My word!

About ten years ago, someone somewhere talked about choosing their special word for the year, a word by which to live to be a better version of yourself. I’d never heard of this before and so adopted the idea. 

I thought long and hard for my word, the one word to rule them all *cough*, the word by which I’d live for the entire year. I’m sure I was gung-ho for the first few days or weeks, but much like a January gym membership, gave it up and thought no more about it. I have no idea what word I chose.

I was reminded of the practice at the end of that year and, not to be daunted (my stubbornness is genetic), once again chose my magical word. The word that would change my life (for the better). 

I’ll bet you a slice of my fruitcake that you can guess what happened. *

And so it went. Every year I’d choose a word, a word that would stand for who I would be or what I would accomplish for the next 365 days. And every year, poof, I’d forget all about it. Even if it was on a sticky-note at eye level above my desk where I sat every single bleeding day!!!!

Then two years ago, I had a brainwave. An entire year governed by ONE word? That was ridiculous. 

Now, I’m a follower of the author and planner extraordinaire, Sarra Cannon, and have implemented a good bit of her HB90 system (extremely helpful for me). As the name suggests, HB90 focuses on setting goals and implementing tactics to achieve those goals within 90 days, i.e. a quarter of the year. So, what if I chose one word per quarter? Only 90 days to live under the rule of the one word that would guide me toward achieving my goals. I thought longer and harder and chose four words.

Pfft!

Clearly, I was doing something wrong. And lest you think I chose silly words like millionaire or bestseller (wanting bestseller status is a laudable & achievable goal for some, but for me it would be silly. I still dream of breaking even on publishing costs), my words were FOCUS and ACCOMPLISH. (Great words for the Queen of Procrastination, eh?) 

Last year (a week ago – ha!), the time arrived to choose a word-of-the-year. I sighed. I harrumphed. I procrastinated. Why bother? It doesn’t work. (Imagine voice of whiny brat.) But genetics being what they are, I refused to be defeated. I was stronger than a measly word. I was determined to—

Ah ha!

Could it be?

Why, yes, Virginia, there is a word that best sums up what I hope to achieve this year while, at the same time, making use of one of my better personality traits. (I am NOT stubborn!)

Ladies and gents, I give you my word-of-the-year:  DETERMINATION

Do you ascribe to a word-of-the-year? Would you like to share?

*Gambling prohibited.

Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and historical romance. When not torturing her characters, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious. She lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband and five hens.

Website ~ Bookbub ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

Door knocker - Photo by Chiara Guercio on Unsplash

Crown - Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Cake - Photo by lindsay Cotter on Unsplash

The Blur—Is It Harming Our Ability To Focus?

 Once upon a time, fall was the dividing line between summer vacation and school. Now most schools resume in August, nipping at summer’s heels. This divide has been blurred, if not erased. In the white-collar world, weekends and vacations were once held sacrosanct, a time for family, friends, and rejuvenation, not to be interrupted except for a true emergency. Now I see my nieces and nephews tethered to their jobs nights, weekends and vacation days by cell phones and laptops. The divide between their work lives and private lives has vanished.

Do shorter summer breaks make our young students smarter? Does the inability to escape professional demands for short time periods make us more productive?

Perhaps I’m just not good at multi-tasking. Maybe it’s a defect that I long for those old-time borders that are not crossed without good reason. As an author, I wish peer and publisher expectations would give writers a little more slack to disappear from social media for weeks at a time to write. Perhaps then the promotion, when it comes, would be more exuberant, more creative. But it’s now considered a no-no for authors to hibernate for weeks (and certainly not months) to focus on drafting or fine-tuning a manuscript. To be successful, we’re told we must spend time every day—or at least several times a week—on social networking and promotion.  And, if we do take a creative sabbatical or vacation, we must apologize for our absence on social media, our failure to re-tweet, share posts, comment on blogs.

I just attended a Writers Police Academy (a terrific experience), and one of the speakers was Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and the author of more than 40 books, many relating to how our minds work. In her presentation, Dr. Ramsland said only one percent of people can genuinely multitask. What's more, she noted that habitual attempts at multitasking can damage our ability to focus and concentrate.

Since I'm writing a blog, I obviously believe in participating in social media. However, how much time should be devoted to it is a question I need to answer. How many of you (authors or other professionals) would like to disconnect from social media for a stretch of time—with no apologies—to concentrate on creative endeavors? If this is one of your daydreams, what’s stopping you? Would your networking/promotional efforts truly suffer if you took the occasional sabbatical?