Everyday Boss Belles champions a new year of intentional celebration

Michelle-Ann Letman has one goal for January: change the tradition of welcoming the new year by only setting resolutions by making space for the setting of intentions and the celebration of the accomplishments of the past year.

With that in mind, Letman, the owner of PR Belle – a marketing and communications company – said she developed the idea of having an event dubbed Sip & Celebrate while having a conversation with a friend.

“Every new year people make resolutions, set goals, [and] vision boards have become like a staple activity for a lot of people, and maybe more so for women. That’s the audience I see talking about it, so the idea for the Sip & Celebrate: The Goal Achievers Event, literally came to me the first week in January,” Letman told Living during an interview on Thursday. “A friend of mine and I were talking, and it was around what we were looking forward to this year and all of that, and while she was talking, I started to think about all the things we both accomplished, and I’m like why do we always focus so much on the future and not celebrate what we already achieved,” she said.

Through that, the event, set for Sunday at a location disclosed to those who have registered, was born with the aim of “celebrating yourself”.

“A lot of people will do the vision boards, and even if they accomplish things from their vision board, life is so busy all the time that people don’t celebrate it. They don’t pause to celebrate it. For the most part, people stop to celebrate their birthdays, getting married, having a baby, anything that society says should be celebrated. It’s not really for you,” Letman shared, adding that though the event is focused on women, the message is for everyone.

“It’s really to pause and celebrate, no matter how simple it is. It doesn’t always have to be the big so-called audacious goals that we have like buying a house or getting promoted or buying a car,” she said.

Letman says the Sip & Celebrate event will push intentional friendships and intentional self-care.

“If you say you’re going to do something, you do it. You make a commitment to yourself; you do it ... Things don’t always have to be dependent on external factors, for example, [when] you’re at work, working hard for a promotion, those are external types of validations. Somebody has to promote you,” Letman said.

People who have already registered for the event have been asked to submit pictures of things that make them proud, and Letman said it is heartwarming to see what has been digitally submitted from their virtual albums.

As a traditional girl, Letman said she wants to take the guests back to basics by having their submitted photographs printed to make a physical scrapbook.

“I still believe in printing things and having them in your homes to look at, so this event incorporates scrapbooking, so instead of a board, you [will] have an actual book, similar to how you journal. It’s a book where persons are encouraged to put in photos of themselves; sentimental photos of things that represent accomplishments, as well as things that you want to look forward to,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com