2017 WORD OF THE YEAR

How many of you choose a Word for the Year?!?

I have been doing it for probably the last 6 years and I love that it gives your just an overall focus for the year!

 

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My word for last year was HUSTLE!
I knew it would be a busy year and would require a lot of time working, but there were a few things I could have never anticipated. The year started off with planning a wedding in 3 months, so that was my hustle for that time. In the summer, I found myself working on a rebrand, a new website, a massive blog post series about the wedding planning, and preparing for my first speaking engagement!

Between those times of hustle, I found myself actually being super lazy! To be honest, it also never occurred to me just how distracting it would be to balance building a side business and adjusting to married life. The summer months I spent lots more time hanging out with Joshy than working, and although it wasn’t what I had planned, it was what was needed at the time and a huge blessing. It prepared us for future obstacles and brought us closer together.

The way I worked last year not only taught me how I wanted to work moving forward, but also how I wanted most aspects of my life to look.  This led me to choosing my word for 2017…

STEADY

2016 year has been a bit of a roller coaster in everything from emotions and experiences to the work I have done. I have had higher highs, and lower lows than previous years. I worked longer hours and poured every bit of energy into whatever project was in front of me and then I would slow down to rest… like really slow… so slow I wasn’t doing anything! It’s not the way I would choose to do life, so I really want this next year to be different. A sort of recovery year, but still with progress.

  • I want to be STEADY in my work

My desire is to do small things daily, that add up to big progress over time.
If we want to change our life or make big things happen, we need to change something we do everyday. It’s not usually the big, grand gestures that make up our success, but the quiet moments of perseverance and consistent effort. I want to work a little every morning on writing my new devotional, blog more regularly, and spend time encouraging my readers.

  • I want to be steady in my EMOTIONS

This year has exposed a range of emotions in me that I have never known – for good and bad! This led me to a desire to practice reacting to situations from a place of controlled and regulated emotions. I thought this quote by Timothy Keller on being married was really eye opening… “We should be neither overly elated nor overly disappointed by not being so – because Christ is the only spouse that can truly fulfill us and God’s family the only family that will truly embrace and satisfy us.”
I don’t want to discount the place that emotions have in our lives (I saw “Inside Out” :)), but I think we have to be careful about letting our circumstances drive our emotions to extreme levels and placing an value and importance on them that only the Lord should hold.

  • I want to be STEADY in my relationships

Let me just say, I’m terrible at long distance. And for some crazy reason most of my closest friends have moved away over the last decade! Because I don’t like phone calls and have gotten horrible at text recently, I feel the distance growing and it makes me miss them all so much! I want to be more intentional and a consistent presence in their lives.

  • I want to be STEADY in my health

My aim is to shoot for less workouts than I have in the past, but make a longer commitment. I’d like to workout 2x week for the entire year! I have never done this before or even attempted a year long fitness commitment, so I am excited to take this one!

  • I want to be STEADY in my spiritual life

Of all my areas of life, this has thankfully been the most steady! But it hasn’t always been this way, and I do not want to take that for granted, so I wanted to leave it on here to remind me :)

 

Over the last few years, I have been intentional about making decisions today for a better future and trying to build good habits. Though I have made some progress, I still go through phases of doing really great and others of falling completely off the wagon. I want to focus this next year on slow and steady progress – so slow and steady that these habits are truly ingrained into my life. My plan is figure out what routines work best for me in all different aspects of life and be intentional about following through on them!

I am really looking forward to 2017 and continue to grow in all different aspects of life!
What about you??? Share your word in the comments below or leave your link if you wrote a blog post!


#GoodToGoalfor2017 Series

Check out my sister, Vals series for more inspiration!

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  • Hi Natalie! I really like how your 2016 and 2017 words balance each other out! I’ve been following your blog for a while and am starting your devo this week. It’s been an epic year for you! This is my first time choosing a word for the year. I almost chose “steady”, but am somehow ending up at “warm” or “fervent.”

    • I definitely recognize your name! You have younger siblings that you help take care of, right?? I am thrilled for you to start the devo :) We are actually going to be going through it in February in the Facebook group. I hope you can join us!

  • Great post, Natalie! I love your word of the year! Slow and steady wins the race!

    I love reading you and Val’s goal setting series, as well as Lara Casey’s. I love seeing what everyone accomplished this year and what they want to work on in the next year. It’s so inspiring!

    I have chosen a word of the year for over ten years. I don’t know where I got the idea from, but I felt so cool and on trend when I noticed it was a thing. ;-) My word for 2016 was “seek,” and this was definitely a year to seek God’s face for me.

    I starting my goals series on my blog today. I will reveal my word of the year Saturday. I like to post what did and didn’t work, what I read, and a goals wrap up before I get to my word of the year. Today I shared my what didn’t work list.

    I can’t wait to read about your goals and see your book list for 2017!

  • Hi Natalie,
    I have been picking a word for the year for about 4 years now and it is always really neat to see how that word impacted my year. My word for 2016 was intentional and my word for 2017 is beyond. So excited to move into the new year and see how the Lord uses this word in my life. Happy New Years Eve!

  • I love this!! My goals are actually really similar to yours, and I really resonated with the idea of being steady in emotions. I’ve been struggling so much with that, I tend to react based on my emotions rather than use them as a gauge for where my heart is. Thanks so much for sharing your goals!

    • Woah! I love that! I have never thought of it in that way… that our reactions are actually a gauge of our heart and not the situation. Amazing. I will definitely be thinking on this!
      Another image I have is that a woman who is steady in her emotions is strong and controlled. I want to be a strong woman especially for any other women of future daughters to look up to!