Describe 2011 in One Word

A year ago when I started Reverb 10 the first prompt was to choose a word that described the past year. I can hardly believe I chose the word setback, that seems awfully sad to me. But you know what is even sadder and not to get you down but I honestly can say I didn’t turn that ship around in the last 12 months. If I was being completely honest with myself I would even go as far as to say I threw it in reverse and stepped on the gas! When the new year came around I felt stuck. I wasn’t really going anywhere. I was unsure whether to pursue my photography business or focus on just the blog or maybe I was supposed to scrap everything and bring the focus back on my husband and kids. I went to visit someone who told me that I was approaching a BIG change but that a world filled with uncertainly and a bit of tumultuous evolution was going to prove a challenge in itself. She said one word that stuck with me, that word was reciprocity.  She had questioned where my energy was going? So who was getting the Best of You (oh yes I did Foo fans). I knew the answer. So I vowed to slowly eliminate the things and relationships that were taking away from and not giving anything back in return.

This sounds so cut and dry and easy but it wasn’t. Its not always easy to identify what my dear friend Ronne used to call time sucks. Usually time suckers were people for her, she had a knack for spotting them on her radar and had no qualms identifying the perpetrators. I wish she was still here to guide me. Actually she is still here and you know what she is probably the driving force, that little voice in my head that tells me when its time to let go and move on.

I bowed out of many projects this year. I unfriended and unfollwed people who didn’t even blink when I left the conversation. I hid a ton of people on my facebook stream because I am one of those people compelled to respond to your question what is the best smelling detergent. I just can’t help myself I want IN on ALL the conversations, but what I was doing was spreading myself so thin the relationships I was already in were becoming diluted. I was giving everyone 1/100 of me and the fraction was becoming even smaller. Looking back this year I recognize my pitfalls and forgive myself for the stumbles I took. With personal change comes personal responsibility and I am finally ready to own up to what’s mine and how I ended up here. So I choose another R word RESPONSIBILITY.

In a year of ups and downs and reclaiming my personal space, it’s starts with responsibility not only to others to myself. As we move through this journey over the next 30 days think about where you would like to be by the end of the month jot down any thoughts or words that come to mind as we will choose one of them as our “intention” in the new year. I hope you will share your reverb experience by linking up below!