Member-only story
What is Your Word of the Year?
Forget making resolutions; instead, find a single word to guide your focus
Rather than making resolutions this year, I’m choosing just one word to guide my path. There’s more flexibility that way, and it makes the promise a whole lot simpler. If chosen well, it could act as a sort of mantra. A hum in the background that spurs my focus and grounds me in purpose. But while picking a word of the year sounds simple enough, it can be a challenge to get it right. After all, it’s much easier to see your word of the year in hindsight, when the year is nearly over, as it is now.
There are several words that could encapsulate key moments and periods of 2021. Here are a few:
- Persistence
- Risk
- Magic
- Community
- Awe
- Love
- Loyalty
- Humility
- Gratitude
- And more. I could tell you a story about any one of these words. It was a year to remember, and while some of the experiences that conjure each word were hard, what emerged in the end was decidedly positive.
This year, rather than looking back, I’d prefer to face forward.