As the New Year approaches, I have been reflecting a lot on this past year, enjoying the sweet in-between holiday season, and looking forward to the future decade. When thinking about the New Year, I wanted to pick a word to focus on. I couldn’t just choose one though. Driven and authentic- these two words came up in my head immediately as I closed my eyes to focus. So, I put them together and came up with this phrase driven authenticity.
The word authentic came to me first. I have always strived to live my life in a very authentic way, and I think I have been successful in doing so. But when this word came up it meant something different for me than what it usually does. I want to not only be authentically myself, but authentically working toward my future ideal self. That means making choices every day that line up with who I am working to be, but also allowing myself grace and reminding myself to be kind to myself. It means believing in the very best for myself and believing that every good opportunity, relationship, and business adventure will come my way with faith and hard-work. It means being authentic in the mess, of how chaotic my life can be at times, but also recognizing how far I have come in processing these hectic moments.
Authentic. People are craving authenticity in this time in age. I see it. People want something real, something they can connect too, and something that resonates with them. My hope is that you get inspired by how authentic I am in my posts, my art, and my blogs and that you would aspire to be more authentic in your daily life. I truly believe when we are authentic with people who are safe and people who matter it opens up the door for deeper and more enriching relationships, resulting in a more abundant life.
The second word, driven, came only a second later. I’ve struggled my whole life with focusing to the point of where I have medical diagnosis for it. I remember when I was little my Dad and I would work on math for hours and it took me so long to complete one math sheet. I’ve learned over the years how to cope and have trained myself to work incredibly hard to overcome this deficiency. But this year I want to be driven on everything surrounding my art: creating, learning, marketing, and most of all connecting.
I put the two words together and made it a phrase, driven authenticity, which I think is so beautiful. I want to be driven this next year, but I also want to do it authentically. I won’t take on any projects that are not me or my style. I will not push myself further than what’s healthy. I will put my health first always before my work because I know that is something that helps me be my best self. This year I aspire to be driven authentically in my business as well as my personal life.
Living your best life starts with you. I’ve always made it priority to make goals in my life, to set intentions, and to pick focus words. But it means nothing without action and pursuit. I’ve already started to put this phrase into practice this past week. I want to not only create beautiful art that moves people, but also live a life well spent. The beauty in life is not in how much we did, but actually, in how much we lived. And onward I will go, to living an authentically driven life.
