One Word for 2014

There are a lot of blog posts about just now that zone in on New Year’s resolutions, but I stumbled on some that were talking about One Word. The idea being that you choose just one word to keep ‘front and centre’ during 2014. Not a whole list of resolutions, but One Word that sums up what you, personally, want to achieve this coming year.

There’s even a book written about it with an interview on ‘Today’ with the author of the book.

http://www.today.com/video/today/53957503/#53950545

 I got to thinking about what my One Word would be.

As I read about all the words other people were putting forward as their words, I wanted to identify mine.

Have you any idea how many words there are out there?

How many words are there in the English language?

According to the Oxford Dictionaries:

“There is no single sensible answer to this question. It’s impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it’s so hard to decide what actually counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning ‘a kind of animal’, and a verb meaning ‘to follow persistently’)? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (e.g. dogs = plural noun, dogs = present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since it might also be written as hot-dog or even hotdog?

It’s also difficult to decide what counts as ‘English’. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Teenage slang? Abbreviations?

The Second Edition of the 20-volume  Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of exclamations, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. And these figures don’t take account of entries with senses for different word classes (such as noun and adjective).

This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.”

That’s a lot of words to choose from.

Narrowing it down somewhat, I made a list of some others had chosen, as found in their blogs. Words like: COURAGE, SELFLESSNESS, PEACE, PRESENCE, KINDNESS, SIMPLICITY, TRUTH, APPRECIATION, SPARKLE, CHOOSE, WHOLE, NOW, FRESH, BLESSINGS, TENACITY, RESILIENCE, JOY, EQUANIMITY …. the list goes on … and on … and on … all good words.

I considered a few of them as suitable candidates for My One Word.

Simplicity … I could do with focusing on simplicity for a year, throwing out some of my clutter from cupboards and closets as well as from my mind and lifestyle. But I actually love my clutter. I’m not ready to part with much of it yet. I might do a spring-clean, but a whole year of simplifying, I’m not so sure.

Courage … yes. I always need that. We all do just to cope with the trials of life and what it throws at us. But would focusing on that as my One Word make a difference in the coming year? Possibly, but courage is something I’ve not been too bad at finding when I need it … so far …

Presence … to decide to ‘be in the moment’ to savour every moment. I like that. It would be a great word to ‘keep front and centre’. That’s something I already try to do, so I very nearly chose Presence.

Then I thought my word should really be about something I need more of in my life. Something I lack.

Consistency … Now there is something I need in my life. Consistency. Not to be wavering backwards and forwards, one day on top form, the next in the pits. One day doing my exercises, one day hardly getting off my you-know-what. One day eating salads and bean sprouts, and everything healthy I can get my hands on, the next day eating everything sweet and fat-filled I can get my mouth on.

Yes, I like the idea of becoming more consistent: spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.

To keep up with prayer, study and meditation on spiritual things on a daily basis.

To keep my equanimity more, not letting things ‘get to me’ emotionally, draining me, pulling me down as they can do sometimes. Controlling the ‘highs’ as well as the ‘lows’ in order not to get carried away with my passions and enthusiasms to the detriment of my health.

To be more regular, more consistent, with exercising and healthy eating. Oh, dear, did I really say that out loud? That means I’m probably going to have to carry through on it, doesn’t it?

To write every day, doing research diligently, keeping my mind healthy and alert. Ah! This is where the real fun comes in, the real challenge. The fun being the writing, which I love, the challenge being keeping my mind healthy and alert. Think I’m battling against the pull of the years that have already passed with this one!

But, yes, overall, consistency … I like that. That’s what I’m going to strive for.

So there, I have decided, my One Word for 2014 is going to be

CONSISTENCY

What about you?

If you were to choose one word to keep in focus for 2014, what would it be? or …

What will it be?

Your One Word?

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