Welcome to a favorite year-end tradition!
This post focuses on the popular December ritual of choosing ONE WORD to pull you forward with more clarity, connection and impact in the coming year.
Choosing your word of the year is an empowering alternative to making (and subsequently breaking) New Year resolutions. Although I love to make lists, a list of resolutions no longer makes the cut. I want to feel inspired and expansive, not circumscribed and restricted. Research shows that resolutions are largely ineffective for making positive, sustainable change. Twenty-five percent of people who make resolutions break resolutions within one week and sixty-five percent break them within a few weeks. Not surprising, right? If you find yourself making and breaking resolutions, consider selecting a word of the year to embrace the vision for what is possible.
Honoring the Call to Shift
Are you looking to make a change, create aligned impact in 2022? Are you feeling a tug to be more authentically you in career and life? Remember, tugs (be they whispers, shouts or something in between) are the soul’s longings, asking you to listen and engage in the direction of yearning.
Use your word of the year to bypass the temptation to settle for less than you deserve or compare yourself with others, when you are best served by building up yourself.
I don’t know about you, but I find that when I soften (versus toughen) my approach to goal setting and create a reminder signpost for how I want feel, I tend to achieve in less time and with less resistance.
One of the biggest challenges we face is to move from what we think and talk about to actually green-putting launch it into being.
Selecting a Word of the Year will help keep you focused to call forth qualities that launch your wishes into being.
Whether you’ve participated before or not, I hope you’ll join in this time.
Choose one word for the New Year. It’s a signpost to stay true to you. Click To Tweet
HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR WORD?
I select ONE WORD to anchor my attention and to pull me forward.
My word of the year tends to “find me” more than “I find it.” Allow me to explain. I share my process as one way to begin.
I begin with pause, reflection and soft focus. I purposefully engage in ways that take me out of my head and into my heart. I may meditate, put on music, hike in nature, go for a run, take photographs. I want to beckon, not force, the word to show itself to me.
By setting aside time to get curious, it’s easier to identify what is accessible and meaningful. When we get out of our own head, resistance melts.
To get started, you may want to schedule time to wander in one of the ways mentioned above or explore other pathways you enjoy. Perhaps you doodle words or images on paper that reflect a state of being you’d like to experience more often. Imagine your one word as “code” for what will allow you to show up bigger in your life. Try out your word of the year. How does the word sound when you say it? How does it feel as you write it? Can you envision growing with this word throughout the year and being better for it?
Of the words that come to you, choose one highly resonant word as a signpost. You will likely feel a tap, a flutter, the “yes” in your body. There is no right or wrong answer and other words, phrases or images can support the one word.
Fortify Your ONE WORD. Make it visible and repeat it often.
The word you choose will have layers of meaning for you. Others may think they understand but your perception and desire to manifest it is highly nuanced and personal.
Perhaps you already know your word. Writing it down and posting it where you see it will lead to “living into your word” with greater access, repetition and flow. You may want to find an accountability partner or coach to help identify, apply and sustain your unique impact using ONE WORD.
My ONE WORD signpost for this year is IMPACT.
Why did I choose this word? I aspire and commit in the coming year to be more visible, vulnerable and courageous. To expand my edges, especially in how I own, express and act on what’s true. I aspire to live my truth out loud more often, even when it’s challenging. Especially when it’s challenging. I want to lead and live from this place with fresh vigilance and grace.
My ONE WORD of past years has conjured up artful, nourishing, inspirational ways of being. I believe my life has been enriched, my efforts more intentional for having them.
These times and a new decade require us to reset and re-imagine.
What ONE WORD will move YOUR story forward in a way that feels inviting, resonant and spacious?
Once you have your word, use it to help inform and navigate the year ahead.
If 2021 was a tough year for you, as it has been for many of us, I believe that what you experienced has the capacity to make you wiser, more compassionate, courageous, and connected to yourself and others. I honor and appreciate all that you’ve been through.
Whether you’re going for big changes or minor tweaks in 2022, I encourage you to select a word that resonates and inspires you. If you’d like guidance choosing or taking a stand for your ONE WORD in the coming year, I can help.
I offer a complimentary initial consultation. If getting up each morning with more clarity, confidence and peace in 2022 is what you’re going for, go ahead and schedule a free session with me now.
NOW, OVER TO YOU.
What word will you love into being in 2022? Name it to claim it.
PLEASE SHARE. Your friends, family, and colleagues will thank you for it!
