SUBJECT LINE: A Quick Word…
2016 is here and everyone is running around declaring it to be their best year yet. I am too!
One extremely popular post on Facebook is prompting people to “choose one word to define your year.”
It’s funny because, people who don’t usually get a lot of engagement on their posts are experiencing a “comment gold rush” as everyone is eager to share their one, meaningful, year defining word with the world.
Words such as happiness, joy, action, patience, winning, surrender, becoming, fun, peace, abundance, growth, success, SUCCESS! (maybe the all caps make it happen faster?) etc.
It’s exciting to watch, but it also makes me a little sad as well.
The reason is, I know everyone has great intentions at the start of the year, but I wonder how important their word will be in a month or two. Will they still even remember the word? And, did they pick the right one?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
This exercise isn’t new to me. I’ve been doing it for a few years now.
As I look back through my ill-kept journals, I can see the words of my past years written throughout my sporadic entries.
For example, last year’s word was “Be” and looking back in the year that was… that word was infused into everything I did. Throughout the positive and apparent negative experiences, all I had to do was just “Be”. Nothing more and nothing less.
And for the most part it worked… except when I forgot to “Be”. Then life, unsurprisingly became difficult. Doesn’t it suck!
Fortunately, it’s easy to get back on track again. All you have to do is, just re-establish your focus on your chosen word and off you go.
But what if you out grow your word?
Great question! And chances are, if you chose the word quickly or chose a word you thought others would like… you will.
In that case, all you need to do is sit in quiet “Quantumplation” (yes, this is a word I made up. But it works so well. Oh, and as good as that word is, it’s not my word for the year) and get the right word for you.
It’s pretty simple really… All you need to do is what’s right for you.
This is where a lot of people tend to go wrong. And when they do, it impacts their whole year and in some cases their whole life. Because people resort to doing what they think is expected of them… not what they really want to do.
Sadly, this can be a slippery slope into disappointment, disillusionment and in extreme cases… depression. And it’s a soul destroying path to walk.
How do I know?
It happened to me and I ended up with depression.
I don’t know if you know this or not… but depression sucks! It sucks the goodness out of your life, it sucks the living life force from every cell of your body and it sucks you into a dark, bottomless abyss of which there seems to be little chance of escape.
Once upon a time… in 2004, when I had just been promoted to the lofty rank of Major in the Australian Army, I was diagnosed with Major Depression (I know the irony is hilarious!) The back to back deployments they sent me on the year before had totally burned me out.
Being the high achiever I am, I sunk quickly into the depths of despair and thought I’d stay there for the rest of my life (and I was planning for that to be in the not too distant future.)
The medical team in charge of my medical and psychological well-being essentially gave me a “life-sentence” of being depressed for the rest of my life. Nice!
I was discharged from the Army, my body rejected the antidepressants and I was left on my own to try to survive (And get through the horrid drug withdrawals… talk about a trip. It was like being Alice in Wonderland loaded up on magic mushrooms and speed at the same time.)
I was faced with a tough decision. I could:
- Surrender to the depression and allow it to take my life (like it had done to some of my soldiers and close friends)
- Go back on medication and live a “numbed” existence for the rest of my life, or
- I could sort this crap out, cancel my subscription to the “Depression’s Darkness” club (the “frequent crier points” never got you anything good anyway) and chose a new way to live!
And as you can see… I chose option “c”.
Now why am I telling you this? How is this relevant to you? Great questions!
Here it is… right now, you have the opportunity to choose your path for the year and by selecting the wrong word or focus, it can be a disaster because…
Knowledge Nugget #20: Words Are Powerful…
So Use Them Wisely!
Now I don’t want to go too “woo woo” with you, but words have energy. And they have a meaning. Therefore they have huge power over our life.
Usually, the meaning is one we associate to it.
Take the word “Flibberty-gibbet.” It’s pretty much a non-sense word and you wouldn’t imagine it would have the power to upset anyone… but for one of my past clients, it was a huge trigger word. She was normally a strong and determined woman, but say “Flibberty-gibbet” and she’d turn into a blubbering wreck. (It’s okay, I used my magical “woo woo” ways to sort her out. Now the word doesn’t even register for her.)
What about the word “success”? Whose version or definition are you using? Make sure it is yours and you know what success looks like for you.
So how did I escape the deathly clutches of depression?
Another great question! (You ask all the good questions! I love the way your brain works!)
Knowing that words have power, I changed the words I used.
I changed my vocabulary and did some self-research and found out what words meant to me.
I stopped using negative words, I stopped owning the diagnosis of depression (saying “I am depressed” or “I have depression” is owning it!) and I divorced the word “should!” (You should never should all over yourself… it gets messy! Hahaha!)
It takes a bit of work, but it is 100% worth it. You just start to become aware of the words that come out of your mouth (and stay in your brain.)
Know that YOU DO have a choice and you can retrain your brain so you can have a better life. Because the words you use… create your reality.
So, now knowing how powerful words are, back to the “word for the year” … what word will you choose?
Until next week, have fun and stay awesome!
Cheers,
Pauline xxx
a.k.a. “The Copy Alchemist”
P.S. Oh, and I thought you might like to know what my word is… “Harvest!” It is time for me to reap what I have sown, to put aside some of the bounty to reuse for future crops and to put some away for when Winter comes. (I like the farming metaphor because our lives seem to be influenced by the seasons. Jim Rohn talks about this a lot.)
P.P.S. 2016 has started well. I am back at work and loving my new routine. Of course, my trusty work planner is always right by my side keeping me on track. If you asked for a copy, I hope it is working well for you. If you didn’t, I hope what you have is working well for you. (There are many ways to “skin a cat” as they say.)
P.P.P.S. If you or anyone you know has depression and need a simple to read resource, I have written a book called “From Depression’s Darkness To The Light Of Life.” (Bond Halbert, son of my “copy-crush” Gary Halbert, just read it and was raving about it on Facebook.)
Anyway, it’s available at: www.FromDepressionsDarkness.com in either softcover or ebook format 🙂