2016 Word of the Year

Happy New Year, friends! 

By now (four whole days into the new year), I'm sure you've seen a couple dozen posts about resolutions and goals for 2016. And of course, I have them as well. I've made a list of goals, milestones, resolutions and accomplishments that I'd love to hit this year and after writing them down I realized that many of them all incorporate the same concept, so instead of boring you with the specifics, I'm going to share my "one word" with you today. 

I love the idea of focusing your year around one simple little word. If you remember, my word for 2013 was EMBRACE (which I wrote about here). I think I did a good job that year of embracing the chaos of being a new mom, embracing my new role as a full-time working mom and embracing the mess of having a little one (with another on the way by the end of the year). I also wanted to embrace my post-partum body and accept the way I looked and felt after carrying a baby. I wanted to embrace my child and spend as much time with him as I could while he was so tiny. It was a year all about acceptance and compassion and understanding. 

I didn't blog about them, but I also did a word for the last two year. 2014 was a crazy year, with a wild child toddler and a baby on the way in July, I wanted a word that would encapsulate how overwhelmed and exhausted I was feeling. My word for 2014 was SURVIVE. Plain, simple and straight to the point. It was a year all about adjusting, adapting and surviving. Spoiler alert: I'm happy to say that we all survived that year and lived to tell the tale. 

Last year for 2015, I wanted something a bit more encouraging, so my word was CONNECT. I really wanted to make sure I spent the year connecting with the kids and reconnecting with my husband, family, friends and former self. I wanted to end the year feeling closer to my husband and feeling closer to the person I was before I had babies. Last year I made the decision to go down to part-time at work, which gave me a lot more one-on-one time with the kids during the day. This felt incredibly liberating and freed me from some of the guilt I felt taking time for myself to focus on my marriage, my health and my friends. I made time to spend with the people I loved the most and ended the year feeling like I accomplished my goal.

I've been thinking a lot about what my word for 2016 will be and I think I've decided to go a different direction again this year. I want a word that will call me to action and force me to make some decisions and take action in my life. I want a word that will encourage me to be more deliberate and focus on what really matters. So, my word for 2016 is: 

It's definitely not the sexiest of words. It's not necessarily uplifting or inspiring. But it's really speaking to me right now, when my world seems to be jam-packed with so much stuff and so many things to do. I need to take some serious time and reflect on what's important to me and get rid of all that extra stuff I'm hanging onto. I want to reduce my stress. Reduce my obligations. Reduce my clutter. Reduce my waistline. Reduce my debt. Reduce my guilt. I want to feel lighter, be lighter, live lighter. I want more space, more air, less crap. I want to not feel overwhelmed by how much stuff I have going on or how much there always is to do. I want to buy less, need less, want less. It's going to take some work, but I think it's doable and I'm excited about making this happen. I think it'll be liberating! Wish me luck! 

What's your word for 2016?