Skip to Content

An Exercise in Words and Brevity

An Exercise in Words and Brevity

If you’re like me and don’t particularly care for making New Year’s resolutions, you might like an alternative exercise of choosing three words to help “guide” you through the New Year. They’re supposed to be like little compasses I guess. I took part in this word exercise last year and it was sort of fun, so I figured why not try it again?

I have two goals for this post – to share my three words and to keep this post really brief. I’m trying to work on being a more concise writer, in other words, being less wordy!

If you’d like to read what my last year’s choices were, click here. Otherwise, it’s a secret!

The words I am selecting this year are:

FOCUS – I like this one because it’s like an “umbrella word.” I can lump a whole lot of things under this one word as I have much that I need to better focus on this year. Enough said.

JOY – I plan to find joy by spending ordinary day-to-day moments with my family/friends/pets, by hopefully inspiring others through my writing, by observing the world around me and by experiencing fully whatever happens to come my way.

BALANCE – If you clicked on the link above, you know this is a word I chose last year too. I’ve been caught red-handed or something like that. If you didn’t click, oh well, I should’ve kept quiet. Anyway, I really need to work on striving for more balance in my life and I can’t seem to come up with a better substitute word, so I’m keeping it!

Maybe this is against the rules, but hey, it’s my blog and these are my three words.

I like my three words.

I hope they help keep me on track this year!

What three words would (or did) you pick?

If you’ve written a post about your three words, go ahead and share the link. Sharing makes this exercise more fun!

eileen@womaninthehat.com

Thursday 7th of February 2013

The three belong together, but they pack a punch: Rise up, Phoenix!

Nancy

Thursday 7th of February 2013

Eileen, They do indeed pack a punch. Thanks for reading and for sharing your three words.

Beth L. Gainer

Monday 4th of February 2013

You chose three great words; I did this exercise last year, and I remember it was really difficult to be brief and sum up all my hopes and anticipation in three words.

I haven't done this exercise this year. I have to catch up on lots of things for now, things I fell behind in, like reading my good friend's blog!

Nancy

Tuesday 5th of February 2013

Beth, I like my words too. I hope they help keep me on track. Don't worry too much about catching up on everything. Sometimes it's just not possible. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Casey

Thursday 24th of January 2013

Hi, Nancy.

It's Thursday, so here's my post as promised. Wasn't sure how to trackback, so linked to your post in the body of mine.

http://navigatingcyberloss.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/choosing-my-words-for-2013/

Take care,

Casey

Choosing my words for 2013 | Navigating Cyberloss: a place to share your grief

Thursday 24th of January 2013

[...] this in the background, I chose my words for 2013. I first shared these on Nancy’s blog, as her post prompted me to consider this. Here, I will expand upon what the three words I have chosen mean to me [...]

Lisa Valentine

Wednesday 23rd of January 2013

Attitude of gratitude.

Nancy

Wednesday 23rd of January 2013

Lisa, Perfect words since you write about that very thing on your blog. Thanks for sharing, Lisa.