“Years end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” ~ Hal Borland
When I chose “practice” as my word for 2012 I wrote:
“…we don’t ‘get it’ all at once and then go off and live a perfect life. We often to have to ‘get it’ many times in order to live it, and even then, it’s never perfect (and that’s okay).
That’s what I like about the word ‘practice.’ It’s a way of ensuring a continual ‘getting.’ Something else I like about this word is that its definition has many layers and it addresses physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects.
And finally, ‘practice’ is both a verb and a noun…and it’s an attitude. It opens my year to all kinds of possibilities and varying shades, and it steers me away from ‘all or nothing’ thinking and behavior. It asks me to consider throwing off ballast , to listen to experts, to accept slowing down in order to move in the right direction, and to ensure that I am heeding my own instincts.
For me, practice does NOT make perfect, it is itself the reward.”
What I wrote a year ago proved to be so true, there’s not much else for me to say about it except this: the result of practicing is that I took massive action in 2012. It was imperfect action, but it was action nonetheless. For someone who doesn’t set goals (at least not in the usual sense), I achieved quite a bit, some things I expected and others that, at the beginning of 2012, I would never have imagined.
Some of the things I practiced often and consistently in 2012:
acceptance
yoga
patience
curly hair
really paying attention to how various foods felt in my body instead of just giving lip service to “intutive eating”
kettlebells
grace
being a student
being a teacher
acceptance (aka “calling myself out” )
Emotional Freedom Technique
releasing anxiety
courage
asking better questions
feeling my feelings
balancing my hormones
letting it “set a spell”
getting at root causes
holding up the mirror
discipline
being vulnerable
building a business
taking financial responsibility for my grandmother
compassionate objectivity
inner peace
both/and thinking
quitting blame
forgiveness (this one was huge)
Although I am choosing a new word for 2013, I know that the concept of practice will stay with me. It has truly served me well!
Today also marks the two-year anniversary of my father’s death. I recently read the letter I wrote to him last year, on the first anniversary. It provided a look back at how my word for 2011 (“awe”) showed up.
Did you choose a word for 2012? How did it play out for you? Have you chosen a word for 2013? Feel free to share it here or link to your blog post if you wrote one!
“Years end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” ~ Hal Borland
When I chose “practice” as my word for 2012 I wrote:
“…we don’t ‘get it’ all at once and then go off and live a perfect life. We often to have to ‘get it’ many times in order to live it, and even then, it’s never perfect (and that’s okay).
That’s what I like about the word ‘practice.’ It’s a way of ensuring a continual ‘getting.’ Something else I like about this word is that its definition has many layers and it addresses physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects.
And finally, ‘practice’ is both a verb and a noun…and it’s an attitude. It opens my year to all kinds of possibilities and varying shades, and it steers me away from ‘all or nothing’ thinking and behavior. It asks me to consider throwing off ballast , to listen to experts, to accept slowing down in order to move in the right direction, and to ensure that I am heeding my own instincts.
For me, practice does NOT make perfect, it is itself the reward.”
What I wrote a year ago proved to be so true, there’s not much else for me to say about it except this: the result of practicing is that I took massive action in 2012. It was imperfect action, but it was action nonetheless. For someone who doesn’t set goals (at least not in the usual sense), I achieved quite a bit, some things I expected and others that, at the beginning of 2012, I would never have imagined.
Some of the things I practiced often and consistently in 2012:
acceptance
yoga
patience
curly hair
really paying attention to how various foods felt in my body instead of just giving lip service to “intutive eating”
kettlebells
grace
being a student
being a teacher
acceptance (aka “calling myself out” )
Emotional Freedom Technique
releasing anxiety
courage
asking better questions
feeling my feelings
balancing my hormones
letting it “set a spell”
getting at root causes
holding up the mirror
discipline
being vulnerable
building a business
taking financial responsibility for my grandmother
compassionate objectivity
inner peace
both/and thinking
quitting blame
forgiveness (this one was huge)
Although I am choosing a new word for 2013, I know that the concept of practice will stay with me. It has truly served me well!
Today also marks the two-year anniversary of my father’s death. I recently read the letter I wrote to him last year, on the first anniversary. It provided a look back at how my word for 2011 (“awe”) showed up.
Did you choose a word for 2012? How did it play out for you? Have you chosen a word for 2013? Feel free to share it here or link to your blog post if you wrote one!