A New Tagline for 2021

Aviva Lou Strong

As we look to 2021, I'm making a change to my tagline, which for years now has been: Start. Keep going. Be good to yourself.

At first blush, the change may seem slight. But in the dimension it adds, it falls into the "small but mighty" category of how the most subtle shift changes things.

The new tagline is:

Start. Keep growing. Be good to yourself.

Why this? Why now?

If 2020 taught me anything, it has been that "keep going" is not the singular goal, not if it means plowing through. Not if it means gritting your teeth and ignoring the messages your body and intuition alike are sending you, be it quietly or in no uncertain terms. Not if "keep going" means you never pause to recalibrate, to check in with the *why* of your actions, to reassess the direction you're going in, and to discern where autopilot and conditioning have overtaken conscious, intentional choices, decisions, and actions.

We can't function in a constant state of hyper-reflectivity. (Believe, me, I've tried!) That said, if the goal is to not simply to "keep going," but to move with a sense of presence and purpose, we have to keep growth front and center.

I've thought a lot about the "keep going" aspect of my language at times when I needed to do anything BUT keep going. At these times, stopping, resting, and drawing inward have been crucial safeguards against burnout and its many expressions.

But to keep growing -- this builds in an appreciation for continuous awareness that we are not machines. We are living, breathing, complex beings.

If we don't give ourselves time and space to pause, how can we continue to meet ourselves, our work, our writing, and our relationships with integrity?

If we only keep going and don't take time to really integrate what we're learning along the way and how this learning changes us and our ways of doing life, where is the growth -- and what is the point?

Where do you go to quiet your mind and connect with your heart?

Growing is not always pretty and it’s certainly not always easy. Also, there are times when it feels like a luxury, when you just need to do what you need to do to survive and get through another day. The realness of this feels important to acknowledge, too.

But ultimately, if we are going to divest from the expectations of a culture that tells us no pain no gain, that tells us to never stop, and that makes exhaustion a badge of honor, it is an act of rebellion and reclamation to put the "grow" into the "going."

So, in the new year, start where you are. Keep going, yes, but not at the expense of growth. And always, always -- be good to yourself. That might be the most important ingredient of all.