I have been choosing one word to live by for each year since 2011. Here are a list of my posts regarding my One Word choices:

2011 Reflection – SOUL

2012 Reflection – STRENGTH

2013 Reflection – CONNECT

2014 Reveal – ACTION

As I look back at these choices and the reflections, I can tell that I was really going deep and each word definitely highlighted the particular place I was at in that year. It’s almost scary how personal these reflections were and how to anyone else, they probably didn’t seem like much.

This year’s word was ACTION

This was my image to help describe my choice of ACTION as my One Word for 2014. Anyone who has seen Shawshank Redemption remembers this scene. Andy, wrong accused of killing his wife, finally escapes prison and it’s amazing. I made this image with an app and added the quote.

I wanted to somehow capture this feeling. Freedom. Accomplishment. Moving On.

As I look back at my reflections over the year I can visualize the changes, the growth, the opportunities that were happening in my life. All the words making sense, leading me to choose this word. Over humps and obstacles, this was the year to use my newly found freedom in my job to do some great things. Challenge myself – but not because I had to overcome things I didn’t want to do – but because I wanted to do them, and these tasks were really using my talents and strengths.

I was asked to help with creating a fun environment in the new food court in January. 13 televisions dot the large space, and it was my job to help find things for students to do in terms of interacting with the new screens. Challenge Accepted.

ACTIONS

• Trivia from TapTV – students can play trivia via an app.
• Rockbot – students can vote on the music they listen to in the space.
• PollMeEverywhere – I can put up polls that students can vote on in real time
• Sent all information on the renovation to the Association of College Unions International in hopes of having the building highlighted in its annual Showcase article.

In the summer, I was offered the chance to take on some Communications work for the Division of Student Affairs. This would require giving up some pieces of my position to take on new responsibilities 50% of the time. Challenge Accepted.

ACTIONS

• Established Communications Team
• Met with the VP of Student Affairs every week
• With the direction of the VP, established themes for the year to help shape the Division’s story that we’d like to tell.
• Communicated the purpose and flow of the team to the leadership of the Division.
• Our team helped create and share success stories over the course of the semester.
• Finished the landing page of the Divisional website to include new elements based on Google analytics of what visitors come to see the most.
• Developed a form for all departments to fill out to assess and create an inventory of tech resources for the Division.

(I can list these easily because they were all goals that were accomplished and listed in my 20 page end of semester report to the VP – an action in itself).

I also took on  a new volunteer role with ACUI this year – I became the first female Technology Community of Practice Leader. I was very excited to take on this role and got right to work.

ACTIONS

• Created a monthly Chimp Mail-style newsletter for the Community members.
• Chose monthly themes for the Community to focus on.
• Tried to have a Google+ chat that failed due to tech issues (go figure).
• Planned Annual Conference events for the Community.
• Starting in November, tweeted a resource link every day at 10am about the monthly theme.
• Kept an eye on the online Forum to help with any conversations.

Yeah, this blog post reads like a resume or a report or whatever – because that’s what this word was about. ACTION. I had a great year accomplishing things and I’m owning it. You don’t see me highlighting accomplishments very often in my posts so this one should last me for awhile.

So on to the next thought.

I’m not sure I’m going to pick one word this year. I haven’t decided. I feel like instead of picking one word, maybe I should do something different. I’ll let you know what I decide soon. I have an idea…but want to ponder it a little more.

I hope all of you reading this have an absolutely wonderful 2015.