2014 Word of the Year

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2014 is treating you all well so far.  I’ve decided that this year I want to change things up a bit.   Instead of resolutions that I’ll never keep, I’ve jumped onto the Word of the Year bandwagon, and I’m totally excited about it.

In case you’re not familiar with the word of the year concept, I’ll share my take on it with you.  From what I understand, instead of making a list of resolutions, you choose one word to be your focus for the year.  Post the word somewhere you can see it daily, and as day to day life happens, keep that word in the back of your thoughts to help you get to where you’re hoping to end up.

Choosing one word for the whole year was not as easy I thought it would be.  I wanted the word to have meaning, to really resonate with me.  I had a whole list of words to choose from.  I jotted down goals I’m thinking of setting for myself, in all areas of my life, and tried to use them to figure out what my word should be.  I know what I want to accomplish this year, even if I haven’t actually developed a plan to achieve those goals . I want to find a balance between all the roles I play. I feel like the past year and half have been full of so many changes. I feel as though I’ve constantly been adapting and either not having the time, or not making use of the time I have to set down the roots I crave. Between moving, kindergarten starting, job changes, summer vacations, high school starting…. it seems like every few months something is happening to mix everything up. Now that things have started to finally settle, I’ve been feeling lost, and that scatter-brained side of my personality has taken over a little more than I would like lately.

On the other hand though, I already know what steps I need to take to find that balance. What I’ve been struggling with is just simply doing it. I try; I attempt; I plan; and then I drop the ball on the follow through. Something else captures my attention, my imagination, and I lose my place. What I need is to focus more on getting from A to B to C. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that it’s not just focusing. It’s the doing of it that I need to be …. well for lack of a different word … doing!

Which leads me to my word of the year:

It isn’t enough to know what to do, and focusing on getting from one point to the next is all fine and dandy, but it’s not enough either. You need to be persistent in the doing, until it becomes a habit or a routine. If you’re like me, slightly scatter-brained, living with ADD/ADHD, have health issues, high stress, or whatever else might providing an extra challenge in your life, you know that it sometimes takes even more than that. It takes being tenacious about being persistent. You need to get stubborn about sticking to the plan. Sometimes it takes that stubbornness to get you through the day. That burning desire not to give in, and not to give up, and the refusal to admit to defeat. You have to be your own champion, cheerleader, and drill sergeant all in one. And that is the beauty of this word.

The reason pertinacity was the word I chose is because it represents, not only what I need to do to meet my own goals, but it’s also the how of how I’m going to do it.  I get side tracked so easily, it’s one of those things that just happens when you live with ADD, and there are times when I can side track myself so far that I don’t know how to get back.  This year, I want to stay on top things more.  I want to find the happy medium between focus and structure and scatter-brained creativity.  I want to spend time with my boys and not worry that I really should get on shrinking Mt. Washmore.  I want to spend time writing blog posts, and catching up with all of you on our social media accounts, and not worry that  I have a to do list a mile long.  I want to be able to drop everything and hangout with my husband all day when he’s off and not feel bad that I didn’t get the blog post published because I didn’t finish it.  Most importantly, I want to stop feeling so overwhelmed that I end up doing nothing because I don’t know what or where to start first.  And to do all that I’m going to have to be tenacious (which is really just a nice way of saying stubborn) about being persistent in pursuing my goals, in moving forward and not looking back so much.

With pertinacity as my focus word, I am excited to see where the year leads.  I’m hopeful and determined, and I cannot wait to get started!

Have you chosen a word for 2014?  If so, what word did you choose and why?  If not, have you set any resolutions that have you excited?