Dive into 2024 with a Word of the Year
Enhance your New Year's resolutions—or ditch them completely!
You’ve probably heard people throw out the phrase “word of the year” in the last few days. If not, I imagine you’re about to start seeing it everywhere. It’s almost as ubiquitous as New Year’s resolutions (however you feel about them).
The dictionaries all do it for the year that’s just passed. Oxford chose rizz, the Gen Z word for charisma. Merriam-Webster chose authentic.
That’s great, but what about the year ahead?
Next week’s LVMC episode is going to cover this, and give you a process for choosing your own word. So here’s a sneak peek into the subject!
What the hell is a Word of the Year?
Simply put a word of the year is an intention or a theme for your year.
That’s it! You can make it a bigger deal than that, but at the end of the day it’s just a word.
Words have power though, so what would you use your word of the year for?
In the same way a painter uses a specific color palette to paint their canvas, you can color your year with your word. It can set the tone for what you want to accomplish and where you want the year to take you.
Since you’re in the process of designing and living your best life, tu vida más chévere, a word of the year is an easy addition to your toolkit.
How do I choose my Word of the Year?
Choosing your word of the year doesn’t have to be difficult. And you shouldn’t worry about choosing the “wrong” word.
You aren’t sentencing yourself to life in prison. It’s just a word. If it doesn’t work for you after a while, you’re allowed to discard it and choose another one.
I have a simple approach for choosing a word, and next week’s episode will go over it briefly. Get a jump on it by downloading this workbook that outlines the process right here:
Choosing a word of the year is kind of like shoe shopping. In this scenario, you have unlimited time, the store has every possible option you can dream of, and they’re all in your size! You just have to choose the pair you want.
But do you want sneakers or espadrilles? Stilettos or ballet flats? Work boots or Chelsea boots? Either way, you need to try them all on. Sometimes shoes look great on display but hurt your feet when you put them on. That’s no fun!
Like this magical shoe store, the workbook includes list of example words to help get you started. It’s not unlimited, there are only about 390 but that should be enough to get you started! Maybe your word of the year is among them, or maybe you’ll come up with something better.
Want a sneak peak? Here’s 10 words from the list:
magnificent
joy
heal
focus
grow
abundance
wow
zest
still
love
What do these words have in common? They’re all positive words, you don’t want a shitty year after all. But they aren’t all action words, nor are they all feeling words. Some have more syllables, some are super short and easy to spell.
Your word can be anything. It can be a word you’ve used before. Personally, my husband and I shared the word adventure for 2 years. In the next episode, I’ll tell you about how that came in handy in Spain.
What to do with a Word of the Year?
So then what? What do you do with this word/theme/intention for the year?
Use it! Tell people about it. Surround yourself with it. Create a phone background that includes your word so that you see it every day. Stick it on your vision board if you make one.
Your word/theme/intention will come in handy when you find yourself at a crossroads or feel stuck. It can help remind you of your ultimate goals and lead you back to the path on which you can achieve them.
It can flip your perspective, like it did for us in Spain (but you’ll have to wait till next week for that story).
You can use it as a mantra or anchor your motivations to it so when you’re feeling overwhelmed or undisciplined, you can reach for the word to calm you and get you back in the groove.
Need more help choosing a word?
Next week the paid Substack subscribers will receive my workshop on creating a word of the year. If you would like access to that, feel free to upgrade your subscription!
Not a word of the year person? Hmm...do you prefer SMART goals instead? Then stay tuned because I’ll be sharing mine in the next issue of this publication.