Ciara knows her success is no accident. The Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve host believes in settling clear goals for herself. And she already knows what she wants to focus on in 2022.
“I think balance is really important,” Ciara told ESSENCE. “I was just saying to someone how I think I’m gonna put that on my New Year’s resolution list to really, really work at balance in my life. You know?”
What that looks like for the singer-songwriter who’s also a wife and mom to three young kids is “making sure I’m doing things like feeding my soul and feeding my mind,” she explained. “Making sure that I’m loving myself, which I’m always a big believer of. I always say self-love is the most important love. You gotta feed your mind, you gotta feed your soul, you gotta feed your body. You gotta really constantly stay on loving yourself.”
While most of us are scrambling to draft new years resolutions we can stick to — or set intentions as others as others call it — for Ciara, this type of activity is a year-round practice.
“The funny thing is I’m really a big believer of goal setting. I’m a goal sheet kind of girl,” she admitted. “I’m constantly creating or checking in on my goal sheet. I do that. I make that a habit. It’s not something I necessarily have to do at the end of the year rolling into the new year.
Still, she he does see certain annual milestones as opportunities for reflection.
“I feel like when you enter a new year of life, whether it’s like your birthday or in this case a whole new year, right, I think that you do have to reflect and you do have to plan ahead. So I’m a big planner.”
That kind of strategic goal setting is what took Ciara from spectator to superstar. She often spent New Year’s Eve with her parents in Atlanta watching the show she now shines on, she shared. “I think about moments of watching Rockin’ New Year’s Eve and thinking how cool of a show it is and then dreaming about being on a show like that one day and then getting a great opportunity to do that was pretty cool. You know? That was definitely a pinch myself kind of moment when that happened for me.”
As for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity becoming an annual tradition, Ciara said, “Being able to co-host this show for the fifth year is a blessing.”
This year, she’ll be kicking off the festivities with “good dance energy,” she said. D-NICE will deejay the party and Polo G, Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, and French Montana are set to perform.
“It’s always something I look forward to every year,” Ciara said. “We’re gonna take you on a journey through dance, so that’s gonna be really fun.”
While she’s unsure whether her little ones — 7-year-old Future, 4-year-old Sienna, and 11-month-old Win — will make it until midnight to see the ball drop on the big day, she has has high hopes now that they’re getting a little older. “Sometimes the day goes really long for kids, but it is fun when they get to hang and then hear the firecrackers go off.”
Catch Ciara leveling up at the L.A. party on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31 at 8/7c on ABC.