Word for 2012

Last year, I chose “Effort” for 2011 with the intention to just put effort into what mattered to me without worrying about outcomes too much.

And the past year…I have worked harder – I put in more hours at my day job AND while I haven’t worked as much as I wanted on our house, my interior decorating course, building my business or this blog, I’ve overall given in less to voices of self-doubt and instead acted more on ideas I had. And it felt really, really good.

This year, I am choosing Step Up.

There are two visuals that come to mind for me:

A line of people standing next to each other, military style, and one person simply stepping forward when a volunteer is asked for a job.

One person putting up their hand in a classroom to give the answer to a question.

I don’t really like standing out whether in a good or a bad way, I am a sensitive person and it tends to bring my stress levels up (sometimes waaaay up). For example, in school, even when I knew the answer to a question, I’d often wait until absolutely no one else knew the answer before I’d finally put my hand up. And there are many other ways in which I (still!) resist standing out because the thought of it stresses me out.

But…I cannot be true to who I am without sometimes being that person who stands out. We are all unique and when we are true to ourselves, there will be times when you’re won’t fit into a mold or someone else’s idea of who you should be.

This year, I feel that there are things I want to do that will require me to step up, not in a pushy way, but simply to metaphorically step forward and out of the line or put up my hand.

So I am letting myself be guided by this idea of stepping up and I am curious to see what it will bring up for me in 2012.

Besides picking my word for the year, I have also done some reflecting on the past year, my core values and my plans and goals for the upcoming year.

I plan to take the first couple of weeks of January to continue working on this and thought I’d share some resources I’ve used, in case you’re interested:

I’ve used

This printable Word of the Year worksheet.
This printable End of the Year Review exercise.
This e-book that helps you determine your core values. (It’s priced at $35 and even though I got it for cheaper during a sale, I think it’s worth that because I honestly can’t believe how it has put certain things in perspective for me and helped me understand my motivation and also what does not motivate me.)

And I am planning to also
Write a letter to my future self.
Fill out this lovely workbook for Unravelling 2012.
And maybe also journal about these prompts.

As you can see, I am absolutely in the mood to dive in this year and do some hardcore introspecting to start this year off well…maybe it has something to do with the fact that I turn 30 this year. Maybe I am just having a lot of fun with it…

What about you? Any ideas for where you want your focus to be in 2012?