Before I blog about my awesome mini vacation or catch up on a very important birthday that happened in the middle of the December mayhem, I have to share my word for 2012.
I am a firm believer in goal setting. I adore new starts: new years, back to school, new birthday years, new months, and even new weeks. I love the feeling of starting fresh and challenging myself to reach a little farther than before. I also love to look back at my accomplishments, and even my failures, and figure out what I can do to improve or learn from the experience.
So new years resolutions are like a party for me. Planning, daydreaming, writing, and rewriting all the goals and hopes I have for the new year is something I adore. But I fell into a rut. My goals were usually pretty much the same. They were the ones everyone has. Eat healthy, exercise, drink more water, read my scriptures...blah, blah, blah. All good things, but if my goals are always the same, am I really improving? I say no. So, when a friend introduced me to a new spin on resolutions I instantly fell in love.
She suggested that I select a word for the year, a theme to remind me of how I want to live my life. A word or a mantra to focus on and in turn improve myself with.
I've had the words "prepare" and "learn" in the past and each had given me renewed focus on the goals I had set that year.
This year, I know what I needed to focus on most. You see, like any mom, I am a multi tasking machine. I am always trying to check things off of my to do list. I am great at it, but I do it to a fault. So much so that it causes worry, anxiousness, becoming sidetracked, and the terrible habit of not being punctual. It has become a hindrance rather than a blessing.
Lately, I have heard more often than not, "Mom, come sit with me." "Mom, let's play a game." "Mom, are you done on the computer yet?" I realize that I have a very small window of time that these two boys will want my attention because before you know it friends, sports, and girls will take my place.
My word for 2012 is "present". I want to be more mindful of where I am at the moment and more importantly, who I am with. I want to really look into the eyes of my children and see them and hear them. I want to NOT be answering texts and emails on my phone when I am at their baseball games or visiting with my mom. I want to hang on every word my husband says at dinner rather than thinking about the assignment I have due next week. I want to sit with a student I am tutoring and really listen to them rather than write a mental grocery list. I want to listen to my friends not just hear them. I want to pray without my mind wandering off.
Although multi tasking is useful, perhaps more can be accomplished if one is really present and mindful of the task at hand. If all my time energy is given to the present moment, maybe I will stop being anxious about the next...maybe I will be on time more.
My word for 2012 is present.
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."
-- Henry David Thoreau
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