What's the Word??? Brainstorming for 2018

Have you ever picked a word to be your theme word for the year? I have been picking a word for the last few years and I really love it! I usually forget about it somewhere in the middle, but always come back to it again by the end. 

I find that having a word for the year helps me have something to focus on as I make goals and plans throughout the year. It gives me a foundation to base my attitude and perspective on, and anyway, I've already started to plan my word for 2018!

I haven't narrowed it down to one word yet, but here's the gist of what I want it to be...

• Beautify - make things beautiful (my life, my home, the spaces around me, relationships), but also find the beauty that is already there.
• Be positive, find the positive in everything
• Be happy

This morning I found this quote and told my husband that I need to make this my motto

I've started noticing recently that I've become really negative. I never thought of myself as a complainer or a downer, but then I started noticing how I always had something negative to say about almost everything... yuck! That is NOT how/who I want to be. So I'm determined to be more positive and stop the negativity in it's tracks. No one needs that...

I'm hoping that focusing on the beauty in my life, and adding more beauty to it, will help increase my positivity too! Since I think most of the negative talk and thoughts are based around all the things in my life that I'm not happy with. Like how much weight I've gained this pregnancy, our dumpy house that is too cramped for the number of people living in it (it's really not bad, but we are definitely noticing that we definitely are ready for something bigger! and by dumpy - it's things like the kitchen and bathroom counters detaching from the walls, or floor boards that weren't painted before we moved in - or are covered in paint splatters. We moved in to a real fixer upper, and while they did a great job cleaning it and painted the entire house, and since moving in they replaced the carpet on the main floor and the basement, so it's WAAAAAYYYY better than it was, but there's not much we can or want to do to make it nicer than it is. It really does need a lot of work, they definitely didn't take care of it, which is whatever. but we live here, and we're making do with what we have. ;))

Anyway, it's those kinds of things. So instead of complaining and/or being unhappy, I want to just change my focus and be happy with where I'm at, change the things I can, and find joy and beauty in the rest.

So now to find the perfect word that sums it all up...


What word are you choosing for 2018? Do you like having a word for the year? I'd love to hear your opinion about it!

Ps. At the beginning of this year my husband found out about having a word for the year and was really excited about it because he loved the idea! He thought I'd love it too, until I told him I'd already been doing it for years. And I KNOW I told him about my words in years past, but I guess sometimes they have to learn about it from somewhere else to realize what a great idea it is. Haha! I just have to tease him about it. ;)  His word for this year was "Thoughtful" I'm excited to see what he chooses for this coming year.