I rarely get into the "new year" spirit. I never make resolutions. I don't set "goals" for that year. In fact, it rarely ever phases me. The last time I even got excited about a new year was in 2000 only because it was the new millennium. Even then, I didn't make a new years resolution. They never seem to stick or mean anything. This year though, it is different. For the first time, ever, I am excited about a new year. I really think it is just coincidental timing - or perfectly planned timing - that all these goals, ambitions, motivations, and aspirations from different paths I've been mulling over seem to merge into one road. Suddenly, everything feels like it is overlapping in perfect ways.
While I didn't pick a word for 2012, looking back it felt like a big year of transition. It was a big change spending the whole year, start to finish, as a working mom striving to (eventually) become some career woman. Life seems all about learning how to flow with the transitions and whatever is tossed your way. 2012 was a good year; it went by incredibly fast and I learned and grew a lot in the process. However, now that things are finally feeling a little more routine, slightly more settled, and a tad more stabilized -- that brings 2013 for the year I want to do all those things I've been saying for years, "I'd like to do that. I want to do that. Someday I'll do this." Now is the time. Carpe diem!
I'm feeling motivated. I'm feeling excited. I'm feeling adventure. I'm ready to conquer.
This being said, something I've been wanting to participate in for two years now is the "One Little Word" (OLW) year long challenge from Ali Edwards, you can read about the OLW class here. Since I am feeling oh so excited this year, I decided to jump on and go for the OLW class. Almost immediately, however, I couldn't decide on that one little word. HELLO, I have my degree in ENGLISH, my mind is filled with words! I struggled with different ones that felt like they should be that one little word for 2013. Boy they fought it out. Those words battled, their dictionary definitions pulled out their sabers in a duel over "who is best suited for Marlana."
- Motivation - Ambition - Momentum - Aspiration - Achieve - Conquer -
None of them fit. I loved them all. They are words I would like to incorporate more in my life, but they didn't completely encompass what I was looking for in my word.
Sure, I have a lot of motivation this year. I'm more determined to go further in life. I'm aspiring to write more. I'm going to take a photo every day for Project Life:365 (Project Life with help from CY365). I'm trying to achieve greatness. I'm feeling the momentum of fitness pushing me further., I'm inspired by law of attraction. I want to live in a positive mindset. I want to master The Secret. I want to remind myself daily of all the things I'm grateful for so that helps with the positive thinking. I want to praise God who gives me these things. I'd like to conquer things that seem impossible, I want to achieve these goals. (Ambitious, much?)
But how on earth was I supposed to condense this all into one little word?
Then I thought about my favorite saying from Joseph Campbell: Follow your bliss.
I realized, in the first few days while pondering on the OLW, I was forcing these words on myself, however bliss kept coming back. I really am wanting to do so much more this year. As I mentioned, it is so unusual for me because I have never been a New Years Resolution person, but this year I'm striving for so much more. I kept thinking of words to help motivate me, to help push me, but then realized none of these words were summing up to one little word... until I started thinking of what I want the outcome of all these motivational words to be... and it is bliss. To find my bliss, grab it, hold, follow it in all aspects of my life. I want to find the ways to follow my bliss in ways I wouldn't have thought. I know Campbell meant more to bliss than just "find what you like and do it." Campbell lived bliss. He found ways to incorporate that feeling of bliss into his every day life -- and that is what I want to do. So eloquently he explains, "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time." Ultimately, all those ambitions, motivations, achievements are all directing me to the one big thing I want to feel in life -- BLISS! It's going to be crazy and busy but I know the end outcome will be beautiful bliss. I want to find it and treasure bliss in my heart and every day. Here's to BLISS.
Happy New Year!
-M
Bliss
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