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Have You Chosen Your One Word for 2015?

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RISE

“Change is not dependent on the clock, it is dependent on our desire to implement it.” (tweet that)

For three years now I have been part of OneWord365. This community, founded by Alece Ronzino, encourages people to forget about New Year’s Resolutions and just choose one word to live into on for an entire year.

Now, I was always someone who loved New Year’s resolutions. At the beginning of January I would become all giddy like a school girl for possibilities and fresh starts. I’d take out my journal and write my list of things I hoped to achieve that year. Things like take an art class, spend more time with friends, volunteer at ____, and the usual “lose ten pounds.”

But come February I would wish I’d never begun the process. I’d always wind up feeling mad at myself for giving up, or for settling back into old habits. I’d adopt the underachiever mentality.

What I didn’t account for in my list-making was that despite my excitement for the new year and my love of fresh starts,  just because I ditch one calendar in favour of a crisp blank new one, it doesn’t mean the slate is clean and all my habits and challenges are gone.

It just means a new year has come.

A New Year’s Resolution is simply the idea of starting afresh and setting some goals, but every day is an opportunity to start anew. Yet we wait. We wait for a new calendar year or school term before we can being to implement change. Or we wait for a certain circumstance to change, believing we are powerless until it does.

But change is not dependent on the clock, it is dependent on our desire to implement it, and no amount of lists or blank calendars can do that job for us. Change cannot come from the outside in; it can only come from the inside out (tweet that.)

It can take a long time to realize this. So often I fall back into old habits and find myself waiting for something to change before I can change. But since becoming part of the OneWord community and just focusing on one word for the year, change has been more manageable. If I choose my word well it helps to give me focus and strength throughout the year—long past the February blues of under-achievement.

Presence

My word for 2014 was Presence. I chose it because when I reflected on the previous year, I had a sense of time slipping away from me and struggling to enjoy the many wonderful things that were happening in my life. I always wanted to race ahead instead of just savouring the moment.

Presence seemed to be a word that would fit every situation. If I felt anxious or worried, being present would take away that stress; if I felt impatient for something to happen, being present would ground me, and if I was trying to multi-task, remembering to be present would help me to enjoy just one task at a time.

Rise

I have chosen the word Rise as my one word for 2015. For me this word applies in my both my relationships and my business goals.

In my relationships I want to rise into giving more of myself and my time—rising to the occasion when others need me. And in my business, it’s time to rise into being exactly who I am and doing all that I am capable of, without holding back.

Rising means being brave and believing in myself. It’s an exciting challenge.

Choosing your one word

We may only be two days away from a new year but you still have plenty of time to think about your one word. Remember, you don’t have to wipe the slate clean on January 1st. Instead I encourage you to journal around these three questions:

1. What area of my life have I most neglected this year?

2. What is one area of my self-growth that I need to lean into more?

3. What possibilities lie ahead for me in 2015?

Once you’ve given some thought to these questions, write down as many empowering words as you can think of that relate to your answers. It is likely that one or two of them will pop out and really resonate with you. When you get the goosebumps like I did, you’ll know you have your word for the year.

Some One Word examples

oneword365

When you have your word please share below in the comments. I’d love to hear!

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Comments

  1. Freedom. The word came to mind immediately. At the fairly advanced age of 63 I am realizing to a much greater extent just how much I have been enslaved all my life to the felt need to conform to the expectations of others – starting with my family of origin and extending to all my relationships and even the world of people at large. I want to give myself the freedom to be the person I really am, and not the person I think everyone expects me to be. So I have two challenges: first, I don’t even know who I really am – I have spent a lifetime playing the roles I thought were assigned to me, so I need to find the lost pieces of myself that have been repressed all my life – , and second, I need to discover and disengage all the internal defense mechanisms that have kept me from being real… first to myself and also to others.

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  2. Claire!! I just posted abt this on Facebook yesterday as I reflect about my word for 2015. My word this past year was Soar… I have not blogged since April yet I think it is time to blow the fust off my humble little blog and begin anew, and writing about One Word what Soar has come to mean for me is a great way to reenter the blogosphere.

    May you Rise high to achieve your goals and desires in the New Year!

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  3. Share. This word came out of my Personal Manifesto which yiu encouraged us to put together in your course.
    Share, as in my blog,
    Share, as in myself, with my friends as needed
    Share my knowledge, my compassion, my wisdom, my creativity

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  4. I have heard of the one word challenge and a guest pastor actually preached on this a few weeks ago and is currently writing a book about the “one words” God has given to him since 1999. I want to commit to picking my one word right now. I actually didn’t know what my word would be until it jumped off the page at me while reading this post. RISK!

    This past year has been one of great transformation in my life, my eyes have been opened to many things. It was almost as if I was meeting myself for the first time. i gradually discovered my passion for writing, and my deep desires for public speaking but until this moment I haven’t shared those dreams with many. That is where RISK comes in. I want to take risks, I want to lay it all on the line and risk it all for what I know is a divine calling. I want to take as many risks as I can and no longer be held by the chains of fear. My word for 2015 is RISK!

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    • Wow – that’s a great word Michelle. It sounds like your reasons for choosing Risk are similar to the ones that inspired me to choose Rise. May we both live into these words and our calling in 2015!

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  5. Endurance. I too like choosing a single word as the year’s theme. New Year’s resolution an have never worked for me…probably because I don’t do perseverance well! :-) In 2015 I want to focus on following up with several goals from this past year (my 2014 word was courage).

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  6. Thank you for posting this, Claire! It’s deeply energising. I’m yearning to grab the baton and start running with my one word – ACHIEVE. My lack of achieving throughout all the years of my life to date has cost me so many divine opportunities to not only achieve my goals, dreams and hopes, but also to excel at them. I’ve allowed too many people to persuade me I am the person they expect me to be and have only recently started standing against that and slowly allowing my authentic self to emerge and be expressed! Not everyone approves, but the most liberating consequence of finally standing in this place, is that I do! So, thank you for playing a part in spurring me on to Achieve in this new season of my journey. Look forward to seeing you Rise.

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  7. Flexible. My choice last year was “strive.” Try as I might it seemed that a family crisis, poor health for my husband or me, surgeries, and more kept pushing me down. Finally, in the last almost six weeks while recovering from surgery, I realized my frustration grew out of wanting to keep EVERYTHING on track! I wasn’t allowing any flexibility into my life, schedule, or writing, and especially not into relationships. Thus, the choice of the word “flexible” for 2015!

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  8. Last year my One Word was Free, which was why I pushed through my fears and took your course “Journaling for Creative Growth”. Your course helped me immensely and I want to thank you for creating such a needful course! This year my One Word is Purposeful. I want to be purposeful in my writing, my relationships, and in my life with God. Thanks for the 3 questions in your post. They helped me define my word more accurately! And…I pray you RISE in all your endeavors and that your New Year brings you many rich blessing!

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    • Cheri, I like your word: purposeful. It reminds us to ask why we are doing things, and what outcome we are hoping for. It is easy for me to get caught up in productivity or lack there of, while neglecting the idea of purpose.

      Intentional is the word I stumbled on new years day. It is like purposeful, but seems to have more meaning for me. It reminds me of focus and discipline, when I am inclined to get lost in surfing and busywork. For me the word draws on the book: Intenders Handbook.

      Claire, I am glad I stumbled on your post and had a chance to proclaim my own word of the year. Ironically when the word came to me, I was not searching for a single word. But I agree a single word focus tends to work better than New Year’s resolutions, which I gave up years ago.

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  9. DARE is my word. I went through the exercise Claire suggested and was a bit nervous when the word DARE was the one that kept drawing me to it. My word for 2014 was Nourish and as I look back over the year I can see how this word has been a hugh part of my life and growth.
    As I sit writing this in the house I lived in for the past 18 years, the home where my 4 children have become adults and left to begin their own journeys, there are packing boxes all around. In the last few weeks I have sold my house which was part of nourishing myself but I have not yet fond one to buy. So 2015 will bring many new things to me. I had thought of the word adventure but it was Dare that kept coming. So I guess I will dare to move into the year, dare to take up the new adventures of living in a new place, dare to be more confident in being the me I have discovered through this year of nourishment.

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  10. I usually find the discussions that conclude one year and precede the next to be like bromides full of platitudes and cliche, but your thoughtful post has both pleasantly surprised and inspired me. “Energize” is my word for 2015, because at this stage in my life, fatigued by aging and the health issues that have come with it, I have been feeling so much in need of energy. During the last few years I have felt as if losing time, repeatedly coming up short and accomplishing little of what my active mind conceives of and heart so longs for: the writing of my novel-in-progress, the short stories and articles I hope to publish and the research these projects require, the completion of posts for my blog, and so much more. With “energize” as my word, I can be reminded daily to sleep well, eat well, exercise and act! And it seems with all that, the rest will follow! Once again I have been struck with your authenticity and insight. It is such a pleasure to read your posts. Thank you, Claire.

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  11. My word is NEW. I was reading a newsletter and the scripture Isaiah 43:18-19 was in it. The word NEW spoke loudly to me. My word for 2014 was STILL. God wanted me to be still before Him and wait. My word for 2015 says He is ready to start new things in my life.

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  12. I, too, am not one for New Year resolutions. I like the concept of choosing One Word to set the stage for growth and intentions for the coming year. I have chosen the word Becoming. A year and a half into recovery from alcohol addiction, I feel I am “re-discovering” myself, and searching for who I am. I have found that it is a process, not a question with a simple or single answer. “Becoming Who You Are” has been an intriguing website hosted by Hanna Braime.

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  13. Spiritual. This is something I have ignored and shunned for far too many years. I’ve lost friends and myself by not admitting this deep-rooted part of myself. There is a “higher power” or “force” and I must re-connect with it and thereby with myself and others.

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  15. I’ve been doing this for the last two years. 2013 was perseverance, where I finally choose to keep moving forward no matter what, one step at a time… to complete what I began.

    2014 was peace, where I dove into personal chaos before grasping the concept that holding onto my God brings peace no matter the chaos in my life.

    Back in October, God and I decided my One Word for 2015 would be NEW. Just as PEACE did at the end of 2013, I find myself excited about the prospects. However, by the middle of 2014, I realized the only way to understand peace was to experience the chaos… so I feel some trepidation about the word NEW.

    I wonder if some of you understand and have also experienced what I have. I’d love to read your stories.

    Blessings to all in 2015. Thank you for inviting us to share, Claire.

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      • No. My one word didn’t change but in order to really understand, appreciate, & embrace the word of the year, it seems that God allowed (even led) me into the opposite of my one word.

        Does that make sense?

        The words He gave me in 2013 and 2014 were what I focused on. But to truly embrace perseverance I had to learn to let go of my belief that I never finish anything. To truly embrace the peace he offers I experienced a ton of personal chaos in 2014, things I never expected when he gave me and I chose the word at the end of 2014.

        For 2015 I choose to begin the year hoping and trusting for newness. But understanding it may come to me the hard way, the way I would not prefer. Even if that’s true– because life is full of ups and downs (a concept I’ve often struggled with)– this year I will begin by trusting god no matter what. I will begin by believing my joy and peace and all other goodness is possible because of who god is and who he says I am no matter what my circumstances.

        That, already, is a new concept for me.

        Does that make sense?

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        • That makes sense :-) I think our words always reveal so much more to us about ourselves than we ever imagined, and they work best when we are challenged by them. I think you’re doing this perfectly.

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  16. RECOVER! The year 2015 is going to be the year I recover from the many demons I am still carrying with me. I have managed to improve my life to some extent: I am entering my fourth semester of college (at the age of 51) with a GPA of 3.6, and I found my first love back in May and we have been communicating ever since and making plans for a future together. However, there are still a few areas of my life I must conquer and recover so I can be free and enjoy the many gifts life has to offer. I have grown stronger spiritually and emotionally. Writing is the greatest tool I use to help me release all my inner conflicts and positive thoughts. I am going to write about my experiences and continue to journal and hopefully write the stories of my life that have made me who I am today.

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  17. My word for 2014 was MOVE. But somehow in reality I felt like it was a year of waiting…so for 2015 I’ve decided my one word will be PUSH.

    PUSH for me embodies what I need to do in 2015. Push through all the things that make me hesitate out of fear of the unknown. Push means…put on my big girl Jedi panties and do what needs to be done. I already know what I want to achieve.

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  18. Thank you so much for this. My word for 2015 is Confidence. I have been afraid to voice out for such along time and this is holding me back from alot of things. Most people think I am a quite person and I not. I’m afraid to talk because of people sayings, I’m afraid to talk because people reject each other. They even discriminate…..I wanted to implement something at work at some stage in my life but because I lack confidence, I couldn’t. Alot of things has happened at home, work and with friends but I saw keeping quite as a solution for me. So Confidence is a word I have chosen for 2015.

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  19. EMBRACE. I spent the last season of 2014 in a tremendous ministry called EMBRACE GRACE and truly EMBRACED these sweet, single moms with God’s incredible GRACE. I thought I would change THEIR lives, but boy did they change mine. Seeing the word EMBRACE over and over each week I began to think how I could EMBRACE. Who and what in my life needed me to show them this word? I hope to spend my 2015 EMBRACING life, and the lives of those that I share breathes with!

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  20. The one word which is stirring in me is EXPECTANT. As a male, I have NO clue about the experiences of pregnancy other than through the experiences of my wife when we were having our children many years ago.

    However, I am vey EXPECTANT for the path which lies ahead for me this coming year. Thanks for pleading this case for us….Bruce

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  22. Shine! Taken from a word of encouragement I received from a friend. The last few years I have really struggled under the weight of the road I was walking and didn’t feel like I got to be me. So having walked out that long and burdensome road I am on to new beginnings and the year 2015 will be my moment to be me again and . . . Shine!

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  23. Thanks SO much Claire for blogging about #oneword365! I was looking for a new tradition for the New Year, as resolutions just don’t work for me. I LOVE the idea and it didn’t take me long to choose my word, Empower! This will be a year of change for me and I DON’T LIKE CHANGE, so, I needed a word that would help me grow through it. I just published my blog post about, encouraging others to choose their one word. (http://staycalmjustwrite.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-choose-one-word-for-2015.html) I truly believe this could be a life changer, I’m looking forward to blogging about the experience. Happy New Year, and thanks for your blog, The Gift of Writing, it continues to inspire me daily!

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  24. 2014 was a year of change and while I pretend change is not an obstacle, I have realized I had lived the last 21 years of my life avoiding change. In 2015, I am moving forward. The word forward will be my motivation to complete my dissertation, become a better me, and accept the things I cannot change.

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  25. Hi Claire,
    My one word is AFLAME. I want to be on fire this year with my writing. I am striking the match that will cause me to be AFLAME with desire, passion, perseverance and tenacity. My flame has died down to a tiny red glow that looks like its ready to go poof. Can’t let that happen. The things that set me AFLAME are reading from the words that God created, looking around to see how my abilities can be used to lighten another traveler’s load, and by writing, writing, writing and reading. Here I go! STRIKE!

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  27. My word is CHANGE. It’s popped out in many places…in my journal, in your writing, “change is not dependent on the clock, it is dependent on our desire to implement it,” and in the events of my life.
    Change is challenging especially if it is suddenly thrust upon me. I get thrown off course for a bit, while I adjust.
    Change is also what I am hoping to ‘implement’ throughout this year. I’m excited to join the journey.

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  29. “notice” is a word that has chosen me. from noticing what God is saying, to noticing people instead of ignoring them, to noticing how I feel, to simply noticing where I’m going and where I’ve parked my car…

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    • That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone pick that word Rosalie, and I think it’s wonderful. “Noticing” is something we all need to do a lot more of in such a distracted world.

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  30. Heal…..sometimes, it not the body which needs to be healed-sometimes it’s our mind (thoughts and conversations we have with ourselves), and sometimes, it’s our soul (troubled and broken)

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