What Is A Word of the Year?

Tips and ideas for how to pick your word of the year and then follow through the whole way throughout the year! Includes free digital downloads for all sorts of people and professions!

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What Is A “Word of the Year”

I have chosen a word of year for years now! Here are some of my past few years…

• 2023 Something Old, Something New
• 2022 Dollars, Dollars, Dollars
• 2021 Video

As you can see, sometimes it is one word, sometimes they are a concept and sometimes they are a play on words like this year's is for me!

“Something old, something new” usually applies to weddings and brides, but I am using it to remind me to work on old things that make me the most money now AND to work on things that will make me money in the future… so functionally working on multiple streams of income, but saying it in a cool way that makes me smile!

It is just a reminder of what your focus is for the coming year…. AND it can be for your business, hobby, life or any other darn thing you want it to be for! It is your word!

How To Pick Your Word of the Year

While picking just one word to represent a whole year might seem overwhelming, here are a few ways to decide how to choose yours!

1. Choose something you want to focus on

This is the way I choose my word most times. I pick something that is important to me and make my word of the year shorthand for reminding me to stay on track!

Mine are always for business, but you could pick your health, family relations, hobby or anything else you want to be mindful of noticing through the next year.

Here are some examples:

• Workout (for exercise)
• Faith (to remind yourself of the grace of God)
• Clients (to focus on retaining the clients you have)
• Lead Generating (to focus on getting new clients or customers)
• Pictures (could be for photographers or social media)
• Gratitude (be thankful for all you have)
• Stretch (to go outside your comfort zone in some way that makes you uncomfortable)

2. Focusing on a goal

The year I picked video, I made a video a day for a year… whoo whoo! For this one your word(s) symbolizes a function that you will all year to reach your goal, rather than the thing you are doing in pursuit of that goal.

Here are some examples:

• Bestseller (your goal is writing a poplar book)
• Paint (you might want to master a kind of art medium like painting, sewing or drawing)
• Soap, Soap, Soap (you could be developing a few new product lines for your Etsy store and want to focus on creating more of a certain kind of products this year)
• Sober (you might want or need to quit drinking and your year is focused on staying sober)
• List The Pile (this is one for my vintage sellers! this goal is to list all the inventory that you have already accumulated before buying anything more)
• Listings (for real estate agents, this one means focusing solely on activities that will help them to get homes for sale, rather than buyers)

3. How You Want To Feel

My words are always goal or business focused, but yours can be based on how you want to feel during the next year!

Here are a few examples:

• Happy (you could spend the whole year figuring out what makes you happy and pursuing that.. this one sounds super fun)
• Creative (maybe you want to fill your year with learning new art, writing or even immersing yourself in museums and culture)
• Peace (after the last few years, it wouldn't hurt any of us to focus on bringing calm into our lives)
• Me (as a Mom, maybe you have spent time on your kids or as a caregiver, maybe you have taken care of a loved one… make this year just for you!)
• Escape (I had a friend who was in an abusive relationship and she spent about a year making plans to break it off… sometimes your word of the year has major consequences beyond just motivation)
• Fit (you could spend this year learning new exercise, changing to a healthier diet or even just walking around the block a million times!)

Free Word of the Year Printables

Here are all the word of the year printables I have made so far! If you have any more suggestions for ones you would like to have, just let me know and I will make you some! [email protected]