It’s another new year! Happy new year to all you fabulous readers. This year, I’ve defined a theme – more about that below. What’s your theme for your year?
Edit, 10 Jan 2017
I’ve been talking to people about themes, and it turns out that I’m not the only one who’s abandoned goals for themes. Here are the themes I’ve heard about so far:
- Positivity
- Gratitude
- Fearlessness
- Trust
Leave your theme in the comments to have it added to the list! ~ Leticia
Also, a quick note: This year, 2017, marks about 10 years of this blog. So happy birthday to my favourite place to hang out on the internet!
Achievements unlocked in the past year
- Speaker at two major conferences
- First season of actual edibles that were consistent and awesome, that I grew by myself
- Three years in business
- Headhunted to write for industry press
- The first time I’d had a week off in the middle of the year since I started working for myself.
What happened to goals for this year?
In the past two years I’ve gone the whole hog and kept goals on my mirror. They’ve proven to be useful for the days in which I’ve felt absolutely shithouse and needed a reminder of where I’m going. But what I’ve found is that they actually cause more guilt than they do awesome feelings.
Guilt isn’t helpful. It’s just a reminder of what you haven’t done yet. So I’m not doing it any more. This year, I’m putting just one thing up. The theme for the year.
And what is the theme for 2017, you ask? Sustainability.
Why? Because unless great foundations are in place this year, the growth (in all areas of life) that I’m after won’t happen.
And so, we come to my goals for the year. They are:
- To systemise my business
- To increase sales and really systemise the sales process so it will continue easily
- To apply permaculture principles to my own yard (which is my own measure of what I’m doing before I buy land and permaculture that)
- To be really firm on how my time is used, so it safeguards my family and personal time
- To read 52 books this year
- To reinvigorate and maintain my exercise, meditation, writing and wellness habits
- To buy nothing new for a whole year.
It feels good to have a theme rather than a bunch of goals that I pulled out of the air. The theme has meant (so far) that I’ve also brought to the fore the whole idea of sustainability in everything. Sustainability is about closed-loop systems, in all things. Buying nothing new contributes to my part in a loop that already exists.
How about you? What’s your theme for the year?
Drop me a note and let me know!
Gratitude and Positivity. Cliché? Maybe, but I’m running with it! Good luck with your themes in 2017 – buying nothing new for a year sounds really hard (especially with food)…
Nah, I don’t think it’s possible to have a positivity cliche, Dr Nick!
Yeah buying no food would be hard haha I’ve sensibly given it boundaries (clothing except underwear, books, household items like furnishings, etc). The other boundary I’ve put on it is “new new”; therefore, buying new-to-me is ok provided it is recycled or 100% upcycled. Things outside the boundary include food, tools required for cultivation of food if buying secondhand isn’t possible, bike tubes, etc.
Yay for a decade, this is awesome!
I went for a theme this year aswell…Are we psychically linked?
My theme is positivity.
It’s about embracing the bipolar and my moods whatever they are, and fully accepting who I am.
Lots of reading, walking, gigs and meditation because they all give me positive vibes.
Getting involved in life again. And helping others.
Removing negativity from my life, from my own negative thoughts to other people who whine or activities which don’t bring me pleasure.
Thanks, Claire!
We probably are psychically linked somehow. We seem to think about the same things (or each other) at the same time. Yay for you also having a theme this year – I love that. And I love your theme.
Keep me updated as to how it goes. Since defining my ‘Sustainability’ theme I’ve really started to see all sorts of things happen, including systems and feedback loops, like living by the moon and running business by the moon (which I also do in my garden). There’s something in it about the permaculture of life for me that I feel is very important this year if I’m going to feel like I’m whole or something.
I’m betting that this idea of a year’s thematic template will bring bigger, better things than focusing on the micro parts of goals.
Why did YOU choose a theme? I’m curious.
My reason was that a resolution is too easy to give up on. Whereas a theme, something which is connected with my whole life approach felt more achievable and more valuable.