What’s on my mind? The word ‘goodness’.

In my Annual Year in Review, I send out a gift. This is an opportunity to review your past year and plan your upcoming year. (Let me know if you want a copy with pleasure, my gift! www.andisaitowitz.com)

One of the sections involves a theme or headline. If you could give your life a theme/headline for the year – what would it be? I love doing my annual review and the feedback I receive from others is always inspiring and heartwarming. We can’t change what we don’t acknowledge so this is a really worthwhile experience to take a good honest look at yourself. Sometimes it hurts, but we know that pleasure isn’t the only motivator to get us to make a necessary change. Often, pain has an important role in driving transformation too.

Over lunch last week, my friend Liza and I were chatting about what our “word” would be. If there would be a single word that we want to embrace and epitomize what would that be.  Liza is a family therapist who helps young parents with authentic parenting.  “Authentic” is clearly her word and she lives it.  I was trying to think what I embrace, what I care about deeply. I toyed with optimism, gratitude, kindness, inspiration and suddenly she said Ands, “goodness” – your word is just “goodness”.

I sat with that a while and fell in love.

Hmmmm – What is life with “goodness” as my theme word?

I started thinking about my health, my relationships & friendships, family time, my work, my hobbies, my community life, my learning – where does this word fit into everything I want to do and be?

I realized: “Goodness” isn’t just my word, it’s actually my world.

Goodness is what enables me to:

• spend time with people I cherish.
• see the spark of the human spirit in others.
• make kind choices & big value-based decisions.
• keep the faith.
• look for the blessings, meaning and lessons.
• embrace second chances.
• believe in what is possible.
• guide, coach, mentor and support my clients.
• live a happier, more meaningful life.
• broaden my perspective.
• Try again
• Empathize
• Listen
• Motivate
• Volunteer
• Serve
• Persevere
• Lead
• Smile
• Appreciate
• Apologize
• Take chances
• Be brave
• Ask for help
• Help others
• Challenge myself and others
• Do good
• Feel deeply
• Cry
• Laugh
• Engage & Connect
• Rest
• Learn
• Mess Up
• Get back Up

Goodness is a like my guide.

The list could go on and on.

And whenever I feel lost, I can use my word to help me find my way.

What is your theme word that you want to live by?

Today when I logged online, this quote came up as my memory from a few years ago.

“Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people”.

Wow.

It reminds me of the immeasurable magic of goodness and how it has the greatest power to transform and elevate everything about the world.

It starts with me. And you. And all of us. Just One act of goodness at a time.

As we contemplate our own character and the tragedies connected to the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B’Av, our sages tell us that the Holy Temple was destroyed and we were exiled from our land because there was “baseless hatred” among us. Accordingly, the only way to bring the Redemption is through baseless love — to love a fellow even though one sees no cause whatsoever for such love.

So for me, Baseless Love = Goodness.

I’m going to try use this as my guide moving forward.

What’s your word going to be?

How would your relationship with yourself look different with your word as your theme?

How would your family life and friendships look different with your word as your theme?

How would your goals, passions, dreams and vision look different with your word as your theme?

How would your business and career, professional life or office look different with your word as your theme?

How would your free time look different with your word as your theme?

How would your health, fitness and wellness look different with your word as your theme?

How would your spiritual, social and communal life look different with you word as your theme?

How would your response to life look different with your word as your theme?

How would your inner dialogue sound different?

How would you perform daily?

What does your future-self look like with your word as its primary adjective?

I’d love to hear from you!