Hey everyone,
Each year, I set an intention for the year.
I try to sum it up with a word, but a phrase or feeling will do, too. It’s not something that I think about too much or plan extensively. It’s not a goal or an ambition. It’s an intention. And I hope that by setting that as an intention for the year, I will be able to bring it to my days effortlessly and with ease, without having to create strategies or steps around it.
For 2018, my intention was to make it a year of positivity. I defined this as “Outsource everything. Limit availability. Focus on creating.”
I’m pleased to say that while I may have started 2018 feeling pulled in a million different directions, being answerable to far too many people and feeling like I could never get caught up with anything, I ended the year on exactly the note that I had hoped.
I no longer answer business emails myself. I’ve either outsourced or automated most of the parts of my business that I don’t enjoy. I limit my availability to people, situations, and events. And as a result, I have more time for my creative projects. I finished several nonfiction books and a novel in 2018, not to mention many online trainings and courses.
Better still? Despite spending more time away from my business in 2018, our revenue has grown substantially.
Did I want this to happen? Yes. Did I create a step-by-step plan for it to? No, I didn’t.
I set the intention and I let that intention inform how I made every single decision in my business through the year.
This year, 2019, my intention is for it to be a year of FUN.
How I define this is simple: More alignment. More automation. More creation.
That’s it. I don’t have specific plans on how I intend to make this happen, but I do expect that this intention will inform every decision I make going forward this year and help me choose between possibilities when I’m at a crossroads.
Already this year, I’ve allowed fun to dictate structure. We’re a week into the new year and you haven’t heard from me in several weeks. We took time off at the end of the year and went to India to see my family. I decided that while I would perhaps write, journal, and read (a lot), I wouldn’t do any work on the business. I would choose fun.
And I did.
Far too many writers spend their lives trying to quit full-time jobs, create freelancing income, and struggling for years, if not decades, to come to a point where their writing can be their primary source of income. And when it happens, do we celebrate? Do we create flexibility in our days? Do we enjoy this freedom from the 9-5?
No. We work even harder. We forget to have fun.
This year, I intend to have fun.
That’s my intention for 2019 and for my career.
What’s your intention for 2019?
Cheers,
Natasha