So much for ease. It was the word I chose last year, which turned out to be anything but. Big life changes. As usual. Every five years or so, my life turns itself on its head. By some miscalculation, I forgot that 2017 would be that year. And so it went. With not much more ease than I had pictured. But it was all in good stead.
2017 pulled me in a million different directions from reorienting my career to figuring out what I wanted from my relationships to giving myself to the many things that occupy my time. It's always when I look for some time to take a breath that this vacuum is filled up again with activity.
And I'm grateful for it. All the work I've done personally and professionally is paying off in sometimes subtle and sometimes massive ways. Forward motion is good.
I suppose it wasn't for naught. I suppose the ease really came from my ability to handle the changes without feeling the great compression of stress that these changes usually bring. But my brain was most definitely tired out from being graceful about it all. There are days where my mind simply ached from being tossed from one thing to another.
Though I don't always align with my word of the year, I endeavour to come up with one anyway. If for no other reason, than it helps me look back after the year to put the pieces of my life into some sort of coherent picture (with or without the word). A sort of mental jigsaw, if you will.
This year is no different. Over the last year, I've read up a lot on focus and simplifying. With all that's happening in the news and all the changes in my life, I found myself craving space to do the things I actually want to do like sleep or go for walks or not check work emails on the weekend. Initially, I wanted to pick "Focus" as my word of the year. But it seemed to clinical and didn't align with the emotional growth I've tended to this past year. While laser focus is a great thing, it's not where my energy currently sits.
So I'm naming 2018 the year to nurture.
Nurturing for me this year, means paring my life down to the essentials. To the things that I want to grow and I wish would flourish. It is a year of giving due care to things that will serve me well. Enough with the mini-projects, the one-offs and bright shiny distractions. Enough with the inability to sit on my hands when yet another tempting offer comes my way. Not this year.
This year I want to give my energy to three main things: To my relationships (familial, collegial), to my health (so my mind and body can come together in a way that serves me and those around me) and to learning (so that I'm feeding my ever-hungry mind good nutritious things). I've decided that everything outside of the realm of these three will merit serious consideration before getting a yes.
Sometimes to pare down and concentrate your energies on things that matter is more important because it is from that growth that everything else stems. To be surrounded by the strength of your community, to feel in your own spirit, and to find the world a curious place are critical to your own success.
No mantras. No hacks. No wheeling and dealing.
Just growing. Just nurturing.