How to Choose a Word of the Year
Find Your Flourish: Mastering Midlife. This is a true view into the daily routine of a 40-something year old woman.
This is a great time of year to choose a Word of the Year for 2023. My word of the year for 2022 is FORWARD: situated in advance; strongly inclined; ready; notably advanced or developed; of, relating to, or getting ready for the future. Building on the advances I have made in areas, I wanted to move forward in the areas of my life. My focus was on getting to another level in all areas. I wanted to continue to make changes for the better.
Having FORWARD as my word of the year, I intended to move forward in all areas of my life and achieve another level. I focused on personal development this year. In the previous year, I focused on professional development and volunteerism. I participated in many online learning activities during the previous year in my professional area. I also volunteered with 2 different professional organizations. I spent numerous hours addressing my professional area last year. I definitely have seen the rewards of it. In 2022, I wanted to focus on personal development, which would directly address relationships with my family and friends as well as my own self image.
Things to think about as you determine your word of the year
- What are your goals for the year?
- What is your personal theme?
- What do you want to focus on in during the year?
- What would you like more of in your life?
- What are you thankful for in your life?
- Is there something that you want to change in your life?
- What can you improve on?
Word of the Year Ideas
- Abundance
- Balance
- Better
- Brave
- Courage
- Dream
- Focus
- Fearless
- Happiness
- Hope
- Intentional
- Leap
- Mindful
- Joy
- Success
- Thrive
Incorporating Your Word of the Year
To solidify your word of the year even more, you can also create a vision board or page in a notebook/ journal that you can reflect on throughout the year. This can consist of pictures, phrases, other words that relate directly to your word of the year. The more ways you can visualize your word in more areas of your life more times throughout the day, the more you will be able to achieve that word in everything you do.
What have you considered for your word for 2023? What was your word in 2022? Have you seen manifestation of your word in different areas of your life?
I am passionate about optimal work and family balance. Excelling in both areas is not easy but it can be done. I have passion for productivity and have featured many posts on the blog about ways to increase your productivity while decreasing distractions each day.
Be you, be focused, be well!
Find Your Flourish! |Shanna|
I love this word of the year. For me this year has been hard for me. Its been a frustrating year but I keep going and know things are going to be okay. Hopeful next year will be better.
Thank you for reading and commenting on this post. I appreciate it. It is great that you have hope that next year will be better. Having a word of the year may help with that, because it can help you focus on the positive and keep that hope that you have at the forefront of your mind when you are experiencing challenges. |Shanna|
Great post! I love these words you suggested and have yet to think about my word for 2023!
Natalie- Thank you for reading. I hope you find a word that can carry you through the year and a word that helps you accomplish your goals. |Shanna|
I can’t stop smiling because your post is so inspiring! I have never thought of having a word of the year before. FORWARD is a brilliant one to go with, and a word that feels so active. I can imagine you driving forward and succeeding just by that one word. I can’t wait to come up with one for myself now 🙂 #blogtober22
Annette- I am so glad that you found something in this post that inspired you! I am still in process of choosing my next word. Forward was such a wonderful one and is still helping me right now. It will be neat to see what you come up with. |Shanna|
I used to be very good about picking a word of the year but somewhere along the line I stopped but was thinking about it last week which I am taking as a sign to get back on track!
Laura- How awesome! I am glad that you can use this post for some encouragement. When I look back on my words throughout the years, I can see progression and development. I enjoy it. |Shanna|
I do a blog post each week, my Word of the Week and struggle every week to pick one word so I imagine it being quite the challenge to pick one for a whole year. Great advice and ideas.
Kim- A word of the week! So nice to set the intention for what you want to accomplish each week. Hopefully, you can get some ideas from this post. Thank you for reading. |Shanna|
Great post and great ideas. I haven’t chosen my word for 2022 yet, so will use these for inspiration. Thank you xxx
Claire- Thank you for your comment. I am glad you can find something in this post to assist you in your word of the year selection. |Shanna|