When Your Word for the Year is "Do"

Back in December I chose “DO” as my word for the year. Lately I’ve been thinking about that choice. Wondering if it’s a bit ironic. Wondering how I feel about it now. Wondering if I should choose another word for the rest of the year.

In general I try to revisit my goals each month, at the beginning of the month and then again at the end. Check in with how I’m doing. Set intentions. Assign and revise due dates and assess projects. Gauge how I feel about everything I’m doing and planning on doing.

This year, somewhere along the line, I lost touch with it all.

Or at least it felt that way.

When I announced my word for the year in January I wrote:

As I’ve been thinking about all of this, the words “Done is better than perfect” keep running through my mind. Perhaps this year of DOing will be a bit messy. It may be “down and dirty”. Experimental. Playful. (And it might be full of failures). But above all I want it to be free from distraction, hesitation and fear.

I know I won’t get to every project. The year has already gotten off to a slow start with Jude’s illness, surgery and ongoing recovery. I’m practicing patience. I’m rearranging how I work and what I’m working on. I’m giving myself time and space for ease and rest and I’m carving out time and space to tackle important projects.

Yes, this year has been messy and continues to be messy. I think that’s just life. Aren’t we constantly having to rearrange how we work and what we’re working on? Aren’t we always called upon to practice patience? As for living life “free from distraction, hesitation and fear”… is that even possible? Don’t we all have to confront them all the time.

Yes, I have had to cross some things off of my calendar and my monthly goal planning worksheets. This month’s focus was supposed to be prepping for the Winding Roads Art Tour. And this weekend I was supposed to be enjoying a getaway with two of my oldest friends.

But unexpected opportunities have opened up, too. I was invited to teach a 4-week live online painting class. I decided to join Lilla Rogers and Beth Kempton for MATS MBA thanks to their generously offering it for free (you can still join in if you’re interested!). I signed up for the Artist Trading Card Swap organized by Janine Vangool in the UPPERCASE Circle, an online community for UPPERCASE Magazine subscribers.

And I have stuck with most of my original goals, including creating a new class that’s now available on Skillshare.

When I was still just thinking about the idea of a spring-themed botanical sketchbook class, I imagined sharing lots of videos of my flower-filled garden and sketching from its abundance. But the thing I forgot was that spring doesn’t usually look like that here in Wisconsin. Spring is messy. Spring is slow. April’s “showers” are sometimes snow, not rain. Flower-filled abundance doesn’t really happen until summer. It doesn’t mean that spring is any less exciting. It doesn’t mean I've not been cherishing every single bloom that appears in my garden and that I notice when I go for walks.

My sketchbooks, my journals, my creative play… all of it can be a refuge when life gets to be a challenge, when plans fail, when my imagination runs away with me.

If flowers aren’t blooming yet in my garden, I can make my own flowers. When my life feels drab, I can play with paint and enjoy COLOR. When I’m feeling depressed I can write Joy and Gratitude lists. When I feel like I have no control, I can set intentions for how I want to feel and what I want my life to look like from inside (what I think, what I create, where I focus, what and how I consume). When I miss my friends, I can reach out to them.

This year is calling on each of us to take a step back. To think. To feel. To reassess. All we can do, all we can ever do, is face each day as it comes. Some days will be messy. Some days will be disappointing. Some days we’ll wish we’d stayed in bed. Other days will be sweet. Filled with flowers or successes or clear sunny skies.

I’m not changing my word for the year. DO is still a good word. Perhaps it’s an even better word this year than during a less challenging year. DO urges me to keep going. DO invites me to spend time in the moment. DO can be messy and imperfect. DO can be late or unfinished. DO is about process, not product. Sometimes DO can mean setting aside a project to go lie in the sunshine and read a book.

And I keep going back to what I said about “giving myself time and space for ease and rest”, while also remembering to carve out “time and space to tackle important projects.”

I hope you are navigating your way through these days. I hope you are finding refuge and guidance wherever you can. That you’re facing each day one at a time and finding gratitude and joy when you can.

Thanks for reading. Take good care.