Word of the Year Reflections

I thought I had nailed down my 2023 Words of the Year with “Peace and Ease”, but as my birthday/new year approached, I kept getting signs that “Courage” was meant to guide my year. Once I know something intuitively, it keeps getting louder and louder until I take action and pay attention. As much as I tried to push “Courage” aside and go back to a pleasure-driven 2023, I finally had to take a look at why I felt so scared by the word.

Stuck between the peaceful and easy 2023 I dreamed of, and a big, courageous one, I took each word through the following exercises, to get clear on my “why” behind the words, and what each option would look like in action.

Within the first two questions, I knew that “Courage” was what felt right for me, even though the thought of living courageously makes me want to crawl back into bed. Fear has been holding me back and keeping me small for most of my life, so 2023 is my year to step more into myself and my power.

Courage is exactly the guidance I needed to evolve into my next version of self. I hope that the exercises below inspire your evolution, and your best year yet!

How To Choose Your Word Of The Year

1. Think about the way you want to feel, and list out some words. Go through and narrow it down to 2-4.

   1. My words were pleasure, ease, confidence, and courage.

2. Look up definitions and synonyms of these words.

   1. I used a thesaurus and online dictionary.

3. Define what these words mean to you, and how your life would look if you were living true to the word.

   1. This is where I started realizing that courage aligned more with the life I wanted to create. I can still enjoy ease and pleasure, but taking action and going past my fears would make me feel the way I desired.

4. List some related action steps you can take in money, relationships, self, play, work, and home.

   1. You want to make sure there are things you can do, both big and small, to make you feel a certain way. One year I chose “Radiance”, and there weren’t enough action steps to make me feel like my word made an impact.

   2. Some action steps I came up with for courage are being more vulnerable in romantic relationships, having confidence and going after more aligned work projects, and showing up each day as a powerful and beautiful woman, no matter the environment.