One Little Word 2013- Manifesto

Image courtesy of Ali Edwards.

This will be my sixth year with the One Little Word project.

I first read about this from Ali Edwards blog. She encouraged me to pick a word that would be a guiding force for the year.

My first word, in 2008, was Create.
I loved that word. For that year, I was ALL about creating. I created new experiences for my baby Kylie. I created a lot of love with Karen. I created a loving home in Portland. I created tons of scrapbook pages. I created lots of knitted projects. It was a fantastic word that truly motivated me throughout the year.

My second word, in 2009, was Choose.
This was an interesting word for me. The thought behind it was that life with Kylie was so encompassing that all lot of other things were starting to slip. Like my health/fitness. Like our finances. Like anything that wasn't Elmo-related. It was easier to go about the day-to-day stuff and not think nor work on the bigger goals. So picking the word "choose" was like a light slap on my cheeks encouraging myself to wake up and start working on my life. I was partly successful. But my memory of the word "choose" was that it wasn't much fun.

My third word, in 2010, was Steer.
"Steer" was "choose" on steroids.
I did steer my family to our new home in FL. I did steer my but to the gym and steered my attention to our budget. But "steer" was heavy in responsibility. It was my least favorite word.

My fourth word, in 2011, was Triathlete.
For the entire year, I ran. I learned to bike. I learned to swim. The process was fear-filled yet exhilarating. And I fell in love with the training. I believe that in a non-competitive sense, I did become a triathlete.

My fifth word, in 2012, was Cultivate.
As Becky Higgins writes on her blog: Cultivate a good life and record it. I fell in love with this phrase. It was a great touchstone for me as I worked to create memorable moments throughout the year. I think I was most successful when I created our Summer Manifesto. I had so much fun posting that list on our fridge and ticking off the items.

So for 2013, I chose "Manifesto" as my One Little Word. The idea of the manifesto isn't so much a "to do" list to stress over but rather a list of things that are seasonal and important and fun. I plan to create a manifesto for Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Here is my Winter one:


You can read more about the One Little Word project here. And for inspiration, you can see Ali's list of words here.

If you've picked a word for the year, please share it with us!