No More New Year's Resolutions!

The new year is fast approaching and the time has come when people choose their New Year's Resolutions. But I've found that a list of goals becomes overwhelming and by the end of January I'm discouraged and done with resolutions so I don't set goals instead I pick a Word of the Year. I have loved the benefit doing this has brought to my life! Three years ago my word was rejuvenate, two years ago grateful, and this year it was anchored.

To make the Word of the Year work best choose a verb—an action word—and then constantly remind yourself of your Word of the Year. For example, when I chose rejuvenate, I let the word underscore everything I did. If I was cleaning house, I’d think about rejuvenating it—doing it better and/or more effectively than ever before. If I was studying, I’d think about rejuvenating my studies—having more enthusiasm and excitement in my study. If I was with friends, I’d think about rejuvenating my friendship—not taking friendship for granted but cherishing it and giving more to it. Instead of feeling like something extra or burdensome to do (like a goal often seems), a word resolution simply enhances and invigorates everything I am already doing. In this way I help the natural process of letting the Spirit renew and guide me day by day without getting discouraged or being tempted to give up. I love it!

I'll share my 2013 Word in a day or two (It won't surprise any of you who have been following Good News! for long.) but in the meantime, what words are you thinking about? And what experiences did you have last year with your 2012 Word of the Year?

(Just for fun leave a comment and guess my 2012 Word.)

It's "Word of the Year" Time

The new year is fast approaching and the time has come when people choose their New Year's Resolutions. But I've found that a list of goals becomes overwhelming and by the end of January I'm discouraged and done with resolutions so I don't set goals instead I pick a Word of the Year. Two years ago my word was rejuvenate and this year my word was grateful.

To make the Word of the Year work best choose a verb—an action word—and then constantly remind yourself of your Word of the Year. For example, when I chose rejuvenate, I let the word underscore everything I did. If I was cleaning house, I’d think about rejuvenating it—doing it better and/or more effectively than ever before. If I was studying, I’d think about rejuvenating my studies—having more enthusiasm and excitement in my study. If I was with friends, I’d think about rejuvenating my friendship—not taking friendship for granted but cherishing it and giving more to it. Instead of feeling like something extra or burdensome to do (like a goal often seems), my word resolution simply enhances and invigorates everything I am already doing. In this way I help the natural process of letting the Spirit renew and guide me day by day without getting discouraged or being tempted to give up. I love it!

This year I’m still trying to decide between two words. It has been so difficult that I was tempted to use both, but I know from experience that part of the power of choosing a Word of the Year is the focus and when I pick more than one word the effort becomes diluted and is much less effective.

As soon as I decide which word, I'll let you know. In the meantime, what words are you thinking about? And what experiences did you have last year with your Word of the Year?

The Question

Last week in Church a teacher asked a question that has really made me ponder. She asked, “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?”

All this week I’ve thought about the things in my life that I love and how many of them I’ve never thanked my Heavenly Father for. It has made me so appreciative and since my word of the year is gratitude, it has helped me in my pursuit of gratitude.

So I’m passing the question on to you. I hope it enriches your life like it has mine.

What if you woke up today

with only the things

you thanked God for yesterday?

It’s “Word of the Year” Time

Only two more days left of 2010 and that means it is time for a new word of the year. For those of you who weren’t reading the Good News! last year, I don’t do new year resolutions. Instead, I pick out one word to concentrate on for the entire year. That way instead of having to keep track of lots of goals, I just apply my word to whatever I am doing at the time.

My word for last year was Rejuvenate and it worked so well I almost decided to use it again this coming year. If I was cleaning the house, I was thinking about rejuvenating the house—cleaning better, deeper than I ever had before and we redid the entire basement. If I was talking to friends I was concentrating on making the friendship better, and we looked up some old friends and renewed friendships we had missed. I think you get the gist, I learned new recipes, studied some new subjects, and rejuvenated my health! It was a great year.

But after thinking about it, I’ve decided I do need a new word for 2011. (Hopefully rejuvenate is now habit and will stick with me.) So, my new word for next year is Gratitude. Whatever I do, I am going to do it with gratitude.

I’d sure love to hear your word of the year experiences from 2010. And I’d love to hear your 2011 word choices. You’ll find that sharing them with someone else makes your commitment stronger. If you aren’t comfortable leaving a public comment, email me at smillsjohnson at gmail.com. 

Choose a word and get ready for the new year!

Word Power

Several months ago my daughter (D1) was informed by her youngest son, five-year-old Luke, that the gathering her family had every Monday night was not called Family Home Evening, but Happy Family.

“Is it Happy Family tonight?” he asked and when she tried to correct him, Luke insisted that Happy Family was the real name. He has persisted in this ever since refusing to let anyone in the family call it anything but Happy Family. So the name has caught on and even the teenagers in the family are now calling it Happy Family.

The interesting thing, D1 reports, is what a difference it has made in their home. “It is so funny,” D1 told me, “but everyone’s attitude about Family Home Evening has changed. Everyone is excited about being part of Happy Family where before there were times of murmuring and reluctance. I don’t know how much is due to the name change and how much is Luke’s enthusiasm, but whatever it is, it is working! The whole family is eagerly looking forward to Happy Family each week. I love it!”

Like D1, I don’t know if the name change or the enthusiasm of a young brother has caused the change in attitude. Probably it is a combination of both. However, I do know that words have power and that what we call things and the words we choose to describe our lives influence those lives greatly.

I think I’ll remember this as I implement my word of the year. As part of my rejuvenation I’m going to think about what words I use daily. Do I have to clean the house or do I get to clean the house? It’s amazing what such a small change in words can do to lift spirits and alter the way you look at life!

(Picture is of Luke in the Hill Cumorah Pageant last July)

Day by Day

This time of year many people are making resolutions and harboring hopes of a better year, a more productive year, a happier year ahead. We go along for days, weeks, or sometimes even a month or two with those goals and hopes and then something happens that destroys our resolution. Maybe we fail at keeping the goals or a life event dims our hope and we abandon the resolutions thinking we’ve blown it again this year. This is one of the reasons New Year resolutions fail—because we are thinking in terms of years. We set the goal for a year and it is only February! So we wait until next year to begin the process again.

But new beginnings don’t have to be measured in years. At one point in Paul’s teachings, he tells the Corinthians, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). In other words, our bodies might be growing older and becoming weaker, but our inward being, our spirits, are renewed daily through Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.

That is one reason I like having a word for the year instead of goal resolutions. My word is not something that is kept or broken like a goal; it just floats with me in whatever I am doing. If I am cleaning house, I’m thinking rejuvenate—do it better than ever before. If I am studying, I’m thinking rejuvenate my studies—have more enthusiasm and excitement in my study. If I am with an old friend, I’m thinking rejuvenate my friendship—don’t take friendship for granted but cherish it. Instead of feeling like something extra to do, my word resolution enhances and invigorates everything I am already doing. In this way I help the natural process of letting the Spirit renew me day by day by day without getting discouraged or being tempted to give up. I love it!

Resolutions

A new year and a new decade is approaching. For years I always made new resolutions as part of my celebration. Like most people I didn’t keep all of them, but I find that when striving for a goal even if I don’t keep it all the time I do better than if I have no goal at all. But last year D1 introduced me to something that I really enjoyed doing and so I thought I’d pass the idea along to you.

Instead of goals or resolutions last year I choose one word to define my year: positive. All year long I repeated the word and thought about being positive and finding the positive in any situation or in other people. The surprising thing was to watch how one word made such a difference in my life. I’d start to feel discouraged or sad at something that was happening and then I’d catch myself and simply say, “Positive, Sherrie, positive,” and the feelings would change and I’d start to see things differently; I’d see the good instead of the bad. It never felt oppressive or burdensome like goals sometimes do. I never had that, “I have to do this” feeling.

This year I had trouble deciding between the words simplify and rejuvenate. I finally choose rejuvenate. I want to rejuvenate old friendships, present friendships, my Church calling, my teaching, my prayers, my faith, my health, my life—everything! Whatever I’m doing I’m going to put more enthusiasm and effort into it and see how I can do it a little better. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If any of you want to pick a word and make a "word resolution" leave a comment here about the word you have chosen. That way we can get ideas from each other and besides that committing to something in writing always makes the commitment stronger. We'll help each other keep our commitments!

Happy new word!