One Word: Thoughts Going in to the New Year in 2022

Last night I found myself saying it aloud to our business team... "39 days until the New Year. " Wow this year has been a lot of things. I began it with hope; my dreams, desire, intention all focused on being resilient. I had selected my One Word for 2021 as resilient with my focus on overcoming, standing strong, holding out and holding on. I did not know it then but for so many areas of life it would be painful, hard, reflective and in many areas it related to beginning again. I'm looking and longing for better days. 

Here we are just 38 days until this year ends...just like that roll of toilet paper analogy.

Reflecting on that thought above, just 38 days left in this year brought me back to refocusing on not just finishing strong but what my one word will be in this new upcoming year. It reminded me I had placed a note in my phone back at the beginning of the month for a word I was pondering. Perhaps it would be my choice for 2022...ABUNDANCE. I liked this quote from Eckhart Tolle.

This concept of selecting One Word that I had begun many years back...perhaps you too may have also heard of this idea...selecting one word to focus on in the new year rather than writing out resolutions I select a single word. 

I really like how this author explained it

... Hm-mmm that word I mentioned topped her list.

The practice of choosing a “Word of the Year” is that, instead of setting a lot of different New Years resolutions, you select one single word to be your focus for the year.

You can use that word to set goals or intentions for each area of your life but have them all tie back to the single word. For example, if your word of the year was “abundance” you might have sub-goals of investing in an abundant number of friendships, or hitting an income goal, or spending more quality time with the people you love without your phone. “Discipline” could entail going to the gym, sticking to an evening routine, and no longer being late to meetings. 

By tying all of your goals back to your overarching word, it is easy to keep them front-of-mind. 

2022 Word of the Year Ideas

1. Abundance
2. Adventure
3. Align
4. Authentic
5. Available
6. Aware
7. Balance
8. Become
9. Better
10. Bless
11. Bold
12. Breathe
13. Bright
14. Calm
15. Celebrate
16. Centered
17. Challenge
18. Change
19. Commitment
20. Compassion
21. Confidence
22. Connect
23. Creativity
24. Cultivate
25. Daring
26. Dedicated
27. Delight
28. Devotion
29. Discipline
30. Distance
31. Dream
32. Embrace
33. Emerge
34. Empower
35. Expansion
36. Express
37. Faith
38. Feast
39. Fit
40. Focus
41. Forgiveness
42. Foster
43. Free
44. Friendship
45. Glow
46. Giving
47. Grace
48. Gratitude
49. Grounded
50. Honesty
51. Hope
52. Humility
53. Integrity
54. Intentional
55. Intuition
56. Journey
57. Joy
58. Kind
59. Learn
60. Listen
61. Love
62. Magnify
63. Meek
64. Mindful
65. Motion
66. Nourish
67. Nurture
68. Organize
69. Passion
70. Peace
71. Permission
72. Persistance
73. Play
74. Polish
75. Power
76. Present
77. Progress
78. Radiant
79. Recovery
80. Relationships
81. Release
82. Reset
83. Resilient ** (I added this word...my word for 2021)
84. Resolute
85. Rise
86. Risk
87. Savvy
88. Service
89. Simplicity
90. Slow
91. Smile
92. Space
93. Sparkle
94. Strong
95. Teach
96. Thrive
97. Tranquil
98. Whole
99. Yes
100. Zen
101. Zest

Have you picked a word for the year? I’d love to hear it!

Do You Remember

 

Yesterday we celebrated my sweet husband's birthday. Reflecting on life took my thoughts down many paths. Celebrating his 69th revolution around this planet, we together have experienced so many moments. Life has changed in so many ways... Sometimes we think about those Seriously? and Yeah Right moments. And how about those that Make you wanna to go hmmmm moments. But today my thoughts were on humorous  remembrances,  those Oh-hhh and Ah-hhh moments, those Oops! and even Double Oops moments.

Do you remember when you got that way COOL shiny AOL CD in the mail and thinking "That is WAAAY too much to spend (but the 100 free hours sucked you in)"?

Do You Remember excitedly running when you heard the words "You've Got Mail" ? That quote became iconically paired to the movie Sleepless In Seattle with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

I remember a conversation with my friend Mary when she was talking about staying in contact with another friend then living in Switzerland and using her computer to send email. I was like, WHAT is email? What? She can get email in seconds? How can I get email? Funny because that was before I even HAD a computer or even know how to turn one on. It is strange how a conversation like that can launch you down a pathway you had never thought of before.  

Do you remember the friend in Switzerland I mentioned? I was so excited to finally get a computer and so very excited at the amazing possibility of emailing my friend. 

My  friend Mary told me about a service called Juno Mail, a free service that opened a gateway to send and receive email. Their tagline at the time was Email Should Be Free. I love FREE!

...That is when I entered into the world of emailing.

   

I learned how to compose my email and how to send it out but I guessed I missed something...

I was so excited and I wanted to share things going on in my life during that time so I included in my email some fun pictures and links to my new favorite world wide web places and lots more...that's when I learned about something called email etiquette. 

1. DO NOT TYPE IN CAPS:Its considered yelling. Oh-hhh!  
2.  VERY IMPORTANT:During that time in the history of the world wide web pictures took a very long time to download and when you were paying by the minute to see a silly, unimportant and non pertinent thing it might make people frustrated or mad at you...Oops! My bad! Also it was her husband's work Compuserve account... Double Oops! 

Who'd have thought there was a new etiquette in town? I guess I should have taken that class.

I did learn a new lesson that I'm pretty sure my mom told me long before that moment... "Nothing in this world is really FREE!" It all comes with a price. 

Enjoy the ride.

A paraphrase my sister Kathi shared pertaining to a Las Vegas trip and the slots...

It is entertainment. Don't plan to get a boatload of money out of the machine, maybe you will maybe you won't...enjoy the ride. With the internet the same is true, sometimes you will, sometimes you won't but along the way enjoy the ride.

Oh and getting back to my sweetheart and remembering; Do You Remember the first time that special person said "I love you"? I had dozed off with my head in his lap-It had been a long and busy day...It was my birthday in fact.We had left the party my friend had put together for me and went back to my place. We were relaxing on the couch with the TV playing in the background and just as I was beginning to wake I swear I heard him say, "I think I'm in love with you". Oh-hhhhh, H-mmm, Uh-hhh... I was thinking as I quietly pretended I was still asleep. 😊