Last year I bought a beautiful, floral, 2020 year-planner that perfectly captured the spirit of how I envisioned all my exciting goals and intentions would be realized. On the cover, in swirling metallic bronze letters, the title announced to the world: This Year is For Blooming. It was exactly how I saw the months ahead evolving. I had already made a list of “20 Ways to Make 2020 Fruitful.” Can you see the theme I was going for?
Around mid-January, I joined a group of friends to participate in an online meditation challenge called 21 Days of Abundance. To personalize the challenge for myself, in addition to the daily affirmations, I added scripture passages that referenced abundance. At the end of the challenge, I decided that ‘blooming’ and ‘abundance’ would be my words of the year. I was ready for all the rich productivity and success the year had to offer.
And then came Covid. By the last week of February, as I returned home from facilitating a training workshop overseas, it became abundantly clear that this was going to be no ordinary year. One by one, all of my carefully made plans had to be postponed and then ultimately cancelled. You know, the ones that had been crafted first by a thought, then an idea that was nurtured and cultivated into great projects that blossomed with creativity and ingenuity. The year was going nowhere. Or so it seemed.
It’s now one month into 2021 and as I look back on the incredible year that was 2020, I am ever so thankful for the perspective I gained by internalizing those two words, blooming and abundance, and incorporating them into my mindset as I navigated the anxieties and uncertainties of the pandemic along with the rest of the world. While no words could really ever take away the fear, sadness, grief, stress and chaos brought about by the events of 2020, my two words helped to ground my emotions while lifting my outlook at the same time, which in turn allowed me to help others do the same.
I believe strongly in the power of words. I believe words have life and authority and help to project our intentions, even if we are not consciously aware of what those intentions are. And so, despite the significant changes I had to make, despite what was limited and despite what was lost, my gains were great. I gained an abundance of time. I gained an abundance of new ideas. I gained an abundance of new people in my network. And I gained the possibility of opportunities that I am yet to tap. Altogether, these developments allowed me to bloom in ways that I still find hard to believe.
This year, I’ve chosen a new word – building; physical muscle, my business focus, stronger relationships, connections that matter. And I can tell you I’m already hard at work on each of those and excited to see where this word will take me.
Your Challenge For This Week
Visualize what you want to work towards this year and create a Word of the Year to help you stay focused and pull you forward even as life twists and turns.
Share this article with your relatives and friends to help them understand the power of words. And don’t forget to leave a comment and share your Word of the Year with me!
And, if you want to add even more intention to your year, help yourself to my free offer by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/hf2oWv