Be Bold in 2017 // Words of the Year

I’ll be the first to admit that when I was originally introduced to the idea of the “word of the year”, I thought it was tacky. One word to describe your whole year? At the beginning of the year? Yeah, right.

Then last year, I jumped on board and picked a word. By mid-February, I had completely forgotten about it. In fact, a few weeks ago when talking to blogging friends, I had to go look up what my word of the year was. Talk about a failure.
With the hindsight of knowing I forgot last year’s word (it was prosperity), my first word of the year makes a lot of sense. Then again, so does my second one.
Yes, I picked two words of the year, because one wasn’t enough. But the two go together. With a little help from Laney, I finally admitted I needed both. One supports the other.
So, my two words of the year? Consistency and resilience.
2016 was anything but consistent. I had no job, I had a job. I was working out, I wasn’t working out. My weight was stable, new medicine made me gain 25 pounds in a month. I was blogging, I wasn’t blogging. I was working on a book, I was kind of working on a book. Get the picture? If I was prospering in anything, it was the lack of doing anything.
2016 felt a lot like a little action and a lot of reaction. Smart planning and action will lead to consistency, and that’s really what I crave in life. With smart action and planning, not only will I have consistency, but I’ll have control over my own life. That’s something I feel like I really didn’t have in 2016. So much felt like it was at the whim of others, and while some situations will always be at the whim of others, I have so many opportunities to control my life.

Consistency is the power I need to regain my life.
At the same time, I know there are instances I can’t necessarily control. Like being laid off after the election. Any other year in my adult life, it would have been grounds for the depression to suck itself back in and take over my life – but it didn’t. Okay, maybe I moped a little the day I was let go, but the next day I was at the gym working out. And we all know what Elle Woods said about working out: “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” Which is the exact opposite of depression.
Come share your word of the year with the #bebold2017 link-up! Share on X
But that’s where resilience comes in. Somehow, after the news, there was something in there that was stronger than my depression. After years of battling with it, had my resilience against myself actually won out? Had I beaten the monster inside of my head?
Of course, I’ve had a few breakdowns since losing my job – but those didn’t even come until a month after.
I talked about resilience and my allure to it last year in this post, and it’s still the same. Whatever it was that allowed me to bounce back from all the bad things last year – death in the family, losing my job, struggles with my health, I want to really solidify that this year.

Resilience to me is the ability to pick back up after I allow myself to fall and break down. Which I do a lot. So I need that resilience.
This year, with my consistency, I’m going to really make an effort to remember my words of the year and actually focus on them.
Are you joining us for Be Bold in 2017? Link-up your blog post with your word of the year here!