In January this year, based on this
article about a "DO-HAVE-BE" model which suggests you choose a word to live by for the year, I chose PLAY as my word for 2008 for the following reasons:
- related to the goal it means 'work less and play more'. As I move towards retirement I need to shift away from work as a total pre-occupation. I enjoy what I do and spend 'leisure time' reading and researching around my job, but this will be redundant when I retire so I need to start replacing that activity with others.
- I spend a lot of time at the PC prevaricating and know that I need to be doing something more positive - I need to play (aka stitch!) which leads to the third interpretation
- when I play (aka stitch), I want to experiment more. I'm taking small steps but doing this on my own seems to mean that there are never any giant leaps or sideways steps going on.
Did having a word for the year work? Well the answer is probably - or at least, well enough for me to choose another word for 2009 and certainly better than making resolutions, which I gave up doing, many years ago. In terms of the the three points above????
- 'work less and play more' - to a point I did, but it was an extra-ordinary year as far as work was concerned, and by the end of2008 I was becoming too tired to feel creative.
- I spend a lot of time at the PC prevaricating and know that I need to be doing something more positive - I definitely cut down on my PC time, there are people who'd be surprised to read this, but it's true - I just became more selective!
- when I play (aka stitch), I want to experiment more - hmmmmm, yes I tried things I hadn't done before, both in terms of technique and using new colour combinations, but not as much or as often as I'd hoped. The biggest difference came from doing the TIF challenge, working from a phrase or an idea, when I'd always thought that I couldn't 'do' words. What's more when I looked back through some of the work I'd done previously I found that they had stories behind them that I hadn't acknowledged.
2 comments:
How could you leave us wondering what the word for 2009 will be?!
Hilary
I found my word for 2008, freedom, really worked well...when I remembered to use it. Mid year my life got crazy and I forgot all the good behavior I'd discovered that led me to freedom. 3 months ago, my memory was jogged and I've tried to invoke my word more often.
I want to keep it for 2009, because I'm still a long way from the kind of freedom I want to achieve, but I'm planning to add a second word that I think will enhance it. I'm hoping the two together will be even more powerful than the one alone. Stay tuned to the blog...I'll be posting about it once I settle on that second word.
Post a Comment