My 3 words for 2016

by Christine Kling

I know I have been a slacker when it comes to blogging the latter part of 2015. My fingers haven’t felt like dancing on the keyboard, and I haven’t been keeping folks up on the changes in my life. Currently, I am in Florida working on prepping our condo for either lease or sale, not sure which, and my husband Wayne is back on the boat in Fiji trying to get her ready to launch next month. We have made some big decisions about what we intend to do in 2016, and the short version is we are going to sail the 6-7,000 miles back to North America to sell our current boat in order to build a new one. So choosing my words for this new year has been a particularly interesting task.

2016 is my fourth year of selecting my 3 words for the new year. I have found this much more valuable than making New Year’s resolutions. In my case, the three words often work together by forming a triangulation to give direction to all my actions for that year. I view life as a long string of choices, and we are responsible for the choices we make. I pick words that will help guide my choices in the coming year. In the past three years, I have chosen these words, and if you are interested, you can click on the years to go to the blogs and read the reasons why:

2013 – Intend, Treasure, Stretch

2014   Awe, Tribe, Heart

2015 – Star, Brave, Connect

My 3 words for 2016

For 2016, I have chosen these three words, and each has a bit of a story to explain it:

Act  Okay, I admit it, I am a procrastinator. I have been since I was a little girl. But back when I was young, I thought I had all the time in the world to get things done. Today, I am 61 years old. (I know, how did that happen? I certainly don’t feel 61!) This past year, I put off calling friend. Wayne and I were traveling around Florida and Canada, and I thought I could do it later, after he was gone back to Fiji, and I was left alone here in Florida. Only tragedy struck and my dear friend was killed in a car accident, something that could have happened to someone at age 6 or 60. So this word is very important to me. Message to self: don’t put s*#t off. Live each day like it might be your last. If it matters, do it. Act now.

Believe  This word has so many ramifications for me given my avocation as a writer of fiction and our plans to build a new boat. But sometimes important lessons are revealed in small things. Wayne is always an optimist while I tend to be the catastrophizer. But a few days ago, I rode my bicycle to the grocery store here in Fort Lauderdale, and when I stopped at a picnic table in the store’s foyer to repack my backpack, I left my purse on the bench. I didn’t realize it until I got home and was unpacking my backpack. At first, I thought the worst. I began cursing myself for being so stupid. Then I thought of how Wayne would react, and I jumped back on my bike and rode back to the store with positive thoughts. When I arrived, a store manager greeted me by name and told me someone had turned in my purse. She pointed to the customer service desk and a young man handed me my bag. There had been about $100 in cash inside in addition to credit cards and cash, and it was all there. It’s not that I think that thinking positive thoughts made that happen. But good things do happen and there are really wonderful, kind people in the world. I choose to go through life believing the best of people. Sometimes I will be disappointed, for sure, but  for 2016, I choose to believe.

Tenacity  I started my search for a word here with the concept of “follow-through.” I feel as though sometimes I have very good intentions, but all too often I don’t follow them through to completion. I will get an idea, get all excited about it, and then let it fizzle. This is impacting all facets of my life. Then I looked at the concept of stick–to–itiveness which Mirriam Webster describes as dogged perseverance. That is what tenacity is.When you are tenacious, you don’t give up, don’t let go. I am soon going to turn 62 years old, and we have decided to build a new boat. At the same time, I have this career as a writer that I adore. I want to do both. It’s going to take a boatload of tenacity.

I challenge you to pick three words to guide you in your choices in 2016. I would love it if you would share them here in the comments. I look forward to reading them.

Fair winds!

Christine

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