FOCUS

So as I wrote in an earlier post, my word for 2009 is FOCUS. I chose this word after thinking long and hard what things I want to accomplish this year, and what "bad habits" of mine I want to nip in the butt!

Last year my word was trust. I wanted to trust myself more - my decisions, my art, my abilities. There were times I know I faltered and I doubted, but I feel that the year was a good one overall. I started to do mixed media pieces and they make me really happy and satisfied, and have helped my creative self grow more than it has in awhile. Plus I am totally having fun with it!

This year I wanted to focus on getting more done. I have so many to-do lists started and I never finish them. I get distracted by another project that inevitably comes along, or I just plain forget what I was doing in the first place. And I hate this, because everything I put on my lists need to be looked after. I want to take more responsibility for this, and make time for my to-do lists everyday or every week. I need to commit to the big things and prioritize and focus on getting the important stuff done so I can still have time for the less important stuff (blogging is on the important list by-the-way!). This does mean I'll have to sacrifice some other things (like tv and just sitting around), but I can handle that. Hopefully I can budget my time better and get more fun stuff done as well!

I have such a hard time budgeting my time, and sticking to the task at hand that I think this is the best goal for me. If I can get even just a little bit better at this, I will consider it a triumph! Hopefully this will help me...still deciding if I want to enroll, but I'm really leaning heavily towards it. $50 ain't so bad if it can get my life under control!


And last but not least, here were the word finalists (and why I didn't choose them!):

• complete..."you complete me"?? too Tom-Cruise


• follow-through...I didn't think I could handle a hyphenated word, and it's so long and hard to type


• budget...like the evil truck rental company?


• time...no, but I have discovered a new love for clocks!


• prioritize...reminds me too much of my Bio30 teacher who kept pronouncing it "priorize" which drove my friend and I nutso


• to-do...again with the hyphenated words, what is wrong with me?


• finish...when I say it I think of the people, you know, the Finns from Finland...are they good organizers???


• accomplish...not bad, but not great (reminds me of the movie Becoming Jane where "accomplished" was almost like an insult to her writing!)


• productive...I didn't choose this one because it sounds too utilitarian, too bourgeois. like I'm going to be tilling some land, or working in a coal mine this year. no thanks!


• focus...the winner! don't you think this will look good on a crazy art piece? I do!!

So that's my boring word story. But it's a good word. I am going to do it up on a canvas in the next couple of days and then I'll post that for you to see. I do this because I am not a goal-setter...it never made sense to me. But I can be a "word-maker". And even if you're not a "word-maker" it's nice to be able to sit down and look at your life where it is today and where you would like to see it be tomorrow.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day...what are yours...???

P.S. Thanks to Juli for getting me the lowdown on 3-column action. Word to your mom. Of course, now my hits tally isn't work, but it's a minor issue...I hope! I really loved watching the numbers rise on that little guy. 'Cause nobody posts comments when they stop by (except V, so thanks girlie!).