Have you ever chosen a word for the year?
If you haven’t, you’re not alone. When I first heard about the idea years ago, I remember thinking,
Wait… just one word?
No giant list of goals.
No complicated system.
Just… a word?
But the more I sat with the idea, the more I realized how powerful it could be.
A word for the year becomes a kind of compass.
Not something you have to achieve or check off a list, but something you get to live with, reflect on, and grow into over time.
Instead of chasing a dozen goals and hoping life magically cooperates, the word becomes a gentle question you carry with you throughout the year.
How might this word show up in my life today?
And sometimes that one small question can shift everything.
But let’s be honest.
Choosing the word can feel like the hardest part.
Especially during seasons when life feels uncertain, messy, or a little foggy.
You might find yourself staring at a blank page thinking,
I don’t even know what direction I’m going… how am I supposed to pick a word?
I’ve definitely had those moments too.
Over time I discovered a much kinder place to start.
Instead of asking,
“What word should I choose?”
I ask myself a different question:
“What do I need more of right now?”
More peace?
More clarity?
More courage?
More patience?
More trust?
Usually the first word that gently rises to the surface is the one worth paying attention to.
Another little trick I’ve learned is to notice which words soften something in my body when I hear them.
You know that feeling when a word lands and something inside you goes,
Oh… yes. That.
Our nervous system often recognizes truth before our mind has time to analyze it.
And the beautiful thing is this:
Your word doesn’t have to be perfect.
It simply needs to feel like a compassionate direction.
A place to gently return to when life gets noisy.
Over the years I’ve also realized something else.
Sometimes the word we need in February is different from the one we needed in October.
Life moves in seasons.
Healing moves in seasons too.
This is actually part of what inspired me to create Word Shift and the Yearly Word Shift.
Because I’ve found this practice to be incredibly supportive in my own life and having a word to reflect on, grow with, and gently return to when things feel unclear.
And I also believe something deeper is happening when we do this work together.
When we slow down, reflect, and bring a little more awareness and love into our own lives, something begins to shift.
It starts in the quietest place, our own heart.
And then, as we embody that healing, it naturally begins to ripple outward.
Into our conversations.
Our families.
Our communities.
And the world around us.
Because the truth is, the first gentle steps of healing and love begin within.
And as Mahatma Gandhi so beautifully said,
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Sometimes that change begins with something surprisingly simple…
Just one word.
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