What's your word of the year?
We live in the future! With fast food, next day delivery, express post kind of cultural mindset, sometimes focusing on a simpler approach to goal setting is often the way to go.
You may have heard of the German tradition, Wort des Jahres, that was started in 1971. It’s better known as WOTY, the Word Of The Year, which has since become more popular in the western world than New Year’s Resolutions.
As the New Year’s Resolution fad wears out, choosing a single word to help you determine your goals for the year ahead is the solution based fad that’s sprung up and increased in popularity since the release of the book, “One Word That Will Change Your Life” in 1999. Written by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page, this best seller as well as its children’s book rendition, “One Word for Kids” have helped readers create clarity, power, passion, and life-change by focusing on just one word for the entire year.
Instead of creating monumental, easily forgettable and uninspired goals and resolutions, using instead a single word as the driving force for the year helps establish a new mindset to help you alter your life for the better. No goals. No wish lists. Just one word
"When you find it, live it, and share it,” the book explains, “your life will become more exciting and purposeful than ever. Each year, resolutions are rarely kept and goals are easily forgotten. But One Word sticks.”
There is said to be great power in the process and joy of distilling the focus of your New Year into One Word.
3 steps to find your WOTY
The best way to figure out what word would best guide you through the year is to brainstorm:
What do you dream, wish or pray most about for your future?
What do you dream, wish or pray most about for yourself?
What do you believe the Universe/God/your friends and family, wishes, prays or dreams most about for you? (This last one is a profound eye opener! Try it!)
Now you may have a better sense of what words will help you remember to keep all those dreams, wishes and prayers, or rather, remind you of your intended, profound life trajectory, in check throughout the year.
Here is a list of possible words we put together for you, that could be fun to read aloud as a poem:
Rise. Vision. Serenity. Glow.
Forgive. Observe. Soul.
Embrace. Courage. Faith. Improve.
Strength. Pause… Grow!
Connect! Today. Love! Flow.
Gratitude. Calm? Brave!
Listen. Free! Build? Move!
Seek… Join. Stay!
Meditate! Celebrate! Compromise! Thrive!
Example! Adventure! Perspective. Drive.
Expansion. Harmony. Action. Trust.
Ambition. Journey. Creation… Blessed!
It’s completely possible that a single word might actually help you direct your energies to achieve a better understanding of how to keep those dreams, wishes and prayers in the fore of your mind and not let them get lost in the deluge of day in, and day out, ho-hum of everyday life.
We at SOS sincerely hope you find your word and would love to hear our community buzzing with WOTY’s. We also sincerely hope your year is already off to a great start, and if it isn’t, that this fun challenge will help. To everyone who’s reading this, thank you for being here, and we wish you the best in 2023 and beyond.