My Word of the Year

Have you ever chosen a Word of the Year? Did you pick one this year? Are you willing to share? I first dove into this ... what shall I call it? Yearly theme? Life mantra? Goal setting practice? That'll work. I first dove into this goal setting practice about seven years ago.

While I've always had a bit of an innate revulsion toward the whole "side hustle/bossbabe" way of life, I admit my first few years were "power" words. Words chosen to indicate whatever fire I wanted to light under my ass at the time.

The results were mixed.

Happily, the longer I've practiced choosing a word for my year, the more I've progressed from highlighting what I *think* I want in my year, to focusing on what I need. That small shift in perspective has improved my results tenfold.The process can be messy and somewhat time consuming, usually because I spend so much time denying the word that wants to stick around. But I get there in the end.

This year I struggled less, accepted more, and while surprising, my word this year has already opened up a myriad of possibilities. Go figure.

So, what is my word this year?

REST

Can you believe it? At first, I couldn't. Then I took the next step and read through some definitions of the word.

My friends at Yahoo!Search not only emphasized this was a verb, thus offering up the chance for me to take some massive action here, but also gave me this: cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength. That last bit really resonated with me.

Then Merriam Webster online offered up this: peace of mind or spirit; free of anxieties.

Yeah. That's my word this year. I'm keeping it.