Happy New Year, lovely ones! I am really excited for this new year. It feels to me (call me strange!) like something has deeply shifted – that we are being invited to step into a new level of freedom.
“Now, hold on a minute!” I can hear you saying, “Don’t you know there is a pandemic that refuses to die?”
I’m not oblivious. I know that as I write this, Omicron is raging around the world.
But what if this is the last gasp of a virus that has gifted us the space over the last two years to re-evaluate, reassess, rethink.
What if now is the time to take what we have uncovered and use it to start reinventing ourselves, our organizations, our work, our world?
That’s the shift I’m talking about.
To me, this new year feels like an opportunity to embrace a whole new level of freedom to create the world we want. To start truly stepping into our power in big, bold new ways.
What could that freedom look like? I’ll tell you what it looks like for me:
The Freedom of Small Choices
Really small (but transformational) things like spending as long as I feel like lingering over my coffee in the morning. I’ve decided to say “No thanks” to that little voice in my head that says “Get to WORK!!” when the clock strikes a certain hour. When I don’t yet feel inspired to work, I now know that I have the freedom to choose, so I do.
Unchained Bigger Strategies
Freedom, for me, is also about making bigger decisions like choosing how I put myself out there. Last year I closed my Facebook and Twitter accounts because they just weren’t making me happy. This year I plan to market myself only in ways that feel inspiring and exciting. I still haven’t figured out what that means yet, so stay tuned. But the important point is that I’ve given myself the runway to explore something different.
Liberated Definitions
And the biggest freedom I am offering myself this year is permission to define myself in much bigger terms, with fewer limits around what I am. At one (limited) level I am a nonprofit consultant. But how boring is that?
I believe I am actually a guide – one of countless others – (including, quite likely, you too) shepherding this broken world to a healthier, more equitable place. That means my work can play within a much larger definition. That feels exhilarating and expansive.
In essence, what I have decided in this new year is to embrace a new kind of freedom to be who and where I want to be.
Not only because it brings me joy (which, by the way, who doesn’t want more of that?), but more importantly because I believe the critical first step to creating a healthier and more peaceful world is creating health, peace and joy within ourselves. With freedom comes all of those things.
And I believe that this very same opportunity to create greater freedom in this new year is in front of you as well. Care to join me?
Photo Credit: Aditya Saxena
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