Having a word for the year is one of my favorite practices. It acts as a theme or guiding light while continuing to reveal new unexpected facets. A word offers a new way to check in and reflect on progress as the year unfolds in ways that foster creative thinking, whereas goals are binary checkpoints of yes/no achievement. There are many more ways to track growth than that!

Reflect on your previous year’s word

Reflection is a powerful tool for learning about yourself, your desires, and making sure your choices and actions are supporting where you want to go.

You can list various accomplishments that aligned with your word for last year or ponder on it. Here are some of the reflections I stumbled upon in my own review.

My 2022 word of the year reflections

In 2022, my word for the year was Movement. I knew I needed to bring more literal movement back into my life and daily routine. I was also aware of some areas that were stalled out that needed some movement. At the start of 2022, I wasn't even sure if this word would mean a literal move for me and my family.

By the end of the year, I experienced movement in so many areas of my life. My favorite one was bringing in the #75Strong challenge in mid-October. This challenge required 1-1/2 hours of movement every day, and at least 45 minutes of it had to take place outside.

This challenge unlocked a health rut I'd fallen into in 2021. I tried personal trainers, Noom, and fitness-focused efforts with not much success. The #75Strong challenge is geared towards building mental strength — it's officially billed as a mental toughness challenge. I'm so grateful for it being the key that helped me return to healthy choices. It helped me move the needle on confidence, health, diet and fitness, so much so that I'm embarking on Round 2 starting today (I completed Round 1 on December 30).

I also experienced huge movement in my professional life. From revising my resume and getting a full-time job at another company to working with incredible freelancers, coaches and contractors for other clients, the work pot got stirred deeply. By December I returned to my roots of being an entrepreneur, but it was a wild ride. I created lots of movement for other people as well.

The great news is that all that work movement did have a positive impact on my income. I love it when the movement goes in the direction of my desires.

2022 travels were interesting because they were all work based for Carolyn Elliott's Sleepover Mystery School. There were so many lessons about going with the flow, and I learned that I do best when I stay in motion. I can vary the pace, but a hard stop makes it hard to get going again.

Due to the nature of these Mystery School immersions, I experienced a lot of internal movement as well. It all culminated with a fire walk, which was one of the toughest things I’ve faced in my life. Who knew? I had no idea walking across hot coals would be so hard for me. Movement was key… slow and steady with an unwavering focus on my guiding intention.

While we didn't move our home, we took some huge steps towards making it more sellable should we choose to go in that direction. From a new roof, deck, electrical box and hot tub… we definitely worked big magic to move our house into a new century. We also picked new exterior colors and are ready to paint it when the rain stops.

Movement trickled out to my partner as well. We added Wasabi, a Boston Terrier puppy, to our family, which opened up all kinds of activity and moving about.

Sum up the takeaway

Once you touch on various areas of your life and see how your word showed up in each realm, do you see a common theme?

My biggest lesson for 2022 was that tiny steps have a big impact. They start the movement and then momentum, energy and inspiration take over.

Movement forced me to focus on: What's one thing I can do to move this forward? Asking that on a near daily basis for 365 days led to my husband and me looking back in awe at all the changes we made during this year that did not feel like an easy one.

Is there anyplace your word didn’t have an impact?

In reviewing your word of the year, also reflect on those areas where it didn't show up. That too can be very telling. With quarterly check ins, you can more consciously keep tabs on this and more intentionally guide and direct energy to make sure you aren't avoiding the growth that needs to happen.

How do you pick a word?

Often a word picks you, and I’ve found it starts with an intention.

Several friends and I started asking each other in late Autumn if any words had shown up yet or if we had a sense what the feeling of the word might be.

My desire and intention for 2023 is to dive into writing more, especially with an eye toward sharing/publishing what I write rather than letting it sit in journals not seeing the light of day.

I wanted a word like dredge or excavate that felt better than those, LOL. Writing is always a process of digging in the muck and bringing things to the surface to see if they have any value. Sounds like a fun year, LOL.

My hope is that I dive in more and am more consistent with my pursuits. I suspect there will be much purging and hopefully lightning up as well.

My word for 2023 is Delve. I had so many words in my notes app, and that one crossed my path on New Year's Eve while I was reviewing definitions of some of the words on my list. Delve just landed. I felt it in my body rather than choosing it with my brain.