2013 I Declare to be The Year of...

January 01, 2013

2013 I Declare to be The Year of...

I think declaring what you want the year to be is so much more inspirational than traditional resolutions. Most people don't seem to keep their resolutions for very long and they often quickly give them up. When I declare what my year will be - I seem to be more inspired because I have all year. There is more permanence to it for me. Stating 2013 will be The Year Of... insert something cool here...seems bigger than little ol' me and some meager resolution.

One of my inspirations for this type of thinking is from a friend, Elaine, who several years ago declared herself a "Woman of Action". In doing so - she would base most of her decisions by asking herself, "What would a Woman of Action do?". Since then Elaine lost a lot of weight, like a lot of weight, like a whole person of weight. She is so much more healthy about what she eats and she exercises quite regularly. She wanted to have a baby and she and her husband were fortunate enough to adopt a beautiful baby girl. Her life completely changed from that declaration. I don't see Elaine very often, but her fortitude stays in my mind.

I declared 2012 to be The Year of Health & Wellness and The Year of the Collage & Reconnection. I lost 20-25 lbs., joined a new volleyball team, made an average of 1 collage every 2 weeks AND said yes to more parties/gatherings than I had been previously.

I am still formulating what I am declaring 2013 to be for me. It will involve creating artwork just to be creative, not creating something FOR someone. I think it will contain more drawing practice, more birdies, more mixed media collages, but I haven't come up with the simple, clean version of my creative declaration yet. For my personal declaration I want to include something about my best physical self - weight loss, healthful diet, caring for my self and an EVEN MORE wonderful relationship with my loving husband.

So I ask YOU...If you were to generate something new or generate more of in your life for 2013, what might that be?

To back up my words here, I did some bird sketches this evening. It is just a start, but sometimes that is all it takes.