My Word Is … Choose

{{Our team was inspired by one of our fellow contributor’s posts, “No More New Year’s Resolutions – Just Choose One Word”, so we decided to share our selected words and the reasoning behind them in a series called “My Word Is…”. Follow along as we share our stories, and then update on where our words have taken us at the end of the year.}}

Last year a friend of mine posted this quote on Facebook:

When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It’s all a matter of perspective.

….Harvey Mackay

Among all the random quotes filing my newsfeed that day, this quote grabbed my attention. It reminded me that I can control my reaction to adversity in my life, both the real problems and the petty, insignificant ones. I can choose to allow annoyances and irritations to derail my day, or I can choose to look past them, focusing on all the positives in my life. To remind myself that the choice is mine, I changed the screen saver of my phone to this:

When I read Tracy’s post on New Year’s Eve “No More New Year’s Resolutions – Just Choose One Word”, I thought – YES – her words have captured my thoughts! I loved her suggestion to select a one word “guidepost” for the year.

“Choose” is my word for 2016. It is simple, yet empowering. When faced with problems, obstacles, or annoyances, I can choose my reaction. I can choose kindness, I can choose patience, I can choose empathy, I can choose to be a role model, I can choose forgiveness, I can choose resilience, I can choose grace, I can choose laughter, I can choose love. I can falter and fail, pick myself up, and choose to try again. I can choose…