Every year, I like to choose a word, that stays on my radar for the year. I invite you to do the same if this isn’t a tradition you have started yet. Setting your word can become something to discuss with friends, or an activity to do with the kids or just between you and your journal.
Having a word can act as a marker to define how you want this year to be. It can serve as a reminder when making decisions. It can also help to form wider goals and allow you to stay focused on the direction you want to be headed in.
It is good to check in on how your word is being applied?
- Am I taking my ‘word for the year’ into account when I choose a particular action?
- Could I be doing things that are more suited to the word I chose?
- Am I staying true to my word?
- What could I be doing to work towards what that work means to me?
- How does that word make me feel? Remind yourself why you chose it.
It can also just be something to think about for the year. At the end of the year, it provides a focal point for reflection.
So this year, my word is
nurture
This for me, comes in many forms:
- Nurture my body, by eating healthy, and building strength
- Nurture the partnerships I have at work as a vital part of my business model – but also nurture the relationships I have, and make with clients, my team and everyone I encounter.
- Nurture the love and connection with my husband and daughter, and friends, and family.
- Nurture the seeds of new ideas – innovation, creation, whatever I might choose to do this year.
- Nurture my garden – which, being in a new home, I have MANY opportunities for this. Planting, watering, weeding, all brings great results, stimulates growth, and displays massive change and beauty.
I liked this analogy for nurture in all areas of my life. When you nurture something, it grows or blossoms, relationships deepen, opportunities emerge and most importantly nurturing is mutually beneficial to me and to the other people involved.
So that’s my word. This will be something to reflect back on next January – my year of nurturing and the growth of the newly planted jacaranda tree!
