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I know, I am late with this. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve picked a guiding word for the year for a few years now, but sometimes the word comes easier than other times. (Here are the words I picked in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.)

I’ve had a hard time coming up with a word for this year. 2019 has been off to such a weird start for me that nothing felt quite right. January was mostly a blur. It was the longest month ever, but at the same time, it still feels like we just celebrated New Year’s (anyone else?)

So, I’ve been racking my brain for a word that could be adequately applied to this year and I decided that my word is going to be BELIEVE.

be·lieve [bih-leev] (verb)

to accept something as true, genuine, or real
to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something

I am generally a glass-half-full kinda person, so my approach to most things is optimistic.  So it really threw me off that the shutdown situation effected me more mentally than physically (as in, financially). “Not knowing” when things will get back to normal (or when the next paycheck is coming in) was incredibly hard, even for a general optimist like myself. I want to apply this mindset to my life even more this year. I am not a religious person, but I believe in positivity and karma.

I’ll continue to believe in the good in people, as I always do. In most people, anyway. Not necessarily in the leader of our country (because OMG, is he f***ing it up for everyone!), but karma will take care of that, eventually, am I right?

I believe that in the end, things will work out.

I believe that obstacles are there to be overcome. Is it fun to run into roadblocks? Absolutely not, but there is always a life lesson hidden in the struggles somewhere.

I’ll try hard and believe in myself a little more. Sometimes I feel confident in my work, sometimes I feel like a fraud (imposter syndrome, anyone?) and I know that I need to work on my self-confidence. I am not one to toot my own horn and I surely don’t know how to self-promote, but people value my skills, work ethic and dedication,  sometimes you (and with ‘you’, I mean, I) should just believe them.

I’ll believe that we made the right move when we moved (pun intended!) and will make many happy memories in our new place.

I’ll believe that I can reach and work towards those goals I posted the other day.

Sometimes life is about the ability to believe in where you are going, even when you’re not sure what lies ahead.

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Goodbye 2017, hello 2018.

In true new year’s fashion, I am jumping on the One Little Word® bandwagon again, but it’s has taken me a little bit to pick a new guiding word 2018.

If you’ve followed along, I’ve been picking a guiding word for the year for a few years, but sometimes the word comes easier than other times. (Here are the words I picked in 2015, 2016, and 2017.) Last year, I chose the word PERSEVERE because after the election it seemed like such a fitting word to be able to move forward and it was applicable in so many areas of my life.

This year, I am choosing the word FOCUS.

If you know me, you know that I want to do ALL THE THINGS, preferably all at once (because you know… *tapping my proverbial watch*) and I am often disappointed when I can’t fit everything I want to do into my free time. I theoretically know that it’s just not possible to do everything and that I have to prioritize the things that are most important to me and the time I spend on them, but try to tell that to my ambitious mind. Even worse, sometimes I feel downright paralyzed when I have a chunk of free time and can’t for the life of me decide what I want to do with that time and then I end up – what feels to me like – ‘wasting’ it.

I tend to bounce between things to try and make most of the time that I have but often feel ‘restless’  because I can’t focus on the thing at hand because I am mentally already thinking about the next thing. That often makes me feel ‘stressed’ out and frustrated. I know that in order to feel more balanced and grounded, I need to “slow everything down”.

This will be a challenge, and it is not the first time that I am attempting this, but I do know that it is possible. Every once in a while I’ve been able to direct my mind and energy to one thing at a time instead of too many at once, and guess what? I feel much calmer and … well, focused. Time slows down, I am more present and don’t feel so ‘stressed out’, and that is really my goal.

So first and foremost, I am trying to address a feeling this year that is bothersome to me and that I feel way more often than necessary (and I know that this is a “first world problem” to have when you don’t have kids or a lot of other responsibilities, but this is still my personal reality and therefore I consider my feelings valid).

I believe though that focus can also be applied to many other areas of my life.

In my work life, I want to focus on all the things that I love about my job. My motivation has been a bit low lately because I’ve been working on tasks that haven’t always been the most exciting and I’ve had some minor communication issues with a (distant) coworker that were frustrating, to say the least, but I want to focus on the fact that I have a great work schedule, a short commute, a very laid back office atmosphere, and the best co-workers I could ask for.

On the fitness side, I want to focus on keeping up my running and incorporating more crosstraining. I have been doing more strength training in the last six months and that has really paid off in a lot of ways, but I also want to switch it up with other crosstraining exercises. I have set a goal to run a sub-2 half-marathon this year and am also hoping to increase my yearly mileage.

Financially, I want to focus on learning more about investing and retirement funds. I’ve started this process a few years ago already and have been able to contribute more to my retirement fund at work last year. I also think that we’ve been really successful in getting a handle on our spending habits (by using a budgeting software), but I still think I could do more and become savvier in this area.

And lastly, I want to focus on my relationships. I want to make more memories with J and make it a priority to see my friend Susi more often (who lives closest to me from all my friends).
As always, I wish I had more local friends, but I also often feel so pressed for time that I haven’t made any more efforts to find new connections. I am, however, part of a meetup group and I am hoping to continue and deepen those loose friendships a bit. I also want to focus on the people that are already near and dear to my heart and let them know that I value having them in my life, even if they aren’t local, and reach out and make arrangements to meet-up with far away friends more often.

Did you pick a word for the year? I’d love to hear which one and why!

Hi and hello, welcome to a new year. Goodbye 2016, hello 2017.

Aaand… the new year is already 5 days old. I’m telling you, someone must be flipping the pages on that page-a-day calendar fast on purpose.

In true new year’s fashion, I am jumping on the One Little Word® bandwagon again and I’ve been thinking about which new guiding word to pick for 2017. (Here are the words I picked in 2015 and 2016.)
I struggled a little bit to come up with a word for this year, because I had a few swirling around in my head and I could have easily justified any one of them, but yesterday – in a spur of the moment decision – I  finally settled on the one word that seemed just right.

My word for 2017 will be persevere.

It’s a word that has long accompanied my journey in a way and it’s seems fitting now more than ever. Some of its synonyms reaffirm my choice: persist, keep up, press on/ahead, be tenacious, go the distance, hang in there, stick to.

After the election results in November, I was in a serious emotional rut for a couple of weeks. I am usually someone who always, always sees the glass half full and to see me so defeated and emotionally depressed was something that J hadn’t seen in the 15 years we’ve known each other. While inauguration day is getting closer and the last few weeks haven’t really given me much hope in terms of a Trump-presidency, I personally want to persevere and start seeing the glass half full again. I want to press on, do things that are in my power and have a positive impact, no matter how small or limited it might seem. If all of us do a little bit, we can achieve a lot.

I want to persevere in believing in the good of people. It’s been hard lately with all the hate and violence everywhere, but I believe that people are inherently good and we have to press ahead to bring out the best in all the people around us.

I want to persevere in my job. I was once told that I landed my internship and the subsequent position because of my perseverance. I still feel as dedicated to my job as ever, but some of my  tasks lately have been repetitive and somewhat dull and I keep hoping that this will change again and I will feel more invested in my work.

I want to persevere in my workout routine, even if it’s hard sometimes. I’ve gotten to the point where I pretty much don’t ‘think’ about going for a run, I just go. Not leaving any room for changing my mind has helped tremendously with sticking to a plan. I’ve set new goals for this new year and am willing to go the distance to achieve those goals.

I want to persevere and keep investing in my relationships with family + friends, most of which are long-distance, which can make it hard to be present sometimes what with the time difference and busy every day lives and all. But, I know that I have a really, really good group of people around me and I want to keep up those important relationships.

I want to persevere with healthy eating habits, drinking plenty of water, and cooking (mostly) from scratch. This is not something I drastically have to change, because I’ve already been focusing on that, but it’s always good to keep up good habits, and of course,  there is always room for improvement.

What’s your word for the new year? I love to hear what word you picked and why.
Let me know in the comments!