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My Year To Be Steadfast

by Denise M. Colby

Steadfast.

My word for 2018.

I loved choosing this word. It truly was a word that fit my year, my writing, my life.

Sure. Dependable. Reliable. Constant. Unwavering. Steady.

All the things I needed in order to see things through this year. I needed to be sure of myself to pursue my writing goals. I needed to be dependable and reliable, so I would keep writing. Constant, unwavering support from writing friends made things fun and encouraging. Steady. Something to tell myself whenever I found myself wavering.

I had created three quick messages which I kept close by to remind me throughout the year:

steadfast in one’s faith
do not look behind
stay focused on what’s ahead

When I took the Seriously Creative online class with Laura Gate-Lupton recently, we created process goals to support our outcome goal. I found my process goals were the steps I need to help me be steadfast.

When I keep my focus on these smaller actions, I’m able to make progress without overwhelming myself. By going slow and steady, I see actual progress. Steadfast!

I’m really going to miss this word next year.

But with a new year, comes a new word. I wonder what my word for 2019 will be?

Choose a word to represent your year by Denise M. Colby — Time to choose a word for next year!

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New Year . . . New Word by Denise M. Colby

January 12, 2018 by Denise M. Colby in category The Writing Journey by Denise Colby tagged as Motivation, steadfast, writing

Happy New Year and Welcome 2018

I love choosing a new word to focus on each year. It’s amazing how one word can communicate so much. My word fits exactly where I am both in my personal and professional life and I love to explore the word in depth, as well as find verses and quotes to encourage me throughout the year.

This year will be my fourth time selecting a word as a theme of focus. Usually, I make a list, pray about it, mull it over and see which ones I’m drawn to continuously. But this year? It came up while I was reading the Story of With by Allen Arnold, and as much as I wanted to keep thinking of other words, it stuck to me like glue. Lodged itself inside my heart and left no room for discussing any other option, no matter how hard I tried.

What is the word?

STEADFAST

Isn’t that a great word?

Just to be sure, I looked up the definition and did a quick search for bible verses and sure enough it encompasses everything I feel going into 2018.

Sure. Dependable. Reliable. Constant. Unwavering. Steady.

See, I don’t want to look back. I want to focus on what’s ahead. In both my writing and my faith in God. It may be slow going at times, but it will be steady. What’s that phrase we’ve all heard before?

Slow and steady wins the race.

I’m not going to rush, hurry, stress myself out over the fact I’ve been working on my novel for over four years. It isn’t ready yet and only continuous steady work is what will make it better. I will do what I can and when it’s time, it will be time. That’s the idea, anyway. I have an entire year to keep reminding myself of this.

To help, I always select a few bible verses with my word in it. Last year’s word, strength, had an amazing amount of verses to give me encouragement throughout the year. Steadfast only has five in my NIV adaptation. And two really stood out to me:

Psalm 57:7 – My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music (and write words—my addition).

Psalm 112:7 – He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

Encouraging, aren’t they?

I’m super excited for exploring my word further. Just now, I typed in the phrase slow and steady wins the race and a whole bunch of other quotes popped up. I’ll have to go through them at a later time, but one grabbed my attention and I wanted to share:

Slow, steady progress is better than fast, daily excuses.

I think I might print that one out for my entire family to see.

Oh, this year will be fun exploring #myword2018 #steadfast! You’ll see me post things to my social media related to my word, because I like to encourage others and it will help keep me on task. To be steadfast in my writing. Continuously and sure.

For no matter what happens, I’m moving forward. Learning. Growing.

Have you ever considered choosing a word for 2018? I would encourage you to think about it and try it out if you haven’t. And if you have, I would love to hear in the comments what your word is for 2018.

Blessings,

Denise M. Colby

Although new to the writing fiction world, Denise Colby has over 20+ years experience in marketing, creating different forms of content and copy for promotional materials. Taking the lessons learned from creating her own author brand Denise M. Colby, Denise enjoys sharing her combined knowledge with other authors.

If you are interested in a marketing evaluation and would like help in developing a strategy for your author brand you can find out more here http://denisemcolby.com/marketing-for-authors/

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