One Word of Focus for 2012

"Words have set whole nations in motion…Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world." ~ Joseph Conrad

So I love to roam the net in search of new and creative ideas. The other day I landed on Stephanie Ackerman's page, Homegrown Hospitality, where she was talking about how she selects just one word for each year as her focus. I loved this idea. While reading about Stephanie's past words, the word CULTIVATE from her post just leapt out and grabbed hold of me.

For 2012, I'm going to cultivate my world!

Per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, cultivate means:

• to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops; also
• to loosen or break up the soil about
• to foster the growth of
• culture (the act of process of cultivating living material in prepared nutrient)
• to improve by labor, care or study: refine further, encourage to seek the society of : make friends with

Synonyms: absorb, adopt, embrace, take in, take on, gain, get, obtain, reach, foster, nourish, nurture, promote, encourage, further, perfect, produce, tend, raise, gather, glean, harvest, reap

There are many things I hope to cultivate this year:

• Peace: A sense of peace, inner peace, a place of peace
• Friendships
• Relationships: Both business and personal - family, co-workers, acquaintances
• Creativity: Whether it be writing, drawing, crafts, etc
• Spirituality: Need to feed my soul
• Discipline: It takes discipline to make changes
• Dreams: Time to reach for some of them
• Habits: Need to refine some habits and add some new good ones
• Compassion: Empathy for others, help through volunteering still
• Joy