Intentions and Word Of The Year 2022
In previous years I have written great long lists of intentions for the impending 12 months, swathes of minutely specific targets to reach and broader ways in which my thinking is going to be transformed. I decided precisely how the year would pan out, colour coding projects into each month in a spreadsheet that maps onto my financial projections for the year.
At the end of 2021 I opened the Projections tab on said spreadsheet and had a bit of an out of body experience. I had completely forgotten all these things I’d planned to do. Looking at the columns of Stretch and Core financial goals with their offering ideas I couldn’t imagine ever typing them, as if someone else had written it all out. Which, of course, they had. The person at the beginning of 2021 did her best to plan out what she would need, but that changed, drastically, as she did. Of the nine planned projects, I did two.
This happens, in one way or another, every year. I do the workbooks and I diligently plan the year confident in the clarity I hold and how much sense it all makes and I feel quite sure that this is how the year will go and I only need to stick at it. And then, often as soon as February, I don’t want it anymore. And yet, setting intentions at the beginning of the year is something I love to do.
I feel it’s less about sticking to a resolution than showing yourself the life you want. I have always felt like I “must” have SMART goals that can be achieved but actually that feels limiting, trapping, this year. I know very well what I want and I don’t need to bully myself with the threat of a target; nor do I want to limit myself to only what I can imagine is possible right now.
So rather than a long list of specific goals, I have distilled them into their essences that act as overarching focuses and priorities. If my life in 2022 is a boat these things are the oars that plough through the surf; but there are also sails that can catch an unexpected wind.
A writerly life
This is the essence of my creative goals and intentions this year. I want to read widely and often, I want to write more steadily, I want to feed my imagination, I want a devotional routine within creative work that I can hang my days upon. I know that when I say “a writerly life” that this is what I mean, and I can use it as a compass – to choose a book over a Instagram scroll, to prioritise the writing I keep putting off over some sort of admin. It’s less a goal to read x amount of books, and more a way to make choices. (If you’re wondering how this fits into the 21st century witch in the hut – to me, the witch in the hut is an identity, the real big picture of life, whereas the writerly life is how, in the foreseeable season, I connect to the witch in the hut essence).
Write the book
…or at least the proposal. Perhaps the unsurprising goal I want to come out of a focus on a writerly life. I set this as a goal last year, and perhaps the year before, but this year is very different because rather than writing a book I have the book in mind now. It took a good nine months of defiantly not working on it to get an idea to shape itself to the point of being ready to be real. When Sarah Harding of Girls Aloud died of cancer at 36 last year, I remember feeling profoundly glad that she released a book and an album. Of course she would have wanted more life, but at least she didn’t die with all that creative output still inside her. I feel that tugging at me now; I have something to get out.
Health and strength
Last year feels dominated in my mind by the twin disabling forces of knee injury and unshakable UTIs. I don’t want another year in my physical body like that one. That means nourishing myself with more than scraps of chicken from the bottom of the freezer, more vitamins, a consciousness and a little research into biomes and not dropping the ball with hydration. It also means re-establishing an exercise habit that supports my walking, stretching to remain supple and prevent injury and keeping my core strength protecting my lower back. I have nothing if I don’t have my body, so working closely with it is a focus. And, obviously, doing the hikes and climbing the peaks I dreamed of last summer.
Love and connection
When I reflect on 2021 the highlights, over and over, are how much my connection with my friends made all the difference. I will almost always go out of my way to avoid people, but actually people can be great. This year I want to continue to prioritise these relationships, as well as make more of an effort to make new connections and have conversations, whether with people on the internet or real life (this also feels part of a writerly life, hearing how others live). I would also like to fall in love this year, but hey, we’ll see.
The money I need
How I have swung like a pendulum when it comes to money goals – maximum to minimum, maximum to minimum. I think that it is altogether reasonable that our ideas and desires around money change with the seasons in our life. One thing that has remained constant, however, is my “need” to earn more than £30k – based only on the fact that that was my salary in my last employed job. It has been this rule that as long as I am earning, even just slightly, more than that then I am justified and successful and I wasn’t wrong to go self-employed.
Which is not the thing to base one’s financial planning around. I realised at the end of last year that to me it wasn’t worth doing things I didn’t want to do for money I didn’t need. It is more important to me to have three hours hiking time than a few extra hundred quid. So this year, my goal is to earn what I need to pay bills, have coffee or meals out a few times a month, to pay my taxes, to put a little bit away as a financial buffer. “More” is not a focus.
Word of the Year
My word of the year formed around November. It had been such a slog of a year with selling the house and everything else, and I hadn’t been finding creativity or passion in my work much at all. I wanted to commit to it, sure, but I also wanted to really enjoy it. And that went for everything. I’ve spent the best part of 18 months extricating myself from an old life and putting together a new one – I sure as hell don’t want to let it pass me by now. And so, my guiding word for 2022 is… Revel.
Revel means playfulness, curiosity, creativity. It means a seductive outlook on life, finding indulgence in the smallest things, holding an awareness that this is what it’s for – even if I’m out of breath on a hill or even if the words aren’t coming I want to revel in it. Revel in the mess, revel in the routine, revel in every single moment.
