Word of the Year update – Happy Independence Day!

Word of the Year background

It’s been about a little over a month since I’ve posted about my word this year – Freedom. In case you haven’t been following that long here are several posts you can check out to see what I’m talking about.

• The Beginning
• Nike Commercial
• Open Space
• March Update.
• It’s the Journey.
• May Update.

If you just want the nutshell update version, it’s like this. I believe in the power of choosing a word for the year and living it. My word for 2011 is Freedom. I want to find a personal and professional freedom that I feel I’ve missed in my life.

Live life intentionally.

If I had to narrow this update down to 1 word, it would be intentional. To find freedom I need to be intentional.

I thought that simply by saying, “I want more freedom,” would actually set me free. It’s a great start, but by no means is it the end.

The last few weeks I’ve written a lot about my trip to Portland and attending the Storyline conference. The most important thing I received from attending is the word intentional. I need to live my life intentionally. I need to know what I want. I need to intentionally do things to make what I want to happen.

What have I done to find freedom?

Here are 3 things I’ve done to help me find more freedom this year. Most of them I was only vaguely aware of how intentional I was in my search for freedom.

1. Create The Collective.

   Kia and I were talking the other night about where I am in my life through some other circumstances we are dealing with. One of the things I said, was that I feel like I’m finally beginning to find my voice. I beginning to find my place.

   Creating The Collective has been a big part of finding my voice, which has helped free me to write and say verbally what I think and feel.

2. Drop things holding me back.

   Okay, this is the most open I’ve been about spa, but part of the reason I chose to step back from Senior Portrait Artists was it wasn’t helping me move into a place of freedom.

   That may sound odd considering I was instrumental in creating and developing it into what it was, but I could fee there was something more/different for me that spa didn’t fit. I honestly don’t know if The Collective is ultimately is what it is.

   Let me be clear that I feel spa (in its new form spa Connects) still holds great value for those looking to build their high school senior business

3. Find life development opportunities

   I choose to attend Storyline not because I really, really wanted to know more about the topic, but because I was looking for something to help me grow. I wanted something beyond the photography industry and business in general. I was hoping for something that would force me to search inward. I found it

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, Independence Day. As a country we’ll be celebrating our freedom as a nation. My perspective will be different when viewing my freedom.

Images courtesy of Stock.Xchng.