It might seem odd to write a beginning of the year post in May, but here I am living it up, finally getting to share my word for the year. My wife and I started doing this several years back, and it is something really important to us. Rather than being so resolution-focused at the start of a New Year, we pick a word that we want to define our upcoming year. For this year, I chose the word “create”.
I’ve been a man of many hobbies. Some of my hobbies stick. I’ve always enjoyed movies. I’ve always loved baseball and basketball. Some hobbies are new. I’ve really gotten into disc golf. I’ve really gotten into The Legend of Zelda. Some hobbies fade. I used to do a lot of woodworking. I used to do a lot of writing. Therein lies the reasoning behind my word choice for the year. I didn’t grow out of woodworking. I didn’t get sick of writing. What did happen though is I let them slip.
My goal is to create. I know that is a really broad word and can have a lot of different meanings. For me and my life, I think of creating and think of it in the realm of writing. I feel that is the most effective way for me to create and feel as though I am contributing to the world around me. As we have been going through this first half of the year, I feel as though I have been doing a pretty good job of creating, and I really wanted to sit down and write this to communicate what I’m doing to accomplish my word for 2022.
1. Reading two books a month
For me, step one has been all about what I am putting into my head. I love books. I also haven’t felt as though I’ve had time to read lots of books. I decided this year to change that and got on to Goodreads and set up a yearly reading challenge for myself. The two books a month thing isn’t important. For me, I felt as though that was a good number of books for my ability and time. I read physical books and I’ve started to love audiobooks. It has been a great practice to get into and has really helped me to be inspired and has kept me learning.
2. Writing down thoughts and ideas
As I get older, I’ve quickly realized that I need to write things down. This step in my creative goal accomplishing led me to buying a journal that I just write ideas in. Good ideas, bad ideas, half-baked ideas, it has not mattered. If I have had a thought that I’ve needed to get out, I’ve written it down in my journal. This has spawned some really great ideas and has helped me to process through what I’ve wanted to do and write and accomplish.
3. Actually sitting down and writing that book I’ve had in my head for years
This is where the rubber meets the road in creating. You need to sit down and do the work. If you are like me, you’ve probably thought sometime in your life about a book that you could write, or maybe you’ve read a book wishing there was another book on the topic, or maybe you’ve searched for a book on a particular topic and have come up empty handed. The time is now to just sit down and write it. For me, it was a devotional. I love studying the Bible. I have never really found a devotional though that I just love. To me, it always seems like the author either interjects their own thoughts into the study too much, or they ask a lot of questions that actually don’t have much to do with the topic at hand. I was frustrated and always said I would write my own devotional. Well, I did it. I wrote and wrote and wrote and now I’m editing and editing and editing. Is it perfect? No. Will it change the world? Probably not. Did I have an idea of something to create and did I accomplish it? Yes and yes!
So here we are, almost halfway through 2022 and here’s my word for the year. I’m going to create in 2022. Obviously, this blog is part of that. For me, the point has been to produce something, to create something. It’s been great. It’s helped me in so many aspects of my life and I’m excited about the ways that I can communicate that as well.
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