Starting off the New Year with Passion

This is the year to start off the new year with passion. Last year I bought a beautiful new planner for the year. I was hopeful for 2020. And looking forward to all the possibilities the year had to bring. That planner went 100 percent untouched. It was set aside, buried in a stack of other things and completely forgotten. Honestly I can’t say that I found myself even thinking to use a planner this year. 

I found it recently and immediately felt sadness over the waste of this hardcover book in the prettiest soft blue. I began to wonder why I had let stress, overwhelm, and even apathy at times creep in. It’s always easier to look back and realize we wasted our time and emotions on things that are out of our control. What if I had focused all that energy of creativity and building something beautiful and worthwhile?

For 2020 I’ll never know. But, for 2021, I can approach the year with a new mindset! And I mean to do just that. I’m starting off the new year with passion!  

Starting off the New Year with Passion

Are you ready for a New Year?

Several years ago I stopped making resolutions and I started making goals. I had lost purpose, passion and intentionality. Not only was I going through the motions aimlessly, I had lost sight of my creativity and direction. I had stopped dreaming. I’d set unrealistic expectations for myself and felt burdened by them! 

Instead of a list of the same old resolutions I set goals that would help me find focus, get organized and reprioritize. Resolutions at the beginning of the year led to me feeling like a failure over and over again. I was in a cycle of thinking I had to add more, do more, and be more.

Instead, what if I set out to refocus on the things that matter the most in life. So I didn’t set any resolutions. Instead I dove deep into community and found myself filled up, encouraged and revitalized because I chose to cherish and build up relationships! 

Now I’m dreaming big again. I’m seriously super excited for a new year. 2020 got off to a rough start for us (and that wasn’t even covid related!) Then our world face a pandemic and we all found ourselves in a world none of us were prepared to live in. Did you pivot? Have to get innovative? Did you discover you were far more flexible and adaptive than you knew you could be? We had to, didn’t we? And it wasn’t easy.

We faced uncertainty, overwhelm, unpredictability, doubt, fear, loss, confusion and so much more. But, we did beautiful things too. We created and we got creative. Then we found ways to connect and reconnect. We sacrificed and we sacrificially loved our neighbors. We rose up!

What are you leaving behind in 2020?

This question is one I started asking myself a few years ago, what can I leave behind as I step into a new year? Are there things that are keeping me from moving forward, from living freely, from the kind of unfettered joy I want to live my life enveloped in?

I’ll admit at times this year I wasn’t the strongest, or bravest or even kindest I could’ve been. It’s easy to focus on myself when things are tough. My answer to what I’m leaving behind in 2020… I want to leave behind the focus on myself. I want to enter the New Year with a passion to pursue life confidently with the gifts I’ve been given to help and encourage others. What are you leaving behind in 2020? Tell me in the comments below!

In so many ways as I reflect on 2020 I feel as though this has been one of my most introspective years ever. As I look forward to 2021, instead of focusing on myself and worrying over so many things, I want to shift that focus outward. I want to empower and uplift others. I want to use my gifts to help others find their creativity and live out their passions!

RELATED: What Happily Dwell is All About

I made this BIG Goal several years ago: To empower and uplift others so that they may live full lives in pursuit of passionate creativity!

That has not stopped being a goal for me. I may lose sight of it from time to time. But, it’s how I want to live out my life! Are you starting off the new year with passion?

I’m also choosing a word for 2021. For 2021 my word is DWELL. Dwell in God first and foremost, pursue living out a life with the talents He’s blessed me with and to pursue others with selfless passion! It’s the inspiration for and why I named this blog Happily Dwell. Because I believe that we dwell in very important ways. We dwell physically in this world. Our dwelling – our home – is where we spend most of our time.

We also dwell spiritually as beings. I believe we create the spaces we dwell in, both in our hearts and our home. In life we dwell from the home we abide in, to the mental space we exist in, to the spiritual path we pursue. I so deeply desire to Dwell, well. To create a sense of dwelling both in my home and in my heart that is full, content, peaceful, warm, welcoming and always joyful. And I hope this for you too!

Thank your reading Happily Dwell. I hope you find encouragement and joy in this space. Here’s to a new year ahead pursuing passions and dreaming big dreams!

xoxo Naomi

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