The Word of the Year

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So we're two weeks into 2015 and I still haven't chosen my word of the year. Usually I at least have a list of candidates before the previous year ends. Often, I have the word chosen before midnight on New Year's Eve. This year, nothing. Not a clue.

Most years, I have an idea of what lay ahead, a list of specific goals to accomplish. The challenge is to come up with a word that fits those goals. When I look ahead at 2015, though, I see nothing. I have no idea what the year will hold, no goals demanding my attention. Sure, I have a list of things I'd like to do eventually, but none of them is a pressing need.

If anything, 2015 looks like it will be a year of waiting: waiting to see what happens with the dog, waiting for the townhouse market to improve so I can sell my place without losing my shirt, waiting while I build my savings so I can afford a down payment on a new townhouse, waiting to hear back on short stories I sent out on submission, waiting, waiting, waiting.

““There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
”

— Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Given that, I seriously considered wait as my word for the year, but it didn't sit right. Wait feels passive, sedentary. I want a word that's active. I want a word that will inspire motion but not require a destination. I want a word that will inspire me to do things this year that will result in a clearer vision and specific goals for next year.

I want to spend the year moving forward.

So I guess that's it then, isn't it?

My word for 2015 will be:

forward

(Picture Jacques Louis-David's painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps here.)

The Word of the Year

A few years ago, I gave up on the idea of New Year's resolutions. I never kept them. Sometimes that was because my goals were unrealistic, but usually it was because I forgot what they were. I replaced the resolution habit with a new one: a word--one word--that would guide me through the year as a motto or a theme.

The first year I did this, in 2012, I chose the word enjoy. At the end of the year, I was able to make a long list of things I enjoyed. The next year, last year, I chose the word strive, and boy, oh, boy, did I end up doing a lot of striving.

That experience led me to think very carefully about the word that would guide me through 2014. I thought about my hopes and goals and plans for the year. I thought about what I'd like to make a long list of at the end of the year, what I'd like to end up doing a lot of this year. I asked myself what word would best describe what I'd be doing during the year, anyway.

And that's how I ended up at my decision. My word for 2014 is:

seek

This year I am seeking:

• a better balance between work and life
• to fill the parts of my life that feel empty
• to improve my self-care habits (eating, exercising, housekeeping, etc.)
• the time, energy, and space to finish Draft 3 of the novel
• the courage and skills to start querying literary agents
• the time and resources to fix up my house so I can sell it (eventually)

What are you seeking this year?