Happy New Year!

You might be surprised to learn about a common theme I’ve noticed with myself, my clients, and colleagues, as we’ve all come back from our holiday break. 

That theme? A resistance to planning 2021. 

If you’re in this stuck, unmotivated, or “I just don’t want to” camp, I have four areas to support you. 

1. Let Go of 2020

Have you truly let go of 2020? I’m not saying you have to forgive and forget it, or act like it didn’t happen. I’m saying you need to “empty your cup.”

I believe that we all carry energy with us and that we only have the bandwidth to carry so much energy at once. Think of it like a cup. If your cup is full with everything you felt, thought, or believed in, in 2020, then the second you start thinking of 2021 – even a couple of drops – it will overflow and become very overwhelming very quickly. 

So, did you actually take the time to empty the cup? Did you actually take the time to create space for yourself by venting about it, journaling about it, blessing and releasing it – whatever is meaningful for you? Did you really take the time to pour out the energy of 2020 to make space for all of the energy and opportunity that's available in 2021?

If not, that’s the best place to start. 

2. Look at Your Well-Being

If you’ve let go of 2020 and still find yourself in the “I don’t want to” camp, look at your well-being.

When you read that, you’re probably thinking, “Christina, I just took a week off from work. December was slower for me. I wasn't doing as much as I usually did. Shouldn't my well-being be where it needs to be?”

Consider this: Every time we reach a new level in life, we also need to up-level our well-being. And 2020 required a new level of bandwidth, resilience, and stamina from us. That means we actually require a new level of well-being that we may not have considered before. Just taking off a week from work to celebrate the holidays and new year might not be sufficient. 

I’m telling you that it’s totally OK if you still feel burnt out and exhausted right now. This doesn’t mean you’re a failure or that 2021 is going to suck for you. You just need to replenish and nurture yourself some more. 

What does that look like for you? Could it serve you to take a few more days off? If that’s the case for you – it’s OK!

3. Be OK with Taking it Slow

At the start of a new year, we all feel this pressure to be gung ho. But if you aren’t there yet, it’s OK. 

Try not to have any judgment or shame or blame or any negative reaction to that feeling. We just went through a really challenging year. The beginning of January hasn’t been much better, for those of us watching the news in the United States. 

If you’re noticing a desire to retreat or hibernate a little bit – honor it, trust your intuition, trust your gut, and be patient with yourself. I'm not saying that you should hibernate for the next 12 months of your life, but if that's where you are right now, it’s OK. 

Once you’ve released the energy of 2020, looked at your well-being, and accepted taking things slow and you’re still feeling unmotivated for the year ahead, I have one more idea for you. 

4. Create Your Goals from an Empowering Place

Notice where you typically create your goals from. Are you someone that goes back to last year’s goal and doubles or triples it? Are you someone who looks at your current life problems and just tries to fix them? 

Those aren’t bad places to look, for setting goals, but I sometimes find that the reason we're not motivated around our goals is because the place that we created them from is disempowering. Our goals are created from a place of: “That wasn’t good enough. I need to fix this problem.”

So instead, let’s look to other sources for goal setting. Let’s do our planning from an empowered place.

If you’re wondering what that means or what it would look like, for you, I highly recommend hitting me up. 

As a teaser, start here: 

Write a letter dated one year from today. In that letter, outline what 2021 looked like for you – from a place of pure whimsy or desire. What is possible? 

I hope you found these four tips helpful. Let me know how else I can support you in the year ahead.