One Word 365 {focus}

Aside from its chilly temps, I love January for many reasons. The holiday bustle is over. We enjoy (and then get to recover from) an amazing, yearly vacation tradition. My calendar is refreshingly uncluttered. The kids go back to school (just sayin').

Mostly, I think, I love the fresh start it symbolizes.

Last year, I jumped with both feet in to the new years' resolution game and I made a pretty good go of it. I started with an ambitious list {11 for 2011} and I was able to make progress on a lot of my goals. At the start of Year 32 in August, I also compiled another list...and in the past year there was also a summertime to do list, a list of fitness goals and a Christmas Break to do list.

I'm pretty sure the last thing I need in my life right now is another list.

I stumbled across this site a couple of weeks ago and found this idea refreshing: One Word 365. Choose one word for 2012. One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live or what you want to achieve by the end of the year.

It took a couple of weeks for the word to formulate in my head. I have a lot of different ideas about what 2012 could be and my hopes for the year cover a broad spectrum of concrete, specific goals and more intangible, harder to measure values.

The word I found the speaks to all my different desires for 2012:

focus

My prayer these last few days when I feel distracted or unmotivated or overwhelmed...focus.

The trait that is going to help me reach my 25K goal...focus.

The best way to invest in those nearest and dearest to me without being overwhelmed by the thousands of needs all around me...focus.

My greatest hope for finishing off some of the items on my many lists {most importantly, this one}...focus.

And what do when my big kids arrive home from school breathless with stories and arms full of papers or when my two year old tells me another in-depth story in her precious just-on-the-cusp-of-a-language-break-through babble...focus.

For the next 300-and-some days (and beyond), I want to take a deep breath, re-prioritize, put my words into action, and enjoy the things (and we all know that the best things in life aren't things) that matter to me most.

In the words of this extraordinary pin, "we would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant and truly see the things that matter the most."

{Inspired? Link up your One Word for 2012 blog post here}