Is it too late for me to share my word for the year???? I hope not because I am sharing it anyway 🙂
Last year my word was surender. My goal was to try and stop forcing things and surrender to whatever God has planned. While I still have to get more comfortable with surrendering and not trying to control everything I am switching focus this year. My word of the year 2017 is Authentic.
In general I am an authentic person. I mean if you were to meet me in person you’d see that I represent myself the same way as I do here online. I may be a little quieter but even here I have talked about social anxiety. Plus, I try to keep it real here (for lack of a better term). Although I write about happiness and help others to start Chasing Joy I don’t write from a perspective of being happy all the time because that is not realistic. I have shared times when I was struggling and lots of the techniques I have used to feel happier. However, there are a few areas where I want to be even more authentic.
Like most people, I put my best foot forward. I take a few different selfies before I post one. I try the show the world the best of me. While giving others the best of yourself is not being fake, I do feel like the less than best of me is a bit further from my best me than I’d like. This leaves me feeling a little inauthentic at times. So my word of the year 2017, Authentic, is my goal to bring the less than perfect me closer to the, my best self, version of me that I share with the world. Inspired by Gretchen Rubin and the Happiness Project Podcast I am going to do this by focusing on an area of my life that I struggle with each month this year. The idea is improving in those areas will enable me to be more and more authentic.
So here is the plan for word of the year 2017: Authentic, starting with February since that is the month we are in.
February – Clutter: I am talking about within my home. I have too much stuff. I need to make room for the things that add value to my life.
March – Diet: This has been a lifelong struggle. But I am not giving up on it. I need to craft a plan that works for me.
April – Car: I get my oil changes and stuff on time. However, at some point (I’ll share more about that later) I kind of gave up on maintaining the organization and cleanliness of the car. I need to fix this.
May – Home Organization: Once the clutter is gone I need to organize things in a way that works for me.
June – Holiday Happiness Planning: While I have written strategies for how to stay joyful during different holidays, like a lot of us, I don’t always take my own advice. Case in point Valentine’s day. This day is not usually a problem for me and I even wrote this great list of 100 ways for singles to have a great valentine’s day. What I did not take into consideration this year was it being my first Valentine’s day where I would not be getting a valentine for my mom. Lesson learned! I need to be more proactive in preparing for holidays and taking assessment of my current situation as different holidays come up.
July – Housekeeping: Housekeeping is one of the biggest areas where I struggle and feel like what I project is not authentic. But I put it several months into the year because I realize that becoming a good housekeeper will require more than picking up a broom. I need to get rid of things and have a place for everything. Hence, getting rid of clutter and organizing have to happen first. Then I can develop a housekeeping routine.
August – Moving: I need to move. I do not live in a good neighborhood and my house is old. By August it will have been almost a year and a half since my mom died. I think I will be emotionally stable enough to start making decisions about moving to a place that more authentically represents what I want for my life, what i project, and my career.
September – Confidence: Ok so I am really good at projecting confidence. What I really want is to become increasingly closer to feeling as confident as I appear to be.
October – Self-Care Routine: Self-care has been a hot topic for several years. I hope we all know how important it is. I have some things that I do for self-care but I need to develop an actual self-care routine and stick to it. Once again I need to start taking my own advice
November – Housekeeping: Nope this is not a mistake I have housekeeping on her twice. I know this is an area where I really struggle. I want to focus on it again so that my improvements will stick.
December – Time prioritization & management: So everything takes time. All of the things that I will have worked on throughout the year take time. I do not know how much time they will take. At the end of the year I hope to have figured out how much time I need to keep my car clean, plan meals, clean my house, and do my self-care routine.
So this is the plan guys. By focusing on these areas my everyday self will be much closer to the version of myself that I present to the world thereby helping me to be more authentic. I will be updating you guys on how I’m doing with this at least once a month. I even plan to develop some Smart Goals to help me along the way.
What do you think of my word of the year 2017? Did you have a word for the year? If not it’s not too late to come up with one.
Word of the Year 2017: Authentic!!!!
P.S. I will have 3 spaces available for the Joy Makeover Bootcamp starting March 1. You can sign up now.
