019: Creating Space for What Matters
Are you interested in uncovering your word or phrase for the year? I actually have a free guide that can help you uncover your guiding word or phrase. Just head on over to eliseenriquez.com/freestuff to get your free download.
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What’s your take on having a word or phrase of the year? Do you loathe it, or do you swear by it?
If you’ve been with me for a while now, you know I pick a guide word or phrase every year. Now, maybe you think I put too much stock in all this word for the year stuff, but it truly has changed my life.
Let me take you on a flashback with me for a minute.
It was January of 2016. I was sitting in a church pew at Seattle Unity Church with my future wife.
A few things to note in this scenario:
- One, I am not, nor have I ever been, a regular church goer.
- Two, I was relatively newly separated from my husband.
- And three, I was falling in love with a woman.
So to say that my life was a bit topsy-turvy at that point is an understatement. And thank goodness for new love. Otherwise, I would not have been sitting in that church pew on that January day.
Anyway, my future wife, well aware of the topsy turvy-ness of my life, invited me to the White Stone Ceremony at Seattle Unity Church. I had no idea what a white stone ceremony was, but I went because, well, love.
Sitting in the pew, I was led through a visualization of the year ahead and I was scared.
I was going to go through a divorce, effectively ending a relationship I had been in more than half my life. I'd be figuring out how to support myself by myself. I had never really done that before. My husband and I had been together since high school and we'd built our life and wealth together.
I'd be finding a new place to live. At that point, I was living in a dreary condo that I had friends over to maybe once ever. And I never let my family come over. I was so not happy with the place; no way in hell would I have wanted them to see me there.
I knew the woman by my side was going to be in my future and I'd need to figure out how to navigate the world in a same-sex relationship. Something I had never done before.
I accepted my fear AND embraced what I wanted to create throughout the year: stability, connection, happiness, success.
As we had entered the ceremony, we were handed a little golf pencil and a small rectangular stone. As the visualization wrapped up, we were asked to pick a word to guide us through the year ahead and write it on our white stone. I didn't follow the rules, which is so not like me, I picked two words: Bold and Brave. I scrawled those words on my white stone and embraced Bold and Brave for the year.
That year, I had the best year I'd ever had in my business, I successfully navigated my divorce, I deepened my connection with the people who mattered most to me, and I moved in with Kim and we created a home together. "Bold and Brave" guided me through the hardest year of my life. (Well, my hardest year until the past couple of years!)
"Every day matters" helped me stabilize the next year.
"Gathering" led to growth the following year.
"Shine" challenged me after that.
"Create" led to crazy amounts of production in 2020.
"Bloom" brought me through 2021.
This year’s word and phrase were a bit harder to pin down. Here we are in early March 2022, and I finally have it:
“Creating Space: making time for proactive planning and action, growth, and moments to refill my cup.”
My definition is printed out on a cute card and posted on my computer monitor in my office and in my bathroom so that I'll see it all the time.
So, even though we are in month 3 of 2022, I still have this question of the week for you...What is your guiding word or theme for the year?
If that's too much to think about, just consider what word or phrase would be helpful this week.
And if you are interested in uncovering your word or phrase for the year, remember to download that free guide to help you uncover your guiding word or phrase at eliseenriquez.com/freestuff
