Choosing a Word of the Year: 2021

2020: The year that I oddly remember everything that happened in a month-by-month breakdown. It was also the year where my planned list of goals went right out the window. As we kissed 2019 good-bye, I resolved that 2020 would be my year of movement. The irony is not lost to me, I assure you.

But then this strange thing happened as I thought about this past year in a little play-by-play. I realized that even though I hadn’t captured my movement goals in quite the way I imagined, I still did accomplish it. There was movement in 2020. There was growth. There was change. There was a lot of gratitude. I traveled to a new country and continent (prior to lockdown). I spent time with my family and was gifted a month with my younger sister that I wouldn’t have had prior to her moving out to Arizona. I quit my job and started a new one. I wrote over 100,000 words. I drank a lot of good wine. I baked a lot of bread (yes, I jumped on that wagon). No, this year wasn’t the big bang I had planned it to be, but it was slow and reflective and important. Because by not being able to do some of the things I loved doing, I came to realize how much they meant to me. And how important making active choices in your life is. And how good it feels to eat a loaf of bread I made. And how lucky I am to have the people and the places and the support that I have in my life.

But now, onto 2021.

There is still a lot of same-same going on over here, however, January for me is always Goal Setting Month, and I don’t see any reason to change that. Some goals will simply have to be adjusted time-wise.

There are four things I do at the end/beginning of each year: Word of the Year, Yearly Reflection, Goal Setting, and Manifestation. I am going to start by sharing one of them in this article in hopes of passing along the inspiration stick.

Picking a Word of the Year. A good friend of mine shared this idea with me years ago, and it’s one that I come back to. Your Word of the Year can be any word or phrase. It can represent what you feel you need more of, what you hope to accomplish, or even simply an emotional state of being. Some examples include travel (you’ll leave your comfort zone and explore new places), home (you’ll work on creating a space that feels true to you or move into a new place to make home), gratitude (you’ll start a Gratitude Journal and write down one thing you’re grateful each day), faith (you’ll meditate every day or read guided readings to help expand your faith), outdoors (you’ll spend at least one hour each day outside)… the list goes on. The word or phrase is meant to help guide your year, like the lines of a box, but it’s up to you to fill that box.

Spend some time reflecting or meditating around this coming year and see what word comes to you. Write it down and think on what that might mean for you. Brainstorm some activities you can do to keep this word going throughout the year. Set aside an hour each week to reflect on if you’ve been successfully keeping your ‘word.’

My word for this year is ‘less.’ Perhaps not the most positive sounding word in the English language, but representative of a lot of things to me that feel right. “Less to become more.” Less self-doubt. Less worrying. Less stuff (and the buying of it). Less focus on what has passed. Less distractions. Less waste.

2021 will be another year of great challenges, I believe, but it is still a clean slate, still a fresh start, still 365 days of possibility.

What is your word this year? Have you picked a word before - what was it?

Cheers to 2021!