“One Word explains how to simplify your life and business by focusing on just ONE WORD for the entire year. The simplicity of choosing one word makes it a catalyst for life-change. Clutter and complexity lead to procrastination and paralysis, while simplicity and focus lead to success and clarity. “(2012, One Word that Will Change your Life)
Those are the words from the back cover of a book that caught my attention in early 2012 as I was preparing to create my annual resolutions. Words like simplify, focus, life-change all sounded great to me, so I decided to give it a shot.
I have drunk the ONE WORD Kool-Aid and 12 years later, I am still using ONE WORD to create focus for my year. I think of my ONE WORD as being the canvas or background for living all aspects of my life for one year at a time. As someone who is extremely goal-driven, I can honestly say that I probably started making New Year’s resolutions when I was in junior-high and while the exercise of creating the list was good, I never had a year when I could look back and say that I had done anything I had resolved to do.
ONE WORD isn’t necessarily an impetus to change for me, but more of something that I am curious about in my life. Sometimes I’ve recognized I have that word in my life, and it serves me well. Other times I’ve noticed that it isn’t very important to me, and I can let it go. Always, I’ve come to understand what the word means to me, as well as how it informs my thoughts, feelings, choices, and actions. When December 31st rolls around I am much clearer on how that word fits into the life I want to live and the person I want to be.
DEEPEN
In early December I started the list of potential 2024 words.
Finish: because I start lots of things (projects, ideas, tasks, sentences) that I don’t finish
Simplify: do I make things harder than they need to be? Am I already simplifying, and I don’t recognize it? What does that even mean to me?
Courage: where am I being a chicken in my life? What am I afraid of doing or saying?
Tighten: where have I gotten lax? What do I need to grab onto?
Pretty okay words, but I wasn’t really ‘feeling’ any of them.
One night, while listening to a scripture study podcast, the word DEEPEN came to me. I wasn’t thinking about what my ONE WORD should be, and I can’t point to anything in the podcast that was a catalyst for the thought. I think it came from a source (in my case, God) who knew this word would serve me best over the next year. It was love at first impression!
When considering the benefits of going deep, 2 examples come to mind.
1. Our lake home was built in 1999 on clay soil. When we bought it 2 years ago, we knew the deck would need to be replaced. It was sagging. Upon further inspection, we realized that the support was not deep enough to sit on something firm and immovable. Our new deck has Diamond Peir footings, which not only go very deep into the soil, but structurally spread the load to keep things stable. GOING DEEP OFFERS LONGER LASTING STABILITY and CAN PREVENT SAGGING INTO DISREPAIR
2. The water where we live is super hard – so much iron! We bought an expensive water conditioning system, and we love our water. However, it takes a lot of water to cycle out the junk and it fills our holding tank quickly (if you live in a city and have city water, I know this means nothing to you). In the process of exploring our options for minimizing recycling drainage, we were asked how deep our well was. I learned that if the well were dug deeper, we could get to purer water and wouldn’t need the water conditioning system all. That was great information too late. GOING DEEP CAN LEAD US TO BETTER QUALITY
There is much to explore with this word, but for now let me share what I have learned from spending time with DEEPEN over the last week.
Going deep requires effort. If the desire is to go deeper, we must dig. If we are in deep, it takes hard work to get out. Whether digging in or digging out we sometimes need help.
I can be quite shallow.
I can be content staying at surface level because it’s easier.
If I dig deeper, I might not like what I find.
I may not know how to get out if I get in deep.
Just because I want to deepen something (a relationship, an inquiry, a conversation) doesn’t mean it will happen.
DEEPEN can be explored in the spiritual, intellectual, social, physical, emotional, and financial aspects of life
I love the thought of being in conversation with DEEPEN all year!
I welcome conversations about ONE WORD and if you’re up for it, I’d love to deepen the exploration.
Here’s to an incredible 2024!
jean@drjdavidson.com
