2023 Word of the Year

Happy New Year, readers! I can’t believe it’s 2023! I love these little opportunities to reflect, reorganize, and reset for a new year. Honestly, I feel the same way at the start of a new school year even though I haven’t been in school for years. And while I have some very vague goals in mind for 2023, I already found my word of the year.

Past Years

A word of the year wasn’t something I really spent any time focusing on before a few years ago, but with a global pandemic changing so much of what my focus was, I thought I’d give it a try the past few years. Let me tell you, it’s not easy. In 2021, my word was “self-care” and the result was me working 6 days a week for 2 straight months, with tons of extra hours at the library. Definitely not self-care. In 2022, my word was “balance”. I think 2022 went a little better than 2021, but I definitely still need to focus a little more.

2023

This year, I’m changing the focus of my word of the year. Not to say that I couldn’t use more self-care and balance, but I think this year’s word will help in all aspects of my life. It’s something that has been difficult for me since I was a little kid. I tend to get very overwhelmed at times and then freeze. In college and grad school, I started really focusing on creating a plan with smaller steps to accomplish. And this leads me to my 2023 word of the year – perspective.

Perspective in My Work Life

Perspective is “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something.” So, when something doesn’t go the way I think it will, my goal is to take a moment to take a deep breath and try and put it into perspective. The work I do is valuable and important, but I also need to plan to use all my PTO this year. The library will still run smoothly without me. With department heads in place, my goal is to focus on allowing them to take more leadership roles in their departments because I trust them to do a good job. Perspective, that it doesn’t have to be done how I would do it, as long as it gets done.

Perspective in My Personal Life

I want to focus on the things that make me happy. Rather than stressing about all the mundane to-dos, and all the big projects we want to accomplish around the house. I want to focus on getting to the gym at least 3 days a week. I love climbing and truly enjoy the challenge. I’m also doing the 30-Day Yoga with Adriene challenge again this year. I love having this small amount of time to just take a moment to breathe and gain perspective.

I’m not setting a reading goal this year, but over the past month or so, I’ve been reading a lot more than I have in the past few years, I’d say. COVID through my reading life for a loop and I’m excited to get back into reading – books just for me. You may see me gushing about titles that I love here on the blog, but you can always check out my reading life on Goodreads.

I’m ready for 2023. I’m going into the new year with what I’m going to label cautious optimism. My perspective is to take things in stride, do what makes me happy, and enjoy it!