Choosing ONE word for the entire year? Not easy. I finally narrowed it down to three:
Present
Engage
Accept
I want to be more present in my life and I realized that, if I fully engage, I can be. And to engage, I need to accept some things. (This is how I worked it out, anyway.)
Therefore, my one word this year is:
Accept
I hear you sneering (or perhaps it’s me), “Accept?! You’re just going to accept whatever happens? That’s so…so…”
Crap, huh?
To accept something seems passive.
However, I am choosing this word as my focus for the entire year above all the other glorious words in the English language. I’ve thought a lot about this.
I lost count of how many times I’ve caught myself saying, “I can’t believe this happened.” Or “I can’t believe she did that.”
“I can’t believe…” Well, gentle readers, it’s about time I start believing some things, you know?
Accept.
The Webster’s New Explorer College Dictionary definition:
ac·cept
verb: to receive as true
Ah. Truth. Now we’re getting somewhere.
I do not mean “get over it”, “that’s the way it is”, or “give up”.
I’ve heard “accept” used in these ways my whole life so it has always had a negative connotation for me.
Now I’m going to flip this word on its ass and my attitude is going with it.
I will not accept that the roof is leaking in the sense that I’ll shrug and live with a leaky roof. I’ll accept that the roof is leaking in the sense that once I accept it, I will do something about it.
Accepting my life the way it is doesn’t mean I won’t keep fighting. It means I will receive it as true instead of raging about how it shouldn’t be this way. It is, dude. It really is that way.
I need to act.
But acceptance isn’t the act, it’s what precipitates the act.
Accepting something isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. “I accept this…now what am I going to do about it?”
This is not going to be easy for me. Eh. I accept that.
Have you ever taken part in the One Word Challenge?
If you haven’t, why not try it? Or think on it a moment and leave one in the comments. What could your focus be this year? I’d love to hear what your One Word is for 2017.