Choosing Your Word of the Year: A Key Component of Your Personal Annual Review
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TL;DR
What is a Word of the Year?
What’s the purpose behind selecting a Word of the Year?
How to select your Word of the Year
My Word of the Year
Every year, Merriam-Webster publishes a word of the year. Last year the word was authentic.
A high-volume lookup most years, authentic saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.
Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is based on search volume, throwing out common searches and terms that get a bunch of searches every year no matter what.
I’ve always been fascinated by Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. Why? Because it’s one word that describes a whole entire year. Think about that… One word used to sum up 365 days.
2022’s word of the year was gaslighting.
2021’s word was vaccine.
2020’s word was, you guessed it, pandemic.
It’s wild how one word can pretty much summarize what was going on in the world. But I guess it is easier in hindsight. When you have the data—there was a global pandemic in 2020—then it makes sense that word of the year for 2020 should be pandemic”.
Now, what if we applied this priciniple for our personal lives? But instead of assigning our word after the year is over, we assign it at the beginning—a personal word of the year.
A personal word of the year is a concept I learned about a few months ago and I think it warrants sharing. Let me explain…
What is a Word of the Year?
Two months ago, my friend Adam forwarded me this post from his friend Craig—Quality is a Choice. At the end of every year, his wife picks two words—one personal and one professional—that she wants to embody in the year ahead.
Without fail, she’ll go around the table at whatever New Year’s Eve gathering we find ourselves asking everyone for their “word of the year.” The exercise is meant to be a fun conversation starter with those you care about but also has become, to us, a way to be intentional as we close out one year and begin another.
I had heard of the idea in the past, but never put it into practice. I responded to Adam’s email asking what his word of the year was.
His word was Creation.
I did a quick search on Twitter to see if any of my other friends had picked a word for the year.
My friend Jason’s was Profit.
After hearing that a few of my friends had picked Words of the Year, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to choose one too.
But before I committed to banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what word makes the most sense, I had to answer why. Like what’s the purpose behind having a Word of the Year? Here’re my thoughts…
What’s the purpose behind selecting a Word of the Year?
If you’re an ambitious person like me, you have lots of goals and plans—which is great, but also poses a major problem. When you have a lot of stuff you want to do, it makes it challenging to prioritize stuff.
What often ends up happening is that you don’t end up accomplishing any of your goals because you have too much stuff on your plate. Sound familiar?
Having a Word of the Year simplifies your goals and gives you a clear focus to your day to day life. Your word becomes the theme of your journey. For example, balance, growth, or focus.
How to select your Word of the Year
So your Word of the Year is kind of like your compass. Yeah, you might have X, Y, and Z goals, but your word gives you clarity through simplicity. But how do you go about selecting a word? Because committing to one word for an entire year might sound daunting. I know it did for me.
Here’s how to confidently pick your Word of the Year.
First, write down your goals for the year. Here are the ones I included in my annual review
💪 75 Hard
🤝 Get married
🤝 Bachelor party
💰 Pass the CISSP
💰 Scale side business 30%
🌎 Honeymoon in Costa Rica
💪 IRONMAN 70.3 Happy Valley
💰 Update exterior + interior doors
🧠 Build a personal website and blog
🧠 Learn how to make sourdough bread
Second, read through your goals, and for each one, write one trait you’re going to need in order to achieve it
💪 75 Hard (Commitment)
🤝 Get married (Commitment)
🤝 Bachelor party (Coordination)
💰 Pass the CISSP (Commitment)
💰 Scale side business 30% (Commitment)
🌎 Honeymoon in Costa Rica (Coordination)
💪 IRONMAN 70.3 Happy Valley (Commitment)
💰 Update exterior + interior doors (Patience)
🧠 Build a personal website and blog (Creativity)
🧠 Learn how to make sourdough bread (Patience)
Third, tally up which word showed up the most
Commitment - 5
Peace - 2
Coordination - 2
Creativity - 1
The word that shows up most is your Word of the Year.
My Word of the Year
My word of the year is commitment.
I’m committed to completing 75 Hard on March 16th, 2024.
I’m committed to scaling my side business by 30% this year.
I’ve committed to marrying the love of my life on October 20th, 2024.
I’ve committed to doing an IronMan 70.3 on June 30th in Happy Valley.
I’m committing to the cybersecurity industry by studying for the CISSP exam.
I’m not saying that my other goals don’t require commitment—I’m going to have to commit to learning to make sourdough too—but commitment is just the word that keeps popping into my head. So that’s the one I ended up going with.
Why commitment?
All of life’s joys are rooted in commitment.
Committing to one location gives you the ability to build relationships and create momentum.
Committing to one partner and a handful of friends gives you memories, love, and support for a lifetime.
Committing to one vocation (skill / industry) gives you confidence in your ability to create value and help others.
Some might say “What if I don’t want to commit to one location? What if I’m happy dating around? What if I like doing a bunch of different kinds of work?!” To that I say, those joys are fleeting.
You’ll find much more joy in committing to one job, person, or location. At least that’s what I have found.
In a world where we have more options than ever before, this can be hard to recognize.
Remote workers can work wherever they want
Dating apps make it so you can date whoever you want
The gig economy makes it so you can do whatever job you want
But the happiest people I know are the ones who are committed. They are the ones who are focused. They are the ones who’ve invested hours and hours in the same people, vocation, and location.
In life, there are three big decisions: what you do, where you live and, and who you are with.
It’s important to take time when deciding these things. And it’s important to know that these decisions are not easy—and they aren’t supposed to be. But just know that there is peace in commitment. Life is better with fewer options.
Some may argue that they’d rather have the flexibility. They might say that it’s easier to not commit to something or someone. But believe it or not, we do not want an easy life. We want to learn and grow.
A fulfilling life is one that is selfishly challenging. It is a life where you determine your highs and lows. It is one where you can control your mind and determine how you feel in different situations.
So, yeah. Commitment is my word of the year.
Wrapping up
Just to recap. A Word of the Year is a tool you can use to simplify your goals into daily actions. The purpose of having a Word of the Year is to give you clarity when you have a bunch of stuff you want to accomplish. You can find your word by following three steps:
Write down your goals for the year
Write one trait you’re going to need to complete each goal
Tally up which word showed up the most—that’s your Word of the Year
Thanks for reading this post. If you made it to the end, I’d love to hear your Word of the Year. Shoot me a comment, DM, or whatever. See you Thursday.
Austin’s Recommendations
There’s nothing I nerd out on more than personal finance. Okay, maybe CrossFit… But I love jamming on personal finance too.
If you’re semi-interested in personal finance, you’ve heard of Mint—Intuit’s budgeting app they recently decided to shut it down, which left me scrambling to find a new app!
Luckily, my boss is a huuuge personal finance guy and recommended I check out Monarch Money. So I used it for a month and fell in love with it. They make it super easy to categorize transactions and track your net worth.
I actually like it better than Mint.
If you want to try it out, Monarch is is offering a free 30 day trial. Grab it below and let me know what you think.