ONE WORD for 2021
Welcome 2021 and I would like to say good riddance to 2020 but I must say it has provided a time for much self-reflection along the way. Amidst a roller coaster of emotions, I got to know myself, my family and my friends along the wild ride of 2020 through every experience and choice we had to personally make and talk about if we wanted to. So, I am grateful for that. I am grateful that I am still able to write, breath, contact those friends and family however out of control and tumbling down Everest this last year has been. Being grateful does not mean I am positive Pollyanna walking around every day, rather I recognize my hardships and understand that in perspective to what I cannot even imagine what others who have lost people in their life have had to go through, we all have our own lives, our own experiences happening within this last year and with this pandemic added to the mix, life isn’t a comparison of hardships, but instead a recognition that we are all living our own stories and appreciate the trials in them all. I believe it normal, which is a relative term anyway, to experience a range of emotions and feelings every day. And then the question becomes how you move through those.
My one word for 2021 came to me the first couple weeks of this year. Actually, two of them came to me and one still lingers faintly whispering to let me know it is a faithful background companion to the word that resonates more within me for this year. Ready for it…My one word for 2021 is…
CURIOSITY.
Yes, you read that right. CURIOSITIY. Are you asking, how can I be curious with a continued Pandemic going on? Well, I asked myself that too and that is why our words choose us. To look at life from a different perspective and ask myself how I can be CURIOUS in every way in my life in 2021 in a way I never have thought of, considered or acted on in my life before.
I was watching the movie Passengers this weekend and there was a scene in there where Jim is at the Bar asking for some lost in space wisdom to the Android Bartender. This scene struck a chord with me. While my Pod did not wake me up 90 years to soon to be the only person lost in space, there is still an isolation feeling from what we have encountered this last year. So many emotions that have changed from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds and sometimes still do. I could relate to his entire gambit of the emotional rollercoaster ride. The nugget I took away from that scene was in remembering not to get so focused on what we cannot do right now in everything that is happening that we forget to focus on what we can…to “live a little”. I can still live and with CURIOUSITY this year. Maybe not in a way that I was used to and had even gotten comfortable with in routine of everyday life.
So, what does CURIOUSITY look like to me this year? I am going to find out. And give me a few challenges right out the gate.
What are some of the things I love and how can I be CURIOUS in a different way this year?
Travel: I love to have adventures, fly and meet new people but that is not quite an option I choose yet with a Pandemic still happening. So here are a few things I am doing right from the start…
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I am instituting a 100-mile radius exploration challenge for myself. That means anything from exploring the corner of my house (which may lead to some clutter clearing and productive organization depending on what I find!), to a section in my backyard I can identify wildlife and plants in my backyard to a within a 100-mile radius to see what kind of adventure I can create and learn from.
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I cannot use my new Passport yet to travel abroad but I can look for Virtual Tours and have already attended my first zoom for an Outlander Scotland tour which was amazing! Now I know who I will call when I get there to be my tour guide.
Nature: I love Nature and being in Nature is a great way to social distance and feed your soul as well. That can go hand in hand with Travel. I have already found places within 100 miles of me that are on my Travel Adventure list that are related to nature that I never would have searched for if I had not had a different kind of CURIOUSITY.
The difference for me this year will be in HOW I am CURIOUS in life and how will I show up for that.
How about Healthy Relationships: Cannot really go out and hug and meet people right now so why not be CURIOUS about how to show up as a healthy friend or partner when that time comes. Esther Perel and Matthew Hussey are a few to check out. Keep learning about how to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself. Explore work you could do on yourself right now. Mastin Kipp, Dr. Ramani, Brene Brown…whoever and whatever resonates with you search for it and see where it takes you. Which could mean starting counseling, which I am advocate of for everyone. You can do that totally on the phone now too and do not have to go into an office. Betterhelp.com is a great resource and no, that is not a paid promo…I am not ashamed to say I use them.
This year is about looking at life through a different set of CURIOUS eyes. What was that word that lingers in the background as a companion? That would be…HUNGER. I thankfully and gratefully have food on the table so that is not a reference to malnourishment but instead that Hunger for life that accompanies the CURIOUSITY in living a little with the hand we are dealt right now.
Am I still going to feel a whole landscape of emotions that at any moment I may find myself transported to a party where I have been chosen to pick a piece of paper out of the party hat that has a different emotion on it and there you have it…I have to roll with that emotion and walk through it? Yeah…any you may too. But in choosing my word for the year and sharing what it means to me, my focus…maybe you will take away something from this and may choose a word as well. Maybe you will share your word and your meaning and open up yourself to vulnerability and conversation to help yourself and the people who are listening.
This is about going deeper within if you are brave enough to wonder down those streets that are paved within your heart and soul and really question who you have been and who you choose to become. Maybe that one word is the focus that will light up that that path for each mile marker you drive down to get to know, understand, question and keep becoming the person you want to be in 2021.
Live consciously. Love Always.
Michelle
