One Word Resolution
Wow! It feels like this year has flown by! I remember setting goals and choosing resolutions for 2018 and just like that I’m doing the same for 2019. I love the New Year. I love fresh starts, new goals and ambitions, and the motivation to become a better version of myself.
My family started a new tradition about 4 years ago for New Year Resolutions. We used to come up with 5 things we wanted to accomplish within the next year. Things like: read more books, lose X amount of weight, save X amount of money, etc. Don’t get me wrong; all of those things are great! But most of the time we would never follow through with them throughout the entire year. If we were lucky we would last 3 or so months until we discovered . He changed our family’s perspective on New Year Resolutions completely through his concept of one word. Basically, you choose a word that you want to embody, or improve on over the next year and have it be your theme. This is a much more tangible way to make change in your life and keeps things simple.
I know it seems broad and you’re probably thinking “how in the world can I choose ONE word to capture what I want out of this next year”?!For me, it takes a lot of thought and prayer for what God wants me to focus on. I like to reflect on the past year and things that I struggled with; Whether it was relationships that I wanted to create, things I wanted to accomplish or characteristics about myself that I wanted to improve and I would choose a word that embodied each of those things. One Word also sets you up for success! It allows you to focus on a concept, rather than a list, so at the end of the year you can evaluate and feel accomplished even if you didn’t get EVERYTHING done that you wanted. Progress is the most important thing here, not perfection!
For example, my last 4 years of words have been POSITIVE, INVEST, LEAD and BE PRESENT.
2015-My freshman year of college at the University of Kentucky I struggled a lot with having a good attitude and choosing to have joy in my trials, so I chose the word positive so that I would have to focus on my attitude every single day!
2016-Going into the second semester of my sophomore year I was transferring to the University of Texas and wanted a fresh start. So, I thought to myself I want to develop friendships, have a new perspective on the game of soccer and who I played for and with, and I wanted to make investments in myself. So, I came to the conclusion that the word invest encompassed all of these things.
To make sure that I am focusing on this word all year long, I like to put that word everywhere as a reminder of what I set out to achieve. On mirrors, notes in my car, backgrounds on my phone, on a letter board at my office - anywhere I would see it daily. At the end of the year, our family evaluates our word and rate ourselves from 1-10 on how we thought we did and explain why we thought we did good or not as well as we wanted to.
What’s your word going to be?! I can’t wait to hear them and watch y’all carry it out into the New Year!
: Serve, Invest, Confidence, Grace, Joy, Simplify, Peace, Strength, Impact, Health, Generous, Focus, Detail, Sacrifice
