Word Of The Year – COURAGE!
Using one word to define your year seems like a challenge. You are faced with many events and challenges through your year and finding one word to define how you will respond and act to them is hard. It takes prayer and contemplation to figure out what that is for you. I’ve tried it for a few years and have never really found a word that truly spoke to me that I knew, without a doubt, I needed to focus on in the upcoming year. One word that centers your character and creates a vision for your future
This past year has been a huge challenge for me and so much of my time and energy was spent just hanging on. I didn’t have a vision or a plan other than to just get through one day at a time. I decided that on my time off between Christmas and New Years, I would focus on my plan for the upcoming year and really give myself a vision and a path. I’ve been blessed with an amazing business and family and it’s all been with just flying by the seat of my pants. I believe that is where the majority of my depression and internal struggles stemmed from. Not having a vision for ME! Having said that, I thought my word should be “VISION”, but in doing more internal searching, I decided it is COURAGE! I do have a vision – I know what I want my life to look like in the coming years even when I don’t know what path will get me there. But COURAGE?!?! That’s powerful!
Why is that a powerful meaningful for word for me at this point in my life?
Courage is a desirable quality to have and a way of life that most want to embody. But the actual act of having courage is a challenge. It means being willing to face fear and embrace uncertainty; and let’s face it, life is FULL of uncertainties. Most people wait for courage to fall into their lap when circumstances are “right” to face whatever challenges are ahead of them. Not knowing what is on the other side is scary. Most people wait for the universe to give them a sign letting them know – you can be certain now! Have courage! But the universe isn’t going to give that to you. If you were certain – you wouldn’t have courage. Courage is FEELING FEAR AND MOVING FORWARD ANYWAYS! Courage is not the absence of fear – it is acting in spite of fear!
The root word of courage is “COR” which is the latin word for heart. That is what courage is about!! Courage is about sharing your story no matter how broken and shattered it is! Courage is about moving forward to greater things and leaving what you thought were great things behind! Courage is about facing your resolutions and moving forward on the ones that bring you the most fear! When you have courage you will grow! And yes, you may fall and stumble along the way. But people will look at you and see that you embody courage because you preserved despite what was thrown your way. You followed your heart – which is where courage is built!!
So why did I pick this word for my year? Simple!! I’ve lived the past few years in fear of what my future held and not making decisions because I was just doing what was easy. Easy things don’t build courage! Hard and scary things build courage. An example would be when I was writing down my list of goals and plans for my professional and personal life. When I looked at that list, I realized there are many things that I know, without a doubt, I can accomplish. But, there were a few select things on that list that are dreams and wishes that I don’t really think I can ever achieve and THOSE are the things that stuck out to me the most! Sure I can do the easy business and relational stuff and I will grow from it. But the hard stuff……the stuff that I want to achieve but feel like I will fail at??? Those are the places that I will grow in courage!! And THAT is where my focus is going to be this year…..and every year!
Where are you wanting to grow? Where are some of your dreams and passions that you would achieve if you knew you could not fail? Failure may look like that dream didn’t come true….but another dream may be shown to you along the way that you never imagined if you hadn’t taken the first step of COURAGE. That’s how life works. We don’t know what our days bring. But we have dreams and passions in our hearts to get us where we are meant to be and even though that path may change daily, you keep fighting with COURAGE! What word do you want want your heart and life to show to the world when you live out your days? Do you want to stay safe and comfortable or do you want to do the hard stuff and come out better on the other side? Because even if you fail….you’re going to be stronger for trying. And I can almost guarantee that even if you fail, you will learn other things about yourself that you never knew AND you’ll be a COURAGEOUS person along with it!!
You were born with wings…have the COURAGE and use them to fly!!