Welcome 2014, we’ve been expecting you…
The turning of a new year fires me up every time. I am a firm believer in a new year sparking a brand new beginning. A chance. What we do with that chance is completely up to us – do we bother to do anything with it at all?
So many of us begin the year with solid intentions, a list a mile long of all the things we resolve to use our chance to change. I used to do the same – big long list that was going to make me a better person (my god that list was loooooong). I needed to stop doing this and start doing that and I resolved, RESOLVED, that this year was going to be the year that I would change. But I never really did, cue disappointment and a sense of failure to ring in the new year. Good times.
Then one year I realised I didn’t really want to change, I just wanted to tinker. God knows, if we really, really wanted to change then we wouldn’t need a new year in which to do it. We’d just do it and it would be done, right? Right?
Tinkering is different. Unlike change, which suggested something is broken and needing to be replaced, tinkering suggests that you’re starting with something good that just needs a little adjusting. I like that.
The ‘one word’ approach to a new year is tinkering at its finest. Each year we choose a word that sums up what we feel our life could use more of. Last year my word was ‘simple’ and, frankly, it was a disaster. Sadly choosing ‘simple’ did not miraculously turn me into a woman with a less complicated life, no matter how much I tinkered. But it did make me realise that the simple life is probably not for me in quite the way I thought it was. I like busy. I like bustle. I even sort of like complicated, although thankfully not too much. Choosing ‘simple’ helped me get to know myself better.
So, this year, I was tempted to choose a ‘big’ word that pushed me further. Words like ‘extraordinary’, ‘challenge’, ‘thrive’ or ‘amaze’. Tempting, but no.
Instead, I’m choosing the one thing that I know will help me enjoy the year ahead the most.
sarah@Tomfo says
Pause.
I love it, I’m taking this for my own…
I’m so going to Pause. in 2015 to stop and enjoy every single moment.X
Maxabella says
It’s been a really good word this year, Sarah. It helped me change a lot of things. x
Jenni says
I like this word too and its just what I need for 2015. Thanks! (did you notice my pause there…?)
Maxabella says
I did!