What Is Your Word Of The Year?

What Is Your Word Of The Year?
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As a participant in the #inspiringmoms network, I was invited to choose my Word of The Year to guide me through 2013.  Apparently the purpose of choosing a Word Of The Year  is to inspire one to live in a more intentional way.   My initial response was that I could not possibly choose just one word!  That might mean my word of the year should be focus…but  as friends who know me can attest, I am not very good at paring things down….as one friend once described me, I tend more to “take big chunks out of life”.   At a restaurant if I see two things on the menu I equally desire, I will try to get someone to split them with me so that I don’t have to choose just one.   To choose one Word to guide me through the whole next Year proved a daunting challenge to me.   The good news is that I also love a good personal challenge.  I did turn to help from Christine Kane, who has actually written a free guide to  download and use as your word of the year discovery tool.   Honestly I thought I’d just come up with a word, (o.k., I was going to cheat and come up with three but apparently she’s on to me) and write my blog post about my word of the year. After reading her guide (Turns out I’m not the first one to try to sneak in more than one word) I see that I need to spend a bit more time coming up with My Word.  Her philosophy is that typical New Years Resolutions so often fail because they are usually based on specific actions, as opposed to a way of living, a guiding premise.   I am still trying to loose the same 10 pounds my resolution was to loose 10 years ago, so at least in my case she is right!  She decided a word to guide your year would be a better course, and since new years resolutions have not quite worked out for me in the past, I figure why not!? Of course the first thing I knew is that my ONE word I would choose would not be wasted on those ten pounds that have come and gone and yet never dictated my actual level of happiness.

Every year the American Dialect Society chooses a word to define the previous year.  For nominations they ask “What expression most reflects the ideas, events, and themes which have occupied the English-speaking world, especially North America?”  The word of the year for 2012 was Hashtag. As in #.  The difference is the Word Of The Year we are supposed to come up with is to inspire what will be to come in the next year.

I don’t expect that the personal Word Of The Year I come up with will be anything like hashtag. (Which my spellcheck doesn’t even recognize BTW, some word of the year!)  I am intrigued though, and even if it all sounds a bit new-agey, I’m ready to try to pick a word to help manifest my destiny!   Will you try it with me? I would LOVE company in this exercise, and to hear the word you come up with! Was it easy for you? Because it is not for me!

I promise that I will tell you when I have it though! Off to do my worksheet now!

#Inspiringmoms Network is an inspiring collective of social media moms that want to intentionally achieve our very best lives, connect with our inner wisdom, and inspire other moms to live their best lives.

14 Responses

  1. So I thought IMAGINATION was your word seeing it in your first photo! I’ll be interested to hear what you come up with!
    I’m going to check out Christine Kane’s site and try it! I agree that I think one word is hard – but forces really inner searching I suppose!

    • You will laugh when you start reading her guide because she says….”I know you want to have 3 words for the year…” which is exactly what I was planning to come up with!! I have to get to work on the worksheets!

  2. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with! You are an awesome person so I bet it is flavorful, imaginative, and creative.

    • Thanks Melissa, but now I have to come up with a really good one to match your expectations!! ; )

    • It is a challenge! Michelle are you going to try it? I hope I find some friends to do it with me!

  3. Sheri, I am not one for resolutions either…well, ones that succeed anyway! Let’s see how a word of the year works out!

  4. Pingback: Saturday Sidebar: What is your one word of the year? | World Moms Blog

  5. LOL, chuckled thro your post and so glad that you linked up on on my site for this. Truth be known, I had that 3 word issue too, but seem to be able to narrow it down at the very last minute as it just calls to me like a siren on a mission 😉
    btw, cannot wait to catch up with you in person in DC, with the uber fab Jennifer Burden. Better have your word by then!

    • I’m so excited we’ll get to meet in D.C.! I want my word to call out to me!!! That’s why a week later I still don’t have one, though there is one that has been hanging in there all week that may just need me to commit…I feel like I’m 20 yrs old & talking about a guy right now instead of a word! lol!