Skip to Content

Commitment: My 2017 Word of the Year

Sharing is caring!

Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, I’m a fan of the word of the year. Just one word that acts as a guide for decisions and plans as the year goes by.

Words like Balance, More, and Succeed have been my motivations for the past few years. Continuing with the theme from last year, Succeed, this year’s word is Commitment.

commitment word of the year

Commitment to what, exactly?

Well, I don’t know yet. I’m still working on it.

What I do know is that while I believe last year was a successful one in many ways, commitment, follow-through, is an area I need to work on.

It’s too easy to say “oh, I’m totally going to do this. This is a great idea!” and then just…not.

I find it too easy to make excuses as to why I can’t or can no longer do a thing I say I’m going to do, and I recognize this behavior as unhealthy because it leads to feelings of failure that I don’t really love.

(No one likes feeling like a failure. But especially not me.)

When I think about commitments I’d like to make this year, they’re things like go to the gym every day for 21 days in a row.

Why? Not to lose weight, though I would take that as a bonus. I want to make a commitment to doing something for a period of time and then stick with it.

Gym, yoga, self-care, reading 30 minutes a day, volunteering weekly in Joshua’s classroom, sending snail mail to friends, skipping coffee creamer and drinking sad bean water instead.

Whatever. It’s about the commitment and proving to myself I can do it.

Maybe I want to commit to washing my face every single night. Or blogging three days a week. Or making 5 phone calls a day for work purposes.

I hate the water puddles that happen on the counter when I wash my face and sometimes I’m just too tired to do it. So I can fix that by putting a towel down and washing my face before I get too tired.

I make excuses about blogging, like “no one cares” or “I have nothing to say” or “that’s been done already” or “I don’t have time.” But the truth is that I like the art of writing and getting thoughts out, even if no one reads them, so why wouldn’t I make time for that on a regular basis?

And I really, really hate making phone calls. Knots are forming in my stomach at the very thought of making a phone call. But some people, customers and clients, really like talking on the phone. (Weirdos.) (Just kidding. I love you all.)

If we’re working not to spend additional money, then I don’t want to walk past a Target end cap and see something on clearance and go “oh, I totally NEED this” when the truth is I totally don’t. I’m committed to watching what I spend, right? So that means not justifying behaviors that don’t align with my goals.

This pledge of commitment applies on the small, personal scale and larger ones as well.

I just want to stick with the things I say. I want to give up excuses.

I want to be dedicated to better in 2017.

Committed.

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.