I know … I know – there’s something about setting intentions and painstakingly cutting and pinning together a vision board that on the surface can feel a little ‘woo woo.’ I don’t deny it. However, I can’t get past the fact that it works… Every. Time.
I’ve done this for at least four or five years now and each year I look back at that vision board brought to life in my everyday reality.
It has become one of my most treasured traditions to sit down in the first few weeks of January with one of my besties, Jess and talk over our big plans and dreams for the year to come. We begin with our Word of the Year. By this point we will have been messaging each other ideas over the previous few days. The only guidelines for this WOY are that it must be punchy, capture the essence of your yearly goals or intended trajectory and have a sense of action behind it.
In the past I’ve selected words including ‘evolve,’ ‘up’ and ‘open.’ Last year’s ‘open’ helped me to get outside my comfort zone, meet new people and say yes to opportunities that previously I may have turned down out of fear. I tried new things: I said yes to a pretty spontaneous 3-month campervan trip around Europe with friends I’d only reconnected with after high school 5 months prior; I said yes to going on a proper date with my now, boyfriend; I even changed up my exercise routine for the first time in 4 years and finally gave myself some much overdue rest days.
The bottom line is – it works for me.
This year, I feel like all of my personal life plates are spinning quite nicely for the first time literally ever, so I’m having more of a professional hustle year. With Jess’ help, I’ve finally settled on the word ‘BOLD.’ Short, to the point, and powerful. As a chronic people pleaser, I’m backing myself, asking for opportunities instead of waiting for them, and doing what I need to do to stand out in my field (and yes – all of those things currently sound icky to me 
).
Here are my career goals for the year:
