Goals for 2016, and my word of the year

2015 was a formative year of self-development and acting outside of my comfort zone (read my review of the year here).  I want 2016 to be even better, hopefully with less of the sucky MH stuff.

Usually instead of setting New Year’s Resolutions, I set big scary goals and smaller personal goals.  I felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of goals last year (it felt very unwieldy and achievable at times), so for 2016 I’ve stuck to 15 goals, and listed some smaller “fun things to do in 2016” which are nice-to-do’s rather than need-to-do’s.

GOALS

1. Level up as a musician, and hone my skills
2. Improve my confidence and social skills
3. Cycle to work at least once
4. Hold another livestream gig
5. Create 5 live music videos
6. Create a conceptual music video
7. Read 24 books
8. Attend 10 yoga classes (online or IRL)
9. Tone upper arms and tummy
10. Complete exercises in ‘You Can Heal Your Life’
11. Complete CBT workbook
12. Learn how to use Ableton, and use regularly
13. Re-read all Harry Potter books
14. Repaint and furnish my home
15. Establish healthy, nurturing habits

WORD OF THE YEAR: RISE

For the last 2 years, I’ve set a word for the year.  It’s a practice that life coach Leonie Dawson introduced me to, and something that lots of other lifestyle design-y people such as Blessing Manifesting, The Pillow Fort, In Spaces Between and Danielle LaPorte take part in.

Leonie describes the process of picking a word for the year as choosing your year’s intention.  It’s a power word that describes what you’d like to experience, feel, focus on and embody for the next 12 months.

2014’s word was BOLD, 2015’s word was WARRIOR. This year, my word will be RISE.

I feel that a lot of my goals this year revolve around levelling up, reaching a higher level, upskilling, self-improvement; after a lot of thought, rise felt like a nice word to encapsulate all that. I also liked the connotations of “rise above”, not just relating to moving upwards, but also standing tall within your landscape, restoration, ceasing to be submissive, and disengaging with problematic/unhealthy things.

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise”
– Victor Hugo, Les Mis

Do you have a word of the year?  If so, what did you choose and why?