13 Questions for Naming Your Year
How it Started
At the end of 2010 (the year I bought a house, named it Clementine and asked a bunch of queer feminists to move in), I decided that instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, I would name the new year something that might set an overarching intention for the year. I named 2011, “Small Manageable Dreams.” Oddly enough, that was the year I got an agent, quit my good state job, and became a full-time poet.
It’s evolved over the years. In the beginning, I didn’t have much of a ritual. It was more of an inner yulp under the New Year’s Eve moon. It wasn’t until 2014 (aka “Just Be Intentional About It”) that I formalized some questions to help me uncover the name of the new year.
It Usually Goes Like This
Around the end of the November, as the US is celebrating Thanksgiving, I start to feel my inner traffic light turn yellow. I feel the need to slow way down and look at the year.
As we near the winter solstice and Spotify #Wrappeds memes are popping up, I feel the wheel of the year slow to a pause and say, sowhatdoyathink?
Then after Christmas (now it tends to be the 28th when my bestie’s birthday becomes a vintage-magazine-collage-visioning-extravaganza) I sit down to ask myself these questions. After I answer the questions (which I only did orally until 2017) I just know the name of my year.
Naming The Year Questions
Last year, I posted these in my IG Story highlights but I got a message from someone asking if they had a permanent home. Now they do.
1. What did you get at least 10% better at this year?
The question is not, “what did you do perfectly?” and if you can’t think of anything, that’s what the next question is for.
2. What did you get complimented on?
Admit it, you had some wins. Some compliments. A few bad bitch moments. WRITE THEM DOWN. SAY THEM OUT LOUD. Do a little strut. Dust. Your. Shoulders. Off.
3. How did you surprise yourself?
Did you lead the Zoom call at a moment’s notice and it wasn’t a disaster? Did you finally try Brussel sprouts? In what ways did you step out of your comfort zone and tickle your spirit guides?
4. Did you have any big transitions or unexpected things happen?
How did it go? How’d you handle it? Still functioning in a pandemic? Let’s. Acknowledge. This. Resilience.
5. Who have you gotten closer to and who have you drifted away from?
It’s possible that doing the inner work has changed the people in your outer world. Who seems to be someone you need to invest in more and who do you need to set boundaries with?
6. Over the last 3 years, what have you wanted to accomplish but just haven’t?
Listen, I’m still not a yogi but when I realized last year that I keep talking about it and not doing it, I can honestly say, I practiced more this year than ever before.
7. Are there any patterns/habits that you’ve noticed and want to disrupt?
We’re out here healing and forging new neuropathways but sometimes little side roads emerge and I’ll be like I don’t even like soda, why am I suddenly drinking a large Coke every day?
8. What verbs, nouns, and images seem to keep showing up in your life?
You know. The word you never heard before but now you hear it all the time. The bird that keeps showing up in your dream. That inner whisper. Make a list of 10 or 20 without thinking too much about it, and the golden ones will emerge.
9. What skills would you like to learn in the next year?
Inner skills, outer skills, interpersonal relational skills? What’s the next logical thing?
10. What projects would you like to work on and who do you want to collaborate with?
Creative, personal, spiritual, home DIY — make a list of 10 or more and circle the ones you’d most like to focus on this year.
11. If you could only accomplish one thing this year, what would it be?
It can be to rest as much as possible or climb Mt. Hood, up to you.
12. What would your deepest, most bad-ass-self tell you if it thought you’d listen?
Listen.
13. What are 3 words that make you feel more powerful or excited when you say them?
They might have come off that list of words and images or maybe they’ll come to you immediately, but what’s got the juice right now?
And that’s it. Well, I guess the only thing left to do is name your year, so if you could name the upcoming year anything, what would it be? Here are my last ten years for inspiration.
My Log of Year Names
2011 Small Manageable Dreams
2012 Quit The Dumb Shit
2013 Fuck It, We Made It, Let's Have Sex On the Roof and Eat The Moon Slow
2014 Just Be Intentional About It
2015 True Refuge, Small Fortunes
2016 Everyday Sorcery & Radical Nourishment
2017 Tiny Actions Over & Over & Over
2018 Show Some Fucking Compassion
2019 From Root to Saturn
2020 New Language
2021 Visible Mending
2022 Portals to Grace