Out with the Old Word-of-the-Year

Goodbye 2009. I’m so ready to move on into 2010…but first I still have some unfinished business with 2009.


Last year, after reading inspiring stories on Christine Kane’s blog about a Word-of-the-Year, I decided to skip the New Years Resolutions and instead choose a word for 2009. A word to help guide me and provide inspiration and focus. My word was ACTION.

I chose ACTION because I tend to be a dreamer…but then I think most creative types are cursed blessed with this particular trait. The problem with being a dreamer (at least for me) is that I tend to get stuck in the dreaming phase and don’t move beyond it.

So for the past 12 months I have used my word to help propel me from that place of inertia, even if that movement sometimes pushed me out of my comfort zone.

Like anything new, this first experience with my word wasn’t perfect but we hung in there and made it through.

Mostly the word helped with my business…moving me forward when previously I would have only bounced the ideas around in my head. Instead of wondering what it would be like to do shows again after being away from them for about a dozen years, I signed up and worked on building inventory. When it came time to do some online marketing, I remembered my word ---ACTION and moved ahead instead of becoming frozen with doubts.

In the past I was likely to put things off because I was caught in the trap of perfectionism. I thought if everything wasn’t exactly in place or precisely at the level I thought it should be, it was better to just do nothing. This year I took ACTION and did the best I could with the time or the resources I had.

So as 2009 ends, I am grateful for my word. As a first attempt, I think it went well. Now…on to 2010 and a new word!

Here’s a clue…

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” - Albert Einstein