The word for 2010 was proactive.  

Proactive was a good word for 2010. Birthed out of a need to stop sitting, waiting, watching, and procrastinating but to begin doing. As far as I am concerned, it was a pretty successful venture.   

I was not the most amazing productive individual in the world, but…  

• I did stop leaving my underwear on the bathroom floor and walking past pieces of junk mail and old receipts left on the kitchen table.  
• I deliberately spent more time with friends and enjoying time in conversation.  
• I started to lead the third incarnation of a house-church/life group/home- group in our home each week.
• I had 2 friends from college fly into Philly for a complete weekend of 36 year old boy ridiculousness (the beginnings of a yearly boys trip).
• I started to work on creating a photography project, but lost momentum and let it die (you can’t succeed without learning how to fail right?). 
• I even took the bolt bus to Manhattan and met up with John Charles Ridenour the Third. We surprised a friend of ours who lives in Brooklyn, before taking in a taping of Letterman. 

All in all, not a bad run. (there’s one more little “proactive” thing from 2010 that’s a pretty good one. I Just can’t bring it up here….yet)

Now 2010 was the first year of my “Word of the Year”.  So this is still an experimental process, and we are not going to abandon Proactive for 2011, but keep it in play, and build on it. 

The selection for this year is: 

Present.  

Not as in “will you please buy me a present?” but…Present. Engaged. Fully involved in life.   

I tend to spend a lot of time fantasizing about idyllic scenarios and day dreaming about a life designed around my ultimate comfort (not that there is anything wrong with wanting to be content).  It’s time to stop living in the little fantasy in my head and engage.  Life requires work, commitment, perseverance, and presence.  I have to stop letting the fantasy get in the way of my reality. 

Present. Here. Now. That’s the goal this year. Along with keeping proactive.   

So if I can succeed at being proactive and present in my marriage, with my daughter, in my job…I think I will generally have a better mind-set about life.  Again, just like last year, we’ll see how this goes. It may be life altering, it may be a complete waste of time. 

Ultimately, what I hope to get out of this is: To be a better father, better husband, better provider, better worker, better son, and better friend. 

I guess ultimately to be a better human. 

 Just in case you were wondering, other words that were in contention are below. 

 expectation

imagination

drive/n

motivated

follow-through

engage