Tag: word of the year

My 2020 Vision – What’s Yours?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Over the past few years, I have chosen 1-3 words to guide me along the path I want to take.  Last year was Joy – which to be honest, felt a bit flat – like I was playing a part, superficial…never fully integrating into my body and my heart.  The year before it was Courage and the one before that was Nourish – both felt so aligned for those years and allowed me to grow and show up in new and exciting ways.

That’s what I wanted for this year so I thought and journaled and took a workshop and came up with 3 words that feel so perfect for where I am and where I want to be at the end of 2020.

🌟 Shine – Be seen, be heard, give my ideas and my opinions a voice.  Use my light to help others (how? I have no idea yet!) and be the woman that fixes the crowns of others rather than diminish and cause pain.  Have confidence and do the scary things.

🔮 Intuition – I want to really connect with who I am and with the Universe, the source of all power.  I want to be the goddess that I know I can be.  I want to connect to my ancestors – especially my maternal Grandma who I think has been my guardian angel my whole life (she died the year before I was born).  I want to get quiet and listen to the answers that I know are already inside of me.

🖊 Create – Make stuff…for fun! Not worry so much about the business side, not worry about the marketing stuff as much.  Yes, yes…I will still be professional when need be with my writing and I will still be doing my newsletter and promotions BUT I want to do things MY WAY…have more fun connecting with others online, not worry about followers – have conversations.  Make messes in the kitchen, create with my kid more, basically do things that feel good.

Your turn!  What word (or words) are you using this year to guide you and help you win in 2020? Comment below and let me know!!  Let’s make this year amazing – together. 😊

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Baby New Year is about to make his appearance again as we say goodbye to 2018 and ring in 2019.  Every year around this time, as I’m scrambling to buy Christmas gifts (seriously, why do I always wait until the last flipping minute?) I’m also thinking, planning, and gearing up for new goals, new dreams, and new experiences.

Goodbye 2018

2018 saw so many of my big writing goals come true – I started a newsletter/mailing list (psst…if you haven’t signed up yet, you get a FREE short story anthology eBook and awesome notes from me twice a month – sign up here ) and I self-published my debut novel, The Art of Lying (available from Amazon), in April!  I started working on my 2nd novel and started outlining my 3rd novel. I took classes, started working with my writing coach, and wrote more words than I have in the past two or three years combined!

2018 also saw us taking a non-Disney vacation and having a great time – we went to Great Wolf Lodge and did all the big water slides and enjoyed the lazy river! We spent time with family, we hung out with friends, and my kid started second grade (how is that possible?!?!).  This past year I also quit working for the VA company I was working for and went out on my own – and immediately got two kick ass clients (swoon!).  It’s been a pretty good year, and next year looks to be just as amazing!

I always choose three words to help guide my year – this year it was Courage as my main word and Magic and Open as my support words.  I definitely called upon my inner courage to achieve my goals and to quit the VA company and have faith in myself to go out on my own.  I started reading and studying and practicing witchcraft and using magic to manifest my dreams and I was open to ideas, people, and things that came into my life – seemingly from nowhere – to help guide me toward my big goals.  So this year, I sat and I thought and I journaled and I came up with Joy as my main word and Sacred and Balance as my support words.

Joy 

The past few years have been filled with grief and sadness and I want to enjoy the little moments in every day, I want to write with joy every day, and I want to enjoy my time on Earth for as long as I’m gifted.  I want to enjoy hobbies, friends and family, and my day job.  I want to feel lighter, happier, and be more pleasant to be around.

Sacred

I want to treat my body and my apartment and the Earth as sacred places.  I want to treat myself with kindness, find movement that’s fun and helps me feel like my best self. I want to clean up and organize our apartment so I can have friends over and know where things are – not be so frazzled.  And I want to continue finding ways to treat our home planet with love and understanding and that includes the people that inhabit it as well.

Balance

I want to have time for everything, including myself, every week.  My son, my husband, my parents, my family, my friends, my hobbies, my writing, my day job, etc and so on and so forth.  We all wear so many hats and I want each hat to get its time during the day, week, or month.  I want to feel whole and centered throughout the day knowing that each thing will get its time.

Hello 2019

And with my words come my big goals…and this year I decided to be a little loose with things.  I want to have certain areas of the apartment “finished” by mid-year.  I want to have Etta (book #2) done and up on Amazon by the Fall. I want to have started Circus (book #3) by end of year – meaning, first draft done and to my editor and possibly starting the edits by this time next year so we can self-publish in early 2020.  I want to have a rotating list of fun movements that I can do every day depending on energy level and weather.  

I want to have a rotating list of activities that bring me joy that I can do at least once a day.  I also want to learn to play my guitar so I can actually play one song by this time next year.  I want to attend a real life NYC planner event and make some planner girl friends.  I want to be consistent with Instagram (I have a whole plan for how to do this – but I don’t want to bore you – just know I want to post every week day, do some stories and engage with other writers and YA readers online).  

I also want to take another vacation this year – most likely over the summer – with my husband and son.  We just need to see if we can swing Disney or if we need to branch out and try something else.  I have a ton of dreams, plans, and mini goals to help me with these steps – but I’m not being super rigid.  I mean, this past year I had to throw out 78K words of a first draft because my story idea completely changed and I need to make sure that I have space for those kinds of things, because life happens.

Now, it’s your time — do you choose a word for the year?  Do you big goals for the new year? Or do you do 90 Day or Quarterly goals?  Do you have a vacation or ideas already in the words for 2019?  I want to hear from you, so share in the comments below. And have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year’s Eve!!!  

See you next year!

I Hate to Cook, but I Love to Eat!

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

I’m on a quest this year to take better care of myself and my health.  This includes spending time in the kitchen cooking meals with real food.  If you love to cook this isn’t hard, but I hate to cook…I’ve had panic attacks in the kitchen while trying to cook.  Even just thinking about cooking can send me into cold sweats, but ordering in or eating crap food makes me feel crappy and keeps my weight at a place that doesn’t make me happy.  When I eat more veggies, more protein, and other real foods I feel better.  I have more energy and I get more done.  I have more overall patience and can take care of others better because I’ve taken care of myself first.

Courage

My word of the year is Courage so my nutritionist asked me to take that word and apply it to the kitchen, food, exercise, and my health in general not just my writing goals.  We came up with a list of ways to do this including trying new foods (both at home and when going out or ordering in), cooking more meals, and being more creative when it comes to meal planning and shopping.  So, I took some of my Christmas money and bought a cookbook called The Can’t Cook Book! By Jessica Seinfeld and I went through it and picked out one recipe to try.  Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings and it was fairly easy to make and was super tasty so we added it to our monthly rotation of meals.  Then I picked out a 2nd recipe (who am I?) and tried that one – this time Chicken Drumsticks with various marinades – we chose the Mustard Rosemary option and I cooked those.  Again, fairly easy and really yummy!

Crock Pot

As you may remember, the gas in our building was turned off due to a small explosion (and then the building needed to upgrade pipes so it was MONTHS before it was turned back on) and we got quite a bit of use out of the crockpot.  Well, that was easy for me to throw stuff in and set it and forget it while working from home so I’ve been doing 1-2 meals a month this way, especially since my husband has been working a lot of over time (normal for this time of the year).  Usually I would just fix crappy food for myself for dinner, make sure my son had something to eat and call it good, because hubby is the one that really loves to cook and is good at it too, but this year I’ve been really trying to eat better even when he’s not home to cook dinner.

Done, not Perfect

Am I perfect?  Heck no, I slip up and fall back into old patterns all the time, but it’s one meal here or there not all the time.  I had already added good breakfasts and lunches into my routine a few months ago, so adding in dinners and working on my snacks (which I’ll talk about soon) was the next step in my journey to Intuitive Eating and being mindful about what goes into my body and how I feel when I eat a certain way.

What are your favorite dinners? Do you use the crockpot or the new favorite, the Instant Pot, to make dinners easier?  Do you have a great easy cookbook you could recommend?  I use Pinterest a lot to find easy meals, especially for my slow cooker, so hit me up over there with your ideas and suggestions!  And do you love to cook or do you tolerate it? Or…do you ignore it like I used to?  Maybe we can keep each other accountable in this area – just let me know in the comments!

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