Word of the Year

If you had to pick one word to sum up your goals, aspirations, intentions for 2012, could you do it? One word.

Only one.

Now this is what I call a challenge. Oh, not the introspection part. I’m always trying to redo, renew, re-something myself. No, it’s the ‘one’ part. I don’t do ‘one word’ anything. But when I read Layla’s Word of the Year at The Lettered Cottage, along with an invitation, I couldn’t resist the challenge.

Surprisingly, once I started thinking about it, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. Here’s how I did it. (I can turn nearly anything into a DIY tutorial, heehee.)

I simply made a list of all the intangible goals I want for 2012. Intangible. Not the car, the house, the blog conference ticket.

No, I mean things like Balance, Organize, Appreciate. Things that I want Every.Single.Day.

I grabbed a notebook and pen – yes, I still love to handwrite frequently – and made my list.

• Appreciate
• Balance – Work & Play, Painting & Blogging
• Be More Authentic
• Be Positive
• Breathe
• Organize – A Place For Everything & Everything in its Place
• Plan – Work Smarter, Not Harder
• Simplify

Any one of those words could’ve been my word for 2012. Any one of those words would greatly benefit and improve my life. And I’ll definitely try to do each one.

But here’s the thing – when I looked at each word on the list I noticed something. For me, they all have something in common.

Focus

To Appreciate I need to focus on the blessings around me right now. It might be the deer in the pasture. Or my adorable grandson. Or even the sweet comments you leave when a post resonates with you. When I’m in the state of Appreciation, I am focused.

If I want to achieve Balance, I have to focus. It may mean setting priorities or timeframes. To do everything that I want requires focus.

Becoming Authentic is really requiring me to focus. Instead of the lifelong tendency to be a people-pleaser, I’m striving to be an authentic Me. What is important to Me? What do I really want? Focus.

I want to be more Positive throughout each and every day which means not sweating the small sh*t stuff. I once shared an office with a dear friend. When she’d see me unraveling over a deadline, or more likely an issue with a roommate, she’d ask me “In the grand scheme of Life, does this really matter?”  When I ask myself that, which requires a moment’s focus, I can honestly answer “No.” And then it’s a lot easier to be positive.

Breathing. We do all do it automatically, right? But to really Breathe – inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale – to actually focus on our breathing brings calm and sometimes even peace.

Just the small amount of Organizing I’ve done in the last couple of days has brought such joy. I know, crazy huh? Organizing = Joy? Absolutely. There’s something so blissful about having a place for everything and everything in its place. I’m not fully there yet because, you know why? I need to Focus on what makes the most sense for my life right now.

Plan. People that know me think I’m a good planner. I certainly write enough lists to fool anyone. And Lord knows I’m always busy. However writing lists and being busy can also mean scattered, unfocused.

And finally, Simplify. Simplify encompasses all of the above keywords for me. I want to simplify my daily life so I have more ‘space’ to include peace and joy.

All it takes is a little focus.

How about you? Can you pick a Word for the Year? If you write a post, link it up at Layla’s next Monday. Or you can just leave a comment here!

 

Don’t forget our Clear Your Clutter series next week!