2019 - The Year of INTENTIONAL!

As originally written back in 2016, here's a little background on choosing a single word to be the theme for my year:

So let me give you a little background. Back in 2010 my bestie, Rebecca, presented this idea to me that she had heard about of picking a word to be your intention for the entire year. We both really liked the concept and totally ran with it. I picked Peace and she picked Joy. And whoa...if we had known how powerful having a single word could be I don't know that we would have done it! Well, at the very least we both agreed later that we would have been more cautious in choosing. LOL Because we both went through a pretty crazy journey that year and our words were very prominent in that journey. I'm kind of glad we didn't know though because that's the way it SHOULD be...kind of the purpose right? At any rate, by the end of the year we were sold! And we've been doing it together ever since. If you want more information about this, just Google One Little Word (Ali Edwards has registered that one) or One Word Resolution and you'll find all kinds of info about it. I don't know who created the concept originally but whoever it was is brilliant! 

My words have been:

2010: Peace
2011: Quality (how my little blog got its name!)
2012: Strong (I did the Ali Edwards One Little Word(r) workshop that year - it's amazing - she's amazing!)
2013: Light
2014: Courage (the year I ran my marathon!)
2015: Now

2016: Grow

2017: Believe

2018: Live (blog post closing out the year of Live)

Before I can jump into sharing my word and what it means to me, I need to provide a little of the thought process that brought me TO the word. Most years I'll start thinking about my word for the coming year around Thanksgiving and will usually settle onto one before December even hits; however, this year, it was towards the end of mid-December that I even came close to settling on a word. Many had run their way through my mind, but nothing had stuck. So I realized that I needed to spend a little time thinking about what I actually WANTED for 2019. In thinking about where I had been and where I wanted to go what I realized was that much of the past several years had been determined by outside factors. First my goals were centered around getting a promotion at work. So all my goals stemmed from that bigger one - up my clothes game, go back to school, be present at work, etc. And then I went back to school with many of my goals centered around finishing my degree program. Then after I finished my degree in March of this year (2018) it was returning my focus to getting life back to normal in a post-homework world. What that basically boils down to is that since I set goals in 2016, my life has been clicking along and I've achieved the big goals that I set of getting the promotion and finishing my degree, then finally returning to a new normal. 

What I realized as I was thinking about it was that this was the first time in several years that I had to actually think about what I wanted in life! There wasn't anything else driving the car, it was up to me to decide where I wanted to go and then turn the steering wheel in that direction. Holy crap - that was a surprising realization! HA! Isn't it funny how life can sneak up on us sometimes? As I got over the shock of not having anything major in life driving my direction, it was scary and freeing all at the same time. What is this concept of getting to decide??? How does that work exactly?? And the realization that I came to was that if I had the opportunity to determine my direction this year and that I didn't have any major life goals that I needed to be working on, I didn't want to just flounder about and not care. I wanted to carve out the direction - I wanted to be INTENTIONAL in where I went even if it wasn't a major life destination. I wanted to make some small life decisions that could make a big impact, or at the very least, small life decisions that I could ENJOY living in. 

And so, INTENTIONAL became the word!

I want to be intentional about how I spend my time. I don't get a lot of "spare" time, so in the time I'm given I want to be intentional with it. What do I do and is it making me better? Who am I spending it with and does it improve my life? Am I taking the time for self-care that I need to take so I can devote myself to the pursuit of quality in my life? For example, many times in the morning as I'm waking up my first go-to is pulling out the phone and browsing social media, which can then turn into a rabbit hole that is hard to dig out of and before I know it, I no longer have time for what I wanted to do that morning like working out or spending a few minutes with the hubby before he leaves for work. So if I'm being intentional, I will set a time limit and when I hit that limit I will get off of the social media and continue on with what I want out of my day. It's not a huge change, but it's an intentional change and one that will allow me to set my direction. 

The main takeaway as I see it is that to be intentional, I have to actually THINK about what I want in each moment. It's about being thoughtful, even if it is small and inconsequential, about what each decision I make brings into my life. Deciding to spend time on social media isn't necessarily a bad thing as I have relationships there that bring meaning into my life, so intentionally deciding on spending time reading and commenting on my friend's posts can bring richness into my life - but it should be something that I actually decide to spend time on; not just something that I mindlessly do. INTENTIONAL...

I'm excited to see how intentional living and thinking works for me in 2019! I'm excited for a year full of possibilities that are just waiting for me to find them. 

Will you be setting a one-word theme for your year? Tell me about it in the comments! 

Closing out 2018 and My Year of LIVE!

For anybody new to this party, my bestie and I have selected a word to be our theme/focus/resolution for the entire year since 2010. My words in recap are:

2010: Peace
2011: Quality (how my little blog got its name!)
2012: Strong (I did the Ali Edwards One Little Word(r) workshop that year - it's amazing - she's amazing!)
2013: Light
2014: Courage (the year I ran my marathon!)
2015: Now
2016: Grow
2017: Believe
2018: Live



Some years my word has really spoken to me (peace, courage, grow), and other years I am hard pressed to even remember what it was or feel any connection to it (strong, light). So, how does LIVE stack up? It was a good word! Not a great word, but a GOOD word. It served me well and I definitely think it helped that 2018 ended up just being a really great year for me. Was it because of the word? Probably not, but I don't think it hurt that I went into the year fully prepared to LIVE life fully either!

Some of the best parts? Finishing school for one! That was a huge accomplishment after a long journey. Getting my Bachelor's Degree was something that was a long time coming, and I'm just happy I finally did it. As it turns out, I'm the first one in my immediate family to be conferred with a Bachelor's Degree! I have several family members that have units towards their undergrad degree; however, I was the first one to actually get the piece of paper. For a teen mom, high school dropout that didn't think that education was in my cards, I was super proud of myself. I was also super happy to get my life back!! When you're in the middle of the challenge, you don't really realize how difficult it is. Once I was done with school I felt like I freed up some brain power to focus on simple things like being the sarcastic ray of sunshine that I am. LOL



After finishing school, I got back to running consistently again! I went to the Skirt Sports retreat in Boulder Colorado in June and hung out with my gal pals. I put on about 20ish pounds during school and when I saw pictures from that retreat I knew that it showed, so I came home in June refreshed and renewed, ready to focus on dropping the weight. I got back to my pre-degree weight in several months and feel much better! I also ran two half marathons in November and December and actually talked my middle son into running them with me! I'm already signed up for three more in 2019. Running feels REALLY GOOD again! I'm still slow and I'm still horrible at sticking to a training plan, but I feel like enjoying it is the primary goal.








I took an EPIC trip to New York City for a work conference and got to take my girls with me! I've been to NYC before and absolutely loved it, so when I got the opportunity to go for work and my girls both wanted to go, we made it happen. I really wanted for them to enjoy the trip and get the most out of being in the city as 24-year olds. Their friend Katryn flew in from Texas and met us there and it was amazing! It's too much to go into in this post, but we had a blast. They had fun during the day while I did conference stuff, and then we would have dinner and explore in the evenings. They may have hit the bars every night as well. LOL







Some of the other highlights: work was fantastic all year long...graduation took place in a different location and it allowed us to do some things differently than we had in the past like having bagpipes walk the graduates in, a balloon drop at the end. It was awesome! We also bought a new building in Temecula where we will open our third full campus in 2020. That was huge news for our college, our community, and our future students. I got a promotion to Director of Board and Executive Services (similar job, but bigger title and more responsibility).

Really, what it all comes down to is that I freaking lived the heck out of my life in 2018! I enjoyed so much health, happiness, friendships, love, family, and more this year. I felt like I tried to find ways to live in each moment, even the ones that were challenging or not so much fun.

So to 2018 I say, thank you! Thank you for giving me lots of life to enjoy. I'm going into 2019 excited to see what comes next. I don't think there's anything big on the horizon to rival all the major life events that went down in 2018; but at the same time, I'm ready to just enjoy a slower pace.

How about you - do you have a word for your year? How did 2018 go for you? What are you looking forward to in 2019?