Two new mantras and my word for 2020
Over the years, I’ve sometimes picked a single word as a sort of theme or guide for the year. Sometimes I’ve chosen a mantra instead. Last year, I went with a mantra, and it was “Actually, I can”.
It meant a few different things for me.
“Actually, I can” was a reminder that I could do hard things, like helping to care for my father (who had esophageal cancer and needed to have his esophagus removed), supporting my mother, and helping my brother and his family (my 12 yo nephew had nasopharyngeal cancer).
It was permission for me to try new things. To experiment. To do whatever the hell I wanted, really, because guess what? ACTUALLY I CAN!
So when it came time to name my coaching business in the middle of the year, it became the name of my company. It seemed perfect.
In the fall, that phrase sustained me after I got a false Hep C diagnosis (super low, and a raft of subsequent tests couldn’t find it). The testing for that required an ultrasound of my liver, which is awesome, thanks. But it turned out my gallbladder was rotten and needed to come out.
That phrase gave me permission to fly to San Diego only two weeks after surgery to attend a conference for coaches. It allowed me to not do some of things I’d hope to get done in the fall, too. And thanks to that Hep C thing, I’d met with my GI doc before she did my colonoscopy, so she decided to do an endoscopy, too. And discovered unusual tissue called adenoma in my duodenum. Which will have to come out in 2020.
“Actually, I can” reminded me that actually, I can get through it all.
Now it’s 2020, and Mama’s got a brand new bag. Of mantras.
As 2020 approached, I began thinking what I wanted my mantra to be for the year. The first one I came up with was SHOW UP.
It means that I show up for you, my audience, every single week, whether you come here to read this or not. And I remember to do things like ask you to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
It means that I show up for my dream, which is to help as many women as I can to navigate mid-life and chart their own course for success, however they define it. To show up to help women to declutter their space to allow room for abundance to sweep into their lives. To show up for my office hours every day, whether anyone else realizes I’m there or not.
It means that I show up by telling you what it is I do and giving you the opportunity to work with me. Because I’ve got some truly good stuff, and I’d be a selfish bitch if I didn’t at least offer to share it!
I even considered NOT selecting “show up” as my mantra when I found another mantra that worked for me on different levels (see below), but I legit read the phrased in three separate sources within a 24-hour period at the end of the year. So two mantras it is. The first is SHOW UP.
The second, completely different and maybe a bit contradictory mantra is LET IT BE EASY.
The situation in my duodenum is concerning, as you may have guessed. We don’t think it’s cancer based on the two biopsies taken in October, though we won’t know for sure until next month. But it is in a place it doesn’t belong, and will have to be removed, and it’s a tricky place to deal with, and and and . . . So I am praying that it will somehow be easy.
“Let it be easy” is a wish that clients and income come my way easily. A reminder that work doesn’t have to be painful or exceptionally hard in order to pay off. That you don’t have to set yourself on fire, or push a boulder up the hill every day. That it’s okay if things are, in fact, easy.
There are a lot of unknowns, as in every year, but between the new health stuff, my ongoing autoimmune stuff—I’ve got rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia—and my hopes and dreams for this business, which are going to challenge me to stretch in new ways, I’m good with LET IT BE EASY.
Lastly, I went ahead and chose a word for 2020, as well. Think of it as an over-arching theme. And the word I chose is EASE.
It’s aspirational: I aspire to live a life of ease.
It’s hopeful: I hope things will, in fact, not be complicated or super hard.
It’s a reminder: you can ease your way forward, and not have to jump or run all at once.
It’s my wish for you: That 2020 brings ease to you and yours.
