Many people already shared their focus words and/or goals for 2017, so I am late to the party but for good reason. I chose Connection for my focus word after Emperor Baby Fists won the election and shocked the world. In light of what happened, I felt called to connect with likeminded individuals, my inner self and those open to respectful discussion. Because I planned to blend my goals with my focus word, I took plenty of time figuring it out.
Why I Chose Connection for My Focus Word
There are two main reasons why the word “Connection” resonated so strongly with me.
- Ever since I was teased as a little girl for being different, I wished people didn’t see race or skin color, just people. We are all bound to one another as we live on the same planet, share the same resources, prosper or wither and feast and famine together. Intolerance has always existed, simmering and unspoken. Now it’s not only open and visible, but too many people collectively shrugged their shoulders and said “so what”, which scares and saddens me. I want to help people see how we all connect together, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.
- Depression makes you feel alone. And because you likely believe you deserve to be alone, you stop answering phone calls from friends, turn down social invitations and basically choose to live like a hermit. I did all those things. And now it is time for me to reconnect with myself and with others.
5 Ways I am Connecting This Year
More than just my focus word for the year, connection is also a very personal goal. Many of these goals will likely remain in place going forward and become a part of who I am.
Volunteer at My Local Library
I started volunteering last Fall for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to give back and given my love of reading, this seemed like a no-brainer. The other reason is a bit selfish but because of my hermit-like tendencies, I needed to venture among the living. Volunteering offered an easy, safe way to dip my toe back into the world.
Join a Real Life Book Club
I want to get back into life socially and connect with people on a fun level. Obviously I love books but reading itself is a solo activity, so I needed something to help me interact with people in person. One of my friends belongs to a book club with some work friends and she invited me to join. I attended my first meeting yesterday and enjoyed myself immensely. I love talking about books (Hello, Show Us Your Books Link-Up participants!) and it was a treat to spend time with fellow book lovers in person.
Support Causes I Care About
Many days I feel overwhelmed by everything that is happening to be honest. Other days I am invigorated and fired up over so many things that I don’t where to begin. What I don’t want to do is spread myself out too thin and become ineffective. Right now, my interest lies in fighting against racism and supporting women’s rights. I continue to investigate opportunities in my area that I want to support and intend to report back with how and where I am using my energy, voice and talents in the following weeks. And if you have any suggestions, please share in the comments!
Network Professionally
I want to make more connections professionally, which as an introvert makes me want to hide under my covers. 😀 But I also want to eat and pay my bills, so growing both my web design business and my blogs is a must.
- For sasspurrella designs: I plan to find a group for web designers, either a Meet-Up Group or a Facebook/online group, to develop relationships with other designers and to learn from them as well. To regularly attend some kind of local business meeting where I can network with other business owners.
- For My Blogs: Right now I have two blogs, A Mindful Migration and Eat Laugh Purr. I am undecided if I want to keep two separate blogs or combine them as one but I plan to take my time making my decision too. What I do know is that growing my blogs is a priority because I love connecting with other bloggers and readers. I need to become more strategic with marketing and create a doable action plan.
Get Healthy, For Real
I have been on a diet roller-coaster most of my adult life. It seems like every year I resolve to get healthy and every year I fail. Some years I do better than others, but never can I announce proudly, “goal achieved”. I plan to make this year the year I succeed. 42 is on the horizon and I can feel it. And I don’t like it. I have not treated my body very well for the past few years and need to make big changes. My new motto is move forward. So I am reconnecting with my body and listening to what it tells me. And to my great shock, some days it tells me that it really wants to eat a kale salad or lift weights. 😀
Connect the Dots
Connection is going to be my roadmap this year. Helping me connect the dots, socially and professionally and move forward with strength. 2017 may seem uncertain and scary at times but as long as I remain tuned in and connected, I will survive and thrive and help others do the same too.
Did you chose a focus word? What is it? How do you”connect” with others and yourself?
Tanya
I love all of this; especially the one where you volunteer at the Library. I know a parent of one of the kids at Kayla’s school who works at my local library and everytime I see him, I think to myself “it must be amazing to work here, surrounded with books all day long!”. I used to work in retail at a bookstore and hands down, that was the best job ever because people would come in asking for book recos and I would talk their ear off.
Obviously, I also love the one about getting healthy/treating your body right. We only have one life, one body so might as well make it the best one, right?
When I retire from my career, you damn straight I’ll be applying to my local bookstore again!
I love talking to people about books too. I volunteer in the computer section so I don’t get to talk a lot about books but that would be so much fun! I really want to get to the point where I can look in the mirror and feel good and see the person that I know am looking back at me.
Great word, Tanya! Good luck with everything. It all sounds meaningful and challenging, but definitely do-able for you! I’m glad you’ve taken things that were formerly negative in your life and spinning them into positive progression for yourself!
I really wanted to pick a word that meant something to me because in the past I’ve done lip service kind of focus words. They meant something initially but I quickly forgot about them. I want to connect with others, with myself and improve my life. I know it won’t be easy (I can be a real procrastinator) but I am tired of living a half-life too.
I love your word connection and the reasons why you chose it. I too am a big introvert. I’ve done online book clubs before but never an in-person one. I love that you volunteer at your library. I probably should. Everyone at the library knows me by name since I’m there so often! If I could actually get paid to work at a library is more ideal! I do volunteer once a week at my son’s elementary school with the PTA. Uugh, I think I have to start networking myself soon and it scares the bejesus out of me! I am looking forward to reading more about your word of the year and how you are connecting.
I am not a great networker either. Sometimes if I connect with the right person right away, it goes great. Other times I hide in the corner. 😀 So I hear you and hopefully we both can brave and conquer our fears and get out there!
Emperor Baby Fists hahahahahahahahaha
i think volunteering at your library sounds great. i will admit, i want to do these things, but i am scared – it’s silly, i know. i need to put myself out there more.
i would LOVE to join a real live book club. i don’t know anyone in real life who does one though, so show us your books is my book club.
Trust me, I about threw up on my first day of volunteering. And I’ve been volunteering since September and some days I still have to push myself because I just want to hide in my apartment. It helps that it is the library and a place that I love! I really enjoyed my first book club meeting. The book wasn’t super great but it was so nice hanging out with fellow book lovers. Plus, talking about books and eating are like two favorite pastimes. 😀
It really is easy to sink back into a lonely world if you dont push to make those connections & get out there so I love your choice of word for the year.
& wait…. you can volunteer at your local library????? I want to do that!!!
It is so easy to hide away if you don’t push yourself, which I haven’t been doing. And I paid the price for it too! So now it’s time to get out of my comfort zone and get back out there. Yes, you can volunteer at your library! My library receives many requests to read to kids, which is the one thing they don’t need (may not be the case for your local library). They need people to help with the computer center, which is where I volunteer. We also have a bookstore that volunteers run, our Saturday afternoon film and running hold books from one branch to another (we have 12 branches). Check it out – it’s fun!
Absolutely love this Tanya!!!! Also, “Emperor Baby Fists”?? Hi-lar-ious, ha, ha, ha…
Love your focus word and as a fellow introvert, I get the whole “need to meet actual people” thing, lol 🙂
Thanks, Mackenzie! I would love to take credit for Emperor Baby Fists but one of the gossip blogs I read call him that so I adopted it too! I love my blogging buddies – they have been huge lifesavers to me – but we all need to be with real people sometimes too! Speaking of that – some day we need to get together for coffee! 😀
I was totally thinking we should be meet up for coffee! 🙂
Absolutely! We definitely need to get together!
Emperor Baby Fists makes me LOL so hard.
I love your word for the year. It’s so easy to isolate ourselves but that’s unhealthy, mentally and physically. And I’m glad to see your connections are on and offline. There’s just something special about real world friends and experiences that can’t be replicated on the Internet.
Me too. The man does not deserve the title President. I have definitely isolated myself and it has not been good for me. So I’m definitely working to get back out there, even when some days I just want to stay home with Max, because it is so important. I feel so blessed to have great Internet friends and I need to reconnect with my real life friends too.