Your word of the year

I'm personally not one for New Year’s Resolutions. I prefer to do my goal setting in the Fall, when the leaves are changing and the kids are back at school.

However, for the past couple years I’ve been picking a word of the year.

(My word for 2020 was “Share” …. As in traveling to hospitals and lactation centers for Q&As and hosting in-person speaking engagements…. hilarious.)

My word last year for 2021 was “Ease”. Last year certainly didn’t feel easy, we moved yet again across the country from southern California to my husband’s hometown in western Michigan. However, we did choose for a day-to-day ease in a cul-de-sac neighborhood with lots of extra hands to help us recover from the 2020 we ended up having. “Ease” was the harder choice, but it did give us quite a bit of a break and it was a good lantern for what our family truly needed. My word this year is “Joy”.

If you’re like me, you’re exhausted, frustrated, and still grieving what we have given up ever since our world flipped upside down. We need more Joy. This doesn’t mean I’m planning to cover myself in glitter and drink champagne all day. My plan is to do the actual work to include more joy. Maybe that’s committing to more running races, maybe that’s saying no to more things, or putting myself first when it’s uncomfortable, you get the idea.

Your word of the year might be singing to you right now. Or, you might need to jot down a few sentences of where you would like to be a year from now and look for a pattern. Your word of the year is like a guiding light to yourself when making big plans and goal setting.

Have you ever chosen a word of the year? I’d love to hear what you’ve selected and why. Feel free to write to me directly or share below.