2.01.2018

My One Word - A Journey to JOY

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Now that January is behind us and most of us who decide to select a word for the year have done so, I wanted to share my journey to my one word for 2018. I purchased My One Word by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen a few years ago because it has a spiritual focus and I have never really done New Year's Resolutions but wanted a way to bring focus to each year.
My word for 2017 was "enough" and I had a wonderful experience with the word. Around October I began thinking about my word for 2018 and "resist" came to me very quickly. There is much in society and in my workplace that I need to resist. Weeks went by and the word "integrity" came to me. It made sense that I would need to resist with integrity and I absolutely loved the multiple meanings of integrity. The state of being whole and undivided? Yes, please. This was great, but I didn't seem to be finished. Fast forward to Thanksgiving and a young family member announces that she is expecting her first child. "Declutter" was the word that came with the announcement. That did not seem to be a word that would carry me through the year and I didn't know how it would work with "resist" and "integrity", but "declutter" was the next word to be written in my planner. Enter Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why. I was missing my why. I wanted to declutter to create physical, emotional, and spiritual space for JOY. My one word for 2018 is JOY.

But what of the other words? They are all in my mission statement which I write in the front of my planner each year: Resist with integrity, and declutter to create physical, emotional, and spiritual space for JOY.