Do you have a word of the year?

Most people start a new year with resolutions and intend to join the gym, eat healthily, get a better/different job, improve relationships etc.  I am not one for subscribing to such notions as I think they are all too easy to fall foul of. 

I have resolved to join the gym, paid my ££s and after a few months decided that I can’t fit it in, or I’m not really enjoying it, or I don’t see any benefits, so I give up.  I have intended to eat more healthily and give up or intake less cake, crisps and sweet treats, right up until I see a bakery shop window, or am out for dinner and the luxurious chocolate cake is too irresistible, or the idea of “second pudding”, a concept brought home by our daughter during the first lockdown, is still ritualistically maintained.

Rather than a New Year’s Resolution, I had more of a “Turning 50 epiphany”.  That was when I decided to make some changes to my life.  I decided to eat more healthily, but not give up the pleasures of cake and chocolate, to make sensible food choices and introduce new food items into my diet.  I decided to upgrade my wardrobe and outward appearance.  To wear skirts and dresses more often, (I used to wear them to work all the time), to spritz that perfume I’ve had sitting on my dressing table for years, to wear that beautiful bracelet I was given on a holiday in Gibraltar, to wear those beautiful Pandora charms my husband and daughter have bought me over the years, to splosh on the nail varnish and keep my nails trimmed and neat, to invest in a good quality pair of heels to accentuate my calves.  To be a bit more daring in what I where to remind myself that I am a woman and what I used to be like.  I decided to invest time and effort in to learning more about myself and my failings in order to be a better person, wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, colleague.  I’m still working on building relationships and sometimes have to take a deep breath to get through them but hopefully I have become more tolerant of others and understanding of others’ perspectives.

I am not doing any of this for anyone else’s benefit other than my own, and through working on each of these areas I am ultimately making myself happier.  I have no intention of wistfully hankering after some super chic lifestyle of the rich and famous, but there are things I can do in everyday life that will make my life easier and happier, which will impact on those around me.

So rather than having resolutions, I adopted a word for the year.  It sounds a bit pretentious and pompous but I think it encapsulates everything I have mentioned above.  My word of the year is “Elegance”.

I want to be more elegant in my interactions with others, in the way I respect and treat people by having a deeper understanding of my own responses to others and their perspective.  I want to be more elegant in my appearance.  Over the years I have become more comfortable (nothing wrong with that) and a bit grungy.  I used to wear skirts and dresses to work and occasionally at leisure.  I remember the types of clothes that I wore when I first started dating my husband and the things that attracted him.  I have become lazy in my appearance.  I have some good assets, so why not accentuate them a little, without getting cringey.   I have nice things that other people have bought me over the years that I don’t use regularly.  Nice jewelry that sits in the box, gorgeous perfumes that are still in their cellophane wrappings.  I know that I swear a lot and sometimes in inappropriate settings and once I start I find it hard to stop, so I am really being conscious of the amount of speaking more elegantly, swearing less and being more aware of when, where and what words I use.  I want parts of my home to be more elegant and will be looking to make areas of sanctuary amongst all the clutter, that are beautiful, restful places to be. I want to re-engage my femininity.

So, my word of the year is “Elegance” and I am doing my best to incorporate it into everything I do.  What would be your word of the year and are you living it?