#OneWord17

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

Henry David Thoreau

#OneWord17

#OneWord17 is a challenge to find one word that will drive you the rest of the year, created in place of a resolution.

Ideally, I would already have my #OneWord17 and be ready to share with the world of social media on New Year’s Day. I confess, it has taken me several days to hone in on my focus for 2017.

Many Things Come to Mind:

  • Commit to spin class a minimum of 4 days per week for the entire year.
  • Write a blog every two weeks.
  • Eat salads every day for lunch.
  • Read more novels for personal enjoyment.
  • Take more photographs.
  • Be more adventurous.
  • Let go of needing everything in its place… the list goes on and on.

When thinking about all of these possible goals, I see how easy it is to lose focus or become too focused one small goal… before even attempting the new. It’s overwhelming to think about an entire year of accountability to a goal, let alone narrowing it down to one word!

The Unread Book

When I look at my nightstand, there are 5 books that I’ve been meaning to read for several months. I go to bed night after night and say to myself, “Tomorrow I’m going to pick up that book and start reading a chapter a night.” The next night comes and I’m too tired to read, or would rather watch my favorite TV series with my husband and so I tell myself again, tomorrow night is the reading night. Before I know it, months have passed and none of the books have moved. I keep telling myself the same thing each night, like it’s going to motivate me, but it NEVER changes!

 The Little Green Notebook

It’s like my little black book, except rather than being filled with phone numbers, it’s filled with the blogs I want to write. It’s funny, the list keeps growing, however the number of postings on my blog doesn’t. I tell myself, Saturday mornings will be the perfect time to wake up early and outline my thoughts on the screen. That is until Saturday morning comes and sleeping in sounds much better, or it’s a powder day and the mountains are calling. Either way, I find some rationale that justifies there will be a better time and place to write.

 Twitter

What can I say, it’s my guilty pleasure. Embarrassingly, look at my account and you will see 100’s of “likes” marked with the little heart emoji. It’s like a closet full of clothes that all still have their tags on. Good intentions but no real application. Each evening when I scan through Twitter there are blog postings, articles, and studies that I want to go back and read for personal enjoyment. Although, when I open the link I often think to myself, “I’ll save this and read it on Sunday morning with my coffee. Maybe it will help with a blog post!” Yes, that Sunday morning that never comes around.

Household Chores

My mail pile on the counter has several envelopes, each representing a minor task or responsibility. Each evening I collect the daily mail, open the envelopes, read the contents then set them back in the pile to deal with when “I’m ready.” The same goes for magazines. They come and I can’t wait to look through them, however I add them to the pile on the coffee table for the time when I “have time” to enjoy them from cover to cover.

The “Me” Room

For the last few months, I asked my husband to redesign our front living room. It’s a beautiful space that we rarely use. When I look out the huge front window I think to myself, this will be where I will drink my morning coffee, write my blogs, read the Twitter posts and ponder the books read and to be read in the floor to ceiling bookshelves.

I tell myself when the front living room is redone, it will be my paradise. Motivation will be endless and comfort continuous. It will be the room where I put everyone else’s needs aside and focus on things that bring me joy…it may be predictable tasks, work, editing photos, or simply an afternoon cat nap.

Excuses or Lazy?

Reflecting on this posting, I could fall into one or two categories, full of excuses or lazy.

While it may be one of those two things, I’m going to say the justification for my above actions is neither.

Over holiday break, I found myself engaged with my nieces for nearly an hour playing with plastic Playstix. One evening I sat and took pictures of our fireplace and Christmas tree for a good 45 minutes, just playing around with camera settings. I walked my dog daily and saw it as refreshing, not a chore. My mom taught me how to knit, something I swore I would never have the patience for. I read nearly an entire book in one sitting. But most of all, I was overcoming mental blocks, accomplishing tasks and finding time for personal interests.

Yes, even without the front living room redesigned.

#OneWord17

As I sit here and continue to think of one word to summarize what will drive me in 2017, I finally came to a conclusion, accomplish.

I couldn’t have predicted that I would attend spin 3 days a week, that I would have sat and played with my camera for x amount of time, or that I would have found Playstix so enjoyable over my holiday break.

I enjoyed the moments and listened to my instincts. I attended to work, but didn’t let it be my only identity. I did not neglect others, avoid my responsibilities, or forget about opportunities. I accomplished things that needed to be done, and more importantly things that I wanted to do for myself.

Here’s to 2017

2017 will be the year for me to overcome the mental block of waiting for “my perfect environment,” the “right time,” or “the perfect room.” 2017 is the year I will stop waiting. I will accomplish the tasks that I need to, and want to.

Similar to Henry David Thoreau’s quote above, 2017 will be the year for me to “launch myself on every wave in hopes of finding my eternity.”

Cheers to 2017! #OneWord17 #accomplish

 

 

 

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