My Word For 2020

Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here.  Several days ago, Mary Connealy shared her word for 2020, namely FOCUS. Reading her post inspired me to search for my own word to guide me in the coming year.

I thought about it long and hard.

Focus seemed like a good word to, well, focus on, but that felt like cheating, sort of like copying off of someone else’s paper. 

The next word I thought of was PRODUCTIVITY. After all I just signed a three book contract with Grand Central for books to be delivered 7 months apart, an ambitious schedule for me. But that still didn’t feel right.

Then I looked around for inspiration, I eyed my very cluttered house with its crammed to overflowing junk drawers, closets and guest rooms, and it hit me – SIMPLIFY.

This word works on a number of different levels for me.

I need to simplify my living environment by cleaning out a lot of the clutter that I’m holding on just because I “might” need/want it someday. There are clothes in the back of my closet that haven’t seen the light of day since I retired ten years ago, there are also cute shoes I love but will never be able to wear again because of my foot surgeries over the past few years.

I need to simplify my writing environment. Having lots of craft books and reference books lying around, as well as paperwork and easy access to social media has allowed too many distractions in my workspace.

I need to simplify my family life – I’m a compulsive list maker and perfectionist. By focusing on my to-do lists and trying to get everything just right, I sometimes miss out on spontaneous opportunities that present themselves to enjoy time with family and friends.

There you go – my word for 2020, let’s hope I can make it work for me.

So let’s chat. If you haven’t already mentioned your word (or goals or focus) for 2020 on Mary’s post, share it here. Or if you’ve tried the ‘simplify your life’ plan in the past, please share any tips, pointers or lessons learned that you think might help me.

I plan to give at least one person their choice of any book from my backlist.

And just an FYI, at the time this goes live I’ll be in the hospital recovering from foot surgery so I may not be able to respond right away, but I promise to pop in over the weekend if need be to read and respond to everyone’s comments.