So this year I decided to step out of my box a little bit and challenge myself to dive into a personal project that was different from anything I've done before. The project had to be creative and give me direction in allowing me to express myself in words. I considered creating a journal. I've always admired people that were dedicated to writing their thoughts and feelings in a little book and refer to it when they wanted to gain a little insight to who they are. But to be honest, I don't consider myself the journaling type.I just can't sit down and write random thoughts in a book. I don't know if I would keep up with it. If there was some way to do it creatively, if I was given a prompt or suggestion on what to write about, then maybe, just maybe, keeping a journal would be something I can do.
That's where "One Little Word" comes in.
"One Little Word" is a year long class held at Big Picture Classes and is developed by Ali Edwards. Participants choose a single, individual word they feel they can make a part of their lives in 2013. Ali then gives monthly prompts on how to connect with the word and make itself known in their lives. It's going to be an interesting exercise and I look forward to see how this project progresses.
So the word I chose to become intimate with this is year is "plan." The word actually popped into my head well before I even decided to take this class. There were a several situations in 2012 where if I had a plan, a method, a scheme, a process, my experience would have been different, I could have learned more, I could have felt more connected. After studying up on the definition and synonyms of my word, I feel that this word is going to make a difference in my life during 2013. Our first assignment in this class was to create 12 "intentions" with our words. This list may change over the next few days, but below is the direction in which I am going:
plan of action
plan to learn
plan to explore
plan to connect
design plan
business plan
retirement plan
plan to embrace
plan to share
thoughtful plan
plan to adapt
By first glance you may have your own ideas and thoughts on what the above set of words mean, they may not even make sense to you. But they do to me! As this project progresses, they may take on a totally different meaning that what I had intended. And that is the beauty of this endeavor. I can take my word and apply it to my life in ways that I never thought I would. Over the next 12 months, I'll be sharing how I am building a relationship with my chosen word right here on September Blue. This is a slow and deliberate process and I won't have any set schedule as to when I will post about my progress. It will be at least once a month and you can, however, expect to see my title page(s) for One Little Word some time next week. I will have a separate link to One Little Word as well as Move Well, Eat Well 2.0 and Project Life in the sidebar of my blog for easy access to these project posts.
I'm looking forward to see how "plan" will play out in my life during 2013. It may show itself in unexpected ways. I'll plan to be surprised.
