Ditch the Typical Resolutions, Do This Empowering New Year Ritual for 2023.

Have you ever noticed what happens as soon as the clock hits midnight on Christmas Day? Everyone stops talking about the magic of the holidays and gets right into stressing about the new year.

Your social media newsfeed, email inbox, and TV commercials will all be talking about the same thing. Exercising more, losing weight, and renewing the gym membership. 

Why do new years resolutions always have to be so intense? I admit that I used to fall into that trap too. 

I used to set a million and one goals while completely ignoring the fact that it never worked in the years past.

For some reason, I thought that the upcoming year would be different and that my motivation would somehow never go away.

January was always a month filled with stress that was completely self-imposed. I had to follow a new diet perfectly, work out every single day, meditate for an hour, start writing a book, and the list went on.

However, by around January 20th, I would burn out on all my goals. I would get anxious that I wasn’t doing them right so I mine as well give up. The diet would start to ease up, gym visits were declining and I dreaded having to write. 

This cycle never made sense to me as I consider myself a person that is pretty determined. But why did I lose so much steam toward my goals so early?

Well, once I took a step back and saw the situation in a different light the answer became clear. I was setting new years resolutions for all the wrong reasons.

I bought into the hype that society places on the month of January and its seemingly magic abilities. I wanted to be the person that actually accomplishes their resolutions instead of throwing the towel in completely. 

This led me to set my goals from a place of my Ego. My Ego wanted to prove to everyone that I was somehow better when it came to resolutions. I wanted to be the one that succeeded.

What I later came to learn is that when a goal is originating from the Ego, it won’t have staying power. The Ego will be able to talk you out of it as soon as you hit a roadblock or you feel unsure.

Since the Ego is so focused on external appearances, it will start to convince you that you will fail anyways so why even try and risk other people judging your shortcomings?

The Ego wants to do everything it can to keep you safe inside your comfort zone. So while you may feel that initial excitement for your resolutions, your Ego is just waiting for something to go wrong so it can bring you back to where you started.

Society and modern marketing know this fact, too. That’s why there is so much guilt thrown at you around new years resolutions.

They want you to believe that you aren’t good enough and that you need to keep buying more things because your motivation will disappear anyways.

Two years ago I decided that I wasn’t going to fall victim to this hype anymore. I was going to create my own new years ritual, one that came from my soul instead of my Ego.

Sure I would still set goals and milestones but I wasn’t going to stress about a timeline anymore. I was going to set goals that felt good to me, not anyone else. 

The easiest and most stress-free new year ritual was created from this desire to create an uplifting transition to the new year. I’ve done it twice now and will never return to the typical new year's resolutions. 

Ready to learn what I do instead? It’s so easy you might miss it.

Every new year I decide what my word of the year will be. This word will be the foundation and reminder of all the desires I wish to bring to the physical world. 

Assigning a word to the new year changed everything for me. I welcomed the new year with open arms instead of dreading it.

I was excited to see how my goals unfolded instead of forcing them to happen.

My word was always there to remind me what my intention was for the new year if I felt stuck or things felt hard. Here are the words I set since starting and the reasoning behind them:

The first time I did this my word for the upcoming year was Embody. 

I desire to embody the future version of me that has accomplished all she desires. 

The second time I did this my word for the upcoming year was Fearless.

I no longer fear the unknown, I no longer fear what people think of me.

This year will be the third time I do this, my word for 2023 is Network.

I desire to tap into my network and make my manifestations a reality.

See the magical thing about this is that I don’t know how everything will turn out. I picked the word network because I want to grow my online and offline community.

I want to lean into the network I already have created and strengthen the relationships.

But I do not know how exactly it will help my goals unfold. All I know is that my intuition has been pointing me this way for a while now.

When I set words in the past two years they have definitely pushed me past my comfort zone. My words set the direction for me to get out of my own way and build this writing and coaching business I have dreamt about for so long. 

January is now an exciting and hopeful month for me, not one that I fear. 

Now it’s your turn. Think about what your 2023 word for the year will be.

What is the theme you wish to create your year around? What word feels exciting yet a little scary at the same time? What word do you hear and immediately think, that’s it?

If you’re stumped on choosing a word, a great way to get your creative juices flowing is to write down what you desire to accomplish next year. What do you want more of? What will expand your life? What are you ready to say goodbye to?

Once you have these written down see if any common words or themes keep coming up for you.

Take a night to sleep on it and I promise that your word will come to you before you know it. 

Here’s to an expansive, abundant, uplifting, and exciting 2023!