They say “start as you mean to go on”

Not sure who “they” is, but it sounds good.

The start of a new year is a blank canvas for us to create the content of the days ahead, a defined “new start” as we grow, adapt and change.

Last year I didn’t make resolutions, or set goals (let alone measurable goals) but I did set an intention. I find resolutions are too limited, and I want to do more that meet a single (or a couple) specific goals.  I narrowed my intention for the year down to one word that I wanted to embody my thoughts and actions in 2012. One thing  I could take with me and dribble it into everything I did.

My word was Action. I was done thinking, pondering and considering.  My objective was to say yes, or no, but never maybe. I would make decisions, not wait for outcomes. I would act. Just act.

And I did.  I took opportunities, I made (sometimes rash) decisions and I acted on my dreams and interests and faced my fears instead of pushing them back with the other skeletons in the closet.

So these last few days I have been thinking about what I want the focus of 2013 to be. I still want to take action, but this year I will do it differently.

This year my goal is to simplify.

Through planning, and organization, I want the things that caused me issues or stress in the past to fall into line. I will outsource the stuff I am terrible at (or hate doing) and I will streamline what I love. I will discard the useless things, (that I do & have) and focus on priorities.

I will continue to face my biggest fears and trust that if it makes my stomach flip it will probably be the right path for me, because it always has been and I thrive on conquering my fears.

I will look to put down deeper roots and build my life to have the time, energy and focus to spend the time on what I love, with the people I love.

It may seem like a boring word (it kind of is to me) but it feels like an evolution from last year. In 2012 I leapt, I plunged and pushed my boundaries and explored my desires. This year, will be about taking everything I learned and applying it successfully, and trusting that without trying, we will never know what we can achieve.  I will believe in myself, and the person I have gotten to know, and trust myself and my strengths a little bit more. I will ask for help.

Last year, if you had told I would be where I am  right now, living in a new city, launching a new business in a few short weeks (eek! Yes, secret is out) I would have laughed. There was no hint of my “today” last year at this time.

So, I don’t know where I will be next year, I don’t know what form my days will take, but I will trust that I will have done it in a clean and simple way. I trust that my path is there ahead of me, and I will find it.

If there was one word you could carry with you to focus your feelings of the year ahead, what would it be?