New Year New You?

To be completely honest, I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions; I used to be though.  I would make a list that would have 3-5 items I wanted to change or accomplish in the new year ahead.  For a while it was fine, it was working, but the problem I have (and probably many others) is that the year is long, life is chaotic, and my ambitious self in January with 5 resolutions becomes a bit bogged down.  Then somewhere around August, I realized I haven’t been putting forth as much of an effort, and then the guilt sets in.  Does this loop sound familiar at all?

 

I decided about two years ago that it was time to break this loop of New Year’s resolutions and the “new year new me” mindset that seems to be ever-growing in popularity.  I decided to shorten my list to one item: a word.  That’s right, I would choose a word that I wanted to incorporate into my life more or bring more awareness to.  Last year I chose the word “guilt” because I tend to hold myself to crazy standards and feel guilty if I let someone down, take a rest day, read instead of walking my dogs, sleep in, eat a piece of cake, not being able to volunteer at an event, etc.…you name it, I feel guilt over it.  By choosing this word, it brought more awareness to my thoughts and feelings surrounding that emotion.  

 

Realistically I could choose “guilt” as my word every year (I am a work in progress myself!), but I don’t because that doesn’t send a very nice message to your inner self, does it?  This year my word is “embrace”.  I choose to embrace the challenges, the good things, the work, the stress and own it.  It is easy to get annoyed, angry, bummed, and frustrated when there is another hoop to jump through, another task to complete, yet one more edit to make; but my goal is to not stay mired in those emotions, and instead embrace those challenges and own them.  Personally, I tend to exert a lot of energy and effort in frustration when things don’t go the way I want them the first time, but this year, I want to put some of that energy into embracing whatever challenge/obstacle it may be.  

 

So, this year, I choose to embrace life: the good, the bad, the ugly, the funny, the stressful, and the sweet and see where it takes me. 

 

Happy New Year my friends!

 

Does anyone else choose a word for the year?