My One Little Word + The Process Of Finding It

So I am sure you have heard all about Ali Edward's One Little Word project, right?

In the New Year errrbody's talking about it.

Errrbody. And that includes me.

If you want to read more about it you can do that here...and if you read very many blogs and

 are on Instagram too much like me you have probably heard lots of chatter on it this

 past week in particular.

People use these words to set their intention for the year; something they want to do, 

learn, not do any longer, start doing... A way in which they want to live their lives I guess.
A word gives you something to focus on, to see visually when imagining how you want your year/life to

look or how you hope to be living your life throughout the next year.

Many people use these words along with or in place of resolutions.

I don't do resolutions.

Resolutions are way too limiting for me and pretty much equals instant failure.

To me a resolution is: I will stop drinking Dr. Pepper and never have another one again for as 

long as we both shall live. That's not happening. It's just not. 

But setting goals and choosing a word or phrase is much more doable for me... 

Not instant success, don't get it twisted, but just hopefully a bit more realistic for me.

A word is more of a guide for me and a consistent reminder as to what I want to achieve and
ultimately how I want to live.

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So this year I started the process of thinking about my word a bit earlier than I normally do as well as a

 bit differently than I have in the past. I looked at it more like trying to figure

 out what my word was by doing some work to get myself there. 

And let me add here -- This is not typical for me, 

which is actually kind of funny considering what my word ended up being for this year. 

Usually I wait until the right word kind of comes to me, through an aha moment, divine 

intervention or by complete accident.

This year I took to figuring it out or searching for it as more of an assignment, but a good assignment... 

Not a sucky school assignment you are dreading.

First, I wrote about what I wanted the new year to look like for me, what I knew I no longer need in my life

 or what I need less of, what I knew I need more of in my life and 

what areas of my life need the most work. It helped me a lot to write it all out.

Then I wrote down any and all words that I thought of that pertained to me.

Next,  just as an extra exercise, I looked up all of the definitions of the words I didn't immediately cross off

 of that long list and wrote them down.

After I did that and thought about each of them, I crossed out the ones I thought didn't "fit".

There were several of those.

Then I thought about it some more... Not worrying that it was December 31 or January 1 

and then January 3 and  I still wasn't sure.

It wasn't about that, it wasn't a race and it wasn't something that I only had a certain amount of

time to figure out. I've got all year to work on this if I need it.

Here's the thing. I need a lot of work. My life needs A  L O T  of work. 

I will never be there... I will always need a lot of work, I think we all do.

And I think that's a good thing.

I want to grow and learn and change this year.

Not become a completely different person, because sometimes I actually kinda like

 myself when I can get there, but grow and make changes... hopefully ones that
 will stick with me past this year alone.

So there were many possibilities because you know, this mama is a bit of a hot mess
 in the whole needing work category.  Hot, hot mess. 

:::::          a  c  t  i  o  n           :::::

That's my word.

And although part of me wishes it was a prettier word like dream or believe or 

wander or imagine or something that looks kinda cool when you write it down on

paper(that's the way my visual, creative brain works).... But it fits.

For many reasons it totally fits me right now.

I'll get a lot more into what the word action means to me in different areas of my life later this week... 
I'm still figuring it all out.

It's a new year and a new week and I am looking so forward to all of it.
I am ready to take action and start doing instead of just thinking and wishing.

Hope your new year is off to a good start! 

Do you have a word for the new year?

Goals?

Something you are hoping to accomplish?

I'd love to hear!