My Word of the Year

Every year since 2016, I’ve chosen a word of the year. I look at this word as a guide for how I want to live my life. Lemme tell you, it’s been a JOURNEY to land on my word of the year.

It feels silly to say that because at the end of the day it’s such a simple, inconsequential thing. It doesn’t actually matter if I do or don’t find a word of the year. But holy moly have I been devoting A LOT of brain power to trying to come up with the perfect word.

There were so so so many *almost* words that didn’t feel like the right fit: intention, alignment, show up, blossom… the list goes on.

And then the perfect word FINALLY hit me smack in the head like literally two minutes ago when I was once again trying to sit down and write this blog post.

My word for the year is:

FUN

It’s such a silly, simple word, but it’s also perfect.

Earlier this week my friend Jordan posed a question on instagram: What’s one FUN thing you’re looking forward to this week? I realized I had NOTHING fun planned for the week. All I was doing was working: teaching barre classes, doing my social media work, and interviewing for a bunch of jobs. I didn’t have anything FUN planned that wasn’t related to work things.

And really this has been true for a while.

Yes, some of that is the pandemic making fun look way way different. But also some of it is me not devoting the time or energy to it. SO, I’m focusing on having more fun in 2022.

How I Plan To Bring More Fun Into My Life:

Schedule in the fun.

My friend Jordan’s question got me thinking about scheduling in fun. How can I add little fun activities like going to a new coffee shop I’ve been wanting to try — and literally put it in my calendar so it actually happens.

This summer I remember being SO sucked up in work and also SO exhausted from it that it wasn’t until August that I realized I hadn’t taken a flying trapeze class all summer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE flying in the summer, it’s one of my favorite things! And yet I hadn’t made the effort to clear out my schedule and make it happen.

I then looked at my planner and the schedule for trapeze classes and started blocking off a time every week in my calendar for flying. This summer I want to do this too — but a lot earlier in the summer.

Don’t wait for others to do the fun thing.

I want to take a beach-y vacation at an all-inclusive resort where I spend all day reading with a cocktail in my hand and maybe take an aqua aerobics class once a day. In addition,

Being single in my 30’s, most of my friends go on those kinds of trips with their significant others. It’s made it hard to book one of those kinds of trips with a friend. [COVID allowing] I want to finally book that damn beach reading vacation solo instead of waiting for others to make it happen. The same goes for seeing certain broadway shows, movies, visiting art exhibits etc. I ENJOY doing things alone — I know that about myself! So stop waiting for others to do the fun things you want to do.

Burn the damn candles.

I saw an instagram post about making it a New Year’s resolution to devour all your nicest things. Burn the damn candles. Use those nice things instead of saving them up for a special occasion.

Seek out job and career opportunities that allow me to have the time and energy to do the fun things.

This is a biggie.

So I’m in the early stages of job hunting. I’m not sure how much I should or shouldn’t say here as it’s always awkward to know potential employers could be reading this here blog (hi if so! Thanks for checking it out!) but it’s happening.

Something that is important to me in a job going forward is having the time and energy to do the things I love too. While I loved teaching yoga and fitness full-time, there were a lot of times I said I can’t, I’m too tired after a long week of teaching.

Yes there will always be busy seasons of work. And times when work has to come first. But I’m looking to find a better work/life balance than I’ve previously had.

Say yes to fun things… even if I don’t want to.

I am an introvert and have a bit of social anxiety. Because of this, I’m known to bail on social outings that require me to be super “on” in a group of people that I don’t know.

I don’t think I’m going to suddenly become a social butterfly… I am who I am… but I do want to be better about saying YES to things and actually showing up when friends invite me. Even if it takes a lot of hyping myself up to actually get out the door and go.

Create the fun you want to have.

I’ve wanted to be part of a book club forever — and in November I decided to make it happen myself and start my own zoom book club. More of that kind of energy in 2022!

Cultivate hobbies that have nothing to do with my career and that don’t make me money.

I was talking with a good friend recently about how I feel like I have barely any hobbies that aren’t related to my job or career in some way. There are times when it feels like everything I do is about creating content or being a fitness instructor. I’m not sure what this will look like, but I want to have some hobbies and things that I do just for fun. Not because they are things I will create content about or I can monetize.

Make content from a place of fun.

I want to have more fun with the content I create both for here and on instagram. To me that means showing up as my actual ridiculous self instead of the filtered Kayla I sometimes default to. I’m not saying I’m going to go full-force into creating humor content, but it has been fun to create content lately from a place of having more fun instead of being so serious all the time. It feels like I’m being my most “me” self.

Cheers to having more fun in 2022