My word for 2023 is “Intentional.” I want to live intentionally, give my time to what matters to me, be useful in some way, find purpose in my daily life. Like many other people, I often live randomly, just wandering from one activity to another, unplanned and disorganized. I know I can’t plan every moment of my life. In fact, that wouldn’t be a good way to live. There has to be time for spontaneity, for just doing things in the moment or not doing anything. But even then, there can be direction and purpose.

I haven’t explored completely what intentional living means. What I do know is that to me it means paying attention, looking at things carefully and clearly, acting with kindness and compassion, working toward intentions I have selected for myself for each day, week, month and the year. I use the word “intentions” instead of “goals,” because to me goals are end results of plans, and intentions are a way of life, ongoing, and may not include specific endings, and that’s how I see myself living. I may not get “there,” wherever “there” is, but the journey is what matters and what I do while I’m on it.

I wrote this alpha poem, or acrostic, (a poem where the lines begin with words that use the letters of a word or phrase) using my word, “Intentional.”

Intentional

Internally generated by my mind,
Nothing left to chance, I
Turn my thoughts
Energetically toward my truths,
Noticing the source first,
Then determining how to proceed.
Inner resources are ready,
Only focused on
Now, not yesterday or tomorrow, but
Allowing myself the
Luxury of some uncertainty.

It’s not great poetry, but it helped clarify for me how to begin the exploration of what “Intentional” will become for me in the coming year.

Write about what living intentionally means to you. What steps can you take to be intentional in your thoughts and actions.

Choose a word that has meaning to you as your word for the year. Write about that word and how it will help direct your way of life this year.

Write your own alpha poem/acrostic using your word and see where it takes you.