Welcoming 2022

2022 is here and, ready or not, this new year is already rolling out beneath me. Mostly I feel ready, but I’ve got my stash of resiliency on hand for whatever surprises come my way. In both instances I feel like the word I’ve chosen for this year is the best shield I can have moving forward.

Each year, I choose a word to focus on. It’s an activity that has been done a few different ways and I’ve created my own way forward when I choose one. I take some time to do a few writing activities about what I want for the year, what I’m looking forward to exploring, and what I want to achieve both personally and professionally. Usually I wait until I have an idea of how my goals are coming together, where I need to redirect energy, or what needs more of my focus moving into the new year. I make sure I know what I’m going to to be putting my energy toward the most and what is calling to me. As I went through and prepared for what I thought I was going to focus on in 2022, I really thought about what I needed in 2021 and 2020. So much of these past few years have been about pulling back, taking care of my family and myself, and relearning what life was going to be like moving forward in this different version of the world we knew before. Between 2020 and 2021, I spent an entire school year supporting my youngest in complete remote learning and helping my oldest navigate both remote and then a slow transition out of remote. My writing group and I learned how to support each other through online interactions and the momentum I’d been cultivating to move out with my writing turned very suddenly inward. It was lovely, but also hard, and then altogether not about my writing for awhile. Now that life and the world are where they are, and I’ve been through the different iterations of what each stage means, I’m ready to realign and focus in a different way. With all of that in mind, and after all of the reflections and writing exercises, I’ve chosen the word CONNECT for 2022.

I know I’ve chosen a word well when it rings in my mind like a bell each time I say or think of it. But, I also really know I’ve chosen a word well when it begins to mean something different to me than I thought it would mean already. I chose this word to inspire me to connect in a more extroverted way to the world I’m looking to become part of with my writing. What I’ve found is that connecting in other ways, some extroverted, some introverted, and some in between, is just as important to my growth and my work. Already my word has helped me focus on the thing I’m doing right now in a more meaningful way. It’s helped me see that what I am in at the moment IS connecting, even if it’s the same thing I’ve done before. I can and do connect to all of my tasks in a meaningful way and that intention is what will manifest the goals I’m working on just as much as the larger, extroverted things I need to get better at doing. I’m excited about what I’ve learned already and looking forward to all of the ways this word will lead me this year. For the immediate future, I’m excited to see how it will lead me as I dive into breaking down my goal planning process and setting goals for this new year.

In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.

Happy Writing!