Whew! We’re a little over a week into 2021 and I meant to have this post out last week, but if you’ve been watching the news then you understand why I didn’t have the energy or bandwidth to do that. Last year was both the slowest and fastest year in my opinion, and I’m honestly happy to be in 2021. In case you’re new around here, I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions anymore, I’ve been favoring ‘one little words’ instead. In fact, you can check out my posts for 2018, 2019, and 2020!
I’ve been asked many times why I decided to stop doing resolutions, and honestly most are often too literal and finite and I wanted more of an intention or loose guide.
For example –
I want to lose 50 pounds.
I want to visit two more countries this year.
I want to increase my social media engagement by 10% this year.
Those are great resolutions to have, but they might not all be attainable. And rather than me feel terrible if I don’t meet them, I can choose a word (or two this year) that my goals for the year will fall under. It’s intentional. In fact, it’ll help guide my thoughts, actions and beliefs throughout the whole year.
Yep, you read that correctly. I have TWO words for this year. I probably would’ve been okay with just doing one this year, but I actually started using one unofficially as an affirmation towards the middle of last year so I wanted to have it as an official one this year.
First up is ‘bountiful’. I have to give it to Black creators. We’re constantly changing the game, and I have to credit to Durell Smylie for his influence on this word. You probably know him from his famous “where the money resides” Tik Tok video. It’s super catchy and I loved it, in fact I’m not the only one who did. Not only am I using ‘bountiful’ as a word this year, but “I’m going to be where the money resides” is one of my affirmations for this year. But let’s get to why I chose ‘bountiful’ for this year. Yes there’s the financial aspect, but I want to make sure that my joy, health, relationships and more are bountiful. I want increase in my life, and this word encapsulates that perfectly.
My second word for the year is ‘intentional’. This is the one that I unofficially adopted towards the middle of last year and it served me well. I wanted to make sure that I was intentional about how I spent my time, exerted energy, spent money, fostered relationships, what I consumed and more. It helps me protect my peace and allows me to give more to the people, causes and organizations that are life-giving for me.
Those are the two main things I’ll be focusing on this year. What about y’all? Are you doing the ‘One Little Word’ exercise or do you have a list of resolutions?