So, here we are at the end of the year...the end of the decade and it is the time of year when people start talking about their resolutions and asking about your's.
Last night I went to a gathering of ladies who were making vision boards for manifesting the things they want to attract in 2020. The discussion was about being positive, setting intentions and matching vibrations. This morning on The Instagram I saw one post about "doing better". The list was long and detailed about all the ways Better was going to look in 2020. With one scroll of the finger I came upon another post warning about resolutions that have to do with productivity and how it can lead to burnout and anxiety. It seems there is a wide variety of ways people will address this turning of the calendar page and the ushering in of a new beginning.
For some the plan will include adding something, like a new program or regimen... Keto or Peloton... hot yoga or matcha. For others it will mean eliminating something, like stress or toxic relationships or sugar... or Bravo TV. And, for still others it just means visualizing what life looks and lives like having tweaked one factor or dynamic in some way.
I started making a vision board for the new year in 2017. The idea of cutting out pictures from magazines didn't feel like the right fit for me and instead spent more time sitting quietly and thinking about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be in the new year and beyond. There were some prominent words that surfaced about integrity and peacefulness and fearlessness and some principles that I wanted to see guiding my thoughts and behaviors. It was a very different feel from the resolutions I remember from younger days... those resolutions that didn't end up actually being backed with much resolve at all and petered out within a couple of days into the new year. I think those resolutions were really just related to shame of some kind and only produced feelings of defeat and a sense of failure. The 2017 vision board I did included deeper desires based on the things I really valued like working on parenting without fear and judgement and trying to speak more Life, beat myself up less and be less "prickly". The best thing for me about it was that it felt really bathed in grace. The vision served as a picture that showed where I wanted to get, but there would be side roads taken, pot holes and mountains along the way... life long habits and patterns that would need to be broken. I knew I would fall and I would have set backs... fear would creep in and I would say the wrong things...a lot. BUT I could refocus on the vision and get up and dust off, make amends where necessary and adjust my shoulders and keep on. With grace.
Since 2017 several of the characteristics I wanted to build into my life have rolled over onto the vision boards of 2018 and 2019 and will appear again this year. I haven't arrived! With some of them I've barely gotten out of the gate. But that's ok. They're still on the map and I am making progress.
Do you have some thoughts and ideas for your new year? For a new beginning? It's a great time for a #DoOver. Just remember to weave Grace all through anything that has to do with change. A fall or a falter is not the same as a failure.
Set a vision. Make a plan. Set goals. Celebrate the successes. Move forward. Keep getting up. Refocus. ...and give yourself grace.
Happy New Year!
