My word of the year is…Optimize.
I just started thinking about a word of the year a few years ago. Previously I didn’t want to commit to 1 thing, 1 word. It felt constricting.
Last year my word was Intentional. The year before that was Focus. These felt really important to me at the time. Although, picking a word or a goal for the year felt constricting before, now it feels freeing. I get to choose my word and choose my focus for the year. It’s kind of like a north star guiding me through all the things I choose to do, say and be.
I chose Optimize because I have a lot of goals personally and professionally.
When I committed to starting a side hustle my biggest fear was I wouldn’t have enough time for my family, my mental health, my physical well-being and my current job.
The definition of Optimize is – make the best of or most efficient use of (situation, opportunity or resource).
I want to concentrate on making the most of my life, my time with my kids, time with my husband, my work and my business. It’s so important to me to find balance where I can, and my biggest opportunity is optimizing the time I have when I am in those situations or with my loved ones.
Balance has definitely popped up in my head a few times as a word of the year. Some people don’t like the word Balance.
Is work/life balance even attainable, they say? Is finding balance the goal?
It definitely is for me but as I think about balance in work and life, optimizing moments and blocks of time in my life – Optimize – seemed to fit better into what I truly want in all things.
I have an interesting relationship with time. When I think something will take 30 minutes it takes 2 hours, or when I think I will need a few hours to complete a project or clean out a closet or whatever, it only takes an hour.
Optimizing my time spent on my business, means working on this blog, social media posts and my offers at 5:30am before everyone is up for the day.
Optimizing my time to get workouts in or yoga and stretching means I am up even earlier, or I do it at lunch time. Optimizing time spent with my kids is putting down my phone, and listening. Asking questions and engaging with them, when we are together. Optimizing time spent with my husband is creating space for us to spend quality time together, no phones, no kids, no armor.
My current job as an HR Director in a large corporation takes up a lot of time during the work week. So how can I better use my time to excel on projects and support my team?
Optimize is my word of 2023 and I still have a lot to learn on how to truly optimize moments in life that I don’t want to forget.
Cheers to 2023 and your word of the year!
Jen
