2011 Theme word: “Tony”
As 2010 comes to a close, we once again find ourselves reflecting on the year past and the new one to come.
That means it’s time to come up with a #themeword for 2011. If you’re not familiar with the concept of themewords, they are words you adopt as your central mantra for the coming year. They make a handy replacement to easily-broken resolutions, and help you approach your year with perspective and purpose.
My 2010 themeword was “renovation.” It wasn’t the prettiest or most positive word to go with, but it reflected the realities I would be facing this year, as nearly every aspect of my life underwent significant and sometimes messy and difficult transitions.
12 months later, those renovations are almost entirely complete. Now, as I look to the next year, I’m ready to start kicking ass in fresh new ways.
For the past few years, my focus has been on New Work City. I set out to build a coworking space that was truly community driven, open to all, independent, and sustainable- and it took a long time to get there. Only now as we settle into a space of our own do I consider that mission to be nearly complete.
As NWC stabilizes, I am increasingly free to focus on something new, something I haven’t focused on much in the last few years— myself.
Moving to NYC, attending and hosting countless events, and starting a business, as you might imagine, can dominate one’s time and attention. Along the way, little things like my finances, health, and general enjoyment of life have had to increasingly take the back seat.
Now I have a chance to turn my focus inward. I’ve identified three areas that need focus, all of which I’ll be working on in 2011:
Money
People tend to get a little obsessed with it. I find that my relationship with money is at its best when I have to think about it as little as possible.
Right now, I do have to think about it quite a bit, because I don’t have a lot of it. So in 2011, I think I will make more of it.
How I’ll go about making it, of course, is the fun part. I have no intentions of doing anything silly, like getting a job- instead I’m going to build things that help make the world a better place, but also make some moolah as well. Social enterprise all the way.
Health
I’ve not treated my body well. It’s high time I paid it some attention.
That means diet and exercise, of course, but I’d like to tackle those things in less conventional ways.
Like most people, I have a hard time sticking to a healthy diet or a good exercise routine on my own. If I tackle it with others, however, I think I’ll stand a much better chance of getting somewhere.
Last year, we started some initiatives like costructure and cofitness, but they fell by the wayside as my focus on NWC took precedent. Now I have a chance to resurrect those things, bigger and better.
Travel
I used to travel a lot with my family. After graduating college, I got a job and way too little vacation time- so my traveling was largely relegated to annual trips to Austin for SXSW and not a lot else.
Now that I’m liberated from the restrictions of a job, I’m free to travel like never before. I have a lot of friends who need visiting, and a lot of corners of the world to explore.
I’ve promised visits to friends in Vienna, Seattle, Santa Barbara, Montreal, and Tampa. It’s time to start keeping some of those promises!
Overall, this coming year is still going to be very much about building things that help people help each other- but this time around, I’m going to be approaching those things with my own self-sustainability in mind.
Helping people is great, but helping people in a way that helps you too is better and more sustainable.
If I’m healthy in my body, mind, and bank account, I’ll be able to do optimal ass-kicking.
What’s your themeword for 2011?
