Did you make any New Years resolutions? I used to do this years ago and within a few weeks I'd given up or forgotten. The past few years I’ve tried a different approach - picking a word of the year. It’s a gentler, kinder approach to help direct your intentions and actions throughout the year, especially when difficulties come and/or life gets overwhelming. Usually the word I pick represents a change or development, something that takes some effort to change and requires time to create new habits.
I’m often asked how I pick my word of the year and I don't really have a set formula, but I will share with you what I do. I usually start by reflecting and asking myself a few very simple questions and scribbling down whatever comes to mind. This doesn't have to be complicated or fancy, just grab a notebook, piece of paper, or the envelope from the latest bill that arrived, get some coffee/tea and begin.
Reflect on:
1. What did you enjoy this past year?
2. What did you not like in the past year?
3. What do you want to change for the upcoming year?
4. Want do you want to have more of in the new year?
5. Sometimes a word will spring to mind immediately after reflecting, other times you have to do a little searching. Here you'll find a list of words, have a read over it and write down any that resonate with you and your reflections.
6. Now circle your favourite three words and check out the synonyms of each on Power Thesaurus. This helps you get a better feel for the word or a slight alternative which works better.
7. Then it's time to let that all “marinate”, go for a walk or a coffee shop or sleep on it. The word will come.
8. It's now time to define your word, this isn't the dictionary definition, instead it's how you hope your life to look using the lens of your word of the year. Think about what it means in terms of your; Health, Work Life, Personal Life, Family & Friends, perhaps Finances, Spirituality and whatever other areas of life where you would like growth or development.
9. Now it's time to order your star with your word of the year on it. The star helps you keep this word top-of-mind throughout the year and encourages you to keep taking those steps towards change or development. You can order your star here:
