Happy New Year to you all.
It’s that lovely time between Christmas and new year when I choose my WORD for 2020. I use Susannah Conway’s 5-day email course to help me with the process, you can find it here.
MY 2019 WORD.
My word for 2019 was BECOMING. https://kimcarrcoaching.co.uk/2018/12/29/469/
This was the post about it and why I chose it and it has served me really well. I used this word for fitness and managed to do seven park runs. I built on this throughout the year, to reach my target weight by consistently working on my eating and exercise with excellent coaching from Allison Harding and Vicky Cook at Zig Zag fitness.
The word ‘BECOMING’ enabled to be brave, and because of that, my coaching business is growing and evolving. I have tried some different creative practices and also experimented with things that were new to my coaching style. I can see that I am definitely adopting a style and ‘way of being’ that suits my clients and me.
So, I am letting “BECOMING’ go as my word for 2019.
MY 2020 WORD.
I am finally ready to announce my word for 2020 publicly.
I do this for accountability, to put it out there, to share with my clients and to encourage you to do the same.
It is interesting because although I went through the process, there was no distinct word this year. I knew I wanted to continue to move forward in many areas of my life, but I also recognised that towards the end of the year I had gone into a sprint which had left me feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.
I found 2019 at times, to be frustrating and unsettling on a macro level. Politics, Brexit, division and negativity were having an effect on me, at times I felt saddened, isolated and detached from the language being used by leaders. I found myself longing for integrity, compassion, grace, acceptance and nurturing, so I assumed, this year that I would pick a ‘feeling’ word, for 2020.
FINDING MY WORD.
I was a little bit stuck but I knew that my word would find me.
I went to church on the 29th January, feeling shattered from the Christmas festivities and gatherings.
Unusually, we didn’t have our regular sermon but a video entitled:
“STRIDE- The Pace of Grace” by Pastor Michael Todd.
The sermon spoke to me on so many levels, but I instantly knew that this was my 2020 word.
I knew that in 2020, I needed to find my own pace, to stride out with purpose, to slow down the sprint.
I loved how the speaker described the word STRIDE as the opposite of STRIVE.
Definition for STRIDE:
“To achieve a regular or steady pace or course, to reach a point or level at which one functions most competently and consistently’.
I know this would also relate to many of my clients who are trying to avoid burnout and a level of sustainable consistency.
This year, my focus will be about collecting data for my research into Teacher Wellbeing, this will take consistent and focused progress, step by step, striding out slowly.
My business is in a great place, and I want to keep moving forward naturally and slowly, making each stride count, not sprinting for a quick, short distance but enabling me to move forward, further and steadily.
I want to stride along with my family, coming alongside them at their pace rather than expecting them to speed up or slow down to mine. To have a “pace of grace’, you can walk, talk and listen when you are striding not when you are running.
These are my initial thoughts on my chosen word, I know it will evolve and grow with me during this year.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Have you chosen your word yet for 2020?
I would love to hear it.
Please let me know below, I would love to know why you chose this word.
