[00:00:00] Welcome back to the MilSpouse Mastermind Show. Today I am answering the question, How do I find my word of the year? One word that’s going to be with you for the next 365 days. How do you figure out what that word should be? That’s what we’re going to dig into today.

It’s a new year. It’s a new season for new beginnings. And the one thing I would ask you to consider is starting off your year by leaving a review for the show on Apple iTunes. This is so important for how we get found in the podcast feed!

It would be a huge, huge blessing to me and to all of the future listeners – all of the military spouses that are going to be blessed through us having this community together. If you would just go leave a quick rating and review of the show. Just leave us one sentence that lets us know how you’ve been blessed through the show or what your favorite episode is, something that you’ve learned or taken away or that you have found helpful.

[00:02:09] I would be so, so grateful if you could just take a minute to do just that I’ll have the links below in the show notes. But the easiest way to get there is just go to milspousemastermind.com/show. That will take you right where you need to go. Then scroll to the bottom. You can leave your rating and review.

WHY DO YOU NEED A WORD OF THE YEAR

[00:02:29] All right, let’s get started. How do I find my word of the year? Well, first of all, why do you need a word of the year? I started doing this probably roughly three, four years ago.

It is really valuable because it allows you to kind of condense everything that you are thinking about for the year, how you want to grow, and boil it down to a single word.

[00:02:57] It’s a word that’s going to guide you for the next 365 days. It’s a word that is so helpful because it gives us a framework to make decisions. Does this activity, does this event prioritize my word of the year? Does this help me with this specific goal? Am I moving towards this thing that I have said is really important to me this year, that really matters? It’s giving us this framework for how we’re building our life, how we’re spending our time and ultimately who we’re becoming.

HOW DO I FIND MY WORD OF THE YEAR?

So, how do we do that? We hear people that have these words for a year, but perhaps you’re one of these people that has never done this process before, and you’re wondering, well, how did you boil this down to a very specific word?

[00:03:52] The most important part of this process is finding a word that resonates with where you are right now and how you want to grow. So that could be something like my word of the year is growthand I’m willing to spend my entire year focused on things that helped me grow. Another example: My word of the year is boldness. I want to choose actions and activities that force me outside my comfort zone and help me show up as a bolder version of myself. And so I make decisions and choose how I’m going to set up my calendar based on my word of the year.

In my own life, I started this process back in 2019. I think my word of the year, that year, was intentionality because I wanted to be more intentional about my time.

[00:04:51] I tend to like to fly by the seat of my pants. And I realized that if I really wanted to grow into the person that I am supposed to be, and do the things that I feel called to do, I can’t just let my schedule go. I can’t just say, oh, let’s see what happens today. I need to be intentional with my time.

[00:05:14] I had three babies at the time I had a three-year-old, a one-year-old and a newborn, and life just felt chaotic. And I knew I needed to make my word of the year, that year, intentionality. So that was 2019.

2020 came along. And my 2020 word of the year was becoming, because I really was focused on my growth goals and who I wanted to be. And I really wanted to live into this idea of becoming.

[00:05:39] I had all of these grand plans, and I had a whole list of how I was going to move the needle mentally, spiritually, physically, relationally, how I was going to actually make more progress on my growth goal journey. And then COVID happened.

So I also want to say that sometimes once we come arrive at our word of the year and we have all these plans, It doesn’t always work out the way we intend and we have to be flexible with that.

[00:06:17] 2020 threw a bunch of stuff at me that I was unprepared for. I was unprepared for a battle with anxiety, all of the moving pieces that came with an overseas move in the middle of a pandemic, and really just the importance of our mindset and how we show up. So I didn’t necessarily accomplish all of my goals for 2020. There are seasons of life where our priorities just have to shift and we won’t grow the same way that we would if we were able to be consistent with what we were doing if there weren’t all these outside forces throwing us off our game. The good news is we can still go back to what matters most, to prioritizing our word of the year and making progress. Even if it doesn’t look like the progress we were going to make.

Now let’s talk about moving from 2020 to 2021. My 2021 word of the year was rest. Cause when I, when we talk about how we’re going to help you determine your word of the year, this was not the word of the year I wanted. I had in my head that it was going to be something related to accomplishment or, you know, how, what I was doing. I wanted it to be about the doing, but I just KNEW that my word of the year needed to be rest.

[00:07:52] I realized throughout this year, that rest has to be the foundation for everything I do. If I am not regularly taking the time and space to rest, everything falls apart, All of my other habits come from having that foundation of rest. It was an important lesson for me to learn and really, because I prioritized rest this year, I was able to learn the thing that I was meant to learn this year.

[00:08:22] As we move into 2022 and my word of the year changes. Now, the goal for me is to really hold onto what I learned about rest and taking intentional time to rest in 2020, through prioritizing that above all else, and still prioritize that and build a foundation of rest, even though that’s not my main focus.

At the end of the episode, I’ll share my 2021 or nope, we’re in 2022 now. I’ll share my 2022 word of the year. Gut let me talk you through the process first. Here’s how we arrive at our word.

It’s gonna look a little different for each person. So there’s not like a hard and fast rule of how you get there.But I thought I would give you some guideposts to help you get started on this journey.

1. 1. Reflect on the past year

The first thing you can do is reflect on your past year. Sit down with your calendar or your planner or whatever you use to take notes on this last year. And if you didn’t take any notes or write anything down anywhere, I don’t know how you’re living without some kind of calendar! But try to reflect on this past year. What did you accomplish? What happened? How did you handle life? How did you grow? What did you learn? Take some time to reflect on the past year.

1. 2. Focus on the coming year

And then number two is to focus on the coming year. Who you want to be. How you want to show up. What growth goals you are setting in your own life. What is it that you were wanting to accomplish?

1. 3. Look for common themes

[00:10:15] Now, if you can combined all of your reflections on the past year, and all of what you want to do, what you hope to accomplish, who you hope to be in the coming year, are there themes that emerge out of this process? So, we’re going to look at what keeps coming up. Is there a particular word or phrase that keeps coming to the surface?

[00:10:42] Is there a theme that sticks? Hopefully as you reflect on what you’ve walked through, and as you assess where you’re at, and as you set goals for the year, you’ll see some themes start to emerge. One or two of those may stick out to you. And I want you to just sit with it for a little bit. I want you to say, is this, what I am supposed to focus on? Does this feel right?

1. 4. Sit with it

[00:11:07] Pray about it, listen to your intuition, and just sit with it for a period of time. It doesn’t have to be a long time, but I think it’s always good to just hold something loosely until you have time to sit with it, to reflect on it, to pray about it, to see if it feels right. And then the last thing I would say is.

1. 5. Make sure it’s the right word for YOU

[00:11:32] Let’s say that you’ve had a theme emerge. You’ve prayed about it. You’ve thought about it. You’re like, yes, this feels right! Then you also just want to make sure that this word is right for you. NOT that it sounds good, or that it sounds exciting to you, or that it’s something that you want, or that it’s something that somebody else said was their word of the year. You have to make sure that it feels right for you.

Now, once you have that word for the year, then you’re going to use it as a guidepost through your year. You’re going to use it to help you make decisions about your time and your schedule and your focus. This is going to be what you focus on through the year.

[00:12:17] I would absolutely love to know. Do you have a word of the year? Yes or no? If you do, if you don’t, I would love for you to talk about it. Talk about how you arrived at your word of the year and share it with us in the Facebook group. If you’re not part of our Facebook community, please, please, please come join us!

[00:12:41] We are hanging out in there, sharing our successes, our failures, our wins, our challenge points, and just helping each other to become purpose driven military spouses.The easiest way to do that is just go to milspousemastermind.com/community. It’ll take you directly to the link so you can join the group. And I would love to hear about your word!

MY 2022 WORD OF THE YEAR

[00:13:05] Now I promised you at the beginning of this episode that I would share my 2022 word of the year with you. And it is JOY! When I went to reflect on all of my last year and everything that I walked through, what I accomplished, what I struggled with. It really was in this place of, yes, I made progress. But throughout the year, I felt discouraged. I felt like should be making more progress. I felt like I should be doing more, accomplishing more, and just fighting this internal battle of all of the resistance and the spiritual attacks from the enemy and just my self doubt. And I really realized that I was in this place of feeling defeated more than I was walking in joy.

[00:14:01] And I want for ALL OF US to live in this place of feeling filled, fueled, and full of joy. And so that’s going to be my word of the year in 2022! Really learning to live in this place of joy and finding joy in the mundane. Learning to find joy in the journey, and just living and walking in and out of this place of joy.

[00:14:29] If you’re still in need of our word of the year, and that is speaking to your heart, maybe you should consider that as your word of the year. But, I hope that as I grow in my own joy journey, I can share more of that joy with you, and that we can each, and all of us every day, walk towards this place of learning to live filled, fueled and full of joy. I’ll see you next week!