Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Word for the New Year

12/31/2018

8 Comments

 
Gratitude. Intention. Simplicity. Joy. If you were to pick one word for personal focus in the year ahead, what would it be? Clarity. Self-care. Authenticity. Trust. The practice of choosing a word instead of making resolutions has been around a while, but I first heard of it a couple of weeks ago. Resolutions are a set-up for failure, typically forgotten in a month or two. A word isn’t a promise to keep or break, but a lens through which to view one’s life during the year ahead.

Nature’s years don’t start and end, of course; they cycle. Knowing New Year’s Day is arbitrary doesn’t stop many of us from endowing it with a sense of fresh beginnings. Often I’ve chosen something I wanted to leave behind. Last year, Fear turned to ashes in a New Year’s Eve bonfire. Right now the idea of a focus word calls to me more strongly. At this writing it’s Magic, though it has a few more hours to gel.

​With what rituals do you usher in the new year, if any? What word would you select for focus in 2019, or what from your past is it time to let go?
8 Comments
Dennis Doren
12/31/2018 09:57:53 am

Comments about your message: focusing, refreshing, clarity

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Sarah link
12/31/2018 11:44:03 am

Dennis, great word choices! Refreshing and clarity are qualities I aspire to. Thanks!

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Rebecca link
12/31/2018 10:19:01 am

Love the word focus. Gratitude is apt. Trust is beautiful. Thank you and Happy New Year! -Rebecca

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Sarah link
12/31/2018 11:46:37 am

Thanks, Rebecca. Gratitude comes easily to me, trust, not so much always. I'd love to find ways to deepen it. Happy New Year!

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Corrine
12/31/2018 10:49:15 am

Apparently my word for 2019 chose me a few days ago. I just didn’t know it until now. JOY!!!

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Sarah link
12/31/2018 11:48:34 am

Joy! Corrine, I love that your word chose you. That rings true to me as how this process works. It's less a matter of selecting than of awakening to what is calling me at present.

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Connie
12/31/2018 11:13:46 am

I love this post Sarah. My word - Passion! I started honoring it with a quote from Nelson Mandela: "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

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Sarah link
12/31/2018 11:51:46 am

Connie, thanks to you for introducing me to this practice of identifying a word for the year. By serendipity, after learning about it from you I encountered it at least two other places within the next few days. Love the Mandela quote.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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