Why Love, Light, and Intention?

I’ve been choosing three words of the year for several years now and for 2019, I’ve chosen Love, Light, and Intention.

I first learned about this practice from Chris Brogan and I highly recommend that you read that post to get a simple and clear set of instructions on how and why to choose three words for your upcoming year. You’ll also find his long and very helpful list of words you might want to choose as well.

Why choose any words for any year though? What’s in it for you?

You might think, “these three words might end up just being one more thing I have to keep track of and I’ll never remember to follow-up on them and blah, blah, blah.

Here’s the thing about this process, I think it’s worth thinking about and taking the time to choose three words for your year even if you never keep track of the words and never follow-up on them. 😉

I wonder, have you done any sort of resolution or ceremony for 2019? Since we’re already 10 days into 2019, if you haven’t done anything thus far to set an intention for 2019, you might even just choose to do nothing this year. And wouldn’t be rad-awesome!?!?! Congrats if that’s your path!

If you’d like to learn more about choosing three words for the year, read on!

How do you choose the right three words for your upcoming year?

Choosing three words for your year really begins by you wanting to create a great year ahead. That might seem to be a no brainer, but it might be pretty surprising how many people don’t think about creating the life they want.

If you’re reading this post, you probably want to create a better 2019 for yourself and your family so first, you sit and think. I recommend getting a yummy hot drink to make it an intentional time just for you.

You can start by describing how 2018 went for you. What are the biggest moments you remember? Try to start in January so you can think about each month and what the highlights of the year were.

You can think about things worked really well for you and things didn’t. Journaling can help this process by answering these questions:

• 2018: What are my overall feelings about this year?
• What did I love about 2018?
• What was yuck about 2018?
• How did the big events turn out for me in 2018? (Holidays, birthdays, health events, job, pet, finances, art, etc…)
• Is there anything else I want to remember about 2018?

Based on how you feel about your 2018, there will probably be very clear things that you’d like to improve upon or call into your life for 2019.

Following are my three words and why I chose them for 2019:

After I went through the first surgery in November of 2017, my three words were Love, Healing, and Quiet (or was the third-word rest?). They were perfect and I really ended the year with solid sleep habits and I felt incredibly healthy despite all that I had been through.

Most importantly in this process, choosing your three words is a really great way to start your year with the intention of what you want.

Love

I’ll tell you now that my first word is always love. Always, always, always. Love is always one of my three words because I want everything I do to come from love.

Here’s the tattoo on my front left forearm (or however you describe that part of your body?) because I’m devoted to a life filled with love – for me, for the world around me, and especially Michael and Mason.

You might end up with a word you don’t want to let go of… and that’s perfect. 🙂

Light

Light! This year I chose light because I feel like my past two years have been super heavy filled with car crashes, surgeries, financial anxiety, a new school for Mason, losing our cat of 20 years, regular life happening all the while, and so much more. I definitely want a lighter 2019!

Of course, choosing words for the year isn’t a magical cure and I might experience some heavy stuff in 2019. But when I make a choice about a vacation or something, if it’s coming from “light” I’ll probably not be choosing a 5-day silent retreat with limited food. If I remember my three words when planning a vacation, I’ll probably end up at the beach squishing my toes in the sand because that would absolutely be filled with “light” and lightness.

Note: even if you choose three words now and forget about them forever more, I believe they stick with us in our subconscious and help to shape our choices whether we’re aware of them or not.

Intention

Intention! This is my action word for the year and I chose it mostly because I want to be more intentional with my time.

I made a major (like YUGE!) change last year by leaving my job which made a very, very, very substantial impact on my financial status. I knew it was going to be difficult but it was the absolute, right decision. Yay!

Now I have a part-time job, less money, and lots more time. I’ve almost figured out how to adjust to my new life but I’d like a few more hours of my day to be devoted to working as an artist and writing my ramblings for this blog, rather than bingeing on YouTube and Netflix. UGH!

It’s not terrible what I’m doing … I watch lots of comedians and some political shows so I’m giggling and paying attention to what’s going on and I’m okay with that, but I really want to create a more intentional schedule that helps me have relax time and have more productive time.

So there you have it, the three words I have complete confidence in and that I’ll reference throughout the year. I’ll use them as guideposts along the way to make sure I’m staying true to how I want my life to move toward.

Cool! How can I share this process with the rest of my family?

If you love it and want to share with your family, it’s pretty Easy-peasy in my opinion!

Here’s how I did it:

“Boys, I want us to choose three words for our family this year… what do we want to bring into our lives together?”

Silence.

“My personal words are Love, Light, and Intention. I’d like you to each choose three words if you want for 2019 and then I’d like our family unit to have three words to focus on as well.”

Michael launches into how he’d like to be more productive and efficient with his school work so he’s up to “productive” for one of his three words.

The only word we were able to agree on for the family so far was “joy.” I suggested “learn” and that was a big, fat no because one summer I made them learn a bunch of stuff and they just started squawking about how horrible it was. “Mom, what did we even learn from that summer?”

“We learned about jack fruit.”

“Oh yea, but what else do you remember learning?”

And they were right… I don’t remember anything else we may have learned from that summer. With that, “learning” will not be a family word for us this year. Done.

I’m meant to probably be a bit more put together with the family part so you can have a full picture of what choosing three words with your family can look like successfully, but for us right now, this is success. Joy for the family and productive for Michael.

So we’ve talked about it. My kids know I want them to have three words to help create a better year filled with things they’d like to create for themselves. And my kids know I’d like to have two more words for the family.

Alas, this is where we’re at in this moment and it truly is perfect. It even makes me giggle which is already creating more joy in our family unit.

Are you going to do it? Are you going to choose three words for your 2019? I absolutely hope you give it a try and it helps you in some small (or yuge) way.

If you need some suggestions on words to choose from, this list has way too many but I had lots of fun scrolling through and seeing what leapt out at me (GLEE!).

Lots of love always and always,

Mica