New Year, New One Little Word...

So, I got my Christmas decorations put away yesterday - finally.  I love how the house feels after it's all cleared out.  Don't get me wrong, a few weeks ago I was excited about getting my house all decked out with Christmas decorations, but things were starting to feel crowded.  Now that the front room is all cleared out and organized, I feel inspired to get the rest of the house de-cluttered.
By this time every year, I usually have my One Little Word chosen.  Instead of making "New Year's Resolutions" that are sure to be broken by January 9th, I choose a word that serves kind of as a "theme"...a word I can think about daily to focus on throughout the year.
Words that I've chosen in the past are:

FOCUS

TRUE

JOURNEY

DO

This year I began thinking about my word around Christmas.  I started thinking about my year and all that has happened...good and bad.  I looked through my blog and read about my past words.  My husband chooses a theme for the church every year and this year he chose "I believe".  At first I thought that my word would also be "Believe" because I have so many reasons to really BELIEVE this year.  Then I thought that it might be EMBRACE because I really need to embrace who I am, where I am, etc.  As I pondered my word, I realized that my words always seemed to be about me doing more, wanting more, seeking more...  I almost feel like my word for the year should be SNOOZE or NAP because to be honest, I am tired.  Not always physically tired, although that is true a lot of the time too, but I just felt so WEARY this last year.  So many things that happened that just wore me out.  

I am the type of person that is always on the go and even when I am taking a "break" I fill it with things to do.  I love making lists and crossing things off.  I am the type of person that makes a big deal out of a lot of basic things. I have a hard time keeping things simple.  I rarely can do anything spontaneous because I have so many things lined up in my head that I don't have "time" to just do or be.  My friends and I have even joked that it's a sickness.  I am not so sure that it's funny anymore - it's getting kind of serious really.

Well, as I struggled with the choosing of my word - I was making a big deal about it - I mean, come on! It's going to be my word for the whole year.  I realized that even this simple action was causing me unnecessary stress.  Then it hit me.  MINIMIZE.  minimize.  I needed to minimize!!  Wait...is that what I want to do?  Let me look it up on freedictionary.com:

min·i·mize  (mn-mz)

tr.v. min·i·mized, min·i·miz·ing, min·i·miz·es

1.

a. To reduce to the smallest possible amount, extent, size, or degree.

b. Usage Problem To reduce. See Usage Note at minimal.

2. To represent as having the least degree of importance, value, or size: minimized the magnitude of the crisis.

Hmmmm...  I think this is it!  There are so many things that need to be minimized.  Just some things that come to mind:

worry

clutter

stress

weight

self-doubt

projects

This is just a start, but I really like this.  Yes, I will still focus and do, but I really want to focus on keeping things simple.  I want to really minimize some fears that I am holding on to. But can I do this?  Is this like setting myself up to fail? Like the dreaded resolutions?  I think the obvious answer is yes.  I must.

So, I would like to announce that my One Little Word for 2013 is minimize. 

Did you choose a word?  What is it?  Feel free to leave a link or your word in the comments!