Defining Words

I recently finished reading a book called "Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a really great book and I recommend it to anyone who has every searched for themselves.

While she was in Italy, she had a conversation with a friend about the "word of the street". According to him, the word of the street in Rome is SEX, the Vatican is POWER and Naples is FIGHT. The author decided that the word of the street in New York City is ACHIEVE. Then they go on to talk about what the word of her family was while she was growing up and then to what her own word is.

That got me thinking about what my word is. I've been thinking about it for weeks now. The closest thing that I can come up with is TRY. I try so hard every day to be a good mum and wife, daughter and sister. I try really hard to be kind and courteous to the people around me. I try hard to be as creative as I can in my jewelry and all of my other endeavors. I try to do whatever I can for Idaho Indie Works so that my colleagues and I can be successful. I try my best every single day. The reason that my word is TRY is because I don't want to be mediocre. Anyone can do that. I want to be better than that. So, should my word be ACHIEVE instead? I don't know. I don't aspire to be a CEO of a major corporation or to make lots of money. I just want to be better than average because I know that I'm not average. I have a mind and I want to use it.

What is your word?

Can just one word define who a person is, what their motivation is? Possibly. I do think that if you find a word today that defines you, it may not be the same in the future. That's the great thing about being human - we have the capacity to change. I like that.

(The author did eventually find her word months later while she was reading in India. You'll have to pick up a copy of her book and find out for yourself what that word is.)