
Happy New Year! Welcome 2019!
Each year for nearly 10 years now I’ve tried to purge the holiday hubbub by paring down my New Year’s thinking, skipping resolutions, and chosing a word to use as a focal point for the New Year.
One year my word was Finish.
Believe it or not, during that year I didn’t start a single new project, but instead finished all the ones that were half done—the rag quilt for my son made from his flannel receiving blankets that had never gotten stitched together, the quilt flimsy in the cedar chest I’d “been meaning to get to,” and a host of other things.
It was a phenomenal year with lots of boxes checked off.
This past year my chosen word was Focus with a goal of focusing my attention on just a few important things. I’d been hemming and hawing around with my This Day’s Joy and Finding This Day’s Joy books, getting distracted and not focusing on the work I needed to do with them.
With the word Focus to guide my days, I was able to continually ask myself, “what are you focused on?” or “is this the best place to put your attention?” The word Focus helped me keep the main thing the main thing.
With the word Focus to guide my days, I was able to continually ask myself, “what are you focused on?” or “is this the best place to put your attention?” The word Focus helped me keep the main thing the main thing.
For the past few weeks I’ve been auditioning words for this new year.
When I say “audition” I mean trying a word on for size to see if it fits. It’s like asking that word or idea to walk out in center stage and say a few words so I can see how I react.
Does that word / idea resonate with me?
Sometimes I ask myself, “what might June or July look like if I used this word as a lodestone for the year?
It’s funny, but after thinking about several different words or ideas, one will inevitably jump out as The Word.
Currently in first place for me is the word Value.
As in what do I value? And how do I value things? What are the values I hold dear? Could someone looking at my actions discern my values simply through what I do? It’s a word that applies to music and art as well.
Usually my word is both a noun and a verb — and Value fills the bill there as well. And because it can function as both noun and verb in a sentence, it gives me something to do, an action to target, and something concrete to go after.
So what about you?
Anyone else out there do a word for the year? Do you have a 2019 word yet? If so what it is, and how did you decide it was as “the one.”