Word for the Year: 2022

Hi, friends! It’s that time again.

Time to wipe the slate clean. Time for reflection and renewal.

Time for a new word for the year.

Have you ever done this? Chosen a word that you cling to for the year to help guide you through or give you a home base when you wander? I challenge dare you to try it this year.  Friend, you will amaze yourself with what you can accomplish in your life with this one little word!

I started this back in 2018 and then reflected on it the next year. It was fun to see what I actually accomplished and what I didn’t. It gave me a way to pause and assess how it was going and change course to help me become a better version of myself.

Choosing a word is always thought provoking and challenging. I think about the past year,  what I didn’t have going for me and what will challenge me to make changes that move me towards a goal I so desperately want to achieve. 

It is sort of a proclamation. A statement. A decree.

And after long thought I have decided on a word. If you know me you will be very surprised. It should be “organized”, but it is not.

Are you ready??

SELF.

In all the ways possible to use that word- the challenge will be to recognize how to apply the word and when. Not “self” in a bad way, but a positive, goal crushing way.

SELF-care

SELF-less

SELF-ish

SELF-aware

SELF-discipline

I have a hard time prioritizing myself. I have been a wife and a mom for a REALLY long time and “SELF” only really applies to “selfless”.

I am sure that a lot of you feel the same way I do. Or have at some point in your life.

Recently it has gotten worse. I haven’t taken time for myself. At all.  I haven’t been selfish or given myself real self care. I have given every part of me to everyone else and I always come last. I cancel work out appointments I have with myself. I don’t sit down and make phone calls to friends who make me laugh. I don’t take a lot of time to work on the things I love that fill my bucket and….you can’t pour from an empty bucket!

I think that this year might get hard. My husband is sick again and the unpredictability of it all is exhausting. I need to be sure to fill my bucket so I can pour into others.  That in itself will be a challenge, but I am going to figure out how to do it. Even if it means that I have to be a little selfish at times. I hate being selfish and that does not come naturally to me.

I also want to be self-aware.  I read somewhere that there are 5 qualities that make you self aware:

• Humility. Perhaps there is nothing more beautiful or powerful than a humble person.
• Discipline. The distance between two points in life is determined by your discipline to get there.
• Gratitude. Gratitude turns what we have into enough.
• Integrity. Integrity is the ability to persist with one’s beliefs through the headwinds of life.
• Passion. Passion is love.

I don’t have any specific plans for what the year looks like just yet or when I will apply the concept of SELF. I kind of gave up planning the past few years as I have realized that life does not go according to plan. BUT, this gives me a place come back to so that I can redirect my course and remember what I want this year to build in my life.

Now, what is YOUR word for the year?? You have to try it and I am here for it!