#ONEWORD2019

The past 3 years I’ve joined the #oneword movement, selecting a word as intention rather than resolutions. I choose a word that reflects my focus for the year.

I started with verbs: In 2016 my #oneword was listen. In 2017, the word was heal. In both cases, I did listen and made progress toward healing.

My word for 2018 took a little longer to determine, but by the end of January I embraced acceptance – a noun this time, but one that has a verb implied, as acceptance, to my understanding, involves a thoughtful process in which we acknowledge reality (which doesn’t mean we acquiesce – just that we recognize without denial). I definitely learned a lot about acceptance this year, and became more capable of seeing and accepting reality. 

This year I thought I’d get a head start, deciding in November that I wanted to cultivate more curiosity in 2019. But when January 1st arrived, curiosity felt too small, as though it needed assistance.

Then Brené Brown’s concept of courage came to mind, that was it. It takes great courage to be curious rather than fearful, to embrace and even invite uncertainty, to be vulnerable and to rumble in the messy arena of wholehearted living. My #oneword2019 embodies several concepts, as courage contains a great deal of how I want to grow in the next twelve months – being more social, more vulnerable, more curious, and more adventurous.

In this transition from verbs to nouns, perhaps I also shift from becoming to being – from a position of trying to change or fix myself into a posture of emergence with acceptance of who I am.

Perhaps many of us are drinking the same water. Another January 1st marketing email, this one from the CALM app, could have been written by me:

Dear 2019,

I will bring the most curious, courageous version of me there has ever been.

I will stand in the pouring rain for the joy of it, seek out silliness and sunsets, walk wisely and sleep soundly.

This year I will live and love, fierce and warm, like a fire.

Love,

me

What is your #oneword2019? If you’ve tried it, how has it served you?