For the past several years, I’ve chosen a simple word or phrase to focus on for the upcoming year. I first learned about this practice from Ali Edwards and Elise Joy and thought the concept was exhilarating! Choosing just “one little word” as my beacon for a brand new year was both motivating and exciting and felt like some little source of guidance I could give my future self.
So, for the past few years, I’ve chosen words:
2018 – Grow
2019 – Flourish
2020 – Home (LOL, didn’t realize how literal this one would be)
The idea is that you’ll use your word or phrase throughout your year to help guide decisions and create new habits and challenge yourself to…do better? Be better? I don’t really know, but I do know that somehow my ‘word’ always ends up being spot on in ways I never anticipated.
For instance, in 2019, my word was “flourish.” I ended up joining a membership called ‘Flourish’ by April of that year. (And no, I didn’t know it existed before I chose my word). And THEN, I joined a Mastermind later that year that focused on ‘flourishing,’ and it turned out to be the best investment I ever made in my business.
In 2020, my word was “Home.” I chose it because I wanted to focus on making my home a sacred, special place. Not just for me and my husband, but for friends and family to gather. I wanted to be more ‘at home’ in my body. I wanted to maybe even BUY our first home…which we did! (In the middle of a pandemic). But I had no idea how much time I would be spending at home. Home became more important than it’s ever been. So, see? It always, always turns out to be more meaningful and profound than I ever dream.
With all this in mind, I want to say that there are no hard and fast rules. You can choose a word any time, not just in the new year. You also don’t need to focus on your word every single day if you don’t want to! I tend to pray over my word, and ask God to use the word in whatever way He sees fit in my life, but I don’t do much other than think about it every now and then throughout the year. I tend to let it do what it will and I give a little smile to myself whenever I think of the ways it is playing out.
After 2020 was such a literal use of my word, I’m hoping for the same literal use of my 2021 word, which is: Fruitful.
The past year has shown us that it’s important to be content with what we have and not always be striving for more, and that is a lesson I will not soon forget… but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the fruits of hard work manifest in various areas of my life.
To me, ‘fruitful,’ has many meanings–a lot of which are personal–but this year, I do want to put an emphasis on my business and get serious about it in a way I have not been since I started in 2016. I have been so blessed to have opportunities fall into my lap, or have some things I’ve tried on a whim turn into integral parts of my business. But I no longer want to leave my income up to chance, or to wait for opportunities to come up. I also don’t want to feel the need to say ‘yes’ to almost every single inquiry that comes my way out of a need or income. I want to work hard, work with intention and purpose, chase my biggest dreams, and see the fruits of that hard work come to light.
So, without giving it all away (because, like I said, this word has so much personal and private meaning), that is a little bit about my word of the year for 2021.
And that’s about it! Tell me, are you doing a word of the year? Have you tried it before? What was your experience?