I am so excited to share this post with you today. I love writing about this topic because this small simple practice has helped me change my life, year on year.
New Years’ Resolutions are out. Do this instead.
In 2019 I wanted to do things a little differently. At that time I was really getting into personal growth on a whole new level. I was taking more intentional actions, setting BIG life goals and doing a ton of inner work to really up-level my life. I think it was one of my favourite years to date, and I honestly can thank this practice for that!
Vision boards etc really don’t do it for me (I’m a wordsmith and sooo not a visual person), so I decided to find a theme to centre my year around. I wanted one word, a simple idea, that I could use to keep me focused throughout the year.
I still set goals, but I wanted a unifying theme to centre my year around. Any decisions I made had to feel aligned with my theme. I based my mindset and outlook around this theme.
In 2019 I chose the word ‘inspire’.
My Year of Inspiration
To me, inspire meant growth and learning. I chose inspire as I knew it would change my perception; looking for deeper meanings and lessons in everyday life. I also wanted to BE the inspiration, to feel like an inspiring person, and this led to making bigger leaps and decisions in life. Read more about my year of inspiration here.
As a result –
Before making any big decisions I would ask myself whether this decision inspired me.
Any content I created had to feel inspiring before I would hit publish.
I would seek inspiration – following social accounts that inspired me to grow, reading books and articles about inspiring subjects
I connected with people I found inspiring. I made great friends with people who were a few steps ahead of me on the path.
I travelled more, signed up for random activities, said yes to the things that lit me up, and said no when something didn’t feel inspiring or aligned.
I looked to gain insight and inspiration from the little things in life, and I started to view the world through a more optimistic lens.
As a result, like I said, I think 2019 has been my favourite year to date.
I have done this every year since.
Choose Your Theme
Themes don’t have to be shiny, or outward-focused. They just have to resonate with you and where you’re wanting to go.
For example, in 2023 I chose ‘depth’. I wanted to explore the depth of my presence; how deeply present I could be with my baby girl. I wanted to deepen my yoga education and get back to my advanced trainings. I wanted to go deeper in the things that mattered most to me. ‘Depth’ doesn’t sound glamorous or exciting, but it was exactly what I needed (and it was exactly what I got, but that’s another story!).
If you’re feeling stuck in life, you may feel called to choose a theme like ‘adventure’ or ‘opportunity’. You don’t have to travel the world for 365 days; looking for the adventures in everyday life can be a game changing way of changing your perspective and your life.
This year I am focused on coming back to what makes me ‘me’, so my theme is based on that. I’ll share more on that in another post coming soon!
Have you got a theme for this year, or have you set intentions in this way before? Let me know in the comments ❤️
