I am running late this year already but hey- that is quite alright. I have decided to give myself and everyone else a lot of grace in 2022 and it starts right here. Today I want to share with you an exercise that has been very helpful to me since I started it in 2011.

It’s simple and a lot of people do it. Choose a word or three to focus on during the coming year. It is just an easy way to prioritize at the beginning of the year and have a few things that are tangible that can be focused on as the year goes on.

This year I decided to be environmentally thoughtful and recycle my words from last year. I believe that with the pandemic they are still very appropriate words for me and I want to continue to focus on them as much as I can. It may be a bit of a cop out but I choose to think that it is a good thing that will allow me to grow in these words even more during another year.

Here they are.

Celebrate – I intend to celebrate every single thing that I can this year. Again. I am going to celebrate. Any little thing. Birthdays, the perfect cup of tea, the breeze, the birds singing —it is all fair game this year. I am going to go all out and celebrate in style. Any little thing will be a reason to celebrate. Who is with me?

Hope— A repeat word for me for several years but one that I need to embrace and continue to internalize. Hope is what gets us through the tough times. Hope is what keeps us going each day. 2022 is a year of hope.

Nurture – It is in my nature to nurture and in 2022 I am going to nurture others as well as myself. Too often I put myself on the back burner and don’t really take care of me. I plan to do just that this year. No excuses, no apologies. If I need to do something to nurture myself I am going to do it. I have really tried the past year to take care of my emotional self. It was fragile at times after the death of my mom and this year I know I need to work harder on taking care of my physical self. So here’s to taking care of the ENTIRE self.

Are you a focus word type of person? I am always interested in hearing what others choose as their focus for the year so make sure you leave me a comment and your word(s). Remember that when you comment it means a small donation to our current Comments for a Cause recipient – Mountain Laurel Animal Rescue.