Today, I’m working on my author goals for 2021. Normally, I finalize all of this in early December, and then give myself a week or two off before diving into the new year with lots of enthusiasm and energy.
This year, that didn’t happen.
Instead, I found myself locked in an endless cycle of incapability. Everything felt too large, too complicated, too out of order. Why bother with Y when I didn’t finalize X? And if I didn’t do either of those, how can I make time for Z? I felt so overwhelmed with the steady stacking up of things I needed to get done, personally and professionally, that I couldn’t manage to do anything. I felt frozen, and completely useless.
Which is why I’ve decided to completely shift my mindset for 2021. And why I’ve selected GRACE as my word of the year. The dictionary has about a dozen different definitions, but I’ve picked out my favorite: “disposition to or an act of kindness, courtesy, or clemency.” And in the thesaurus, the number one related term is: “compassion”…
For 2021, I’m going to have goals, yes. I’ll dream, absolutely. But I need to start practicing a little bit of grace with myself. We are in the throes of political unrest and a global pandemic. It should be okay if I write two books instead of three. I should not feel such internalized anger at myself for not meeting a marketing deadline. Or for struggling to refill my creative well. I need to reprioritize being loving with myself again.
I hope you’re feeling this kind of desire as well. A desire to be forgiving and loving and caring to yourself as you navigate the new year that has already begun. And I wish you the best of luck.
