Do you have a word for the year? I do.
Thanks to a friend of mine. 10 years ago, during December, we were walking in the mountains of the Drakensberg and he asked me, “So, do you have a word for next year?” I hadn’t, and I had no idea what he was talking about?
The previous year he’d been challenged to come up with a word to focus on for the year.
The Instructions
The instructions are really simple:
- Pick a word that you think may have significance for you during the following year
- Don’t spend too much time thinking about what the word should be
- Once you’ve selected a word don’t spend too much time focusing on it
- Rather let it reveal itself during the year while you go about doing what you’re doing
A simple and slightly esoteric activity I thought to myself. During our walk, back in 2014, I decided that CRAYON would be my word for following year. I followed all the instructions to a T.
The most interesting part of the exercise was that I spent absolutely no time thinking about my word. Not until my word beautifully crashed into my everyday life.
The first time was a song with ‘crayon’ in it that I heard on the radio, one morning on the way to dropping my girls at school. Then I was given a children’s book about ‘Crayons who quit’, from a friend who’d seen it and remembered I had the word. The next incursion was a Billboard, and then finding a crayon in my laptop bag that I hadn’t expected to find.
There were several other ‘crayon moments’ for me during the year, and each of them brought me sharply back to the reason I’d chosen the word in the first place. A really meaningful, fun and interesting activity/ experiment.
This year my word is GREYBEARD.
Do you have a word for 2025?
Do you have a word for 2025? If not, follow the instructions above. They’re pretty straight forward. Then use the form below to let me know what your word is? I’ll send it back you at the end of 2025.
Go on, I dare you 🙂
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