Years ago I stopped making new year’s resolutions. Not because they are too hard to keep, I just figured that if something in my life needed to change, it could be done at anytime during the year. But this year I am making an amendment.
A couple of days ago I saw a post by Melinda Gates on Instagram and it gave me a great idea. She said, “Instead of setting a New Year’s resolution, I like to adopt a word of the year—one that encapsulates my wishes for the next 12 months.”
I love this idea, and I especially love the word she chose for 2018: Grace.
Grace: noun
1. elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action
2. a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment
3. favor or goodwill.
By nature, I am not the most patient person in the world, so when I read Melinda’s idea, and thought about the word grace, I knew immediately that this was an idea to which I could fully commit. Whenever I react abruptly, I feel bad about how I may have affected the person I spoke to, and in turn I feel bad about myself because I didn’t act in a manner that made me proud.
It’s not going to be easy, I understand that. But, I have to tell you that over the past few days I’ve been mulling over the word and it gives me a sense of empowerment. I now have a go-to emotion to kick in when I am feeling irritated, and the bonus is that when I call the word ‘grace’ into action, my response to the situation will be one that makes me feel content and proud.
For me it just so happens that I found this idea at the beginning of the new year, but remember, this is something that you can start doing at any time