Are you ready to leave 2022 behind and start making changes in 2023?
One thing I have been doing for the past few of years is picking a word of the year and engraving it on a bracelet that I can wear every day to remind me of that word, and most importantly to what that word means to me in this season of my life.
I love the idea of choosing a Word of the Year vs. New Year’s Resolution, because it helps bring focus and clarity to what we want to create in our lives.
The process of choosing a word helps you focus on the goals and actions you want to work on for the next year. It also helps you determine your priorities. We all play different roles in our lives, and when seating down to set goals and intentions for the year if can be a little overwhelming to prioritize among them, and can fell even more overwhelming afterwards to keep up and stick to all those goals and intentions. Picking a word of the year can weave all those goals in all the areas of your life together and help you focus and pay attention to how everything relates to the other parts. At the end of the day we are one person living one life.
If you like this idea of creating a word of the year, I want to share with you a few easy steps to help guide you in choosing your 2023 word of the year.
1. Visualize the year ahead
I really believe in the power of visualization. Every year at the end of the year I like to take some time to visualize the year ahead, how I want my life to be a year from now, what have I accomplished, how do I feel, what I am enjoying.
After this short visualization I try to answer the following questions. If I wan to change my life form how it is today to what I saw on my visualization:
What do I need more of in my life?
What do I need less in my life?
What skills do I need to develop?
Who do I need to become to live this life I want?
2. List the things you want to focus on this year
I like to do a brainstorming of all the things I want to focus on and accomplish this year. This is not my list of goals for the year, but just an initial brainstorming.
The way to like to do it is just start with a blank piece of paper and right after doing the visualization exercise I explained on the prior step I start writing anything that comes to my mind for at least ten minutes without stopping.
3. Create a list
After writing down all the things I want to focus on in the upcoming year I take a few minutes to read through the list I just came up with and, (on a separate piece of paper) I write all the words that come to my mind. Basically, what I am doing is barnstorming ideas for my word of the year. Once again, this is just a brainstorming exercise so the key is not to overthink it. Self-editing is not allowed either!
My best advice at this step: Just write any word that comes to your mind, only one word per line, but there is no limit on how many words you can write down. Don't critique, question, or edit any word.
4. Review, refine & pick your word
Review your list and narrow down your favorites. Chances are that as you review your list, you’ll see a theme going on. Do any of the words jump out at you, make you feel excited, nervous, scared, uncomfortable, or at ease? Sometimes the words that scare us most can mean we’re on the right track because change isn’t always easy. At the same time, I think finding your word can also bring peace and empowerment.
As you narrow the list down to the few that speak to you, think about the words and see which one feels right. No need to over analyze this process, just trust your gut instinct. This last review and refinement can take some time and multiple iterations, and is at this point where you can experiment some analysis paralysis, that is why as I said is important to not over think it, just listen to your gut.
The first time I did this exercise I was really struggling to pick the ONE so I decided to ask other people. That was the worse mistake I could have made. Your word is yours, it needs to speak to you and no one else, so stay away from asking from other people's opinions.
5. Keep your word visible
Now that you have identified your word of the year, is important that you keep in somewhere visible, so every time you see it I can remind you of your vision for the year, your priorities and the person you wan to become.
This year I am engraving my word in a bracelet that I am planning to wear every day, so I can look at my word any time I feel lost, need to refocus on my priorities or I need a reminder of what I want to accomplish and who I want to become.
If you want to get one of your own, use this link to save 20% or enter the code CAROLINATERRAZAS20 at checkout.
Need some extra help? Download this list of words to help you get inspired
