For the last couple of years, I’ve chosen a word to focus my goals, energy, and attention throughout the year. Last year’s word was “grow” and I think it was very appropriate as I continued to focus on growing in so many areas – personally and professionally. In so many ways, I feel that I stretched myself last year!
Trying to decide on this year’s word was more challenging than I thought it would be. I thought about flourish, because it’s supposed to be a hot choice and I thought it seemed fittingly optimistic. But it also didn’t quite seem powerful enough. Ultimately, I thought it was too close to grow. I thought about love, but that just didn’t seem to fit either – even though it’s one of my favorite words and it’s part of my be goals.
Owning our own story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do. ~Brene Brown
Finally, it hit me. My word for 2017 is BRAVE. Probably the biggest influence for why I selected this word is having just finished the book Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. The book is amazing and I learned so much about myself while I was reading it. It made me want to be more brave. I’m not talking about jumping out of an airplane brave (totally not my thing). What I want is to be more brave in my relationships, in my work, in my parenting, and in my life. I want to look at opportunities and experiences and ask myself – is this an opportunity to be brave? When my first instinct is to make excuses, say no, or shrink, I want to ask myself if that response is rooted in fear. Then, I want to be brave. I want to dare greatly and experience more fully the wholehearted life I want to live. I want to be brave enough to try new things, seek out experiences that are uncomfortable, be honest about my feelings and fears, and admit when I screw up or don’t understand something. I want to be brave.
So there you have it. Do you choose a word for the year? What is it for 2017? If not, what would you choose if you did?