
It’s the first day of a brand new year. What a great time to start focusing on what we want in our lives for the coming year. Choosing a word is important because we will focus on our word throughout the next 12 months. Hopefully, you have chosen your word, but if not, it’s not too late. Just think of a word that represents what you want to have most in your life.
Our mission for January is to really get to know that word.
1. We are familiar with words, but most of us don’t take time to look them up. There have been times when I’ve used a word and later discovered that it didn’t really mean what I thought it did. So, the first thing we’re going to do is get a dictionary and write down all the definitions of your word. Select the one definition that fits what you want.
My word for 2010 is acceptance. I went to http://dictionary.com and looked it up and here’s what I found:
ac·cept·ance
n [ak-sep-tuhns] Show IPA
–noun
1. the act of taking or receiving something offered.
2. favorable reception; approval; favor.
3. the act of assenting or believing: acceptance of a theory.
4. the fact or state of being accepted or acceptable.
5. acceptation (def. 1).
6. Commerce.
a. an engagement to pay an order, draft, or bill of exchange when it becomes due, as by the person on whom it is drawn.
b. an order, draft, etc., that a person or bank has accepted as calling for payment and has thus promised to pay.
I want to focus on accepting myself right where I am now, and I want to allow that same acceptance to others as well. So definitions 1 through 4 all seem to describe what I’m trying to attract.
2. You can use a journal or your blog to do the exercises for this mission. Either in your journal or blog, write the definition(s) of your word.
3. Go to http://thesauraus.com and look up the opposites (is that antonyms?) of your word. This helps me because I sometimes sabotage my intentions by using negative language.
The antonyms for acceptance are disbelief, disagreement, dispute and repudiation. If I hear myself saying “I don’t believe that” about something good about myself, that’s a red flag that I’m not accepting myself.
Write the antonyms for your word and write about ways you might trip yourself with those negative words or thoughts.
Spend this month really getting to know your word. As you study it write any observations, feelings, thoughts or discoveries you make. The Facebook group for On My Word has an area for discussion. I’d love to have us all sharing and encouraging each other while we go through this year, so please join that group to get the most from our mission.