Set Your Intention for the Year Ahead
Do you set goals or intentions in the new year?
Setting your intention(s) for the year ahead by choosing a word of the year and/or creating a vision board can help you make difficult decisions as they come up so you can stay on track with your goals. What do you want to have achieved by the end of the year?
I gave up setting New Year’s resolutions long ago. They just never lasted. I would lose my excitement for whatever resolution I’d set as soon as it became hard, which quickly meant I’d failed at keeping the resolution.
About five years ago, my friend told me about the idea of choosing a word of the year as a way of setting an intention for the direction I wanted my life to go that year or areas I wanted to focus on improving. This seemed like a much more doable way to approach goal setting.
Now each January, I choose a word that encompasses my goals for the year ahead. I tend to keep my goals big and vague. I’m not a spreadsheet kind of person who sets tiny goals that add up to one big goal. (That feels too confining and restrictive to me personally. Plus, then it feels a lot like homework that has to be completed. Where’s the fun in that?) Instead, I keep my word/intention for the year visible around me so that I’m constantly reminded to check in with myself to see how I’m progressing on my goals. If I don’t think I’ve made much forward progress, then I know it’s time to take specific steps to help me keep moving.
How do I keep my word visual? In two big ways.
You know how once you’re focused on something, you start to see that thing everywhere? Well, that’s what happens when I choose a word. For instance, my word for 2023 was “blossom.” Once I settled on that word, I started seeing blossoms everywhere (not just live ones in gardens). I came across stickers, journals, calendars, and all sorts of other things labeled with either the word or a picture of a blossom. I collected those items and kept them in plain sight as a constant source of inspiration to stay focused on my goals.
Another great visual is a vision board. These can be powerful tools for visualizing all you want to achieve in the year ahead. Bonus: they’re fun to put together (whether you create a digital one on Pinterest or Canva or you create a physical one using magazine cut-outs glued onto a poster board).
My good friend Tabitha—whom we’ll refer to henceforth as the vision board guru—can tell you more about them than I can. She’s been leading vision board workshops for several years. If you’re interested in learning more about how she goes through the process of creating a vision board (complete with worksheets) click over to her site at tabithadumas.com (not an affiliate) and see all the free goodies she has for you. Or you might want to just take this idea and run with it completely on your own. Grab some kind of flat surface, some kind of adhesive, and some inspiration. Choose your word for the year and start creating a visual to go with it.
Need help choosing a word? Download the Vision Board Guru’s worksheet.
I’d love to hear what your word for the year is. Tag me if you share it on Instagram @tiffinysbookshelf, and I’ll tell you mine.
Let’s visualize a great year of writing ahead.
Happy Writing!
Tiffiny
