Three Words for 2011

I’m an avid follower of blogger Deb Ng, having discovered her on the Freelancer Writing Jobs blog, and now her new venture, Kommein. On her 2 January post, she follows the advice of super-blogger Chris Brogan and recommends choosing three words to sum up the year ahead.

Now, I realised in the latter part of last year that I don’t really talk about myself much on this blog. There’s a lot of fiction, a lot of photography, talk about the mechanics of writing, and some discussion of those aspects of culture that interest me, such as art or film, but not very much about me or what makes me tick. A lot of bloggers are a lot more open about themselves – I’m not, simply because I decided my interests are more interesting to a reader than I am. Still, I’m not entirely devoid of emotion, so here are my three words for 2011 – and a little bit of myself to go with them.

Acceptance
No, I don’t just mean this in the context of having more work accepted for publication (although this is clearly a goal for 2011). It doesn’t even mean acceptance onto my chosen research program to begin the now-infamous PhD (although I’d give someone else’s right arm to do this). No, I actually mean ‘acceptance’ in a more broad sense. I’m the first to admit that I’m incredibly self-critical, and I want to be more accepting of myself in 2011. Many discussions with an incredibly dear friend in the closing weeks of 2010 have at least helped me to see there’s not strictly anything wrong with me, I just have different perceptions of things that may be culturally and socially accepted ‘norms’. On another level, I’m also a bit of a control freak, so I want to learn to accept that some things are simply beyond my control, and that’s no reflection on me, simply my inability to manipulate space/time.

Create
This doesn’t just mean in the obvious sense of writing – pretty much anything which requires thinking requires creativity in some sense, even if it’s just coming up with a new solution to a problem. I want to create some sort of balanced life for myself that allows time for writing, work, and fun. I want to have actual concrete things in my hands at the end of the year that I can hold up and say “I created this” (I don’t mean ACTUAL concrete, either). I want to have enough finished drawings that I could paper the walls of my flat. Basically, I want to keep my mind occupied with creative endeavours.

Silence
I’m a BIG fan of silence (which might be an odd confession for a film scholar who DJs) but this year, I want to try and focus more on enjoying it; that is, actually taking the time to slow down and relax occasionally. Normally I feel like there’s so much to do that I have to be doing something at all times, and that any time spent doing “nothing” is time wasted. However, in 2011, I’m hoping to have more ‘quiet’ time to recharge the ol’ batteries and hopefully combat the persistent tiredness that has dogged me in recent years.

What would your three words be?