One Little Word

My word for 2009 was "enrich" and I embraced it fully. I took more online courses than I care to count and learned something from each one of them.  I learned Photoshop Elements and graduated from novice to intermediate digi-scrapper. I followed a lot of really meaningful blogs and learned a lot about myself. I have no doubt that even with the struggling economy, health issues, broken heaters, and all the other petty annoyances of 2009, my life was truly enriched during the year. 

That is a tough act to follow. I really struggled with my "one little word" for this year.  It started with my mental "to do" list.  A lot of unfinished projects and online classes that I started but (thanks to life) didn't get to complete.  I was toying around with words like "complete" or "finish" or "commit".  But they didn't speak to me. While completing unfinished projects would surely give me a great sense of accomplishment and relief, I wasn't sure it would help with the spirit of growth as a person that I want from my one little word. Then I got this ornament as a gift from a good friend for Christmas:

I laughed out loud when I saw it.  Literally. It was funny. But the sad part is that it is also true. And the truth of it makes me feel guilty and ashamed and a whole lot of other crap I just don't want to address or think about. I knew that in 2010 I wanted to cross a lot of those unfinished projects off my to do list, but I also wanted more than that.

I have been following Brene Brown's Ordinary Courage blog for some time, because so much of what she has to say resonates with me, deeply, at a soul level.  And I remembered that in addition to the word authenticity, she uses the word "wholehearted" a lot.  Click here to learn more about how Brene defines "wholehearted".  "Wholehearted" is my word for 2010.  I want to live and love with my whole heart.  I want to approach each new thing I do with the attitude that anything worth doing is worth doing well, worth giving it your full attention and your best effort.

For my online classes, this means engaging fully in each course I sign up for and attempting to keep up with the curriculum and the assignments. Which means limiting myself to what I can actually handle in between work, family, life, and other commitments. I'd like to say it means one class at a time, but that intention would already be blown out of the water.  I'm currently signed up for Cathy Zielski's "Design Your Life" over at BPS which has already started and runs three months. I love her as a teacher.  I'm also signed up for a Wacom Pen Tablet class with Jessica Sprague that starts on the 18th. And I have every intention to sign up once again as an alumni participant in "Library of Memories" with Stacy Julian. That starts Feb 4th.  Which means I'll have three classes that overlap each other.  But here's the thing.  The Wacom class will get me to use a pen tablet that was a gift over TWO YEARS ago - which is still sitting in the box! Yes, I'm afraid of new technology without someone standing over my shoulder to point the way.  And the LOM class will allow me to get further along on my photo organization and my Library of Memories albums - another thing on that aforementioned list of unfinished projects. So these classes will help me reach that goal. Now if Jessica and Stacy and Shimelle would quit offering such enticing classes, I might be able to keep my intention of fully engaging in each class!

So, I'm looking forward to my wholehearted year and will be posting more about my intentions for 2010 later this week.  For now, let me leave you with a few more Christmas Journal pages: