As I see 2021 ends on a positive note, it has been one of challenges and lots of new things. There has been growth for me. Some of it painful, some unexpected and other growth has been fully realized this year. My blessings outweigh my troubles and things are moving in the right direction. I believe that doing the #threewords exercise has a lot to do with it.
I have done this tradition (Three Words) since 2015 and by selecting three words for the upcoming year instead of resolutions has been a game changer for me. You can see the development and the writing of it over time in the collection on my website. I see previous words like movement, discernment, connection, trust, forgiveness and compassion play into the year. Oh and we cannot forget patience…
Bounce
2021 for me, like many, was one of great hope after the year that shall not be mentioned. In many ways I feel that 2021 could be tossed in don’t mention category as well. I definitely found myself bouncing a lot this year. Job situation, family, friends, spiritually and physically on my BRCA2 journey. Bounce was an intentional word, after a difficult year of hard changes I wanted to soften the blow. In many ways that word did just that. It also showed me that I am resilient and not much can keep me down.
Engage
Engage was not exactly how I thought it would go. I had these grand visions of it working in a way to forge the relationships that I have. What it turned out was the opposite. If anything, I disengaged from a lot of people and especially things this year. It is hard to explain what is happening in my world. But it is certainly different. It has bothered me to some extent.
Then again, with growth comes change. I have been sitting with it a lot over the month of December. Some memories are awesome and connections I have with some people are magic. Other people I question why we are connected. Facebook has been purged down to 137 friends. I am toying with reducing it further, time will tell. Some people I interact with on other social platforms and I may only connect with people on one platform — not all. This is where discernment really showed up, not so much in 2019 when I selected it.
So this has really been an exercise in how I engage with others more than anything. Connection was my word in 2018, but this year was a strong focus. I found an App — Marco Polo (well my friend Jen over at www.AllThingsJennifer.com gets the credit here) that has me connecting with some people more. I have found that phone conversations, zoom meetings and in person is best for me. A tweet, a Facebook post or Instagram post does not connect me to people the way I connect. They are not my love language.
Complete
This has been a struggle for me. Probably why I was so upset when my revision surgery got cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions on December 9th. Frustrating as it is, I am now okay. It just meant that my BRCA journey is not completed. But the reality is that will be on-going until I am dead.
I did complete some needed tasks that have been nagging me. I got nowhere on writing and formulating the books in my head to paper. But as George says, thinking about writing is writing. The projects are more defined and I am devoting time in 2022 to manifest it all. Reading my 2021 post, I see that complete was to be a reminder that all that I have been through that I am complete. I am enough.
My hopes for 2022 are many and I look forward to next year this time where I explore how those words have taken shape in my life. If you have not tried this exercise, I highly recommend trying it. It may not be the first year that you really see an impact, but starting year eight I am grateful for it! Thank you Chris Brogan for that tweet I saw at the end of 2014 that started me on this incredible journey of self discovery.
