If you aren’t too consumed with holiday crafts, parties, pageants, and every other wonderful thing that happens in mid-December, you may remember that the year 2014 is quickly coming to a close! It has become very popular to choose a word of the year (or WOTY if you’re really cool) to summarize the previous year. Yesterday, Merriam-Webster announced that their WOTY for 2014 is CULTURE. Earlier, Oxford chose the word VAPE for 2014 and Dictionary.com has chosen EXPOSURE.
While many media outlets are looking backwards over the past year, it is also a time to look ahead and begin planning for 2015. As words can be found to define an entire year, people have begun choosing words to replace mantra’s, quotes or resolutions for their hopes and plans for the coming year. A WOTY can be a goal, a positive thought, a hope or desire, a focus or even encouragement, and it can give you direction and guidance with decision making.
How Does it Work? Simple: Pick a word. Pick two or three or seven, it’s your year, do what you want. If a word hasn’t already jumped into your head, then pause a moment and think about the next 12 months, really think about it. Run your mind over all of the events already planned out. Maybe look over the last 12 months and think about what you liked about them, what you would’ve done differently, how you wish you would’ve reacted to different events. What do you want more of in your life? What do you want less of in your life? Find a word or words to describe your goal(s).
Need some inspiration? Here are a few popular words:
HOPE MINIMIZE TODAY
DETERMINATION SHINE CELEBRATE
LOVE HAPPY BE
ADVENTURE COMMIT ACCEPT
BRAVE ASK CHALLENGE
CURIOUS LISTEN RELAX
PERSEVERE PRAY OKAY
ENJOY LOOK NOW
BEAUTY DISCIPLINE PEACE
AWE NO FOCUS
TRY SHINE LIGHT
YES MIRROR NAMASTE
PEACE BALANCED FREE
STRENGTH GIVE GLOW
COURAGE PASSION WHOLE
OPTIMISM DEEPER RELEASE
And then… Once you have your word (or words), write it down in your agenda, on your calendar, post it to your fridge, your bathroom mirror, beside your alarm clock, on your dashboard, and make it your screensaver and your phone wallpaper. Breathe it in, feel it, and make that word your WOTY.
Jill
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