One Little Word 2016

As I was going through a huge list of to-dos from the beginning of the year – decluttering is so much fun right – I realized that I had never done my blog post for my One Little Word for 2016

Yes, it’s August.

Yes, I know it’s almost September.

Yes, I know that in 3 short months it will be 2017 and I will need a new word.

But I don’t care, I’m going for it – better late than never, right!?

To recap what One Little Word is, basically it’s a word that will define and move you forward throughout the year, instead of a New Year’s Resolution. You can read more, including the past words from past years, below:

2008 – Independence
2011 – Confidence
2012 – Action
2013 – Sticktoitiveness
2014 – Fearless
2015 – Thrive

SO because eight months have passed, let’s recap where I was at the beginning of 2016.

2015 was a crazy, crazy year. My daughter was born at the end of 2014, so I was sleepless for pretty much a year. No, not the awww my mind won’t turn off kind of sleepless. The kind of sleepless where you hear your little cry and you’re SO FUCKING TIRED that you want to just lie there in bed and ignore it and hope she goes back to sleep, but you love her so damn much that even though you can barely move, you get up anyway.

Because of the new addition to our family, my work schedule went down to two days a week. Which was HARD. Being isolated with a little human was HARD. Yes, I love her, and yes, I’m so blessed to have my kiddos – but let’s be honest here. Being at home with a baby who pretty much does nothing at first is really, really hard.

My son was in middle school for the first time ever – which is also HARD. Middle schools have to be one of the most miserable places on the planet. They take all of these kids going through major life changes and put them all into one building and expect them to get along. To say that the transition was difficult would be a mass understatement.

I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, but because I wanted to nurse my daughter, I had to take oral steroids for over a year, resulting in a huge weight gain and just overall feeling like shit. Oh, the things we do for the littles. I was in a ton of pain and just trying to get through each day, managing the pain with no sleep and pissed at my body for betraying me in this way. This is something I haven’t shared much about because it is still fairly new to me – but dealing with an auto immune disease has really thrown me for a loop physically. I’ve never been the bastion of fitness, but I was always able to do what I wanted, physically. That all changed with this constant, everyday pain.

My husband was laid off, which resulted in some downtime with our family – awesome – but then starting a new job meant long hours and new expectations. He has a killer work ethic, so the expectations from home and from work were really hard on him.

So 2015 wasn’t an easy year. Ironically, my word for 2015 was THRIVE.

To think about 2015 in a negative way would be easy to do, but to shift my mindset and really think about what those challenges did for our family? Totally different.

Yes, it was hard. Yes, mom having little to no sleep was pretty much horrible. But we got through it.

As a family, we persevered. In my business, I persevered. And while 2015 kicked our ass, we moved forward and grew stronger throughout.

So that’s where I was at the beginning of 2016. Battered, beaten, and rising up.

Imagine me, on the ground all sad, and then rising up with some choir of angels singing and light coming down from the heavens as I rise up WITH GLITTER AND SPARKLES. Yep.

I can’t honestly say that we thrived as a family in 2015. But sometimes life beats you up – it is the ebb and flow of humanity. And so while the word was a goal and a desire for 2015, 2016 will have a related word:

REVITALIZE

verb (used with object), revitalized, revitalizing.
1.
to give new life to.
2.
to give new vitality or vigor to.

Because, like I said above, I was rising up with music and glitter and light and awesomeness.

So my word for this year has been revitalize – to give new life to just LIVING. That sounds so awkward, but it is true, and it is where we were at. To give new life to our family, our kiddos, and our home in general. To give new life to my business, to really redefine my why and figure out what fuels me. To start learning to actually take care of myself, instead of always taking care of everyone else.

This word can mean so many different things, but it has been something that I think about daily throughout 2016. And yes, in 4 months, I will choose a new word. But I’m hanging onto this one now. Because while 2016 has had its own challenges, I’m rising up in glitter and light.

Or at least that’s the mental picture that the word brings to mind. So I’m sticking with it.

I’m curious and would love to know – do you have a word, or a focus for 2016? Do you have a particular concept that you are moving towards? Tell me below in the comments, I can’t wait to hear it!

And because every post is better with a photo, I’m going to add a photo of a beautiful client that I had the pleasure of working with this year. Her laugh is infectious, and this photo is such a great representation of what I do, and why I love what I do: to help women and couples to know their worth, feel amazing, and embrace their power. Because here it is, the big secret: boudoir is about so much more than just photos, or sexy photos.

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