In recent years, there have been a lot of people going against the idea of setting new year resolutions, or goals, and instead choosing a word that guides them throughout the year. Some people set resolutions AND pick a word (that’s usually me).
For me, my word for the year tends to come quite easily after I reflect on the year gone by and consider how I want to feel in the year to come. If you’d like to try out a guiding word, here are a few tips to help you select one:
- Reflect on the year you’ve just had. What were the highlights and what were the difficult moments? How did you feel, and is there anything you want more or less of in the coming year.
- Think about what you want to achieve this year. Consider goals related to your personal growth, relationships, career, finances, health, or any other areas.
- Make a list of words that could help you reach those goals. For example, if you want to become more organised, list words like “organise,” “focus,” or “discipline.” Sometimes you might have a feeling you want to embody, but the word itself doesn’t feel right. An online thesaurus is your friend at this point.
- Reflect on your selection. Sometimes, you might end up with a whole bunch of different words that you are considering. You can pick more than one word if that feels good to you, or mull them over for a bit. Ask yourself which word resonates the most. How could this word could shape or guide your decisions throughout the year.
- Finally, commit to this word and make it your word for the year. Use it as an anchor point to come back to throughout the year. It’s very easy to pick a word and then forget about it, so I try to put it on a piece of paper that is visible to me when I’m at my desk. I also try to consider it each month when I’m thinking about what I have planned out for the next few weeks.
Why confidence is my word for 2023
For me, this January I’ve been thinking a lot about energy. The energy that I put into my work and what I’m focusing that energy on. Where I’m directing my energy when it comes to work and life and dating and relationships more broadly.
I feel like my energy has been about pushing for a long time. I’ve needed to make so many changes to my life, both work wise and on a personal level, that I’ve had to push, and to try to control the direction as much as I can. On the work side, I’ve spent the last few years launching digital products and workshops and last year was all about my group programme for authors. I’m not much of a hustler, but my energy has been very much focused outwards.
Now, I’m in a place where I don’t want to push anymore. I don’t want to retreat, exactly, but I’ve spent so long pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I’d quite like to spend a bit of time just being comfortable, and feeling confident in where I am.
So this year, I’m experimenting with confidence, and that is my word for the year.
I know that my work is good. I know that what I offer is valuable. I know that I will earn enough to pay my bills. I know that my friendships are solid. I know that I will be an incredible partner to the right person when they come along. I am incredibly privileged and grateful to know these things to be true. And yet I still regularly forget that they are. I lose confidence in myself easily. This year I want to hold on to it.
I want to send my energy inwards, and focus on pulling people towards me from that inner confidence. I’m still figuring out what this will all look like, and how I’m going to implement something that is really quite nebulous. But I’m going to give it a try, at any rate.
I’m not going for growth. I’m bedding down and settling in. Getting comfortable and confident in myself and my work and my life. Focusing my energy on pulling, rather than pushing.
Woo enough for you? Who knows whether I’ll still be pursuing this approach even by the end of January, but for right now, it feels good, so I want to see where it takes me.
How are you feeling about the new year? If you’re a goals / resolutions / intentions sort of person, have you set any? I would love to know what they are! And if you’ve written any kind of ‘year in review’ blog post or email newsletter, please send it to me – I LOVE reading those so much.
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