Find Your Focus For 2022
January is a beautiful opportunity to both look back with intention and look forward with purpose. When we can see where we’ve been, we can better understand where it is we want to go. I like to think of it as better understanding our direction. If I want Waze to take me somewhere, I first have to let Waze know where I am right now before Waze can determine the route and the steps to get me where I want to go. Below are three simple tools to find your focus for 2022:
1. REFLECT: These three questions are powerful opportunities to see the growth and learning from 2021 as well as to explore what it is that you are drawn to in everyday life.
- What was a challenge for you in 2021?
- What did you learn from it?
- What were 10 awesome moments from 2021?
2. CREATE FOCUS: What do you want to focus on in 2022? I have found so much wisdom from choosing a word (or a short phrase) to focus on for the year. That one word is expansive and trickles into every day moments and becomes a grounding why behind goals and decisions. While I have done this for many years now, 2020 was a powerful lesson. I chose the word CREATE for 2020. It was festinating to see how that word applied to every day life countless times as we pivoted from how we thought things were going to be. Having a focus of CREATE opened me up to thinking about what I wanted to choose to create, regardless of changes in external circumstances.
One simple way to choose a word is to answer this question: “What’s one word that makes you excited or energized or stretches you toward who you are becoming?” Then try it on for a day or two and see how it fits in your mind. Is it a word you’d put on a t-shirt and wear? Then you’ve found your fit.
3. VISUALIZE: Write your word down and put it in a place you will see it often. Practice visualizing how you show up when operating from that word. What might you want to start, stop or continue to embrace this word more fully in your life? Notice how these answers could be goals. Close your eyes and simply meditate on the word as you inhale and exhale.
These three steps can be done on your own, or with someone close or as a family. Our family took a few minutes on a Sunday afternoon as everyone wrote their answers to these questions. It is a learning process where as parents, we are given glimpses into who our children are becoming and how we can continue to lead and mentor them.
Let’s remember too, that as much as a fresh start can begin in January, it is also completely relevant and true with the start of each day. This isn’t a focus to perfect or give up on, but it is an opportunity to practice a mindset with consistency. Keep it simple. Have fun. Allow for grace. And remember that in starting the drive, you never go backward, you simply recalculate a different route.
