One Word

JG tagged me the other day to talk about what was originally 5 Christmas wishes, which she turned into 5 goals for the new year, which I am just going to now loosely talk about a few thoughts I have for the new year. It may or may not end up having 5 points. We'll see.

I didn't want to pick an extremely specific resolution this year. In my now almost 30 years in this world I have learned a few things... one of them being I will never keep a resolution. I'll be disappointed on and off throughout the year a little bit, but mostly, I'll forget that I even had a resolution in the first place.
Last year I heard a lot about this one word thing. I noticed tons of blog posts where people were narrowing in on one thing they wanted to become or change in themselves. I was intrigued and looked a little more into it this year. One word seems doable. Especially since, for the most part, it's a character change and I can apply it to many facets of my life. But all I have to remember is one little word.

So I thought long and hard (ie: a naptime) and came up with my word. I decided on - Intentional. 

  [in-ten-shuh-nl] 

adjective

1.done with intention or on purpose; intended: an intentional insult.

2.of or pertaining to intention or purpose.

3.Metaphysics .

a.pertaining to an appearance, phenomenon, or representation in the mind; phenomenal; representational.

b.pertaining to the capacity of the mind to refer to an existent or nonexistent object.

c.pointing beyond itself, as consciousness or a sign.

There were some close runner-ups (present, kind, healthy, thoughtful), but I thought I could sum all of that up with Intentional. 

1) I want to be more intentional in my relationships. I want to put more effort into them. My marriage, my child(ren), family and friends. I don't just want to coast through these relationships. I want the people I care about to KNOW I care about them. 
It's most important with my husband right now with him being so far away. I want to take the extra time and effort to let him know how much I love him. I don't ever want him to doubt that while he is away... or any time. 
With my kids, that is a gimme. That's where the word "present" kept coming in. When I'm with my kids I'm going to be with my kids. That's pretty much 24/7, so reasonably I need some downtime or personal time to myself, but there will be more time focused on them. Living in the moment. Not being quite so distracted. 
With friends and family I want to be a lot more thoughtful and show more kindness. And more present I guess as well. I want to take the time to let far away friends and family know how much I'm thinking about them. I'm always thinking of them and I miss the people I don't talk to on a regular basis, but I don't always take the time to let them now. I want to change that. With local family/friends I want to be more in tuned with whats going on in their lives and be there for them more. I want to take the time to do thoughtful things when I can and start speaking more of what is on my mind. 

2) Intentional with my health. 
This baby is coming out of me in 29 days (but who's counting?) and as far as I know, I can start working out roughly 6 weeks after that. I'm not one that enjoys working out or watching my weight. I like the results, but hate the process. Of course, I want to look good. My husband coming home and seeing me for the first time in 9-10 months is some pretty hefty motivation. But my main concern is feeling good. I want to have tons of energy and make healthier decisions. I despise the feeling of sloth during the end of pregnancy, so I cannot wait to be able to walk from one room to another or up the stairs without having to catch my breath. I really can't wait to play with my kids without it being a chore. To take good walks. To just love life again, really. I don't know exactly how I'll go about this other than use common sense, but I do know I'll need something to keep myself accountable. And I don't want to pay for WW again. 

3) Intentional about my faith. 
Along with being healthy, another time where I feel like my best self is when I'm actively working on my faith. I need to turn to God more often. Find a church we love here to last us until Trey comes back. (This shouldn't be hard, other than my own anxiety about leaving Drew in childcare). I want to find a devotional to read in every day... bonus points for something like Faith Deployed that would help me put this deployment into perspective. 

I think that sums it up! Very doable, right? I just need to come up with a plan, or a system, to keep all this stuff in mind during the year.  I don't think I'll tag anyone else since this is not what I was supposed to do at all!