My One Word for 2021

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For many years I’ve forgone setting a New Year’s Resolution and chosen one word for the year instead. I don’t think I chose one in 2020 for some reason, but looking back, it’s ok.

Going into last year without a focus ended up being ok because it allowed me to pivot when we had our lives uprooted with a pandemic!

It also allowed me to really think about what makes me happy about my life, and what needed some work.

Over the years I’ve chosen different words to focus on throughout the year.

Choosing a word instead of a resolution allows me to have one simple word that inspires me throughout the year as I make decisions about where I am spending my time and the goals I want to achieve.

Previous words I’ve chosen are

• Fearless
• Brave
• Intentional
• Trust
• Patience

I know it’s January 5th and technically, the organized person would have had their word chosen already but I’ve given myself some time to really think about what I want 2021 to look like.

How do I want to feel?

What do I want to accomplish?

There is one word that keeps popping up, like it always does when I’m trying to decide on a word.

The word I’ve chosen for 2021 is CREATE.

Why did I choose the word create?

I am a blogger who enjoys the creation process of creating content and sharing it.

I am also a business owner who creates courses to help people. I love creating things… and quite honestly, creation is something you have to make time for. And time is something that feels hard to come by these days.

I am a mother who has a desire to create memories with my family and being intentional about the time I have with them.

I want to spend less time consuming and more time creating this year.

I waste hours a week on my phone. Hours.

(No judgment, if you don’t know how much time you spend each week I’d highly encourage you to set up screen time on your phone.)

Our phones are with us at all times and as a blogger, sometimes I struggle to unplug. The consequence of never unplugging is that I don’t always get done what needs to get done behind the scenes.

And it just doesn’t effect my business, it effects my home life as well. I may not get that load of laundry done, or that room cleaned up, or that craft that one of my kids wants me to do.

I claim to not have enough time, but the truth is, I just need to prioritize my time better to leave more hours to creation and less to consuming.

What do I want to create this year?

This list could get long, and I don’t want to overwhelm myself (or you), but I will share a few big goals I have for myself this year.

Everything else I do will be with the inspiration to create more, consume less. When deciding whether to do something or not, I’ll ask myself, “Is this allowing me to be creative and grow, or is it wasting my time and stalling progress?”

• Business Goal: Write one blog post each week. Well, I just shared it publicly so you’d better hold me accountable! Consistency is key when blogging and I want to show up here more often.
  
• Family Goal: I want to actively continue to document my family memories using Project Life. I use the Project Life app developed by Becky Higgins and was able to create a book for each of my children in 2020.
  It brought me SO MUCH JOY. It brought them joy, too! I have years to catch up on and I want to continue to make progress on their memories because they last a lifetime when they are preserved into a photo book.
  
• Health Goal: This will likely evolve over the year, but my first goal is to create better sleep habits. I sacrifice sleep a lot to read, catch up on TV, scrapbook, work and if I’m honest, scroll social media.
  
  I have to make sleep a priority. This will be HARD. Like super duper hard for me.
  
  It’s very hard for me to shut my light off at night and I don’t like to sleep in because I feel like I’m wasting time, but what I need to realize is my body needs to unwind and unplug. I need to create space to allow it to do so.
  

How will I create more this year?

• Set strict screen time limits. No more entering my damn passcode to give me more time. NOPE. Nope. nope.
  
• Less time on social media means more time for scrapbooking! This one will happen organically.
  If I set stricter screen time limits I will have more time to focus on documenting. And every time I complete a page I am SO happy. Like, giddy happy.
  
• Make a content creation plan. I’m often disorganized and it leaves me feeling more stressed. I will come up with a plan to be better organized to allow for less stress when it comes to creating content.
  Ideally, I will content plan for each quarter at a time. So, if there is anything you would love for me to share about, please message me or comment below! I want to provide content you find valuable!
  
• Download a sleep app on my Apple Watch. I am researching what app to use and I’ll share once I find one I like.
  
  Knowing how much I sleep is my first step to sleeping more. No more 5 hours of sleep a night… this mama is shooting for 7-8 hours each night which is rare for me currently. This will quite honestly be a huge undertaking for me so stay tuned to see how it goes!

This is where I’m starting for the year.

Will it evolve? Most likely. Will I come up with something else as soon as I publish this post? I’m sure I will!

When I look back on 2021 I want to see what I was able to create, and in turn, where I was able to grow.

Have you ever chosen one word for the year instead of a New Years resolution?

Do you find it to be less pressure? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments! And if you chose a word for 2021… please share it!! I love new ideas to consider for next year!