Ahhhhh, New Year's. A time to reflect, celebrate, plan, and release.
Usually I will fill my New Year's Eve and Day with setting intentions, plotting out goals and aspirations, determining the key areas in my life to focus on, and deciding where I'd like to see myself at the end of the upcoming year.
But this year, instead of a 5 step detailed plan, I'm asking myself 3 simple questions:
What do I want to carry with me into 2022?
What do I want to leave behind?
What do I want my life to look like at the end of the next year?
What do you want to carry with you into 2022? Perhaps you have grown in many positives ways this year. Maybe you learned to set (and respect) your own boundaries. Maybe you started feeding your body and your mind well. Maybe you have been reading more, getting outside more, sleeping better. Take some time to evaluate your life - take inventory - and decide what should come along. These are the good things that you can build on; the things that serve you well. The things, and people, in your life that help you get closer to who you truly are and who you want to be.
But what do you need to leave behind? I'm sure for many of us this list may be endless. Perhaps there are some habits that are hurting your life, not just physically, but mentally, spiritually, and even financially. Relationships that drain your soul - leave those. Negative self-talk, self-sabotage, putting yourself at the bottom of the priority list, always saying yes when you owe it to yourself to say no. Walk away from that life of self-martyrdom, self-deprecation, and self-harm. You deserve better. You truly do.
What do you want your life to look like? What do you want to become? Do you want to be someone who is calm, pleasant, positive, and peaceful? Perhaps add a gratitude practice to your daily routine. Do you want to be more physically fit? Overall healthier? To drink more water? Read more books? Envision all that you want your life to be and take steps towards that life each day that you can.
I can give you a laundry list of how to evaluate your life, make an achievable plan, and how to start taking smart action to get you to where you want to go. And perhaps in the days to come, I will. But for now, I'll offer this:
Let go of all that has hurt you, held you back, and pushed you down over this past year. Bring with you all that brings you joy, gives you peace, and fills you with purpose. Dream of what you want, envision who and where you'd like to be, and take a step each day to get you closer and closer to making that life a reality.
It's not all fireworks. And it surely is not all a new diet plan (if it is, please let me talk you out of that one). It's not about resolutions and pushing yourself to exhaustion or punishing yourself for being human.
It is a fresh page. It's a new opportunity to love ourselves and to love others.
Happy New Year. I hope you welcome 2022 with open hands and an open heart.