Intentions, Manifestations and Word of the Year for 2019

Last year I wrote a whole long list of intentions for the year, and did precisely one of them. I think this is because they didn’t come from a really purposeful place – they were a list of random things that I thought it would be nice to do, but without the conviction or meaning behind them to actually commit to doing them.

This December I’ve been working through Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year workbook (as I’ve mentioned about 100 times on Instagram) and it’s really helped me to nail down some overall intentions and direction for 2019, and subsequently the smaller things I need to do to make them happen. So here are some things I want to change and adjust, to let go of or bring into my life, to make happen and to work towards. After my review of the year and last quarter of 2018 was a little on the negative side, I feel full of hope at the prospect of making these shifts for the happier in 2019 and excited at the possiblilty the new year holds.

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Intentions – the things I’m going to do

MORE LIVING IN LIFE

In 2018, I lost the human side of me. I was doing, thinking and being nothing but business, and for a while tried to convince myself that was ok – but actually I really lost track of what I was doing everything for, and lost track of myself.

In some ways I’ve spent my whole life living in the future: planning my university applications aged 15 then willing the time away so I could start a good job in an office. This year I did the same thing – life would start when we’d saved up enough to buy that dream cottage and grow vegetables and hold retreats. But in that, the here and now got lost, wished away for a daydream.

I’m always going to be a dreamer, but in 2019 I want to live in the here and now a little more. I want to explore things I might like by taking a few classes and a few road trips, enjoying the process of things and getting to know myself as a human again. I will find and prioritise a personal purpose.

MORE SPACE AND TIME AROUND CREATIVITY

In 2018 the creative side of my work, photography and writing, became a rushed chore, a headache in my day of emails. This year, I want to flip that back around. I got into this because I enjoyed spending hours of an afternoon moving props around or daydreaming about ideas, and now my photo and writing sessions are all about getting the bare minimum done as quickly as possible. I want to prioritise this more in 2019, and enjoy the process again.

MAKE THE BUSINESS WORK BEST FOR ME

By this I mean, the business should work best for me above anyone else, and at the end of 2018 I felt a little like I was the only one it wasn’t working for. This year I will commit to and respect my own boundaries, not relaxing them to my own detriment for someone else. I will say no to things that don’t work for me or that aren’t aligned with the work I most want to be doing. I will prioritise those life living things. This will be the year I do things for myself, because they fulfil and benefit me, rather than being only in service.

NOURISH MY BODY AND MIND

I neglected myself in 2018. I didn’t cook for myself, I didn’t move, I didn’t read, I didn’t rest. My office is currently in complete squalor. And I feel it in my body – it’s not that I’m ill, just disconnected. In 2019 I will go to those yoga classes (if it kills me!), I will take time to walk more. I’ll cook from scratch a couple of times a week and relish the activity. I’ll make reading a part of job description to help me prioritise it. I’ll slowly create working and living spaces that I like being in by decluttering and lighting the candles more often. This time next year I want to feel stronger, grounded, and well.

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IManifestations – the things I want to achieve

TO HAVE MY WRITING PUBLISHED NATIONALLY

This had been a goal for this year until the prospect of writing and pitching to anyone other than myself opened a Pandora’s Box of emotions in the summer (see review of the year). I am still trepidatious about this, treading carefully around the snoozing terrors that litter the path to this goal. It’s out of my comfort zone, it requires real hard work and disappointment. But, to me, writing and sharing ideas with bigger audiences is more important than those fears. In 2019 I’m going to be pitching ideas to get my writing in national publications.

TO HAVE MORE INCOME COMING FROM ONE-TO-MANY RATHER THAN ONE-TO-ONE

Partly to get more variety in my work and partly to have more sustainable income streams, in 2019 I want to shift my business model so that one-to-one coaching becomes a secondary income stream. The idea is that with one-to-many products I can charge less, and therefore be more accessible and help more people in 2019. I have workbooks and courses whirling around in my head so watch this space.

TO BE SHARED AND SOUGHT OUT FOR MY WORDS

An ongoing process for me in early 2019 is going to be refining and defining what I want to be known for, what I want to write about and who I want to be in the world. Once I do I want to write about that thing so beautifully, so inspiringly, so relatably that people share those words with their friends, that people seek me out to talk and write on those topics more.

MORE BRAND WORK

I have, at times, found doing sponsored brand work stressful; I’ve also found it hugely rewarding. Brand work gives me variety and creative challenges in my work, as well as variety in my income. In order to achieve this I know I need to be pro-active, both in terms of pitching, but also in creating more lifestyle content for brand work to fit into (which means, of course, having more of a lifestyle to begin with).

A MAGAZINE COLUMN

This is the big dream – I’d love to get my own column in 2019. To share ideas, thoughts and foibles to a new, uninitiated audience, to help them think and feel differently about their lives and be a little escape every week. And you never know who’s reading 😉

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Word of the Year

My word of the year has had a last minute change. Up until around midday on New Year’s Eve it was going to be Alignment, but I didn’t feel 100% clear on what that actually meant (and therefore how I’d practically apply it). As I finished Unravel Your Year, I realised there was one word I’d written over and over again:

Fulfilment.

Fulfilment has the added benefit that I actually know what it means, but I do think it better encapsulates what I want to achieve in 2019. For me, alignment is (probably) a part of fulfilment, with the latter word feeling more embracing and positive. When I think of how I want 2019 to feel, it’s this: spacious, abundant, grounded, free, calm, controlled, connected. For me, those things are wrapped up in fulfilment.

Looking through these intentions and manifestations, fulfilment is the golden thread that runs though each one. They are about prioritising happiness, prioritising myself and the things that will fill me up. They are about being purposeful with what I want, what I really really want. They are about aiming for less on-paper success, but going deeper with the things I’m learning most matter to me.