Word of the Year: Abundance

Have you ever picked a theme or a word of the year? With a lot of thought, I’ve decided that I’m going to try it in 2018. After stalking the internet, I’ve decided that my word of the year is going to be Abundance.

From Merriam Webster:

Definition of abundance

Why abundance?

I think it’s the prospecting part of my personality, but I seem to never feel satisfied. I constantly see how things can be different and am always working towards something else. I want to spend this year focusing on what I have and staying in the moment.

I want to stop filling my house with clutter – I buy things all of the time and there is absolutely nowhere to put it, not to mention what it does to our bank account. Am I buying stuff because I’m just plain unsatisfied? To be fair, I usually adore many of the things that I love, like vintage crockery (bizarre, I know). But I also tend to be on some sort of money making scheme, which leads me to buy the craziest things (like 100 yards of twill tape for homemade labels. That’s still sitting in its package.)

My most perplexing and troubling buying habit is fast food. Even when there’s delicious food at home, I always prefer to stop for chicken nuggets and french fries. And not only is it expensive, but it’s so unhealthy. But why is it so hard for me to stop?

I recently listened to Suze Orman’s Financial Freedom and was struck by her first couple of steps: pinpoint your first money memories and your biggest fears in life – those are likely related and the reasons why people can’t get out of debt. I think she’s on to something. This is something that I want to explore more as time goes on because I think it will help me understanding why I keep buying  because I think I NEED things when, in fact, I don’t.

I am overwhelmed by the credit card debt that I’ve created. It’s silly and ridiculous and selfish. I need to figure out the root cause of my reckless spending, otherwise nothing is ever going to change in my life. And I don’t want to just focus on the financial aspect of abundance (or lack thereof) either.  I want to be able to recognize all of the abundance in my life to help me understand what’s really important and what I need in life to be happy. I know it’s not the clutter and all of the STUFF.

Thriving with Simple Abundance

How many of us can identify with this tweet?

You don’t learn to treat yourself well or be concerned with your overall health when you’re just trying to survive. And us lucky ones who get the chance to thrive, but come from survival mode, will always struggle in that transition.

— Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) November 26, 2017

How true is that? And the comments and retweets are full of eye-opening affirmations. I’ve spent my whole life hustling, trying to make something out of nothing. I don’t think I need to do that anymore. I have big plans for this blog in 2018 and I want it to be a careful and thoughtful space, not a slap-dash collection of posts that focuses on quantity instead of quality. I want to see the abundance in things of quality.

I love that Anne Bogel also posted about abundance this week. She wrote about the little things that she does that make her feel like she’s living abundantly. Things like buying flowers and spending the money on good pens make all of the difference for her. What are those things in my life? What helps me feel rich when we’re literally budgeting every last penny that we have right now? That’s more for me to explore and discover as this year goes on.

How will choosing a word for the year change my day to day life?

One of my goals for this blog is to have more thoughtful and reflective posts, instead of throwing together book reviews just to be able hit the publish button. And focusing on the abundance in my life fits right in with that hope.  I have been working ABUNDANCE into my daily gratitude and intention setting practices. Focusing on the word and its impact on my life has helped me realize how much I have, rather than everything that I WANT.  I want to find a way to offer hope to others and share my own progress in living a simple yet abundant life.

Your Turn!

Have you ever set a word or a mantra for a year? How did it go? How did you incorporate it into your life? Or have you been intrigued by the idea but found it difficult to narrow down a word or just plain forget to think about it?

What comes to mind when you think about abundance? What are the things that you do to live your best life? Can you recommend any books that will help me with this project?