Happy New Year!

Honestly, I feel like I was just welcoming 2018 the other day yet here we again. Hopefully, wiser and full of excitement for the year ahead. As you may have noticed, I didn’t do a year in review post, but it was a really good one for me. Although I didn’t accomplish all my goals I still had some major wins and unexpected accomplishments. With a new year you receive a sense of new beginnings and just like the previous one I’m ecstatic!

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Before we get into today’s post, let’s take a quick recap of my 2018 word/mantra for the year. I made a promise to be UNAPOLOGETIC and UNSTOPPABLE; did I live up to it? I’d say YES! It may not have been 100%, but there was definitely progress made during the course of 2018. I took on a new role within my organization, travelled solo to South America for the first time, fulfilled my major blog goal and enjoyed a birthday trip to two new cities. If anything, 2018 was a year of firsts and set the tone for more growth in 2019.

In addition to my 2018 word/mantra I employed another mantra for my 24th birthday: LIVING FEARLESSLY. With two months into my 24th year I believe this has been going well. There hasn’t be anything totally out of the box that I had to deal with. However, I’m already getting anxiety thinking about all the upcoming stuff 2019 holds. We’ll see how this goes.

Why a word of the year?

Unlike setting new year’s resolutions, a word isn’t necessarily a goal to achieve. By having a word of the year you’re constantly reminding yourself of what you want to do, feel, think, or be. It’s a theme for your year that should align with your goals and character traits. Choose a word that challenges you to make a change.

Take a step further and add this word to your vision board (if you created one, if not what are you waiting for?). Having this visual representation will help you to remember your word of the year and encourage you to use it while pursuing your goals.

How did I choose my word of the year?

I’ve seen the growth of my blog and also received new responsibilities at my job, therefore I know that this year will be challenging. While seeing other individuals post their word of the year on social media I began to think about mine. It took me a week to fully decide on what it should be. I came across many words that felt like they could be it, but deep within me I knew they weren’t.

The Process:

• Looking back on 2018 – what were my goals, did I achieve them, why not, what could I do better. Theses were some of the questions I asked myself while trying to determine my word for 2019.
• Looking ahead on 2019 – taking a look at my vision board and thinking about my plans for 2019 also helped to determine what word would help me achieve these goals
• Brainstorming – By viewing the 2019 word hashtag on Instagram as well as doing a Pinterest search helped me to visualize a vast amount of words that I could choose for my word of the year. Ultimately, it came down to a word in a book in which I was reading. It resonated with me for two days and I knew this was it.

Ideas for your word of the year

As a bonus to you I decided to include a list of 20 words (some of which resonated with me) of which you can choose from. If you don’t see a word listed below that you feel is your word of the year feel free to follow my process in selecting one.

Activity

I’ve seen this idea of social media – namely Pinterest- for awhile now and I think I’ll finally give it a try. For every accomplishment (including fears I overcome) and good that comes my way this year, I will make it a note of it and place it into a jar. At the end of 2019 I’ll be able to empty the jar and reminisce on the good that came my way. This activity will be a great way to remember small wins that you may have forgotten and even show you how much you’ve grown.

Do you have a word of the year? How did you choose it?

PIN ME!