And the honor goes to…
But before I unveil my 2024 word of the year to you, a quick reminder of this week’s prompt.
What word do you want to define your 2024?
Answering the Question: My 2024 Word
…FOCUS
In all my journaling on the subject, about 20 words found their way to the page that seemed like possibilities. I was able to eliminate a few after reflection, and whittled the list down further once I eliminated redundancies. When that was done, there were about 4 or 5 left that were still there, vying for the honor.
Among them, focus soon became an obvious choice.
Why? Because even in narrowing down this list, I realized the choice I was having to make was one of focus. The entirety of the list had merit, but I would only be reasonably able to pursue one of these words as my guiding principle for the year. I had to choose to focus. Feeling the struggle I was having in doing so made it obvious to me that focus needed to be my focus. Already, I can conceive of a few ways this will be important.
Focusing My Mind
In the past few months I’ve noticed a substantial difference in my ability to focus on a singular task at a time. Even when journaling, I’ll be distracted by an intrusive thought about something to look up or a household chore to do, and my mind will focus its energy towards that rather than the task at hand. Until I address the issue, it’s difficult for me to return my focus to my journaling. But I know that’s an issue of giving to much attention to the intrusive thought, rather than acknowledging it and ticketing it away for later. It’s important that I push past the distractions and allow myself to stay singularly focused.
In that spirit, I want to practice more mono-tasking next year. Journaling without music on. Cooking without the TV on. Folding laundry without being on a FaceTime. If I can train myself to remain focused on just one activity, without keeping distractions present, I believe I can use that skills to avoid distraction in circumstances I cannot control.
Focusing My Projects
I’ve hopscotched between a number of professional projects and pursuits this year. While I believe working on a cornucopia of projects at any one time is absolutely beneficial, I spread myself a bit thin. My early excitement on some projects wore out as another initiative cropped up. Next year, rather than starting new things, I want to focus on the things I’ve started, and make the hard choices around which to keep pursuing and which to cut.
Focusing means embracing that not everything can stay, and that I have to part ways with those endeavors that will not allow me to see through the potential of others. It might be painful, but that loss is what gives meaning to those projects I will continue to pursue.
Focusing My Goals
Flip to the last page of any journal I’m writing in and there’s a page filled with a list of my moonshot ideas and goals. Places I want to go. Creative endeavors I want to undertake. Businesses to start. They’re fun ideas, but similar to the above, they rarely get anywhere because there are so many of them.
Next year I want to selectively pick the 1 or 2 that I really want to engage with and try to realize. Conceptualizing things is fun, if not my specialty, but I have to move from concept to concrete.
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So there you have it. 2024, my year of FOCUS. How about you?