“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones”
Confucius
Well this is it. Time to commit to an annual direction and Name Your Year. This goal-setting tool is simple, fun and the perfect conversation starter at dinner parties!
January is over, the children are well and truly back to school and routine has once again been established here in our little part of the world. As we all charge into 2016 full of new enthusiasm, let’s focus and embrace every opportunity life has to offer.
Those who are new followers to this blog can read more about the annual challenge called ‘Name Your Year’ via this link which will take you to a guest post I wrote during last year. For everyone else – #Lets Do This!
Name Your Year – 2015 Less is More Reflection…
2015, the year we named Less Is More, was more than incredible and will definitely be a tough act to follow. The year began with ‘new beginnings’ as our family packed a suitcase, one piece of hand luggage each and travelled to the opposite side of Australia to live. This has affectionately (and nostalgically) become known as our WA Chapter.
2015 also ended with ‘new beginnings’ as we stayed true to our Name Your Year theme Less Is More. In August we moved overseas to live in the Middle East, settling into our new UAE Expat Chapter with around the same amount of possessions as when we moved to Western Australia.
As it happened we enjoyed the WA adventure so much that as that door closed, we took advantage of another one which opened – so now we are expats!!
These choices have given us our first taste of apartment living, a dramatic downsizing exercise and we are learning valuable lessons in and around the importance of ‘stuff’.
“You need less than you think and you have more than you know”
Becoming Minimalist
The journey of living a Happy, Healthy, Sustainable life continued during the year where we focused on the theme ‘Less Is More’ as we concentrated on digesting less preservatives, using less chemicals and generating less waste. To achieve this we strengthened habits around buying fresh, more local and in-season produce (as often as we could) from farmers markets, choosing to use more natural based products around our home and continued to minimise the amount of packaging we relied upon in everyday purchases, therefore producing less waste.
I was even lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend a one-day festival with the same name – the ‘Less Is More Festival’, run by the Western Earth Carers which was brilliant. Here’s the link to a ‘DIY’ post I wrote after learning how to make Beeswax Wraps.
Living in a small apartment has meant our weekly maintenance is next to nothing, allowing our weekends and Family time to be spent enjoying the local lifestyle. With our ‘now’ home not overflowing with personal effects, we entertain ourselves by exploring, discovering and attending events as we embrace the local Arabic culture – #LessStuffMoreExperiences !
The majority of these decisions are a direct result of the actions we committed to when we began to ‘Talk Rubbish’ and are still evolving today. Embracing life with ‘Less Stuff’ however was a brand new thought process.
So life has been turned into one great adventure inspired by the annual commitment which is to Name Your Year. It has been filled with both memorable moments and, as I’m sure you can imagine when you move a young family overseas, personal challenges. But let’s concentrate on the positives.
One of the positive results I have found to stem from committing to the Name Your Year activity is how lessons learnt from previous years are strengthened as life continues…
Name Your Year Recap
Here is a look back at my Name Your Year history so far:
- Year of the Baby
- Year of the Expansion
- Year of Consolidation
- Year of the Baby’ – #2
- Progress not Perfection – I started CWMS and built this website from scratch
- Striving For Balance
- Less is More
…which brings me to this year’s theme:
Name Your Year – 2016 ONE DAY IS TODAY
Pin For Later
Enough chat about leaving things till later. No more running around in circles. Life is short and I’m onto it today.
Here are some examples of goals we have already crossed off the list. A perfect example of how one year’s direction (Less Is More) merges into another (One Day Is Today), once you set off with deliberate intentions…
“Never confuse movement with action”
Ernest Hemingway
- My ambition to live a life of adventure – One Day Is Today !
(#wachapter2015 #parisminibreak2015)
- One day we’ll take the children and live overseas again – One Day Is Today !
- One day we’ll visit the UK with Mum so she can introduce our children to their English family – One Day Is Today !
Can you tell my favourite social media platform is Instagram…:-)
You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way.
Dr Seuss
Which direction will you choose…?
I really am genuinely so keen to hear all about your 2015 successes and challenges had with the Name Your Year focus. I LOVE reading all the inspiring themes you all commit to every year, so shoot – I have broken the ice by going first who is up next…!!
Join the conversation:
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I don’t confess to having all the answers, but what I do have is the motivation to have a really good crack – how about you?
X Shea
Previous conversations
Last week…Masdar City Sustainability Festival
Natural and Simplistic Christmas
Favourite Eco Store!
Desert, Souks and an Oasis – Family Road Trip to Al Ain
Next week…3 Refreshingly Raw and Real Cafe/Restaurants in Fremantle
4 Responses to Who Is Ready To Name Your Year !