Goals, Mindsets and Word of the Year for 2020
Here is the second part of my end of year ritual, moving on from the review of the old year by taking those insights and turning them into positive changes or actions for the new one. (By the way, if you’ve not yet read my review of 2019 this post will be more enriched by the detail in there!). The way I’ve written this post over the years has changed – in 2018 I published a huge long list that even at the time I knew I wasn’t going to get through, while in 2019 I found myself publishing goals that, in hindsight, felt more like what I should want than what was really me.
This year I’ve put more connected thought into it and have used tarot spreads to help me really connect with the truth in my soul rather than the things my hyperactive brain sees on Instagram and thinks it wants. The list is shorter, less dramatic, but ultimately more truthful and therefore exciting to me. Another difference this year is that I didn’t come up with my goals and word of the year separately as I’ve done before; this year all the goals flowed from the word, the feeling I want to create. So let’s start there, shall we?
My Word Of The Year for 2020
Powerful
I was rolling words like ‘embodied’, ‘emanating’ and ‘centred’ around in my head, and then when ‘powerful’ popped in there was a frisson – a feeling all at once of ‘that’s too much’ and ‘who am I to have a word like that?’, but also of tantalising excitement and possibility.
In 2019 I felt very external – I spent a lot of time looking outside of myself for ideas and answers (even though I didn’t realise I was) and was buffeted by external factors outside of my control. I don’t want another year like that, I want a year where I steer from within, trusting myself and my internal compass. Here at the turning over of the year I have felt a groundswell of energy and power within me, and I want to see what I can do with it.
‘Powerful’ embodies how I want to feel this year. I want to feel spacious, free, stable and satisfyingly full up creatively. In order to get there, I know I need to connect with and understand my own energy and intuition, to trust and believe in myself and summon the innate power within me. I feel as though at the end of 2019 a blockage was removed from a pipe somewhere inside me and now there are rising levels of power starting to flow through me – I want to embody this power, be grounded in it, and turn it towards the life I’m creating.
Mindsets for 2020
As I’ve been thinking about how I can embody ‘Powerful’ and start to bring more of that energy to my work, I’ve been thinking less about tangible goals and more about mindset shifts and habits. I guess because ‘Powerful’ isn’t about having but about being, it’s shifted the unquestioned ‘rules’ I had in my mind about what I needed to do. For me, 2020 is going to be much more about listening to my intuition and doing what feels right, trusting that the results that follow will be the right ones. Here are a few of the mindset changes and rules I’m re-writing in 2020.
CULTIVATION OVER GROWTH
Growth is the default we operate from in society, whether it’s in business or your relationships, home or hobbies – getting more, getting better, accumulating, growing is the default objective. Even if you’re not consciously trying to achieve growth, it still is the thing that you worry about when your Instagram following stagnates or you don’t hit the life milestones at the same rate as your friends.
As my word of the year is inward looking, so too is my approach to business this year. I don’t need to grow, and actually the idea of pushing for lots of audience and community growth feels incredibly stressful. No, this year I want to cultivate and consolidate what I already have. I want to reconnect with my existing audience and earn my place in your follow list/email inbox/podcast app. I want to draw us all closer, and if other people want to come and join then they’re welcome, but increasing my audience is not my priority.
This for me is also a way to get a lid on my approach to Instagram. I really struggled with the numbers side of it last year, feeling like I should have more, worrying about what people might think of my Like count and all those things that you slide into even though you know they don’t matter. By giving myself permission to discount growth and focus solely on reconnection, I’m hopeful I can see Instagram in a new light and give it a new role in my business.
OPERATE FROM INFECTIOUS BELIEF
I realised through my launches in 2019 and what I gravitated towards in others, that self-belief is infectious. The more that you believe in and are excited about something, whether it’s an offering, a blog post or a pair of wellies, the more others get excited about it too. I also know that last year I published a few things to have something to publish, and that I didn’t have (for various reasons) the excitement about some projects I did last year. This year, I will remember that the point of this is not to just go through the motions. I want everything I put out to be imbued with power and passion.
This means that, rather than stick to a rigid posting schedule, I’m instead going to create and publish when I have something I’m excited to say. Something I wrote down while thinking about this was ‘only create content I’m obsessed with’. There is no better feeling than putting out a blog post you are incredibly proud of and you just want everyone to read, so even if I publish less in 2020, everything that goes out I’ll be obsessed with.
I’m also committing only to minimal projects, and from a place of abundance not fear. I’m no longer saying yes to stuff because I think the money would be useful or it’s the sort of thing I think I should be doing. Fewer projects that are hard yes’s that will contribute to filling me up creatively.
Habits and Goals for 2020
This year I came up with fewer goals in the SMART sense (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound). Much more of what I wanted this year was habit-based, small things to make me feel more powerful in my daily life, or that would build up towards a greater result. So here are the habits and goals I want to incorporate into 2020 where I will be applying my mindset shifts in order to feel more powerful.
WORK
Reducing appointments and financial reliance on coaching – not a shocker to anyone who’s been following for a while. While I love my clients and believe wholeheartedly in the impact of coaching, it is a huge source of anxiety for me in my business. So, this year is about starting to wind it down and give over time to other projects which can be just as impactful but also make me feel fulfilled too
Make £100k from one-to-many projects (by December 2020) – I had a different number originally that made me feel a bit disappointed, which is never how a goal should feel! I don’t think I will hit this one, but it’s making me feel excited to try
Sell out the Un-Mastermind (by April 2020) – this is a new offering for this year which I created because it was exactly what I wanted someone else to bring out. I really want to sell all 10 places, because I know it’s going to be amazing
Create a new offering (by April 2020) – as part of the ‘reduce reliance on coaching’ project, I have an idea for a new offering humming away in my brain. However, in the interests of not burning out and maintaining spaciousness, I’m going to get to work on this later in the year
Prioritise connection and consolidation – a work-based habit for me is, as part of cultivation over growth, to prioritise time to connect with people. That means not squeezing in Instagram engagement (or, you know, just not doing it at all), but giving it an important prioritised space in the calendar
HOME
Of course the big thing that happened in 2019 was that we bought a house! Now I have a grade 2 listed sixteenth century building to look after, I have some goals here too.
Get plastering and structural work done on the house (by June 2020) – I mean, this is pretty boring and speaks for itself, but I want to make sure that everything is a-ok with the structure of the house before we start decorating
Make a dreamy office (by September 2020) – my office is currently the worst room in the house (the roof was leaking, the floor is pretty gross and the plaster crumbling). I want to prioritise this space this year.
LIFE
Every day do something I really want to do – this is how I’m embodying powerfulness in 2020. For so long I’ve been the goodie two shoes focusing on work and all the things I’m expected to do so this year I am reclaiming time in every day just for myself. It might be having a morning cuppa outside, going to a craft workshop, reading a magazine in the bath, but every day I am going to do one thing that is exactly what I want
Connect and work with natural energy cycles – again, a huge part of feeling powerful for me is understanding myself and how I work better. I want to track my energy and how it ebbs and flows with hormonal and lunar cycles, I want to understand what affects me so I can work in the most aligned and embodied way I can
Do yoga 3 times a month – this has been on my yearly goals list for the last three years. Before now I always prioritised work over classes, but connecting with and nurturing my body is how I’m embodying powerfulness and I feel genuinely motivated to join the local class (but not overly committing to multiple times a week because that won’t always be manageable).
Keep in touch with friends every month – whether it’s meeting for a coffee, hosting a pot luck dinner or sending out cards, every month I want to be pro-active in my friendships.
All in all, I’m feeling quietly positive about 2020. I hope to be sat here at the cusp of 2021 feeling like I did myself justice in 2020 – that I was good to myself, good to others, worked in tune with myself, followed through. There will of course be surprises thrown up, some of these things here will change or evolve, but as long as I remember to be powerful, I’ll be ok.
