Goodbye Clarity, Hello Intention

Tomorrow, we’re forecasted to start the brand new year with brand new weather here in Jasper, Tennessee. Seventy-degrees. I kid you not. January and seventy? Yes, please. I’m not looking for an omen, but I am looking for a new t-shirt to don in 2021 with the warm weather.

When I sat down to write this blog, I wasn’t sure what approach to take. It’s likely that if you consume any writing on the internet, you’ll be reading a lot of “unprecedented times” and “a year to remember,” and so on. You know. 2020. The weirdest year many of us have lived through. I didn’t really want to take that approach.

Intention for 2021

Yesterday, Jeremiah and I discussed what word we’d like to bring into 2021. Last year, we chose clarity. In 2019, I chose courage. But yesterday, we couldn’t come up with a single word. We thought of “Novelty,” and “the New Normal.” Played around with some other ideas. But none of those really stuck. Maybe we should have the intentional word of “Caution” for 2021, but that’s not really a great way to live every aspect of your life. It limits everything. So, after thinking about it for the last twenty four hours, I’ve realized that maybe our intentional word for 2021 is just that: intention. This allows us to be balanced, seek out adventures when appropriate, and scale back and hunker down during those “unprecedented times.”

We live fairly intentionally now, so I don’t know if it’ll be much of a struggle to change how we’re living. Maybe not everything needs to be some huge change though to have huge impact.

Small Habits, Big Changes

Right now I’m finishing up reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and the main takeaway is tiny habits add up to huge changes in the long term. Essentially improving 1% each day versus declining 1% each day (at whatever your long-term goal may be) will have monumental repercussions over just 365 days. Living with intention means making those slight changes to form those habits, and make big changes.

When you establish multiple good habits, you have more space to live with intention. Compounded daily habits, whether they’re about eating healthy or keeping a clean home gives you more mental space to concentrate on what you’d like to accomplish, where you’d like to spend your energy, and how to approach your next adventure. No matter what happens in 2021, we won’t be living without adventure – we’re just too intent on making sure that happens.

Adventures in Clarity

In 2020, we had chosen Clarity as our word of the year. Do we see our lives more clearly on December 31 than we did on January 1? I think so. The pandemic helped with that a lot. We sought out friendships over Zoom, sought out online communities (we were each part of fellowships that will continue to be part of our lives in the coming years,) and both came to various conclusions about our professional lives.

I didn’t like a lot of 2020. But it has taught us a lot. And honestly? There were a lot of good things: Mexico street dogs, long hikes in Utah, Nevada, California, Tennesee, & Missouri, some amazing takeout, and porch-sitting social-distancing with friends. The two months we lived before we were shut down were filled to the brim with memories, as well. I wish 2021 could begin just as 2020 did, eating a charcuterie board with friends while playing Catan. But it won’t, and we have to be alright with that.

We aren’t all going to wake up tomorrow morning to a fresh new world. The clock keeps on ticking just as it has before. Pandemic keeps on climbing up. But it’s going to be seventy degrees here. And I’m going to choose my t-shirt with intention as I sit outside in the sunshine.

Cheers to tomorrow

Thanks for joining us on our RVing journey this past year. Cheers to the new year. May you have intention with your upcoming year. If you choose a goal word, I’m curious what it may be.