Forget the New Year’s Resolution, Let’s Talk New Year’s Words

So I have this thing where I don’t pick New Year’s resolutions, but rather just one word or phrase to focus on for the upcoming year. Last year, it was “clarity.”

At the start of the year, this meant to me that I would gain clarity on where I need to focus my energy.

For work, it meant honing in on a brand and mission. For my personal life, it meant seeing the blessings in front of me.

Then 2020 happened. And while it was far from fully bad, the word “clarity” has new meaning as I look back on how things unfolded—how, in some ways, that word did in fact find itself coming to fruition, and in other cases how it didn’t.

Here’s what I did gain clarity on: What I want this blog and my whole brand to be. I do indeed have clarity on We Gotta Talk’s purpose now.

While I started the year as a blog branded by my own name, I am ending the year with a brand and blog that’s outward focused, defined more by its mission than the person behind it.

We Gotta Talk is a way of life for me personally, and remains the guiding mantra behind this blog and my podcast—that it always helps to talk things through.

To be honest. To sit in the discomfort. To confront what’s not good, so that we can arrive at what is.

So in that way, the year was successful. Yay for that!

And on the personal side, “clarity” was, ironically, a little more murky.

But as I look back on the year, I realize that word, and the idea behind it, was indeed more present than I ever expected.

Clarity came into play every day as I was forced—along with all of you—to engage in the present moment, when so much else had paused.

It came when I took the opportunity to focus on the kids and their tasks, rather than find distraction running in and out of the house. To fight my way through tons of emotional roadblocks as I homeschooled. To dig deeper, trying to find a spiritual meaning in this struggle. To deal with family members’ health issues.

As it turns out, clarity is essential in recognizing one’s blessings, both big and small, even when it seems like nothing else in the world is falling into place.

I haven’t yet settled on my word for 2021; last year has made me (all of us) a little gun-shy.

But when I do, and of course let you all know, I will remember that while our lessons don’t always come to us as we think they should, they come nonetheless. We just have to have the clarity to see when they do.

Blessings and hugs for a wonderful end to 2020, and a hopeful start to 2021!

“While our lessons don’t always come to us as we think they should, they come nonetheless. We just have to have the clarity to see when they do.”