What's Your Word?
Setting your intention for the year
I hope this blog post finds you well - perhaps eager to start the new year with some positive changes for your well-being.
Remember, it's not only at the start of a new calendar year when you can make changes; you have the power to make changes each and every day. (After all, this blog post comes to you at the end of January, but is still relevant & can be implemented at any time.)
Keep it simple
It's okay (and super normal) for changes to take some time, trial & error, and adjustment before they stick as a new habit or routine. We need to have clear goals, but with enough flexibility to alter along the way, as needed.
Also, change doesn't have to be big - small shifts may be the most important and valuable thing for you right now.
Rather than setting lengthy (& potentially unlikely) resolutions, choose a word (or short phrase) that can be your mantra & guiding theme for the year.
guidance to finding your word/theme
Get out some paper and spend some time considering the following questions:
What is definitely happening this year?
What are you hoping will happen this year?
What dreams would you like to nurture this year?
What area(s) of your life is/are asking to be supported this year?
What qualities do you want to develop in yourself?
What does your heart need?
There are no right or wrong answers to these questions — once you explore them, start jotting down words that stand out to you (they might be feeling words or action-oriented words). Whatever they are, start to hone in on what stands out to you and just feels right.
Use a dictionary or thesaurus to help, as needed.
Letting your word guide you
Once you determine your word, write it down - write it down in multiple places - places you’ll see on a regular (or at least periodic) basis.
At least every month or quarter, check in with how you are keeping your word or theme at the forefront, moving towards that goal.
You may identify concrete tasks to accomplish, or perhaps you’ll find more intentional time for reflection, focusing on subtle shifts throughout your days (and ultimately the year).
Again, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Make this exercise work for you.
inspiration
If it would be helpful to know how someone else has utilized this activity, and what stands out from each year’s word/theme, here is a list of my words since I began this practice several years ago:
2017 - REDISCOVER - After a long infertility journey and feeling it was time to move on in my career, I quit my job to rediscovered myself as a clinician in full-time private practice, as well as taking a break from such a strong focus on trying to conceive, allowing myself to rediscover who I was as an individual, along with focusing on our partnership within our marriage.
2018 - Make It Happen - We decided to try In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and after an unexpected split from my business partner, I hired my first employee clinician to forge ahead in my goal of building a group therapy practice.
2019 - EVOLVE - I anticipated evolving as a woman becoming a mother to our much anticipated baby daughter; unfortunately life did not work out that way, and instead I evolved as a woman who lost an extremely desired child due to a medical crisis/stillbirth situation. Even still, I managed to continue evolving my group practice by hiring a second employee. Many of the year’s events were nothing like I had planned for — I sure did evolve, just not in most of the ways I had desired or anticipated.
2020 - Find Your Soul - Hoping to settle into the new spaces created by the changes that occurred in 2019, I started the year hopeful to discover who I was now that our journey to parenthood was over. What no one anticipated was a global pandemic — this presented the environment for really digging in to my work as a mental health/relationship therapist, as well as isolated, quite personal time. Just like the year prior, the execution of my year’s theme was nothing like I anticipated, but it was still a grounding guide during an unprecedented time.
2021 - Tenacious Prioritizing - Experiencing a love of my work, but a deep exhaustion (not yet grasping I was on a burn-out journey), I set boundaries to be more protective of my time and energy (in work & personally), and reengaged in my love of riding horses. As the year concluded, I recognized my personal capacity no longer coincided with my previous goal of a group practice and made the difficult, but critically important decision to shift away from a group practice model to a solo practice.
2022 - Initially, this was identified as The Year of Health, however about half-way through the year, it became clear that another theme was front & center (and I was unable to pursue/prioritize my Year of Health goals in the ways I had hoped). Therefore, for the first time, I allowed myself to switch my word about 3/4 of the way through the year to ESTABLISH; I established myself as a solo practitioner, initiated a new journey as a first time home owner, and began embracing my identity as Childless Not By Choice (CNBC).
2023 - Now, this is The Year of Health. I have many tasks in multiple areas of my life that will benefit from this theme. Just a few are physical health (consistency in moving my body, preventative care/doctors appointments, healthy habits, etc.), financial health (formalizing our long-term security plans & paperwork, such as insurance, Wills, and Advanced Directives), and organizing/simplifying my home & work environments, one room and one drawer at a time. My sub-theme words for this year are: Dialed-In & Simplify.