2016 – Looking Forward with my Word for the Year
Seeking my Word for Year 2016
Happy New Year everyone! Some musings for New Year’s day as I contemplate my word for the year.
Good bye 2015 – Hello 2016. What do you hold in store for me? 2015 has been a year of tremendous ups and downs. Can we continue with the ups and eliminate some of the downs? As you may divine, I am not sorry to have 2015 behind me. Without going into details, I had a wonderful start to the year but it I am not so happy with how it wound to an end.
So what am I doing about it?
In years past I have found the turn of the year a time of contemplation and have often found that as part of this thought process, choosing a word for the year has helped to turn the blahs into positives. In 2012 it was PERSEVERE, in 2013 it was RENEW, In 2014 it was FOCUS, In 2015 it seems to have been FLOW as in ‘Go with the flow’ although I haven’t used it as a conscious direction in the way I have used previous words! Or maybe I have…
My word for 2016 is INTEGRATE.
My choice has been made based on some exercises I have been completing based on guidance provided by Susannah Conway over at Susannahconway.com. Day 1 was a visioning day which I seemed to struggle with at the time but may go back to now that I have worked further through the process. Day 2 focused me on what will happen and what I would like to happen in 2016. Day 3 took me into consideration of possible words and day 4 into focusing on what felt right for the way ahead and exploring the meaning of the word. Later today I will complete the exercises for Day 5 which further refines my understanding of ‘my’ meaning for the word. The exercises made me dig deep to identify the reason for my malaise, my loss of direction, joy and all that goes with it.
Integrate: to combine one thing with another so that they become a whole; to make parts of something into a whole.
Along with Susannah’s guidance I dipped into my tool belt from the past and used some mind mapping exercises to help me group ideas so that I could winnow through my notes and complete a Wheel of Life Worksheet circle. The results overwhelmingly indicated that I’ve been ignoring some very important (to me) aspects of my life. My problem is wanting to be all things to all people and not balancing this with all the things that are important to me. Hence my choice of word – Integrate – to find a balance that will round out my life to meet my personal needs.
I have a lot more work to do before I can define my way forward but I really feel that I have made some progress.
What do you do when you feel that parts of your life are out of sync?
Do you make resolutions or do you go through a process of evaluation and defining a way ahead? I would love to hear about the tools you use to redirect, whether at New Years, at the beginning of your Creative year (September?), or following a major event in your life.