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Stepping up your game each year means ushering in a better, bolder, and more graceful you. The exercise of documenting your plans and purpose—what matters most—can bring clarity and intentionality to your day-to-day. What better way to start a new year than with a personal manifesto? Here, Well+Good Council member Candice Kumai shares how she created her own… and how you can do the same.
When I was in my twenties and toughing it out as a writer in Brooklyn—even when I was judging on Iron Chef—I was struggling.
One Christmas, my sister gave me an artist-designed poster, a “manifesto." After framing it, I put it on the wall of my broke-ass-artist room. As my career grew and my apartments gradually became nicer, I took the poster with me. It went from an East Williamsburg apartment share to a Wall Street studio (where I could barely afford rent) to a waterfront two-bedroom overlooking the NYC skyline. No matter where I went, the manifesto poster always went on the wall to steer, motivate, and inspire me.
I've learned that a manifesto is infinitely valuable. It can help to solidify and clarify your life’s big calling. It puts all your pondering thoughts and anxious days into one safe place, bringing you back to earth and reminding your heart what really matters. Manifestos can serve as a sense of purpose or your true north. We are all in need of some good inspiration and focus, and a personal manifesto provides the place to do so.
Manifestos can serve as a sense of purpose or your true north.
With this in mind, I created my own Wabi Sabi manifesto. I included beliefs that inspire and guide me every day: Simplify, be kind, be honest, travel more, love deeply, be free with no judgment on others. Know and live with the notion that you are right where you are supposed to be. Life is and will always be perfectly imperfect. I've turned my manifesto into a poster that I hope will inspire others.
