My One Word: Diligence
Some years I have taken the time to select a word I want to delve into a bit more. I want to grow personally, and having a word for the year has proven to bring my mind back to the "theme" fairly often in that year. Last year, I tried to spend time thinking about what life might look like with a heart of humility. This year I've settled on diligence.
I've got to be completely honest. This year's word feels more challenging than the last. You see, I have a creative mind, and one of the beauties of that creativity is it's paired with a "lively mental nature" (read: a wee bit of a focus and follow through problem). Some call it the "Oooooh, shiny!" part of life. Others call it the "Squirrel!" life.
If you've followed along, you know I've got projects going behind the scenes. I'm beginning the year with a speaking-teaching engagement mid-January. I have the honor of writing at a beautiful collaborative site with my friends (facetsoffaith.com). The writing ideas I have for my own blog clamor for attention. A little draft of an ebook waits in the wings closer to finished than I want to admit (admitting how close it is would probably mean it should've been done by now). I have another deeply-personal behemoth of a project that cries for attention (this one's like eating an elephant one bite at a time). I'm negotiating another large editing project (that I'm really excited about!). I've been developing some new online educational course content in the Moodle-Collaborate environment (more slowly than I'd really like). My son needs to finish high school coursework. And then there's this other little thing I wonder if my husband and I will pursue in the future.*D-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-eep breath!*
Truthfully, I'm a little overwhelmed at that paragraph up there. I think my heart rate just quickened by 15 bpm. Those are just the spinning plates that I know about right now. As 2018 rolls along new ideas, projects, and responsibilities will appear on the horizon more than a few times.
I think that's why my word is diligence.
Sometimes I'd like to have more hours in the day. Isn't that what most of us would say? What I think I really need is better use of the time in a day. I don't know if this is true for you, but I'm a little surprised every time I tally my time. I don't really want to know how much time I'm using on social media, but I need to be honest about it. I don't really want to count the time spent on Celebrities: Where are They Now? and Royal Family Members Doing Royal Things and Dogs Doing Dog Things slideshows. (I'm not the only one that gets sucked in by those clicks, right?) And so—I thought diligence would be a great focus this year!
I took the time to create a "reminder" for me in my social media accounts. I'm pretty sure this is about the same as a sticky note. What do you think?
When distraction comes knocking, I'll be the one refusing to answer the door! I'll be trying different things to streamline my focus (by eliminating any distractions I can manage).
Do you take the time to select a word for the year? If so, I'd love to know what yours is. Share away!
