As you think about what you want to focus on next year, what jumps out at you as something you’ll need to help you succeed? This isn’t something tangible, but is actually the intangible.
Are there skills, traits, or values that will inspire or assist you in your areas of focus?
What went well this year that you want to build on? Where do you really want to pivot and move forward?
Set a Word of the Year
Many people set a personal word of the year.
In our home, we set a family word of the year. Three years ago our word was “courage.” Last year, the word was “grit.”
My 9-year-old son recently announced that he had come up with our family word of the year on his own. Our 2021 family word will be “resilience.”
I had a different word in mind, but I think resilience is a great word so that’s what we are going with.
For the past three years, it has been incredible how much the word we chose guided the decisions we made. Three years ago, the word courage helped each of us make some life-changing decisions.
There was one major decision in particular we were considering that year. In previous years we may have made the risk-averse choice. But this time, we chose courage.
It worked out spectacularly.
In 2020, the word “grit” hit, perhaps, a little too close to home. We have all had to have extreme amounts of grit to manage the ups and downs of 2020.
Fortunately, here we are. It’s almost 2021 and our grit has helped carry us through.
What to Do with Your Word of the Year
Once we choose our word, we purchase a poster or some sort of artwork that incorporates the word. Then, we display it in an area of our home that gets a lot of traffic (typically near a door).
Etsy has a lot of great options for artwork supporting individual artists. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, you can also have words printed in gold foil (which looks gorgeous). Just search “gold foil” on Etsy and you’ll find various artists who can help with this.
The Bottom Line
Who do you want to be in 2021? What do you want to focus on for yourself or for your family?
Spend some time thinking, journaling, and talking with your family. Then, choose a word and find a way to display it.
