal of completing a will, it’s not about the experience of getting a will it’s about the accomplishment of getting it done. The same goes for creating more videos for my blog it about the end result of having the videos done.
But some of the things I want to experience are going on a few hikes, for me it is not about making it to the top of the mountain it’s about the experience of hike. The same goes for travelling, meditating and hanging out with friends. All of these are about experiencing it not completing it.
If you are having trouble deciding on any of the above ask your heart, body and soul what it desires, what they want. Asking this really helped me with what I want for the year.
So, to recap you need to determine your theme, then how you want to feel. Next you determine your goal from most important to least. Make sure you take off the non-essentials off the list and focus on going after the most important goal first. After that decide what you want to experience this year. This list is the same as your goal list most important to not, etc.
If you have any questions post them below and let me know what your theme is, what you want to feel, your goals and the experiences you want to have for the year. By declaring them below it will help you commit to them. And in 6 months we can review how the year is going and see if we are all on track for how we want our year to go.
I can’t wait to hear what you want for the year!
Kyla
P.S. On Feb 27 I have a very special interview that I will be posting more details will come out later this week. Stay tuned!
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