My Word for 2021. . .Still Wondering

What’s your word for 2021?

You know the drill. You’ve seen it everywhere. Back in December, your friends and colleagues and wisdom gurus were all naming their word or their three words for the New Year.

Maybe you even had the clear thinking and foresight to come up with your own word. If so, good for you.

If not, we’re in the same boat.

Dayspring, a Christian website, has created a quiz to help you figure out what your word might be. According to that site, my word should be CONNECT. Not a bad word, right? In fact, that’s what I’m doing right here.

Filling the Jars, a goal-setting website, says this is how you find your word of the year:

Steps for choosing your best word of the year:

1. List the things you want to focus on this year.
2. Determine the common theme[s] of your list.
3. List some words that would work.
4. Decide which of the words on your list feels like it will be the MOST motivational.

And then there’s the question of WHY. Why do you need a word of the year? Why do I need one?

Is naming a word of the year really an amazing tool or just another tool to make you feel like you’re not accomplishing enough? When I look back, were the years when I chose a word of the year more productive and fulfilling than others?

Last year, my word was FOCUS. After being in real estate sales for almost two decades, I wanted to transition out of that full time and focus on coaching and writing. Focus, focus, focus. I thought if I could only focus (not an easy task for someone like me who tends to have eighteen irons in the fire at all times), I’d have exponential success in my new careers.

And then COVID hit.

So much for focus.

The word was written at the top of the white board in my office. What I focused on for the first month or two was fear. Fear that all my business ideas would fail, fear that my parents would get sick, fear that my pregnant daughter would get sick, fear that the Cancer Foundation would cease to receive donations. Fear became my focus for about thirty days.

Here’s what I learned. You can focus on just about anything, even fear, for a short time. And then your brain shifts into defense mode and needs to move away from the negativity. Even when I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, fear couldn’t be my focus for the long haul.

So last year, I took my focus and decided to focus on gratitude and action. In that move, I decided to follow my heart and finish my book.

That was last year. Focus on the right things worked. I had to learn that my focus had to move from negativity to positivity. From fear to gratitude. Hence the book.

Now 2021. I can’t wrap my brain around my word for this year. I can’t FOCUS on just one word.

Is it Connect? Grateful? Relax (which would not be a terrible word for my crazy bran)?

I’m still thinking about it. Still focusing. 2021 showed up and surprised me while we were still working on the book launch and the Sweetheart Auction.

What’s your word? What do you hope 2021 gives you?

Better yet, what would you like to give 2021?

Maybe the answer is to decide what we want to give the world this year. What’s the best word for that?