Are you ready for a new activity for this month?  I hope you are beginning to really focus on bringing (fill in your word here) into your life.

This month we are going to write a personal mission statement about bringing our words into our everyday lives.

I found these great guidelines for writing a personal mission statement at http://timethoughts.com.

Writing a Personal Mission Statement A personal mission statement is a brief description of what you want to focus on, what you want to accomplish and who you want to become in a particular area of your life over the next one to three years. It is a way to focus your energy, actions, behaviors and decisions towards the things that are most important to you. Personal Mission Statement Guidelines While there is no unique format or formula for creating your personal mission statement, the following guidelines may be helpful: Keep it simple, clear and brief. The best mission statements tend to be 3 to 5 sentences long. Your mission statement should touch upon what you want to focus on and who you want to become as a person (character) in this part of your life. Think about specific actions, behaviors, habits and qualities that would have a significant positive impact in this part of your life over the next one to three years. Make sure your mission statement is positive. Instead of saying what you don’t want to do or don’t want to be, say what you do want to do or become. Find the positive alternatives to any negative statements. Include positive behaviors, character traits and values that you consider particularly important and want to develop further. Think about how your actions, habits, behavior and character traits in this area affect the important relationships in your life. Create a mission statement that will guide you in your day-to-day actions and decisions. Make it a part of your everyday life. Think about how your mission affects the other areas of your life. Is it consistent with your other personal mission statements? Will it conflict with or contradict something else? Is it balanced? Make it emotional. Including an emotional payoff in your mission statement infuses it with passion and will make it even more compelling, inspiring and energizing. Remember that your mission statement is not cast in stone. It will continue to change and evolve as you gain insights about yourself and what you want out of each part of your life.

They also offer examples that I have changed to meet our purpose.  You might choose one of these to formulate your mission statement.

“I value  (word).. because …[reasons why this word are is important to you]. Accordingly, I will …[what you can do to live by this word."

"To develop and cultivate the qualities of ...(your word)..  so that ...[why you want to develop the quality this word represents].”

“To live each day with ..(word)… so that …[what living by this word will give you].”

“To appreciate and enjoy …[what your word will bring to you] by …[what you can do to appreciate/enjoy these things].”

“To be known as someone who is …[word]“

I made a new journal for the On My Word mission.   For the past several months I’ve gone back to using cheap composition books for my journal.  I find that I work more readily if I don’t pay much for the journal.  When I use watercolor paper or a more expensive sketch book,  it makes me feel like I have to make each page really count for something.  That’s not the point of a journal for me.  The point is to express my emotions, explore what’s going on inside, and document my life.  So, the comp books allow me to just express myself without worrying about “wasting” pages.

This is the cover I created for the new year.  My word is acceptance and I’m aiming to totally accept myself, just as I am right now.  I’m tired of trying to be better; trying to be like someone else; trying to be what someone else wants me to be.  I’ve spent a great deal of my adult life trying to improve.  And I have.  I have changed some things about myself that I wanted to change.  But now I’m ready to just be me.  If I never change another thing about myself, I want to be okay with that.  So, the cover represents the masks that I wear or try to wear, and how I am ready to shed them all.

Over the past few years I have chosen some women to “watch” and learn from.  Women that seem confident in who they are, and who accept themselves.  These women are not perfect, they have flaws just as we all do.  But they don’t seem to have the fear of others not approving of them, that I have.   So, here’s to bravery and boldness in my life, and my actions.  Sharing this with you, my readers, is a step in being authentic for me.

Day 1 of the Oh My Word mission.

I am looking for ways to define acceptance and apply it to myself.  I want to truly accept myself.  This is very difficult for me. So hard, in fact, that I’ve only attempted it in small steps in the past.  But this year, I truly want to learn to love myself and quit waiting for me to change into something acceptable.  My friend Eveline shared a resource that gave me a wonderful phrase to start day 1 with.  The resource is called “Spiritually Literal Resolutions” and it is from Spirituality and Practice. The item that grabbed my attention says:

What a wonderful affirmation!  Very serendipitous that it came to me this very day.

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.

As 2009 burns down to and end, many people reflect on the past year and look forward the hope that a new year brings.  I enjoy the enthusiasm that others share at this time of year.  It feels like we are all in this together.  We all want to be better people, we want to bring more joy into our lives and we all want to love in a stronger way.  If even just for a few days we are holding each others’ hands and saying, “Go for it”!

My year has been challenging but I’ve recieved so many blessings.  I can’t say I’m glad for this year to end, so I will take the hope and gifts I’ve received this year into the next.  I will remember that the hard times all brought opportunities that I am grateful for.  I will also remember that love conquers all.   My family and friends have actively expressed so much love this year.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so much love in action before.

If you want to join me tomorrow in the “Oh My Word” mission, please leave a comment here  and join the Facebook page where we’ll be sharing.  If you’re not on Facebook and don’t want to join, I will be posting the prompts here, too, but it’s more organized over there.

The first prompts will be posted tomorrow, so be sure and choose your word so you can start the new year with lots of encouragement and enthusiasm from each other to make that word YOURS in 2010!

I wrote on the last page of  my current journal last night.  The cover on it is one of my favorite’s.  Writing in my journal is such an effective way for me to sort out reality from the crazy thoughts in my head.  As thoughts circle around my mind, thinking only sucks me into the whirlpool. But writing helps me get it out so I can organize them.  Once they are organized I can determine what is important, what is just crap and what needs attention.  Journal writing has kept me sane for a long time.

I am starting a new journal today, in anticipation of the “Oh My Word” Mission for 2010.  If you don’t know about it, you can read it here.  My word for next year is Acceptance.  I chose that word because I want to learn to accept myself just as I am today.  All of me.  But since choosing the word, I’m finding out that it is also about my accepting others.  Just as you can’t love others if you dont’ love yourself, you can’t accept others if you don’t accept yourself.  It is going to be an interesting year to discover all I don’t know about acceptance.

If you are participating in the Oh My Word mission with me, be sure you have a blank book of some sort to write in, OR a blog.  As I offer ways to focus on your word, you will need a place to record your reactions and thoughts.  I know several of you have posted your word, but if you dont’ have a word yet, just remain open.  Spend some quiet time listening.  I know that seems impossible right now with the holiday activities, but it only takes a few mins to listen.  While you’re driving, or brushing your teeth, just focus on being open and ready to hear your word.