Throwback to some history on my One Little Word Journey

My one little word for 2017 found me while I listened to this Lively podcast featuring Erin Lochner (very excited to  read her new book, Chasing Slow). They discussed the difference between ALLOWing something into your life (with joy) and TOLERATING something (with disdain). Although I contemplated some other words to focus on this upcoming year, this one kept speaking to my heart time and time again.

I will allow:
– my daughter to dress how she wants to dress, style her hair how she wants to style her hair, and take pictures of what she wants to take pictures of because she is a unique force of a human that I do not want to restrict in any way from developing her true self (I’m putting this first because for some reason, this one might prove to be the hardest for me)
– my son to become a young man even though I so desperately want him to stay little
– my husband to cope with his stuff in ways he needs to cope with his stuff
– my students to express themselves in a variety of ways, not just in my step-by-step directed ways
– myself to connect with friends and girlfriends WITHOUT feeling guilty about missing time with my family
– intentional time to be made for creative pursuits each week
– time each day to reflect on gratitude and express that gratitude to those that gifted me that which I am grateful
– good things to happen to my family without second guessing who is judging from afar
WITH JOY.

I will NOT allow:
– screentime to become more important than eye contact and deep connection with my kids
– my insecurities to block my successes
– others around me to struggle with ailments, both physical and emotional without an effort from me to help (even if it’s an offer to help through the medicinal properties of an open bottle of red wine)
– politics to shade my hope and belief in Americans, America, and our future generations of change-makers

My little family set some goals on New Year’s Eve together. We are using an amazing goal-tracker by Elise Joy (get yours here for FREE) to track our PROGRESS (not perfection) at these goals this year. One week in, and this has already been a great way to keep each other accountable and have some meaningful conversations about reaching our goals, both big and small.Happy New Year to all of my loved friends and family – thank you for checking in on us every now and again. I can’t wait to keep sharing our wins and our struggles this year as we keep chugging away at this little thing called life.