Word of the Year, 2023

I failed to mention my word of the year yesterday, but as life often shows us, our focus needs to be shifted elsewhere momentarily for something more pressing. Relaying our year of 2022 felt more important to the last day of the year, a finality if you will, and starting with this year’s word felt more fitting for today, a new beginning. While I am a firm believer in each 24 hours being a reset and opportunity for us, I do love starting a new year, as a measurement of time and definition. So what is the word of the year?

SELF-DISCIPLINE

Sounds harsh, firmly expectant, or rigid? Nah, it isn’t, it is exactly what I want it to be. I have done so much work and growth the last few years in so many ways, but the one thing I realized in 2022, is that I want to utilize self-discipline to aid my efforts, in specific ways, in 2023. I had several health set backs this past year, and while I accept those occurred, it also made me desire to be in a place I was before, dedicated to my health.

Getting out of sync with good habits is a sucky, sucky thing. Sometimes it cannot be avoided, but it can be a way to get you to redirect your dedication. I need self-discipline to discover new ways in which I can branch out to help myself, for myself, my health. Why, or how, does this require self discipline?

Self-discipline will force me to make a plan, take action, and to execute on those things. Instead of worrying about a set back, I need to forge ahead with a curiosity of what else I can add to my repertoire of fitness. I went through this before I found yoga, but with lingering vertigo, I need something else on dizzying days that keeps me moving, but steadily so, without head elevation changes…To the gym I will be going.

https://www.facebook.com/bodyzone.totalfitness?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Self-discipline also will be imperative to managing the time in my days with a better productivity rate. Now, for many of you, this may make no sense, and that’s okay, I will explain it. When I stopped doing massage therapy, I seriously could not function. I would sit and stare at a wall all day, basically. I wasn’t depressed, I was exhausted by so much, overwhelmed, rundown, burned out, DONE. It took me the whole first month of doing nothing to be able to do anything. The second month I was angry at so much, moving a bit more but still not a lot. The third month I was at a loss and overwhelmed by what the hell I was doing with/in my life, and the fourth month I was slowly and steadily coming back to life. I seriously worried I would never be back up to speed ever again, that I would dabble in life, or be so low functioning that I was already decrepit before I was elderly, but thankfully that has proven to not be the case.

I have amazed myself with my return to function, and this provides the opportunity to impart some self-discipline in the form of time management, better productivity, and yes, better health/wellness/fitness focus. I made strides from August-December last year, and that has given me a big boost to plan more, expect more and to have more self-discipline to be able to do more and help myself more in 2023. I feel that I am not conveying the emotion and happiness I have around all of this, but I guess the importance is I understand it, and I know what it means to me and my life.

The flip side of all of this is that I used to be overly self disciplined, to the point of my detriment and downfall. I know that now I really do need to put more into my own life, for myself and my longevity. And I feel like for the first time ever, I have no hard lined expectations of what my body should look like, who will approve of me, or if someone will find fault with me because of how I look. This isn’t to say I cared before, but I think I didn’t care as an act of rebellion against those very expectations from others.

This year is truly about movement, function, health, productivity, time management, adding more as I can, not as strictly expected, and seeing what the results are from it. I just need some self-discipline to start the days right, keep focus, and keep myself as my priority, while breathing, having balance, and rest too. It isn’t as bad as it sounds, self-discipline, but it is time to have more in a focused way.

To quote Prince, “I was dreamin’ when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray”.

Drop me a line, let me know if you have a word for this year. Is it complex or simple in understanding and execution? I love to support people in their endeavors, and to see how the words came to fruition in ways expected or unexpected. I am sure we can do a midway check in this year too, to see how things are going with our words. That sounds like a good time to me, how about you?