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Finding your word: Being mindful in the New Year 

Finding your word: Being mindful in the New Year 

 

The New Year has arrived, and with it, a deluge of opinions regarding New Year’s resolutions.

Some people love them and find them to be motivating.

Some dislike them, calling resolutions unrealistic – often too ambitious to be attainable.

Many have tried resolutions in years past, only to be disappointed in themselves when they faded back into old habits. 

Rather than try to bolster one argument over the other, I’d like to share an alternative. It’s a gentler concept than a resolution, but just as wholly personal to each individual. 

 

All you need to do is select a single word (or even a short phrase) that embodies what you’d like to focus on in 2025.

 

It’s like selecting a theme for your year, or the vibe you want to create for yourself.

Your word should illuminate something you feel passionate about achieving, changing, or becoming, but it’s very different from goal-setting. 

A typical resolution is focused on the outcome of achieving a goal.

 

Common examples include: 

 

Losing a certain amount of weight, running a marathon, or saving money.

Finding your word, and keeping it close throughout the year, is about reminding yourself of the desire and longing that your chosen word elicits – not about achieving a specific goal. 

Essentially, it should draw you inward to the feelings behind your desire for change or improvement, rather than shout motivation at you from the sidelines alongside a ticking clock.

A good friend of mine introduced me to the concept of choosing a word for the year several years ago in California, and I’ve adopted it since then. 

 

Finding your word will require a bit of introspection.

 

You can’t select a meaningful word for the upcoming year until you know what you’d like to change, or how you want to feel.

But rather than focusing directly on achieving the outcome, finding your word is about finding something to be mindful of throughout the year ahead, and making the essence of that driving force available to you just by recalling your word. 

If you choose a lackluster one that falls flat, it’s not going to do you much good. (No pressure, right?!)

 

Choosing my word for the year has been fairly easy in the past, but so far, 2025 remains without one.

 

There are so many areas where I feel the pull to focus more deeply, and I’m having a hard time finding a word that represents more than a couple of them at once.

An obvious solution would be to just narrow the scope of my ambition, and that would probably be wise. 

But I can’t help feeling like 2025 is going to be a big year for my family, and I want to step into it on solid, intentional footing. 

This year, I want to focus on achieving some personal goals, rather than let them idle, often ignored, behind the needs and wants of my family.

I want to have more adventures.

I want to dive into writing my next book. I want to focus on being a good and generous friend. I want to play more with my kids.

I want to get more organized, and feel in control of the PCS that looms this upcoming summer. 

 

That’s too much to fit into one word, right? 

 

Maybe. But I’m still going to try. Because I’ve experienced and felt the value of it.

The friend who first told me about finding a word for the year used to write it on a note and stick it to her bathroom mirror.

I haven’t done that recently, but I’ve sometimes imagined it as a tattoo inscribed on my wrist.

If I pick the right word, one that really resonates with my current season, I can almost feel the word appear, ready to remind me why I wanted to make some changes in the first place. 

 

Now that you have the idea of it, I’d like to leave you with a few examples.

 

One of these belongs to my friend, and another was chosen by my husband.

Again, if a short phrase makes more sense, that’s fine, too.

If you get just a little emotional about it, you’ll know you’ve found the right one, with just enough heart behind it to pull you towards something you’d really like to improve or change this year. 

I hope 2025 is all that you need it to be, and much more!

 

Some examples of words to inspire mindfulness in the New Year:

 

Alignment

Balance

Courage

Challenge

Elevate

Focus

Presence 

 

 

*For more from Kaci, check out her M:M Author Page.

 

 

Author

  • Kaci Curtis is a Navy spouse and mom of two. Her family relocated to the tropical island of Guam over the summer. She now spends her time washing beach towels, rinsing snorkeling masks, and helping crabs get over curbs. When she’s able, she adds a dash of reading, writing, hiking, and lifting at the gym.Originally from Missouri, she has moved 5 times in the last decade, and she somehow made it through four deployments in a tumultuous four year period. Things slowed down a bit at their previous duty station (Mississippi), where the family enjoyed a farmhouse on 5 wooded acres. They raised chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, pigs, and also kept 2 goats, a cow, a donkey,and a Shetland pony. Naturally, they decided to add a second human child to the mix, and turned it loose into the barnyard as soon as possible. She considers herself lucky to have published several essays and short stories. You can find her writer page on FB (@KCurtisWriter)

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What  Is Motivation?

What  Is Motivation?

What  Is Motivation? The process that starts, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors is what we define as motivation. Motivation causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.

Turn on the Hose 

Turn on the Hose 

Turn on the Hose ….At our last duty station, we owned a farmhouse on 5 wooded acres. It was our own patch of paradise, and we raised many animals there. Early on, we had some of the land cleared, fenced, and sowed grass for a pasture.

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