My 2021 Word of the year and why I think it's so helpful to choose a WOTY

Have you chosen a word of the year for 2021 yet? 

It wasn't hard for me to choose my word of the year.

It came to me as soon as I asked myself "what should my word of the year be?"

Do you have a word of the year? I would love to know, please tell me in the comments.

If you don't have a word of the year I highly recommend choosing one, and no matter what anyone says there are NO rules, want 2 word of the years, want a saying of the year, want to change your word during the year? Go ahead, no one can tell you what's best for you!

I can tell you I will not be changing my word because it works on so many levels for me in my personal life and my business, but if I want to add a word or a saying, that's my business, just like yours is yours!

Ok, so I chose Courage as you could probably guess from my image, as many of you know I'm a hand lettering artist, so of course I had to make a pretty image for myself and social media!

My word of the year is going to help me in so many ways, basically the one word mantra is easy to keep top of mind and you can also write it easily and keep it so many places. Let me give you some examples:

-On your mirror, maybe a fancy sticky note

-In your planner, on a dash board or written in every month

-Your calendar, keep it places you look all the time, my family calendar is on the fridge so I ALWAYS look at it!

-Get your work made into stickers, or wall art or vinyl decals so you can put it on your journal or notebooks.

-It's nice to keep it places you can see it so you are inspired by it all the time without consciously thinking of it.

Courage for me means a lot in different contexts but the biggest (well one of the biggest) there are many struggles in owning your own business, especially the first year which I am in...

Courage to BE MYSELF

Courage to SAY NO

Courage to SAY YES

Courage to CREATE WHAT I FEEL

Courage to KEEP GOING

Courage to BE OK KNOWING NOT EVERYONE LIKES ME 

Courage to TRY

Courage to CHANGE

Courage to DO WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY

Courage to CHOOSE

The list could go on but you get the idea, this word really works for me this year and I am excited to keep it around all year long! The reason I think picking a word of the year is so helpful, is because DOUBT. We all have doubts every now and then, or maybe a lot and need something to get us through and I really find that having a word top of mind that I know will help with this.

Another way a word of the year can help you is keeping you focused on a specific task: if you have a big goal for the year, for example double your sales, or loose 30 pounds a word that specifically helps you get over your "humps" and keep you going works great. Maybe your word is GROWTH or CHANGE.

The word you choose is specific to YOU and how you want to use it.

I knew for me personally there is a lot I'm going to need COURAGE to achieve and so this fit perfectly for me.

Please let me know your word of the year and let me know if you need help choosing a word of the year, my first piece of advice would be to not OVERTHINK it, it's usually right there floating around in your mind you just need to pause and listen. It will come to you easily, don't rush the process.

I hope this was inspiring and encouraging!

XO Christina