So, for the last two years I have been instituting a practice that has drastically set the tone of my year. Choosing one word. To live by. To think on. To put into practice.
Instead of resolutions and promises, I pick a word that I want to define my year. It changed the way I did business, developed relationships, and went about my everyday life.
2016 was Focus.
I am a scattered person by nature. I am a multi-tacker without the skill and ability to be one. I want to do everything. And I do mean everything.
This has been one of the biggest areas of failure in my life since I can possibly remember. Instead of focusing on what I am good at and becoming great, I was determined to just be ok at all things.
Last year changed that thought process…or at least it is beginning to.
By choosing “focus”, I decided it was time to pick the things I loved the most and knew I could do well. My work, my art, my business were at the top of my list. I knew I could succeed if I only focused.
I began to say “no” to everything that didn't help me reach focus. That was like telling me not to breathe. I am a “yes” person to the core. But I did it.
2016 Greeting Card ©Margalena Lepore Studios
2017 is Growth.
I didn’t realized it when I chose my word for this year that it was only a continuation of lasts. I knew that the areas I had decided to focus on were in need of some growth. Now that I had defined what I really wanted (and was thriving in it), it was time for the next level.
While I haven’t perfected it, each day, month, and now year, I am beginning to see the fruit of my one word and choosing to live my life through that perspective. To filter out what is not part of the plan and allow deep understanding of what is.
Just like any dream, these words take planning. It takes setting up each weekly, daily, and sometimes hourly goals. Each one closer to making this idea, this WORD, a way of life.
Make the goals accomplishable. Set rewards. (I LOVE MY COFFEE BREAKS)
As you begin to try on this new way, you will find the excitement in growing, reaching and becoming. We are all striving for something bigger. More. Whether it’s an idea or a way of life.
Setting my word allows for those dreams to become a reality. Daily.
WHAT IS/WOULD BE YOUR WORD? I would love it if you left a comment below. This journey is not to be done alone. :)