In remembering the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week, I saw the quote in the image above in many of my social media feeds. The quote struck me in relation to personal development. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how consistent habits and change day to day can make a big difference over time.
This concept was reinforced with a great analogy in a blog post by Benjamin Hardy titled “How To Get Life-Changing Clarity Within 90 Minutes Of Waking Up”. In this post, he references religious leader, David Bednar who talked about when you stand really close to a painting you just see the brushstrokes, but stepping away you see a beautiful painting. For me, this is a great analogy for my annual personal development goals .
Each year, I select a word that will serve as inspiration for the dimension of my life I want to make progress on. The word needs to be relevant to all aspects of my life – career, health, family, passion projects, etc. Over the years, I’ve had some words that pushed me to look at life differently and shift goals and priorities – words like joyful, mindful, create, and focus.
My 2020 word is EDIT. This word was selected in January and I had no idea of the year that was to unfold. I wanted to edit the way I spent my time, my physical and digital environments (clean things out), my personal presence online, my focus at work, and my memories (photo books have not been a priority).
The days of 2020 have taken my word in directions I never would have expected and the word had challenged me in ways I didn’t think it could. Each day has held brushstroke moments like cleaning a cabinet, organizing photos, tracking my time, and updating this website. While the individual moments haven’t seemed significant, I know that when I look back on the year with all the unprecedented challenges it held, I will have created a life painting that signifies my year of edit and how it changed me.
What habits or changes have you made during this challenging year that you will look back on and realize you have accomplished something significant? Do you have anything you still want to do before 2020 comes to a close? There are still over 90 days left – I think 90 brushstrokes could create a masterpiece.