How to choose a Word of the Year

Instead of creating resolutions you'll abandon within weeks, why not pick a word to help you stay focused?

Choosing a Word of the Year rather than creating a list of resolutions holds immense appeal to me as a self-proclaimed Writer of Words (etc).

I stumbled across this idea during the month of December and decided to put it into practice. Since I’m no one to make resolutions - which looks more like an inexhaustible to-do list preordained for failure - I jumped on the Word of the Year idea immediately. I love words! Why not pick one to help me navigate my journey through the next twelve months?

Do you like the idea of picking a word to focus on for the entire year?

If yes, this post is for you.

Imagine giving a meaningful word (or a short phrase) enough power to help you stay on track no matter the external, often beyond-our-control circumstances life tends to dish out. But how do you find such a word?

The process isn’t difficult, but is isn’t one to rush through, either. It took longer than just a couple of hours out of my day, probably because I am simultaneously working on a vision/action board. My Word of the Year presides in the top center of my board and directs my focus to my intentions, dreams and desires every time I cast a glance at it.

If you’re interested in vision/action boards, I have written an article published in Bella Luna, my tarot and spirituality section here on Substack.

To help you begin your process of finding a suitable and meaningful Word of your Year, I have created a guide with a few simple steps which you can read and/or follow as you wish.

Remember: just like crafting a personal vision/action board, selecting a word which holds meaning for you is an intensely personal exercise. My guide serves as a jumping-off point, or as a source of inspiration, but you are in charge. There are no rules; there is only creativity.

Before you begin

The word you choose to define the main theme of your next year needs to hold special meaning for you. You want this word to help bring intention and focus to your day, maybe redirect you back to your goals and desires when you feel derailed or distracted, and incite clarity during times of confusion or despair.

Are you struggling with where to begin? I have some tips for you. I also have some free, printable worksheets which you can access from Writer of Words etc Digital Store.

Note: the worksheets are not interactive, they are meant to be printed. I used black and white text and images only to save on printer ink.

Tip 1 Brainstorm

Spend some quiet time reflecting over your past year.

As mentioned previously, I’m not big on reviewing the past and writing about it, but I do think back to events which may have made some significant splash in my life. It is in past events where significant words filled with emotions and feelings will reside; all you have to do is find them.

Check your written work in blog posts, journals or diaries. Do you notice certain words popping up time and again? What about during conversations? Do certain topics you talk about with people in your orbit appear repeatedly? Those words and phrases are clues.

This is not the time to self-edit; simply jot down all the words and phrases you think of.

If you’re not a writer or don’t tend to take notes in written format, you might consider answering some rhetorical questions instead. The list below might inspire you to come up with relevant terms in your search for your Word of the Year.

Rhetorical questions

• What dominant themes were present in the past twelve months?

• Have I used certain words or phrases repeatedly in conversation or written format?

• What do I want more than anything to appear in my life?

• What do I want less of in my life?

• How did I feel during the last twelve months?

• How do I want to feel now and in the future?

Write down all the words that pop into your head when you reflect on your answers, and don’t worry if the negative ones outweigh the positive ones. This is what your thesaurus is for: synonyms will help you come up with a more eloquent way to express a word, whereas antonyms will help you to reframe your mind from negative to positive.

Tip 2 Visualize and Feel

Visualize the life you want and feel the associated emotions.

Visualize yourself when you feel at your best. What does it feel like? What words pop up when you feel this way?

If the feelings are positive, write the words down even if they appear too boring or repetitive. Words like happy, satisfied, content may not look or feel flashy, but you can look up synonyms for those later.

If, on the other hand, you feel bad, depressed, anxious or other negative emotions, write those words down too. Later, when you condense and refine your list, you can use a thesaurus to improve your choices.

Visualizing yourself in a state of optimal contentment is a useful tool in determining which word may hold special significance for you. If you have a vision/action board, use that to your advantage; I found it helpful in narrowing down the overwhelming amount of words I had on my own list. How does each word make you feel? Cross off the ones that don’t incite much spark and keep the ones that do.

To understand the neurological effects of vision boards, you can read the article mentioned above (or linked again here). I quote from a celebrated neurologist who provides explanations about neurological connections to vision boards in layman’s terms.

Tip 3 Create a Comprehensive List

Create a list and group related words together.

Now that you have a variety of words jotted down, take a moment to review your notes:

• Do you see repetitive words?

• Do these words suggest one or more theme in your life?

Use a blank piece of paper or a whiteboard and condense your list of words. Group the like words together to see if certain themes emerge.

Alternately, you can print off the worksheets I have designed and loaded to my Digital Store free of charge. (Enter 0 into the price point.)

Example

Words like empty, clean, organized might connect with words like calm, creative, inspired (because a clean and organized environment can make you feel both calm and creative whereas a messy or cluttered environment might make you anxious and overwhelmed.)

Here’s an example using one of the worksheets:

Which word(s) stand(s) out? Which one makes you feel the strongest emotion?

Write down the words and phrases, use arrows and circles or symbols to highlight the words which make you feel the strongest emotion. You can also group them together if they might belong to a specific part of your life (relationship, health, etc).

Tip 4 Refine and Condense; negative words

Refine and condense your list of words.

It's time to narrow down your list of words to a few key ones. I recommend not hurrying through this process; I walked away several times before I narrowed down my list. Let those words rattle around in your head until you hear a the important ones more clearly than the others.

Look at your words on your comprehensive list. Tune into how they make you feel (again). Are some of them synonyms of other words you wrote down? Keep the word with the strongest spark, and cross off the other ones. You can let your eyes do the work, just tap into your intuition by noticing where you tend to linger.

This is the time where you eliminate the superfluous or repetitive words to reduce your list into a select few choices.

Tune into your feelings.

Keep the word which activates something in your solar plexus or your heart center. You’ll know it when you feel it. That’s the word to keep.

A note about negative words

If you happened to come across a bunch of negative words, don’t let those worry you too much. They, too, provide clues into how you felt in the past year.

Refer back to your questions during the brainstorming session in Tip 1. The words you wrote down there are probably the ones which incited deep, emotional reactions. Be honest and take each word at face value and write it down anyway.

For instance, say the words worry, overwhelm or stress made up a big part of your answers to some of those questions in Tip 1.

Now is the time to reframe them into something positive.

Question: What do I want less of in my life?

Answer: I want less overwhelm, worry and stress.

Look up antonyms for these three words.

Overwhelm becomes yield, surrender

Worry becomes comfort, joy, pleasure

Stress becomes relaxation, indifference

At the end of this exercise, look at the new list of positive words which were created out of the negative ones. How do they make you feel now?

When overwhelm became surrender but you don’t like the word surrender, you can look up its synonym.

Surrender becomes cessation which becomes downtime or respite or breather.

I happen to know someone who picked BREATH as their Word of the Year. They framed their entire year’s focus on their breath.

I use an online thesaurus for synonyms and antonyms, but you can get creative here and use whatever sources you wish, including an urban dictionary.

Tip 5 Choose the final word(s)

Choose a word or phrase and make it your Word of the Year

Place the word (or a picture which represents the word) on your vision/action board or write it somewhere where you can see it on a daily basis. It's important you see your Word of the Year daily so you can connect with it neurologically as well as psychologically.

You can also take a photo of your word (or your entire vision/action board) and store it in your phone where you can access it anytime you wish. (I do this with great success.)

Remember, there are no rules. If more than one word inspires you, or you wish to use different words to describe diverse aspects of your life, you can do this too.

Adding pictures or images to supplement the meaning of your Word of the Year is another way to cement a guiding image in your brain. Get creative! If a certain memory of a vacation pokes up in your memory, and you have a photograph of it, put it by the word. If you recall a moment where you felt completely at peace, inside and out, and you find an image online or in a magazine that represents this tranquility, stick it on your wall or on your vision board.

Final remarks

There is a difference in being interested and being committed to concepts like Word of the Year, goals setting or resolution making.

I used to be interested in all these end-of-year plans for the purpose of creating new goals, but I never really participated in any of them seriously. Typically, by the time the kids were back in school in early January, I forgot all about my goals and resolutions and sunk back into the endless cycle of routine and obligations. Since there weren’t many obvious reminders - like there are now with my vision board - I quickly lost interest. What was it I intended to do again? I never could recall and digging through all my various notes online and in journals seemed too cumbersome. No wonder I kept repeating the same cycles time and again.

The Word of the Year exercises have helped me to stay on track (even though the new year hasn’t officially begun yet).

Nothing says you can’t start your new mindset with a Word of the Year today, no matter the date the calendar points to.

I love words, and having a dominant, significant, emotionally-connected word to focus on starting right now feels right to me. My wish is for you to find inspiration and success with this mindset as well.

Want to know what my word of the year is?

Stay tuned. I will be writing more about this topics.

FREE GIFT

Download the free worksheets from my gumroad store to help you get started. The worksheets are PDF format, not online interactive, purposely designed in black and white so you don’t have to worry about excessive printer ink.

Happy New Year from Claudette in my Room with a Door!