Thinking of Words which act as a prompt, aspiration or reminder can be a good alternative to setting goals.
Most New Year Resolutions apparently are broken by mid January, you avoid failure within two weeks!
Previously I have chosen words that set the tone for the year. Courage, Truth, Reliable and so on. Good virtuous right-thinking attitudes to encourage me.
But I am more cynical and cautious after two years of a pandemic. Not to mention unreliable political leadership and a world apparently teetering from one crisis to another. We are heading for a third year of alertness, even if not major crisis. But this time last year we thought the worst was over and that has not proved to be accurate.
Words are important
Words are my stock-in-trade and I respect them. So I have no wish to think of suitable words and then find myself unfortunately feeling unable to follow through.
Failure is not helpful.
This year I am taking a different approach: my words are the container for a way of looking at life. They will help me keep an open mind, be curious however life shows up.
My words of the year are”Exciting Experiments”
Exciting Experiments should encourage me to take a risk and to disconnect from having a specific outcome.
This should help to take any fear out of new situations, while encouraging me to do something badly! That old perfectionist chatter can easily keep us all from daring to get out of what is comfortable and known.
The word “experiments” is not associated with vitality unless you are a scientist. So I added the prefix Exciting, to remind myself that this could be fun. Once in the school lab iron filings burst dramatically out of the test tube by mistake. But that was the only fun experiment I remember.
So this should be a year of exciting experiments.