Happy new year to all my Freedom Seekers. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season, and are looking forward to a whole new chapter as we start this decade! To kick things off, I’ve been focussing on my 2020 mantra.
I’m generally not one for resolutions – but I do like the idea of setting a mantra for the upcoming year. An underlying intention that acts as a way point for my goals and actions.
In order to get my wheels spinning, I took to Twitter to ask around and see what other people have used as their mantra’s in the past, or what they planned to use this year. Twitter had plenty of inspiration for me to use as a jumping off point.
Here’s a handful of what others had to offer.
Twitter Folks Mantra’s
Vow Project’s mantra is full of intensity:
Nathan over at Life Before Budget is all about setting the bar high and pushing beyond the boundaries:
And two of my personal fav’s were offered by veteran blogger and globe trotter, Wanderlust Wendy, and stellar finance blogger, Financial Pilgrimage.
So Many Choices
Frankly – I’d like to incorporate all of these – maybe I should be writing a 2020 manifesto instead.
But I thought this year I would get really specific with my mantra. So specific – that I’m going to boil it down to a single word. A one word theme for the whole year.,
The one word theme is an idea that I heard a few years ago on Gretchen Rubin’s podcast, Happier.
There’s something about the one word theme that feels so – focussed. So intentional. It can be used as a simple check stop against my decisions, goals, and actions for the year.
What One Word Mantra To Choose?
But what one single word to choose? One that would incapsulate all that I want to accomplish in 2020?
As I mulled over the past year (and decade), and all the experiences and lessons that came with it, a few things stood out.
Whether it was my health scare, traveling with our family to France, or a surprise I’ll write about soon, this was a year where a lot of things swung in our favour. And one where we got a lot of support from the people around us.
It was also a year where I dialled back on always feeling the need to do things myself, and started to accept help a bit more graciously.
Honestly – at first, it was really uncomfortable. But as I continued to push beyond my old habits – I realized that reaching out and leaning on others was actually strengthening my relationships. Not detracting from them.
My 2020 Mantra
With those thoughts in mind – my one word mantra was readily apparent.
Gratitude.
Ironically, as I looked at that word, gratitude, I came to a funny conclusion.
Consistently living with gratitude will not only push me to remain mindful of the small things. It will help motivate me to pursue some uncomfortable goals. Result in me being more present (and appreciative) with my kids. Undoubtedly I will have to keep at it to avoid the all too easy trap of taking things for granted, and given that I’m telling all of you about it, I’ll have to follow-through and do it.
I guess it turns out that one little word can cover a lot of ground, no manifesto required.
What would you pick as your one word mantra for 2020?
4 comments
Love your choice of 2020 mantra. Gratitude is something that keeps circling back for me, I think it is the universe trying to tell me something. I’m not sure what my 2020 one word mantra would be, but I definitely can appreciate yours.
Thanks Maria! I feel like I was constantly being reminded to be grateful this year too. In all the little and big things that happened. I’m hoping that by making it my mantra, it will keep things front and centre for me this year. A constant reminder to pay much closer attention to all the people/experiences in my life that I should be grateful for every day! Let me know if you decide on a one word mantra 🙂 Thanks for reading!
What a fantastic way to reframe an entire year of life choices! A one-word theme is wonderfully simple yet oh-so powerful. I love it, and plan to do this myself. ‘Gratitiude’ is an excellent choice, and something I’ll keep trying to practice every day. (Especially in moments where my kids drive me crazy!)
If I were to pick a mantra of my own, I’d go with ‘Fun’ this year. Based on all the feedback I received on my one-year blogiversary post, I realize that needs to be more of a focus for me—not just in blogging, but also in other areas of life.
I tend to narrow in on goals and outcomes. Bringing my focus back to ‘fun’ will help to balance me out A LOT!
As always, you have such great ways to improve on an already-happy life. Here’s to a year filled with more gratitude and fun!
Hey Chrissy! Yes – my kids are also major sources of inspiration for my mantra. That I should continue to exercise gratitude even in the bold face of the terrible twos, and pre-teendom 😉
I love your choice! I can totally relate – I often find my focus zeroing in on all the things I want to do them, and how I want to do them, that I lose sight of the fun in things. Like just being silly with my kids, or simply having fun with my blog! This is definitely something I need to work on as well, otherwise my life tends to quickly become productivity/outcome driven versus process/experience driven.
We’ll have to send each other a couple reminders throughout the year to keep our mantra’s in focus as we move forward with all our blogging and personal goals 🙂