Updated on February 19, 2024
2020 Word of the Year: Finish. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Will Durant
Happy New Year, friends! It is a new day, week, year, and decade. Can you believe it is the year 2020? Shouldn’t we have flying cars and robots in our homes like in The Jetsons?
Every year since 2013 I have chosen a word of the year to help guide me in my decisions, goals, and day to day life throughout the year. I keep it posted right above my work desk so I see a daily reminder of what I need to work on.
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2020 word of the Year
The word I choose is at the back of my mind no matter what I am doing. Last year’s word was change. I knew we had a lot of changes coming up and I wanted to embrace them with open arms rather than shy away from them, as I normally like to do. I honestly can say that trying to embrace the changes we made, rather than fight them, truly helped me. Change can be difficult but it can also lead to wonderful things.
You can read about my previous year’s words and why I chose them below:
2013 Focus | 2014 Happy | 2015 Create | 2016 Do | 2017 Balance | 2018 Simplify | 2019 Change
This year’s word is FINISH.
I have shown myself time and time again, I love a fresh start, and setting up my planner, and creating new systems. What I haven’t been able to do is follow-through. I get going, I am motivated, and then it all fizzles out a few weeks or months later when life gets chaotic or stressful.
At the end of 2019, I read several books about productivity, time management, and habits. My two favorites were Atomic Habits by James Clear and Finish by Jon Acuff.
These two books were eye-opening on why we struggle with creating and sticking to new habits, and also why it can be so hard to finish what we start. If you struggle with either of these areas I highly recommend reading both books.
As I started thinking about what I want 2020 to look like, I realized I didn’t need a bunch of shiny new goals or resolutions. I need to actually finish and make progress on the ones that I seem to start every year – my health, our finances, growing my business, etc.
Finish
Do you know how many years I have had some sort of health or weight loss goal? Pretty much every year since I started goal setting.
I have made some positive strides in shifting my focus towards health rather than weight loss over the last several years. I can connect health with my why so much more easily. But, even though I have had some successes, I continue to fall back into old unhealthy habits time and time again.
This year my health goal is “Love My Body”.
My mind races with so much negative self-talk. I am working hard on catching myself when this happens and replacing it with something positive.
I also have an unhealthy relationship with food and tend to soothe my emotions with it. I read a book called Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole. It made me aware of how truly messed up my thoughts and ideas of food are.
Even though a goal like love my body is not something that I will ever truly “finish”, I want to make progress on getting healthier this year. I am working hard on treating myself with the same love I give to my family and friends.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Will Durant
How I Goal Plan
Because I often don’t completely follow through with using my planners and systems, another goal of mine is to “Plan For Success”. What does this mean?
I want to actually use my planners and systems every single day so that I can get ahead on my goals. Planners are not magical. You still have to show up and do the work. And often the work is boring, or hard, or frustrating.
I am using the Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets for the second year. And while I found them very helpful last year in setting my goals, I failed at the follow-through. See a theme emerging here? I would create my tending list each month, use it for a few days, and then abandon them.
The same thing with my planner. Overall I have become much better at using my planner but I still wasn’t using it every day and writing everything down. And the silliest part is when I was most stressed out and overwhelmed (and could have used it the most) I would not even touch it. This has to change.
Daily Planner I Use: Emily Ley Simplified Daily Planner
The PowerSheets are powerful. I cried both years while going through the prep work. If you use them to dig deep it can be so eye-opening to how your life is going – what is working and what isn’t. I turned 40 last year and while I have so many blessings, I know I could be doing better at this stage of my life.
And I will say that although I didn’t use them to the best of my ability, physically writing out my tending list each month and doing a goal refresh each season kept me on track much better than simply setting goals at the beginning of the year to never look at them again.
Plan For Success
So, how I am going to use my planner and PowerSheets to get ahead this year?
I created an area where I can keep them right next to my desk. I plan to check in with both planners every morning. I am working on habit stacking (*read Atomic Habits for more information on this concept) this into my already established morning and night routines.
I am also going to try very hard to check my planner before I do anything. I often waste time and work on things that are distractions, like busywork, that are not actually pushing me to complete my goals. Yesterday, I made sure to look at my planner before starting a new task and it really helped to keep me on track.
I am hopeful about this year and that it can be different. I am going to continue reading more books on how to follow through. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
“Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish” – Jessica N.S. Yourko
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