Many people make resolutions for the New Year, such as finally losing that last 10 (or 15…thanks holidays) pounds they’ve been hanging onto or landing a new, more fulfilling job. I’ve never been much on making these promises, since you never know what lies ahead in your future that may deter you from reaching these goals. You may be about to experience an unexpected season of life that forces you to postpone or change your initial resolution, resulting in feeling that you failed for not accomplishing your original goal. Along these same lines, depending on your resolution – your happiness can be put on hold as you strive to achieve something that you believe will improve your well-being after it is met.
So, rather, in 2019 – instead of a resolution, I’ve decided to focus on a word. A word that I hope will shape my year and improve each area of my life – as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and co-worker. My word for this year is “gratitude.” This is a virtue that I hope to focus on every day this year – in doing so, I’ll strive to move closer to my best self. Instead of feeling guilt about going back to work after my maternity leave, I’ll focus on how grateful I am to have spent uninterrupted bonding time with my children. Instead of feeling angry that my husband didn’t do the dishes yet, I’ll be grateful that he took the baby in the middle of the night so I could get some rest. Instead of feeling stressed about the many things that need done, I’ll concentrate on how blessed that I am to have a family, house, and reason to be needed.
My hope is that keeping this word with me in 2019 will in turn keep out the negative thoughts and feelings that weigh me down from time to time. Once you reach a certain age, it’s hard to reverse thought patterns and easier to complain and focus on the parts of your life that you’d like to change. This year, I want to zero in on the aspects of my life that I love and am grateful for. I want to retrain my brain to embrace the positive, and in doing so, continue to work toward being the person that I want to be.
What do you think of this idea? Will you pick a word in 2019? What is it? Give it a try – it just may work for you, too!
