2022 Word of the Year

 

"Russian Nested Dolls" 
by Images by John 'K' 
is licensed under CC BY 2.0

I stopped making New Year's resolutions a long time ago. More recently, I have been selecting a Word of the Year (WODY) instead.  

I have found that by choosing a focus word, I can think deeply about the meaning and application of the word.  In addition, the word is more flexible, allowing me to change and grow over twelve months.

A WODY is more open, dynamic, fluid, and inviting than a resolution. 

For several months at the end of 2021, I considered the word "boxed" for 2022 as a way to focus on boundaries. Then I thought about choosing (un)boxed so that I could on the one hand avoid long-held labels that I felt were restricting me. (I'm a Type A. I'm an oldest child. I'm an extrovert. I'm an avid reader.) 

I wanted to entertain shedding some of these labels while at the same time setting up some boundaries. (Un)Boxed would allow me all kinds of possibilities. 

By January I found myself drawn to the word SMALLER as my 2022 WODY. 

For decades, I have been overextending myself, trying to study everything, meet everyone, master several skills--more, more, more; bigger, bigger, bigger. 

Now that I'm inarguably in the Second Half of life, I am recognizing my limits. 

Of late, I want to do a few things very well instead of striving to do everything--only to find myself failing and exhausted. I have long thought that maturity is not born out of wisdom so much as it's born out of exhaustion. I need to be more strategic and precise in how I use my time, attention, energy, and other resources.  

I also want to present myself in public in a way that is smaller. The image I have in mind is this: 

I want to be a nesting Russian doll in the inverse. I want to present a very small doll as my presence to the world. I want to reserve the more complex, expressive, and vivid aspects of my personality to a smaller subset of people. 

And I want the most complex and dynamic version of myself to only be visible to me and to the Divine. 

I have spent decades trying to gain the attention and the approval of anyone and everyone. I have found that to be an impossible task. Furthermore, doing so has made me vulnerable to critics--some criticize me out of ignorance, some out of carelessness, and some out of malice. 

I have lived for more than a half century, and I have waning time, energy, and resources. I want to be a lot more intentional about how I project my presence and what kinds of projects I adopt. 

I want to be small in ways that condenses my power. 

Related

My 2021 WODY was Witness

My 2020 WODYs were Humility and Compassion (I "cheated" and chose two.)

I can't find a post at Segullah or here on TGAM for my 2019 WODY. 

My 2018 WODY was Grounded