Have you noticed the new-ish trend… it’s not enough to have goals, plans and vision for the new year. Now we are focusing on one single word to describe our future year and help us focus on achieving our goals. I heard about it couple years ago on a podcast and frankly spent the last two years pondering what my word of the year would be. Silly. Apparently it took me this long. 2020 was starting and I came back to the idea, seeing a flurry of posts from other bloggers about their words. It’s not enough to have a word, you can get a custom notebook, bracelet, etc made with it to really help you focus.
Gretchen Rubin word for 2020 is Infrastructure – listen more about it on her podcast https://gretchenrubin.com/podcast-episode/254-one-word-theme-2020/
Crystal Paine word for 2020 is Savor – read more about it here https://moneysavingmom.com/my-word-for-2020/
It took me a long time but inspired by couple recent discoveries I found my word. I recently listened to audiobook “The Year of Less”, which I highly recommend. It is not an easy read as it highlights deep problems and struggles with addiction. There were moments it was hard to get to the next chapter. The narrative though of one person’s journey realizing the excess of alcohol and things in her life and building slowly a new life with fewer things is very inspiring. I don’t think I can go as drastic as not to buy anything for a year or live with only one sweatshirt but I can understand how in order to fight excess one must sometimes swing the pendulum to the complete opposite.
The second inspiration has been Courtney’s blog “be more with less” https://bemorewithless.com/
I also read her book “Soulful simplicity”. https://bemorewithless.com/soulful-simplicity-/
It’s fascinating how many common threads are there in these journeys but yet each one is completely unique and opens our eyes to questioning our own lives.
Both women inspired me to finally get my act together and choose a word to focus on in 2020: “LESS”. Simple word, which my girls put into a beautiful handmade bracelet. I have to add that my 6 year old said – if you focus on less than isn’t getting yet another bracelet the complete opposite? Smart girl.
Balancing family, work, career and life is no easy task. After our family move to new state, new jobs for both of us, new schools and remodeling a house… all I need is “LESS”. Less stress, less clutter, less / fewer commitments. I really need to focus on eliminating all the noise and the distractions and focus on listening to my heart, to better understand what I need and how my balance can help my family as well. It felt a bit embarrassing to choose such a simple word. As you’ll see from other blogs, some women choose very inspirational words, very focused on growth. Maybe that will be me next year, for now I need to keep things simple.