Finally I'm going to share my word of the year. (Only 6 weeks in. Not so bad.) I've done a word of the year for the last two years. I'm adding a little excitement to this year. I'm kicking it up a notch, and in addition to having a word of the year, I'm also going to have a word of the month. Let's talk about first the word of the year and then my reasoning to have a word of the month. In the past, I have picked one word each year that I have tried to remember and sometimes it's worked and sometimes it hasn't, but it is been there sort of in the back of my head throughout the year. It's just a reminder of what my goals are and how I hope to reach those goals.
The first year it was ENGAGE, and this is something I still struggle with. Being engaged wherever I am, doing whatever I'm doing. When I have the mom hat on, which is so cheesy, but let's just say the mom hat on, I am engaged with my kids. I'm doing the mom thing. I'm not thinking about work. I'm not spending any of my brain power worried about work, worried about other things. When I have my work hat on or my friends hat, whatever, you get the point, the hats are cheesy, but you get the gist. When I have that focus, then that's what I am focused on. That is what I'm doing and I'm not looking at other things. I'm not worried about other things. That was engaged.
Last year it was COMMIT, and the purpose of choosing that word was to really focus on committing to my goals and committing to what it was that I wanted to get done, to really throw myself into my job. You're going to find there is sort of a theme. I do pick sort of similar words. This year the word that I've had in my mind really for months and months is SERVE. It sparked my idea. I stumbled upon these bracelets. Actually, I was looking for something else from our trip to New Orleans online, and I came across these bracelets. They're sort of wooden and they each have a word on them. I got thankful. I got serve. I got explore. I have another word that I can't think of right now, but these four words, and I really just liked the word serve.
I have struggled over the last year really staying focus on my purpose, making sure that I'm doing best in the relationships that I have with other people. I really like this concept of serving. Serving my purpose. Serving my goals. Staying focused on that. Serving why I'm here. What am I here to do, and feeling as though I'm really devoted towards this purpose, and also serving my children. I think when you start talking about kids, and husbands, and you use the word serve, it sounds like ... I don't know words that maybe we won't feel comfortable using, that there's some sort of hierarchy that we're putting in place. "I'm here to serve you," but what I really mean is to figure out, am I doing the best that I can do at any moment? Am I serving them in the best way that I can. Mind you, I didn't say, am I being the best mother possible in the wold wide world, but just am I doing the best I can at that moment.
What I always remind myself is, and others I hope, is that sometimes our best at any given moment is not even the best that we can do on another day. It is what it is, we do what we can, when we can and we're not perfect. But am I really serving our family? Am I serving my husband and focusing on our relationship? As a relationship, we are coming out of the crazy bubble of young children. Obviously, we have really young children, but our youngest is about to be two, which has been in our past, in our world that sort of age, where you should start doing things and really engaging with them in a way that you couldn't before. The family has a little more freedom at that point. You're down to one nap. There's some flexibility on bed time if you have to have it. So flexibility that we didn't necessarily have up until this point.
In the past, when we hit that two year mark, I have always been very pregnant with our next child. This is a unique experience in that I am not pregnant with no intentions of expanding our family. This can really allow us to reengage and reconnect and really serve our relationship, like we probably should of been doing for the past six years. That is how I came upon the word, serve, and I think it will serve me well. (hehehe) I hoping to just have it be a guiding post, a guiding light throughout the year.
Now, as much as I love that word, I have also decided that I need a word of the month, because the months are short. The months are quick and the year goes by so fast February 14th, here we are, crazy. We've just come so fast upon it, so I want a monthly word because it just gives me some fun. I made this decision last week and January is gone, but I've decided to give January a word anyway, because it's what I was doing, which was breathing. Taking a step back, taking a breath in, looking at the year in the past, looking at the future, figuring out what I wanted the next step to be. I'm still doing that, but that was the word that I applied to January. Breath.
I kicked off February with a new word that I am super excited about, and that word is grit. Grit is the word that I'm using. It's just a great word. It's fun to say. I feel feisty just when I say the word grit, so I am excited to see what the word brings. I plan to bring a lot of grit to it. That's what I'm planning on at least. I'm excited to see what this month has to offer (okay with just 2 weeks left!) We're out of the very beginning stages of the year. Now it's time to get to work, get our plans in motion.
I'm excited, so my question for you is, do you have a word of the year? What about a word of the month? How has it served you? How have you found it helpful throughout the year? Do you forget about it by, I don't know, March or April or is it something that you stay connected with throughout the year?