A lot of ideas have been whizzing round my mind on and off for years. Ideas about what I want to do with my life and how I could go about making those dreams reality.  My dreams of love, home-ownership, a life abroad and motherhood have all come true, as have my lesser goals of being good at a challenging job, being part of a local community and keeping chickens. I am pleased with myself for making all of that happen.

There has been some luck along the way, some hurdles too, but things have worked out and I am living a life I enjoy. Still, those ideas, some dating back to childhood, are there in my mind. Every so often I resign myself to their remaining dreams. I say I’ll just forget about them, that is is too late now, pushing forty, to think about new challenges and taking risks.

More and more of late I have been thinking that if I focus on one or two of those childhood dreams, maybe I can make them come true. Words like “believe”, “strive”, “try” and “do” have been flitting in and out of my mind’s eye for weeks now, like a little internal monologue of motivation to concentrate  and make things happen.  So when, late last week, I saw this post on choosing one word to lead one through the new year, it seemed just what I needed. Writing this post feels like the first step in a new chapter of life.

‘Focus’ is the word I eventually settled on. I have chosen one dream and am going to focus on it for this year. It might change my life or it might just tire me out. It might lead me in other directions or drive me to the end of my tether. But I will focus on it for as long as I can.

Outside of making that deam a project, I have made the decision to focus more on the task at hand. My attention span has been slipping. I notice my hand creeping towards my phone when it should be around a child, turning the page of a book or grasping a sweeping brush. On phone conversations I notice my mind begin to wander. I start a task and fail to complete it or I get distracted and forget what I was planning to do next. I don’t like it and I want to end it. Focus is the key.

Stay on track.

Finish the unfinished.

Ignore the distraction.

Focus.