2020 Intentions: A Check In
At the start of this year I gave myself three words to focus on for 2020, those words being INTENTIONAL, ABUNDANT and EXPANSIVE. I hadn’t given these words much thought since January if we are being honest. Yes, I see the irony in that- not being intentional about those driving words, one of which is literally the word intentional.
As I peeked at my 2020 vision board taped to the inside cover of my journal one night I remembered these words and realized that while the original thoughts and plans that motivated these words seem quite far from what they mean to me now, I can see that these words have materialized into my life in ways that go pleasantly beyond their initial meanings. I challenge you to take a moment to look back at the goals or intentions that you set for the year and see how those things fit into your life currently. You may find they hold different meanings or value, but that they still can be incredibly valuable!
Intentional
Each day for the last however many weeks has been lived in ways much more intentional and with more thought than in maybe any other time of my life that I can remember. Choosing to move my body daily choosing to read more and create more, choosing to find things for be grateful for and to find moments of joy. These are choices I make each day because I know that it’s either choosing to do things for the betterment of myself, mainly in the mental health department, or I can let myself spiral into an anxious, panicked dark hole driven by 24/7 news cycles. Trust me there have been those days which is why I know that the first option is much much more appealing. So, I’ve been intentionally filling my days with the things I know keep me moving forward and keep my sanity.
Abundant
I pictured financial abundance when when I chose this word for the year. I’m talking the kind of abundance that would come from three jobs and hard work. So, where is my abundance coming from in a time of halted work scheduled and unemployment claims? (I’ve stopped holding my breathe that those claims will amount to anything.) My abundance has come in the for of time. It comes in sunday family brunches and whole lot of family time around the dinner table. It comes in the time that I had to finally rearrange my bedroom and to read more. So often we find ourselves wishing for more hours in a day or days in a week. Well, most of us now have that time in an abundance to use how we see fit- to relax, to binge a new series, to tick things off the “when I have time” list or even to just be. See, I’ve found a whole lot of abundance in 2020 just not exactly in the way I had imagined.
Expansive
With this word came daydreams and travel plans. The shiny ideas of running off to experience new places and learn new things. Well, I am learning new things, it’s just happening in my own home rather than in a foreign place. I’ve been learning how to edit a video. I’ve started to learn guitar. Hell, I am learning to live life in a way that is completely brand new. I am expanding what I know and what I can do and how I look at situations that I am given. I’m finally learning the real importance of presentness, of being truly in the here and now and taking things one step or day at a time.
This year isn’t playing out even to close to how I expected it to, but I’ve found that I am still living it out in a way that fits the ideas I wanted this year to be based around. It’s just taking a bit of a more open perspective and some creativity to do so.