My One Word for 2016 is Simplify

We’re already in the middle of January but it’s not too late to lay down our plans for the next 365 days of our lives.  How do you plan? Do you schedule sort of a meeting with your spouse, family? Or you prefer listing your plans / goals in a journal?

Personally, I’ve done both.  My husband and I talked about our plans for this year and set our priorities.  I also utilized the power of journal writing – in my small notebook where I jot down my daily activities as well as short-term and long term goals.

When a fellow mommy blogger Pehpot shared her one word for 2016, I was inspired to come up with my own “one word”

The word SIMPLIFY has a different meaning to every person. It could mean focusing more on the needs and less on wants and whims.  It could mean getting rid of clutter either at home or workplace.  For other person, it could mean staying away from negative persons and spending more time with the people he or she loves.  It could also mean simplifying our daily routine, dropping things or activities that cause stress and chaos.

This year, I will SIMPLIFY my life by…

evaluating my commitments.  I’d like to focus on the most important things to me and my family. The cue word here is to Prioritize!   

simplifying home and work tasks.  Finding the balance between a hands-on homemaker and a full-time career woman may be difficult. However, by focusing first on the most important task can make my life easier.  Not only that, there are a bunch of ways to lessen stress at home and at work such as automation (computers and software are useful tools), delegation (assign tasks to household helper and train the children to do household chores early on), eliminate (unnecessary things, like too much time on TV, Internet, etc.)

complaining less.  I will try my best to avoid complaining about price hike on basic necessities, nega-vibes people around, traffic, etc.  Instead, I will count my blessings every day and praise God for His overflowing grace and guidance.

learning to say no.  This is quite hard but doing this will help me live a simple, uncomplicated life.  Learn to say no to gimmicks, well,  hindi rin naman ako gimikera.  Learn to say no to persons who have tendencies to abuse my being kind-hearted.   Learn to say no to whims and wants of my playful kiddos, pero paminsan-minsan, i-grant din naman ang wishes nila.  Thus, finding the balance and setting priorities straight are the key phrases here.

getting rid of clutter.  I’ve been reading good reviews about the Konmari method of de-cluttering.  I’m implementing this slowly at home.  In fact, last Sunday, I started organizing our wardrobe cabinets. 

spending more time with my loved ones.  Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, celebrate life.  I want them simple yet meaningful.  One of the biggest event I am looking forward this year is my Mama’s 80^th birthday. We will go home (to Bicol) for a family reunion.  My brother who is currently based in Dubai will go home, too. I want to spend more time with my Mama. I remember one quote which says "Love your parents. We are busy growing up that we tend to forget they're growing old"  I wish her good health long life because kahit may edad na siya ang dami pa nyang pangarap, dami nya pang plano. 

That's my one word for 2016. How about you? Head on to comment section and share  the best word that will inspire, motivate you this year.