Focus Areas and Intentions for the New Year

Posted On January 3, 2021

Happy New Year!  Whew, 2020 will forever be seared in our collective memories, huh?  A reminder of how much in life is out of our control. I spent much of this rainy first weekend of 2021 reading old journal entries from this month 20 years ago, 10 years, and 5 years ago. It is fascinating to read back and see how in some ways I have changed so much, and in other ways not so much 🙂 

I don’t usually do New Year’s resolutions; instead, I have areas of focus for the year and typically set weekly goals in one of those areas.  My 2020 areas of focus were reading, meditation, exercise, and practicing Spanish. For most of the year, I tracked the time spent on each to see if I was making time for it on a daily basis. That made a big difference in keeping me accountable because it pains me to log “none” in my tracker. Here are some of the highlights for the year: 

Reading: I read 60 books, my personal record in one year! I didn’t become a big reader until 2012 and with every book I read, I am inspired to read more. I tend to read more non-fiction and memoirs with a few novels sprinkled in. I finally started doing occasional audiobooks although I mostly still read on my Kindle. It is hard to pick my favorites but some books I really enjoyed include Give Work, Breath, The Choice, and The Upside of Stress. I would love to hear your book recommendations in the comments! For 2021, I don’t think I’m going to set a specific target. I notice I have been hesitant to read longer books if I am too focused on that. There are a few science-y books I want to tackle. 

Meditation: I decided in January that I wanted to do meditation teacher training and I talked to several teachers to learn more.  The consistent piece of advice I got is that I should deepen my own practice as a foundation for becoming a teacher. This gave me a new level of motivation and I increased my daily practice time throughout the year. I have been doing an hour each day since September as well as online retreats. I can definitely feel the benefits and think it was especially helpful in the circumstances of 2020. For this year, I will try to continue with an hour a day – it will be a stretch when the long commute is back in my schedule! 

Exercise: This is the area I struggled with the most since my gym closed. On the plus side, I walked a lot and usually had over 100,000 steps a week, which is about 40 miles a week for me, or 5-6 miles a day. I had to make a concerted effort and realize how much walking was built into my commute. I tried my hardest to get into running but I am not sure I will ever enjoy it. I have gotten into a good groove of going to Lyon St Stairs a few times a week and doing several sets of stairs with a HIIT circuit between each set.  What I want to do more of in 2021: more yoga, for now using Down Dog, which I highly recommend. It has tons of options for customization. I also want to do more HIIT, using resistance bands and classes with my new favorite teacher I mentioned earlier. I’ve noticed that if I don’t exercise in the morning, I just don’t seem to make it happen, so I am trying to make my exercise adjacent to my meditation practice which is finally hard-wired. This only works if I wake up super early, so this is still a work-in-progress. 

Spanish: I had an amazing time doing immersion in Guatemala just before the pandemic took hold. The experience inspired me to practice more on my own before my next trip because I have a very long way to go. I did Duolingo every day, although I used the ‘streak freeze’ during my meditation retreats so I’m not sure the streak can be considered entirely official. For most of the year, I was only doing 5-10 minutes a day so going forward, I am trying to increase that to 15-20 minutes a day plus an AWESOME app called ConjuGato. (Get it? So cute!)  The next phase for me is watching shows on Netflix in Spanish, I got a recommendation for La Casa de Papel but I don’t watch tv so it has been hard to work this into my routine. 

I will continue with these focus areas in 2021 and have a few new intentions to add:

Bookending the day with presence and reflection: My goal is to not look at my phone for the first hour of being awake and the last hour of being awake. It is a bit concerning how difficult it was when I first started. I didn’t think I had a phone addiction but the pull is stronger than I realized. I will start the day with meditation and yoga and not look at my phone until after that. I will end the day with journaling and reading. I generally already do that but I have my phone right next to me and it sometimes distracts me, so I’m going to put it away an hour before bedtime to kick off my bedtime routine. 

One day a week to rest and recharge: This idea came from a book that was about slowing down. I’m going to dedicate my Saturdays to down-time and things that bring me joy, such as exercise, being in nature, seeing friends and family. I will try not to do work or errands/cleaning and will do my best to avoid checking the news or social media. When the pandemic is behind us, I will treat myself to a massage 🙂 

Waking up with the sun: I got this from another blog I read. I tried to do it in the summer which was WAY too early for my body clock but the sun rises at 7:25 right now in SF, so this is a better time to start. I am going to try to slowly adjust my alarm as the sun rises earlier. (It moves all the way to 5:47 in June. Yikes.) I have many failed attempts in the past but I’m going to try! Perhaps this gradual approach will be more doable. 

Your turn! What are your aspirations for 2021?