My word for 2021: resilience.

Every year I pick a word that helps guide me through the year. Rather than one goal, which can sometimes feel too specific or unyielding I found that picking a single word can take the pressure off and allow the year to flow more organically. Honestly it’s worked really well for me in the past couple of years I’ve been doing this.

One year it was simply saying ‘yes.’ I said yes to every new challenge and adventure and saw a lot of personal and physical change that year! That year I quit my corporate job, got my first tattoo, ran a marathon, started a side hustle. It was a big year for me! Following that was ‘Joy’ - my mantra being ‘I win when I follow my joy.’

In 2020 it was optimism, and when I chose that word in January I couldn’t have imagined that this word that I thought felt light and fluffy and would guide me in what I thought would be a typical year but actually end up being one of my survival mechanisms in getting through 2020. Being optimistic can have its challenges. I think back to something I heard Michael J. Fox say once that really resonated with me. It was along the lines of optimism actually being rooted in gratitude. You can sustain optimism when you keep coming back to gratitude and what follows that is acceptance.

I thought that was pretty powerful stuff. And found it to be true. On more difficult days, by feeling grateful for the many blessings in my life I was able to get out of the darkness and be more optimistic that another day would be better.

I give a lot of thought to how I want to inform my intentions every year. I think about the past year, what I learned, the mistakes I made, where I grew the most and where I grew the least. When I think on my word of optimism of last year I reflected and found that it was linked to feelings gratitude and acceptance this year, and growth as well. It gave me a sense of open-mindedness as well. That things will flow how they do (I think 2020 was a big example of that for most people) and a lot of movement can be influenced by how we come at it mentally. I’m honestly not a motivational speaker or have any background in this but I just know that this way of thinking has really helped me quite a bit.

2021 is a new year and while Jan 1 doesn’t bring a completely blank slate from the year before I do feel a bit more invigorated to make the best of it. I went back and forth on my word a lot, trying to think of where I want to be at the end and the overall theme I want to carry with me. A lot of my goals have to do with continued growth, both personally and professionally and there is space for a lot of change in that. Security is another big theme for me, especially on a personal and financial level. A lot of the choices I make this year will be revolved around that.

And then, on January 9, a man came into my place of business in the middle of the day and showed me a gun he had concealed under his sweatshirt and told me to give him my possessions or he would…you know. I can’t really type it out yet. And that’s a crazy sentence to write, now, a few weeks later. It feels like a bad dream, a nightmare. I’m okay, obviously, I’m telling the tale but it in one moment my whole outlook on the year changed. My perspective, my insight on my otherwise cushy and privileged life, all of it changed. And out of that I found my word. Resilience. The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or other significant sources of stress. Those tough situations lead to profound growth and that’s what I’m taking from that situation. Growth. So how does this relate to my goals this year? I think having resilience means keeping an open-mind and adapting to new situations. I am welcoming of some change this year and while I don’t know where it’s going to take me I know that the growth can only be good. It’s actually been a word I have been hearing a lot this year. I think there will be resilience as we welcome in a new administration with our President, I think there will be resilience as we get past this pandemic and as we deal with wounds caused by social injustice. Where 2020 was the pot boiling over, I think 2021 is truly a year of healing and adapting.

So here’s to a year filled with growth and new opportunity and moving forward with resilience!

If you have a word that you use, either this year or in past years, I’d love to hear!