Inspiration is a motivational powerhouse, and the driver behind selecting a word of the year.
After a blowout Christmas holiday of eat, drink, spend, and give merriment, let’s just say we’re doing the tighten up dance around here with a little Archie Bell and the Drells thrown in for fun.
I’m embracing the new year with a clear 2020 vision for recognizing the areas of my life that could greatly benefit from a bit of improvement.
Resolutions tend to run their course about mid-February, so I go with a plan of action that I can easily meet and master.
Giving as much attention to cleaning up my mouth as I do cleaning up the house on a Monday morning is first up on the new and improved list.
Next up is working on being the kind of person to family, friends, neighbors, and strangers that you would want to go on a vacation with- the true litmus test of a person’s character, patience, and joy of life.
Diet?
The word itself has a negative connotation to it, so, no.
Awareness of smart and sensible eating, food choices, and portion control is a more realistic goal.
This brings me to my word of the year share.
Choosing one word to guide, ground, and direct you over the next 365 days is the optimum daily, weekly, and monthly planner.
Bliss Collections Weekly Planner
My word of the year is not the typical word one would associate with motivation, inspiration, and the like, however, it turns out it’s a word with a purposeful meaning.
tight
adjective
\ ˈtīt \
: fitting very close to the body
: marked by unusual tension (as in the face or body)
: difficult to cope with
: relatively difficult to obtain
// money is tight just now
Several years ago after a traumatic financial turn of events in our normal (what the hell is normal?) self employed-go to work to pay bills and put food on the table-keep the lights on-doing all this to make a better life for our family part of life, we were left broke, broken, worried, scared to death, and frazzled to the core.
The how will we survive losing two businesses (one the bread & butter operation and the other the hobby turned luxury business) questions seemed to have no answers.
This was 2008 folks, and the residual angst remains with me to this day. The economic downturn gripping the nation was beating the crap out of us, but I’ve never been one to find comfort in the it’s happening to some degree to everyone way of looking at things.
Sitting alone in the office staring down at numbers, balances, and bills, the word tight popped into my head.
Money was tight and getting tighter by the day.
I was feeding my feelings, so my clothes were tight.
Fear set in quickly, taking me from happy go lucky motormouth to dejected mute resulting in my throat growing closed and tight.
Tight certainly summed up the situation.
I picked up a pen and wrote the word tight vertically on a piece of scratch paper.
As I sat and stared at the word standing out among figures and fear, what came to me was a Mary Tyler Moore (you’re gonna make it after all) moment of clarity, courage, and comfort.
I picked up the pen and put the pieces of what seemed an unsolvable puzzle together.
This
Is
God
Handling
Things
HE did, and he does every single day.
The takeaway boils down to this:
I knew, and continue to know, the importance of listening to that little voice inside you. More times than not it’s the true voice of reason.
Give yourself permission to take time for an alone moment to gather yourself and clear the noise life has a way of amplifying at times.
From designing, decorating and all the life changing decisions in-between, silence is golden, essential, and a hot commodity in the decision making process.
Not all closed doors open up again the way we think they should or want them to, but swing out in a whole new direction that over time and in HIS time pave the way to peace, promotion, provision, and understanding.
With 2020 vision, I realize how my personal relationship with God in prayer, word, love, work, thought, pen, and paper guides me through the good, the bad, the old, the new, the beautiful, the stylish, and the tight.
The creative process includes designing ourselves to be the very best we can be.
Grab 2020 by the new year with a word of the year that will make each day, week, and month the year of the very best you.
