43| New Year's Resolutions VS Word of the Year: A More Energetically Aligned Way to Manifest with God
Download MP3Hey friends, welcome to Intentional Motherhood. I'm your host, Kelsey Redd, and even though I'm supposed to be taking a three week break as I prepare the new Intentional Motherhood relaunch with the whole rebranding, I just could not pass up an opportunity to get on here on New Year's Day and wish you a happy New Year and just give you a couple thoughts about New Year's resolutions. Right now, the whole internet is just flooded with all the New Year's resolutions, new goals, new habits, new year, new me, right? And listen, I'm not anti goals. And you know, I'm all about setting intentions and living intentionally.
Kelsey Redd:And resolutions can be really powerful. But today I want to just offer you maybe less pressure, more energetically aligned and even more abundant manifesting God centered way to move into this new year. Especially if you're a busy mom who's already carrying enough and you're already overwhelmed with your list of to dos. Maybe instead of adding more in the form of a list of New Year's resolutions of things you're going to accomplish, I just want to talk to you about choosing a word of the year And why having just one word can kind of become your North Star that actually guides you toward exactly what it is you're meant to manifest this year without setting limitations on the way God can provide for you and how God can work into your plans. So here's the thing about New Year's resolutions.
Kelsey Redd:They're typically very specific, they're outcome focused, maybe a little rigid like I'm going to lose this much weight or I want to make this much money. I'm going to eat healthier and wake up earlier. And again, none of these are bad but sometimes the energy underneath these resolutions becomes an energy of pressure, control, maybe even a fear of not being enough as you are right now. And they kind of give you this vibe of if I achieve this, I'll be happy. I'll be successful when I will feel worthy once I fix this.
Kelsey Redd:And that energy, the frequency of that energy really matters because manifestation, especially when you're partnering with God, isn't just about what you want, it's also about who you're becoming and allowing God to manifest in your life and allowing God to actually bless you with more than you could have even imagined or in a way you could have never imagined. So this is where I really like the word of the year. A word of the year isn't to do list, it's not a checklist, it's not something you either are going to succeed at or fail at. It's more of like an energetic anchor or a lens that you can look through throughout the entire year. It's kind of just giving you again that North Star of how you are gonna show up in your life this year.
Kelsey Redd:So this word becomes something that you can return to again and again, even when you're not sure what the next step is, even when you don't know exactly how you're going to accomplish X, Y, and Z. So this is why I love a word of the year over New Year's resolutions. It gives us a direction and an intention without limitation or rigid checklists. So often when we create specific resolutions, you're deciding in advance exactly what you think should happen and how it should happen and how much it should happen. But often God's ways are higher than our ways.
Kelsey Redd:And this word of the year leaves room for all the divine creativity that might come into our lives in ways we were never even expecting. So you're saying, God, here's my direction. Now show me the path. Now put things into my life to allow me to experience this rather than, Here's my plan. This is what I hope to see.
Kelsey Redd:What if he has more to give you? I want you guys to start listening for abundant mindset versus scarcity and lack mindset. And here's the abundant mindset. What if he wants to bless you with more than you're even asking for? What if you're saying, I want to lose five pounds, and he's saying, maybe you actually are going to experience an athletic endeavor that you didn't even know you had in you.
Kelsey Redd:There's so much more that we might be able to be blessed with if we don't put ourselves into a box. So I like this because a word supports an alignment, an energetic alignment without giving us the pressure of perfectionism of saying, I didn't accomplish my goal, I didn't do my resolution, which oftentimes leads to people giving up within a few weeks, right? Just getting to the point where they say, Oh, I failed already, I might as well give up. You're either on the wagon or you've fallen off the wagon and you've failed, right? And that's a very negative energy.
Kelsey Redd:You can't fail when your intention is based around that North Star word. You can notice when you're aligned with it and sometimes you notice you've drifted away and you can gently come back to it. This is kind of a more sustainable way to experience progression and growth, especially in motherhood when it feels like half the time we don't have control over what we can and can't do on any given day. So this allows us to just manifest from our intention and our identity rather than based off of our effort. When you choose a word of the year, you're asking, Who do I want to be this year?
Kelsey Redd:How do I want to show up in the world? What do I want my reality to look like? Rather than just, what do I want to achieve? Again, that very outcome based and effort based checklist. Because when we can shift our identity and the way we show up in the world to the word that we have chosen, we'll talk about some examples, then your actions and your behaviors and your choices naturally follow that North Star.
Kelsey Redd:You don't have to hustle your way, grind harder, work harder into becoming someone new. You actually just start to embody what it is that you're trying to do or be. So let me give you some examples. So maybe if your word is peace, you might start asking yourself, do all these commitments in my schedule bring me peace or take peace away from me? Is the pace that I'm living my life at this moment, does that feel aligned with peace or am I feeling like I'm forcing things?
Kelsey Redd:Maybe your word of the year is trust. Maybe you start noticing, can I start releasing control? Are there areas where I can release control? Maybe you take time to pause rather than forcing things like you have in the past. Maybe you pray and ask for trust in your life rather than forcing.
Kelsey Redd:Maybe your word for the year is expansion. You might say yes to opportunities that you would typically feel are outside of your comfort zone or that really stretch you, and especially if they come up and this doesn't feel like what you would originally have planned to do, that's exactly the times when God is showing up in our lives. At least that's how it seems to be for me. So do you see how none of these require necessarily rigid outcomes, but they all do move you forward into what you want to see this year? So your word becomes your North Star.
Kelsey Redd:When you're feeling overwhelmed, you can ask, what choice moves me closer to my word of the year? When you're feeling stuck, you might ask yourself, how would someone who values peace or who has trust, how would they show up in the world right now? That's how it starts to affect your behavior. When all your plans fall apart and you feel like you're failing, you can ask yourself, how is this situation? How is this inviting me to bring more peace into my life or to experience more expansion?
Kelsey Redd:This is where we start to proactively participate in the manifestation of the prayers and the miracles that we are praying. That is where our energetic alignment comes from. This is how we manifest without hustling harder, which is kind of the vibe we're going for in the new Intentional Motherhood podcast. So I invite you to take some time to think about choosing a word of the year. You don't have to force it, you don't have to come up with something right this minute, but maybe pray about it, maybe sit with it for a few minutes, take a little time to meditate and ponder on it.
Kelsey Redd:Notice just what keeps coming up for you. I told you guys a few episodes ago that a word that just kept coming to my mind when I wasn't even thinking about it was just embodiment, embodying. And so that is one of my words of the year because it just has come to me. Maybe you want to ask God, what do you want to cultivate me in me this year? Or God, what would make this year feel lighter and more aligned?
Kelsey Redd:And just see what comes. Sometimes the word that comes isn't flashy or exciting, it's just simple and grounded and honest. And usually when it feels that way, when it feels like it lands gently in your soul, that's how you know it's right. So if you've already set resolutions, you don't need to throw them out, that's great. Just make sure that they are aligned with the word that feels right to you.
Kelsey Redd:Let that word lead your resolutions. Let that word give you the energy and the goals can be the expression of the energy. And if your goals change along the way, trust that your word is still the direction you need to follow. So as we move into the new year, I want to encourage you to just find that word that really pulls on you and that feels so energetically aligned with you right now. And I hope you have the most amazing new year.
Kelsey Redd:I'm so excited for the things to come. I just feel like 2026 is going to be such a big year of abundance and of prayer connection. And I hope that you'll join me on that journey. Thanks for letting me stop by and say Happy New Year to you today on New Year's Day. I'll see you next time on Intentional Motherhood.
