I love the way "trajectory" rolls off the tongue, an extremely satisfying pronunciation. And while yes, it probably invokes images of rocket science (my Outlook has several folders dedicated to "traj" information), for me, it just makes the life parallels of the word so vivid.
The reason I really latched onto this word for 2022 is that it doesn't make you feel like you need to start over or fresh or resolute. The best part about a trajectory is it implies you are already in flight. You have already launched, the countdown has transitioned to a time elapsed, and your control system is making fine adjustments to keep you on course. And perhaps the most striking parallel -- you can use your onboard resources to alter your trajectory at any point!
Spending a little time every day or every week just being cognizant of and evaluating my current trajectory is the aim in 2022. What is my mission? How will this trajectory support that objective? And while all this sounds very career related, that's only a portion of the picture. What kind of relationship do I want to build with my husband and children? What qualities do I want to instill in them? What is important to me at this moment? What will I miss in the future? How does diabetes management fit into the picture? How much propellant do I want to expend adjusting course?
The beautiful thing about a physical trajectory is you can use relatively simple math to make very accurate predictions of where your object will be at a specific time. Life is generally less predictable and the math is anything but simple. Arguably, this makes life's trajectory a bit more interesting. Being gentle with myself while attempting to embrace all of these outside forces and trajectory perturbations is my personal challenge (and concession) in 2022!