Why Choose a Word of the Year? (Plus my Word of the Year)
Why choose a Word of the Year?Watch the video or read below:Life moves so quickly, doesn’t it? When you’re not paying attention an entire year flies by and it feels like you don’t know what you did or what you accomplished.But when you do pay attention, you can embrace each day as a gift and live it fully . . . no matter what you’re doing any particular day.I started choosing a word of a day several years ago to start living my life with intention. The older I get the quicker days and years fly by. When I was younger I felt like I had all the time in the world. Now, I know that I don’t.I often say that every single person dies. No one is getting out alive. It may sound morbid, but I use it as inspiration to live my life as fully as possible. I know I have a finite amount of time on this planet, so I want to get as much out of it as I can.Having said that, we only do have so much time each day. We still have responsibilities and commitments, but we can face those commitments with wholehearted intention.When you choose a word for your year, you’re choosing an intention of how you want to live your life.Last year my word was “wholehearted.” I wanted everything I did to be wholehearted. I wanted to either fully commit or not commit to each action I did.It was helpful because even for the things I don’t necessarily love to do (cleaning, for example) I chose to do wholeheartedly. I found a way to feel fully committed and intentional about the task I was doing at the moment.For example, I don’t love to clean, but I love to have a clean house. I can feel wholehearted about cleaning because of the outcome of the action.My word this yearI struggled choosing one word this year. I have several words that are my core desired feelings and I had a difficult time choosing between them.The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that they could all fall under one category and that was Love.
Love can be an unclear word, but I have defined it for myself. And I suggest when you choose your word you use whatever definition works for you. What does your word mean to you?For me love is:
- An extreme kindness that I can show to myself, my family, my friends and every other human being.
- Giving my time, money, and energy to organizations who need it.
- Sharing my gifts so that others can discover and share their gifts as well.
- The opposite of hate.
- The opposite of fear.
When I think about how love will be a part of my year, I will think, “How can I find love here?” In any location and in any circumstance.What is your word for the year?I would love to hear it! Pop it into the comments below. You can add a little about what it means to you or just keep that to yourself.If you’re not sure yet, I have some exercises and worksheets in the Word of the Year Talisman Workshop that you can work through so you can figure it out!Plus you’ll get ideas for how to bring that word into your everyday life. I’ll walk you through a vision board and you’ll make a piece of jewelry to use as a Word of the Year Talisman to remind you of your word all year long.Get it all right here: