My Word is "Do"

New Year, new beginnings.  Or so they say, I don't put so much stock in New Year's resolutions and other rituals.  Still, it's good to have a regular time to reflect and think ahead.  My friend, Ann, posted a very good suggestion on Facebook last week.  Instead of making a list of New Year's resolutions, she said, choose a word that will guide you for the year, one that will lead you to the actions that would have been your resolutions.  It appealed to the cognitive/behaviourist (the theory that what you think affects your behaviour) in me.  I know what I need to do to make the things I want happen.  But I've been having trouble sorting myself out to do them.  I find the tasks overwhelming and I don't know where or how to start so I don't do anything.  So, for my word, I chose "DO".  It's the attitude shift that I need.  To "DO" something rather than nothing even if it is only a teeny tiny baby step toward what I want to accomplish.  Washing 2 dishes is better than no dishes at all.  Tidying one shelf is better than giving up entirely on a closet full of clutter.  Planning one meal is better than giving up in frustration while trying to plan 5.  Giving away one small box of no longer needed items is better than waiting to pile up a carload.  Drops in the bucket, but many drops make an ocean, and I don't need a whole ocean, just enough to fill my bucket.

So, some of my doings for today:


1.  Write that little report for Mandy.  Really, it took all of 10min, why did I push it off for so long?  And it made her so happy.  Doing is good.

2.  Rescue the kitchen from the nightmare that was Thing Small granting her friend's Christmas wish of gingerbread house making.  Note to self:  DO NOT go off to New Year's Eve gathering and leave Thing Small unattended with such intentions unless you are braced for the consequences...

There was royal icing "cement" in my poor mixer and crushed candy cane all over Ash's favourite stool.

The gingerbread house itself experienced some kind of natural disaster:

But they had fun, and thought the "hurricane" explanation for the flat house a good one.

And, again, it took longer to mobilize the girls to help clean up than to actually get back to some semblance of normal.  Even a little doing actually gets things DONE.  Imagine that.  Who woulda thunk it?

3.  Make bread.  I restarted my sourdough starter and there is a batch of dough on the counter.  I'll tell you more about it later.

4.  Write a blog post.  Okay, this one is taking a bit longer, but at least once I started I'm finishing it.  And I will get the hang of this process faster if I (you guessed it) DO it.  To that end I also corralled Himself briefly to show me again how to work the fancy camera.  Honestly, I used to be a decent photographer with an excellent grasp of my old (completely manual) Pentax K1000 35mm camera.  Digital is nice for being instant, but the Nikon D200 is heavy, bulky and fiddly.  But again if I DO I will figure it out.  I also learned that the iPhone does perfectly well for blog pictures that won't need editing!


There are more things to DO today but somehow they seem just a little less overwhelming.

What's your word for this year?