As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m not really into making New Years Resolutions. They are great for some folks, and I think anything you’re doing to try to get better as a person should be counted as a good thing – it’s just that I never end up keeping them.

They seem to have the built in excuse to fail because “no one ever keeps their resolutions anyway…”

That being said, I did still want to do SOMETHING this year. Something intentional, purposeful. So I decided to have a Word of the Year.

My Word of the Year will be a word that I try to keep at the forefront of my mind – in daily moments, or in the times of making big decisions. I hope to be able to use it as a guiding light for my decisions and actions over the next twelve months. It will be “home” for me each day.

I have to admit I had a really hard time deciding what my Word would be for 2015. (Which brings us to this announcement being a week into the year…) There were so many words that I felt a strong pull toward: Simplify, Joy, Focus, Still, Courage, Faith, etc. I would feel emotionally and mentally drawn toward one of those words, but part of me would be feeling the pull toward something on the other end of the spectrum. For example, I would be leaning toward choosing Focus – pushing myself to really continue to look intently at my goals, and then focusing on each and every step needed to make them a reality. But then part of my heart would be whispering the word “still” to me. Be still. Take time to just be, rather than pushing so hard on so many fronts.

With some of these contrasting feelings, those words spoke to me, but they just didn’t feel right. For this year. For where I am now. They are all good things that I’ll try to work on at some point throughout the year, but they just didn’t feel like the “home” I could live in each and every day this year. Maybe they’ll be the Word of the Year in future years, but not right now.

Which led me to my word of the year…

Balance. I want to make sure I really focus on balance this year. Figuring out priorities, and then keeping them as priorities. Taking a little time each week (or day) to do nothing other than hang out or read a book for fun. Make time for family, time for me, time for my job, time for my photography, etc. If I work through lunch one day, then take the next day’s lunch break to work on photo tasks, and the next lunch break to go work out, and the next lunch break to come home and do nothing but watch a DVR’ed show. Making a point to keep my emotions more balanced… To keep my contact with friends balanced. To keep my faith and my relationship with God as a key piece of my day to help keep me grounded – and balanced.

I’m really looking forward to seeing where this Word of the Year approach will take me this year… Have any of y’all chosen a Word of the Year before? What about this year? What is your word?