2014: A Bold New Year

I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.

As you may be aware, I’ve been pondering my new “word” for this year. It’s been a struggle, to say the least. (FYI: It was a struggle last year, too. I think if it’s not a struggle, maybe it’s not a good word. Hmmm…)

I had developed a plan, which I talked about here. I followed all my own directions. Nothing.

Ugh. Blergh. I left it alone for a while.

Then, I tried some new things, and you might see if they work for you.

• I asked friends to brainstorm.
• I went to Thesaurus.com.
• I thought about words I didn’t like, then looked at their opposites (a thesaurus can help with this, too).
• I prayed.
• I looked at how another person decided on their word, which I read here.
• I walked around the block.

I was ready to give up for the night. After all, I rationalized, there was no real deadline. There was no reason I had to come up with a word before the 1st of January. I hadn’t even heard of this program until mid-January last year. I was ready to give up for the night, but I decided to try one last thing:

• I went to other sites (here, here, and here, and here) where people talked about their words, and read the list of words that people had picked.

BINGO! That’s when it hit me: Bold.

Bold. I love it. It says everything I need this year. Heck, it’s even part of my motto. Again, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. Go figure.

Then I stayed up a couple more hours designing my graphic. Amazing how energizing this process is.