Do you pick a personal word of the year to focus on throughout the year? I do. Although I focus on planning every 90 days, there is still something extra special about the beginning of a new year. From goals to vision boards to colors of the year and words of the year, I love it all! I want to briefly share the three things that I do in order to choose my focusing word.
1. Review the previous year.
2. Plan and prepare for the upcoming year.
3. Choose a word (or expression) that embodies what I want to value the most during the upcoming year.
I had started thinking about my 2018 word since November, but choosing a personal word of the year for 2018 was challenging. There are just so many great words! Some of the words and phrases that I considered were the following: Be Better, Mindset, Focus, New Attitude, Believe & Do, Ask, and Work.
The word that kept coming back to me though was…GRACE. I was fully convinced that it was “my” word when I saw a special cup. It had the word GRACE on it, an image of a butterfly (one of my favorite people gave me a butterfly “to remind me to soar in every area of life” at one of our special girlfriend lunches), and it was in a purple hue similar to Pantone’s Color of the Year 2018, Ultra Violet.
I mentioned my word of the year to a girlfriend and she responded, “You’re a gracious person. Why did you pick that word?” (The aspect of grace that I’m focused on is based on Christian beliefs about the free and unmerited favor of God.) My answer had two parts.
- I have a lot of great things that I want to see happen in 2018 – both in the lives of loved ones and in my own life. I need God’s grace to juggle all of the various areas of my life well because I definitely fall in the “you can have it all” thought camp.
- I want to extend grace to everyone. For the most part, that’s not a problem for me but there were a couple of situations last year where I had to really battle to have the right attitude towards people whom I didn’t feel “deserved” it (for various reasons).
In my mind, grace is similar to forgiveness – I want it (from God and others) so I need to give it (to others). It’s easier said than done but that is what I’m aiming for!
Anyway, my method is just one way that you can pick a word of the year because we are all individuals. This is what worked for me this year. Other things have worked in previous years. Ultimately, it depends on what you value and how you like to assess and express things.
Whether you pick a word or phrase of the year for 2018 or not, I wish you the BEST 2018!
P.S. If you want to be a part of a community that supports focusing words of the year, consider One Word 365. (I don’t have any affiliation with that site, but it looks neat.)
