Hands outreached at a party, to which red lights make the background red. A sign above the hands reads 'Community'.

I have an alternative to New Years Resolutions for you.  Instead of coming up with a (possibly unrealistic) goal, you come up with a Word of the Year.  This word will be an overarching theme and guide for the year. 

2022 will be my 9th year picking a Word of the Year. Every year toward the end of December I start thinking of things I want to do in the next year and what I want the year to look like. Then I think of words that fit the feeling I’m getting for the new year. 

I got the idea in 2014 from a comedian named Jennifer Fulwiler. In 2014, she wrote a blog post explaining that her word for 2014 was Go. 

This resonated with me, but 2014 was a crazy year for me. At the beginning of the year, I had four children under the age of four AND my husband’s Army unit was preparing to spend most of the year in Korea. I was smart enough to say that I just wanted to survive the year. But a few weeks after my husband left, I felt like maybe survival wasn’t enough. I decided I wanted to do a tiny bit of thriving too. 

I decided to make up a word for my year. I mashed together Survival and Thrive and came up with Sur-thrival. This was a great theme for a year full of hard and yet wonderful experiences. 

Here is my list of all the words I’ve used for each year:

  • 2014 Sur-thrival (A combination of Survival and Thrive)
  • 2015 Maintenance
  • 2016 Preparedness
  • 2017 No actual Word because I couldn’t get a handle on this year ahead of time, but in hindsight Risk or Recalculating would have been good themes
  • 2018 Stability
  • 2019 Confidence
  • 2020 Grow
  • 2021 Gather

I had a bit of trouble coming up with a word for 2022. For a little while, I thought the word would be Purpose, but for some reason, that word seemed scary and too big. I have a lot of projects in the works for 2022, but I’m not sure I’m ready for something like Purpose. Maybe I’ll save that one for 2023. 

I ended up going back to my roots with Jennifer Fulwiler. I still follow her on Social Media and every year she promotes her “Word of a Year Generator.” Usually, I already have my word by the time she sends out the link, but this year I needed some help. I hit the button on her word generator and the perfect word for 2022 popped up: Community.

Do you pick a word of the year?

Tell us what word you have selected for 2022!

Valerie
Valerie
http://www.51centadventures.com/
Valerie was born and raised in Utah, and then spent several years in the south while her husband was in the Army. But she's called Idaho home since 2017. She's bought a house in Twin Falls and recently renewed her Idaho Drivers License for 8 years so she's committed to staying in the state. Valerie has four children. Twin girls who are ten, an eight year old boy, and a 7 year old girl. Yes they are very close in age. No that was not planned. Valerie loves to go camping and is always looking forward to her next road trip. Valerie's travel destinations and tips can be found on her website www.51centadventures.com.
Facebook Instagram

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

1 COMMENT

  1. I’ve wanted and meant to have done this, but I think this is the year I’m finally going to follow through! Unless I get some other inspiration soon, I want to use the word Connect. Let me know (maybe in your Facebook post) if you have ways you remember your word or implement it whatever. I mean, I know it’s not hard to remember one word, but there are just so many things wanting my attention. And I know generally what goals or intentions or whatever that I’d like to have come to fruition with my word. So maybe it’s too hard to answer, but if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them!

Comments are closed.