My Word Of The Year And Intentions For 2022
It feels a bit odd following a big and significant year like my last one. 2021 will always be the year I went full-time with my creative work, and it’s a year that have a big, flapping flag post in the time-line of my life. In comparison, 2022 looks paler and less defined.
Our societal values of continuously outperforming ourselves would have me believe I should top that. That each year should see me stretching further, reaching higher, doing more. Following an uncommon year with a common one can feel so very… normal.
Yet normal is what I crave. After a year like 2021, I welcome calm. I welcome the muted naturals defining 2022, in contrast to the bright sparkles of last year. I long for the everyday, much more than the significant moments. And so, I enter this year with the intention to focus less on shiny new things, and more on strengthening and caring for the foundation I've already laid.
Nurture
The word I’ve chosen to guide me in 2022 is Nurture. It came up already in November, when I was launching my membership community and looking forward to the fact that a community is something to keep growing over a longer period of time.
2021 was dominated by establishing a new foundation for work and creativity in my life. Being self-employed, bringing in more coaching clients, creating my new membership, and finding new habits and rhythms, it was all uncharted territory for me.
I’m entering 2022 with a foundation in place, and it’s one I’m happy with. My work is now shifting to nurturing that foundation.
By choosing Nurture as a guide, I’m pointing myself to strengthening the good in my work and life. I want to nurture my business, my coaching skills, my writing, but also my health, free time and my relationships. After a year where much of my focus was on business, I want to nurture a well-rounded life.
Nourish my creative business, and myself as its owner
My goal for my creative business this year is to nourish it. Being less than a year into running it full-time, my business is still young and small. To be long-term sustainable, it needs to keep growing to give me what I need from it.
It’s like gardening. Before moving to our house, I had never cared for a garden. Since our whole neighbourhood was newly built back then, the garden was just a square of fresh grass, a tiny apple tree and a flimsy baby hedge. I’ve learned what it needs by trial and error, thinking I had watered enough and seeing plants wilt, realising the hedge needs fertilizing to grow full and high.
Like my garden, my business needs nourishment to grow, bloom and bear fruit. I need to recognise what it needs, and figure out how I can give it that. When I do, it can give me back what I need from it, and become the beautiful, thriving business I know it can be. A lot of this will look like working on growing my reach, being consistent and intentional in my marketing, and focusing on strengthening connection and trust.
To be able to give my business what it needs, I also need to nourish myself as its business owner. I recognised that I was slipping behind on this at the end of last year, when I was feeling tired and wrung out from pouring my all into the business. Stepping back, I focused on creativity just for the sake of it for a while, and it brought with it a wave of new energy and inspiration. In 2022, I want to be more conscious of nourishing myself, so I’m able to be the business owner I want to be. This might look like making space for my own creativity, rest, reflections, diving deep and learning more.
Looking back on 2021, I can see that the most difficult part was the financial insecurity. Worrying about money is a time-consuming, stress-inducing activity. This year, I want to nourish my business to become sturdier, more financially secure, so my business and I can thrive together.
Cultivate a life of writing, and work on draft five of my novel
I took the last two weeks of 2021 completely away from all things business and creativity. I had Instagram blocked on my phone, I didn’t listen to any business podcasts, I didn’t write or take photos. I like to do this some times throughout the year, to rest, but also because of the perspective shift it gives.
During these weeks, I revelled in being off work. Though I knew I’d enjoy coming back to work in January, I didn’t miss it or long for it. What I did find myself longing for, however, was writing. In the things I chose to consume, writing was a recurring theme. In the series Maid, and in season two of Love Life. In the audiobook of The Poet X, in the film Tick Tick Boom. The main characters all want to write.
When we take a step back and slow down, we remember what’s truly important to us. The day to day focus on to-dos fade away, our focus softens, and we can see more clearly what we want from our lives.
And what I saw, clear as a bright summer day, was that I want to write. I want to live a life of writing. It has always been true; it will always be true. Writing is my first love in creativity, my true love, and a core piece of my identity.
I do a lot of writing in my business, in the email letters I write, in these blog posts. I love that. But I want to pursue writing not only as content, but as fiction writing, freelance writing, and in the future, probably non-fiction books. When building a business, it’s very easy to put that above everything else. Especially above your own craft.
I’ve seen this happen for many creatives who turn into teachers, mentors or coaches. We channel our creativity into our businesses, and our own craft gets put to the side. I don’t want that to happen to me. I want to cultivate a life of writing, alongside growing my business.
2021 was the year I did the least amount of fiction writing since before 2016. Having sent off my manuscript to publishers in 2020 and knowing business would be my focus in 2021, I knew it wouldn’t be a year of book writing. It was the right decision, but I missed it, and I don’t want 2022 to be another year without fiction writing.
Having decided to do one more draft of my novel manuscript, after getting some feedback from a publisher but no acceptances, I will work on draft five in 2022. I’m not yet sure how much work will go into this draft, but it will likely be quite a lot. I expect I will work on it for most of the year, if not beyond 2022. That’s okay though, I’m in no rush.
Cultivating a life of writing will look like making space in my calendar for it. I plan to continue some things I started last year: weekly book days and sending article pitches to magazines. I also plan on sharing more about my writing in my content. Having talked mostly about my business when sharing my creative journey last year, I want to talk more about my journey as a writer.
I’m glad to be making writing a priority this year. Because that’s what yearly intentions are all about, aren’t they? Making the life you want to live a priority.
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