I know… what’s a gerund?
Gerunds are the words that end in “ing.” The wonderful thing about a gerund is that it provides a sense of movement: pushing, hoping, wishing, making, and so forth. Gerunds are verbs that are cast in the present tense and are almost a mood unto themselves.
How about this as a project for you this New Year’s:
Most people have a bunch of resolutions each January. January is that time of year. And they usually last somewhere around two – three weeks. Sometimes they can even last the entire month of January. Usually, however, that’s about it.
Suppose, instead of reciting those resolutions, you decide you’re going to describe, as one of your end of the year processes, the gerund that best describes your prior year, and the gerund that will describe your coming year.
In other words, what was 2005 for you? Was it all about “caring”; or was it about “fighting”; was it about “searching”; and so forth? In other words, what was this past year all about?
Simultaneously, describe what 2006 is going to be for you. Is it going to be about “committing,” “persevering,” “resolving”? What is 2006 going to be about?
Once you’ve done that, if you’re in a group setting — whether family or friends —why not write your word on a slip of paper and throw it in a bowl. You each get to pull out a slip of paper, at random, and figure out which word belongs to which person. Do that for calendar year 2005 and then for calendar year 2006.
Final step! Once you’ve done that, and you’re definite on the word that’s going to describe your 2006, I want you to put it in great big bold letters, somewhere where you will see it every single day, and hopefully multiple times a day. Put it on your refrigerator, on your mirror, on your computer monitor, on your dashboard or steering wheel; put it wherever you want to put it because, from that point on, that word is going to describe how you are going to play out 2006.
Resolutions certainly have their value. However, the value of a gerund to describe the future is that it doesn’t as much describe it as it does define it. It becomes the central focus for your actions and it becomes the coalescing force for moving forward.
Check out the process and let me know how it works for you.