Healthy Body > Ready to Choose Your Word of the Year {Epic Giveaway}
Ready to Choose Your Word of the Year {Epic Giveaway}
What if planning for 2020 felt thrilling? Exciting? Fun and invigorating? (Pssst… If you’ve been around here for a while, you know what’s coming next!)
With the new year (and new decade!) just a champagne toast away, most of us are busy thinking about our resolutions: get healthy, exercise more, eliminate sugar, quit carbs (for good!) But trying to make big changes all at once can be daunting. Not surprising, this rarely works. We burn out – or pull a muscle, or unhappily binge-eat a batch of chewy chocolate chip cookies over the sink.
For me, New Year’s promises became an exercise in shame and disappointment, rather than hope and excitement; they highlighted all the ways that my previous year didn’t quite measure up, instead of filling me up with visions of the future.
But at the end of 2013, I shifted the way I thought about my coming year, and instantly, everything felt different: lighter, easier, and sustainable.
What did I do? I chose a word of the year. (My favorite annual ritual, and I LOVE when you join in, too!)
In 2019, I picked the word evolve. From my big rebrand to my podcast launch to sharing my food story message far and wide, it was my year to evolve. None of it would be possible without YOU! (And to show my gratitude, I have a MAJOR giveaway. Keep reading!!)
Through the years, I’ve chosen, trust, simplify, ease, spaciousness, simplify, and savor kicked the whole tradition off!
My “word of the year” anchors my daily life. It guides the work that I do, the choices that I make, and the way that I navigate my days. When I feel adrift, I remember my word of the year and come back to myself – and my goals for coming months.
My word for 2020? Believe. (Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?)
Believe means not questioning myself or my actions, but learning to have that inner trust and faith. It means not overthinking – and moving through each day, each month, and each season open to the idea that things are unfolding in just the right way, even when life feels unsteady.
Choosing to believe is about having confidence in this very moment and staying present, rather than being fearful of on an imagined, uncertain future.
To really believe, I’ll ditch self-doubt and fully commit to following my intuition and my heart.
But my word of 2020 may not be your word. Perhaps you’d like the next year to feel calm or connected or creative. Maybe you seek simplicity, or to feel more grateful.
Choosing a word of the year has grounded me and changed the course of my next trip around the sun –and I know it can do the same for you!
Here are three steps to get you started:
Think … about how you want to feel. In order to keep traditional resolutions, we track numbers: calories, dollars, social media followers. But with a single word as your beacon, 2020 becomes easier and sweeter. A “successful” year becomes a year that feels the way you want it to feel.
Dig deep. Peer through the window of your Future Dream Life. Really imagine the specifics: how do you want your life to feel? Free? Supported? Confident? Imagine your heart and mind feeling that way, every single day, then choose your word accordingly.
Trust … your intuition. Choosing your word of the year is a lot easier than you might expect. You don’t necessarily have to labor over this decision; just reflect. In 2019, what worked? What didn’t? If you’re honest with yourself, you probably already know how you’d like next year to be different. When a word springs to mind and feels right in your gut, you’ve got it!
Apply … your word to your whole life. Supported at home means something different than supported in your professional life. And connected to your body is different than being connected to your partner.
How does your word apply at work? At home? In your thoughts? Does it affect the way you move your body, or the food choices you make? Will it change the way you use technology, or the ideas that fill your mind? When you apply your word to all the areas of your life, you’re ready to make it happen everywhere.
Now it’s your turn: To encourage you to find your word for 2020, I’ve partnered with my absolute favorite brands who bring health and joy into my life every single day. To show appreciation, we’re giving away one NutraMilk, a life-changing appliance to make the creamiest nut butters and plant-based milks, plus a Matcha Tea for Two Starter Set from Matcha Kari (the world’s BEST matcha) to one VERY lucky person! (A $700 value!!!)
It will help you start the year with healthy and fun new rituals – and will remind you to get in the kitchen and take care of yourself, too! To enter, share your word of 2020 in the comments, and I’ll pick a random winner on December 31st. Good luck!
Cheers to a year filled with health, happiness, and just the right word!
I believe in you,
[The Giveaway is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated and inspired us here with your word. Congratulations to Camila.]
80 Comments
I love this idea! My word for 2020 is nourish ! We need to nourish ourselves before we can give to others.
That’s an all encompassing word, Maria! Love it!!
Elise I love reading your blog and sensing that you truly are evolving. Being that we met in my mid 30s-I truly can say I have witnessed your evolution!!
Thank you for inviting this exercise as I have many words that speak to me at the moment but let me celebrate the word INVITE!
I love the root of invite- welcome in, include, invigorate, invest… personally it is what I do – to invite people and ideas Into my world! Truly it is a natural state of being for me, I’m good at it and it feels good. The best invitation I received was from myself to go back to graduate school in Amsterdam. So in that sense what a gift to invite myself to play w me. Be a student and learn. Surrender to what I don’t know. Meet new people. Open my heart. Activate my mind. I
Said YES to my own invitation. Why not!! I think I will invite this exercise into my life each month or season!!! It brings creativity and play! Like I said – why not!!
I love this whole concept and am so impressed and proud of you for INVITING yourself to reinvent parts of yourself!
xx
I like the word live.. Just live and stop making myself live up to all these requirements I think make me a adequate person but are stressful
I like that word, too!! So good that you have the awareness. Cheers to an amazing 2020, Jane!
My word is Growth. I want to grow mentally and emotionally. I want my body to grow stronger and healthier, and my life to grow richer and more varied.
Wishing you a year of growth, Sheri!
my word would be curiosity – it’s something I strive to challenge myself with every day.
LOVE THAT! I am constantly reminding my clients and myself to become curious instead of judgmental!
CHERISH . . . all that we have: health, family, friends, success in any aspect of our life, big or small.
That is so true, Michelle!!
My word for 2020 is inspire. I want to inspire myself and those around me to be the best version of themselves. I hope to motivate people to think outside the box, get after it, and embrace learning.
Oh love these plans for 2020~! SO inspiring!!
Thanks for prompting me to think through this. My word is Bless. I want to notice and appreciate how I am blessed. I want to be intentional to be a blessing. (Intentional is also a fabulous word.)
Bless is beautiful! Love your intentions for 2020:)
My word is Progress. Progress is building the joyful life that I want to live.
LOVE THAT! I wish you a 2020 with lots of growth and progress!!
My word will be courage – I’m in the middle of reading Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection and her definition of courage resonated with me so much: “to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart” — for me, this means being vulnerable, both with myself and with others.
I loved that book, too! It really helped me get over some of my perfectionist tendencies! Great word!!
HEALTHY. I got divorced several years ago and been so busy being a working, single mom that I have put me to the side. And I don’t want to slide into the easy rocker of retirement. So we are going to turn this ship around!
Love your resiliency and attitude. I hope 2020 is filled with HEALTHY on all levels for you and your family!
My word for 2020 is: boost.
Boost is to increase or improve: stimulate, inspire, revitalize, nurture and support. I will focus on boost for encouragement and invigoration for a healthy life in the new decade!
Brian, Thanks so much for sharing your word and being here. Why a word to enter the new decade!!
My word is PROLIFIC, which means to cause abundant growth, generation, or reproduction. Its definition can also encompass abundant inventiveness or productivity. This year I graduated with my PhD and I’m ready to start to try for a family in the coming year. Next year is all about getting to work and creating abundance with professional projects that I’ve lined up in 2019 for the first half of 2020, and for the second half of 2020, I hope to shift focus to the family side of the equation!
Wow! Congrats on your PhD and also your future plans. PROLIFIC is the most fitting word for you!!
2020 is all about being DRIVEN. Driven is a powerful word and while it feels masculine in nature, it embodies how I want to influence and make an impact after a more femininely structured year of learning and growth.
I love how you embrace both the masculine and feminine! Great word to start the new decade!!
I love this idea and thank you for getting us thinking. My word is connection…I want to really be mindful of connecting to myself and my body and to others as well.
Connection is so key and a great way to start the new year and new decade!!
I love this idea. My word of the year is Strength. Strength in mind, body and soul to continue the work I’ so love to do; to continue to make my body strong physically and mentally
Your word and plans sound so empowering!
My word for 2020 is “Emerge”. I will consistently be reminded that I have everything I need already inside of me and to move forward with the knowing that all of life is conspiring for my awakening ; awareness and fulfillment and I will be reminded. “ Not” to interfere with the process
You do have everything inside of you! And what a creative word!
My word for the year 2020 is authenticity = a daily practice of courage to be emotionally honest and to set boundaries and allow myself to be vulnerable and exercise compassion and belong everyday.
That is so powerful, Shelley!
I’ve been choosing a Word of the Year for myself since 2012. For 2019, I chose Complete. I had so many unfinished projects or wishes and I persisted on finishing as many as I could. And I felt great and encouraged. Now for 2020, I have picked Declutter. I’m looking forward to the freedom, and lightness this will bring!
Amazing that you have carried this ritual through. I love it too!! I have a really great podcast episode on decluttering. It makes such a difference in your mood and mental state!
Great Idea! My word is PEACE.. I can bring it into my entire life, peace in my thoughts, my daily activities, my communications, my self care and exercise…. Just in everything!
That sounds so PEACEful. Love it!
I love your word and would steal it but then it’s not really my word so I am going with BALANCE!!!
I always have a hard time balancing everything that I want to do and tend to go all in for everything which ends up causing more stress. I want to find a happy medium with school, work, exercise and food!
It is not stealing. It can be your word, too. BALANCE is good and love your reasons!
PATIENCE — with my children…my husband…colleagues…strangers…processes AND especially myself!
Love that you included yourself! I need that too!
Conquer – I’m choosing this word because it makes me feel powerful and that I can choose to do anything. Conquer my fears, conquer my use of technology. I feel emboldened knowing that I am the author of how I feel. Thanks for the reminder to chose a word!
Love your attitude, Sharon!
RENEW- is my word. Everyday is an opportunity and chance to choose thoughts, foods, and active which will support my inner self.
That is amazing, Laura! Couldn’t agree more!
Alchemy! Alchemy is defined as the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary, sometimes in a way that cannot be explained. Truly believing in the scientific and spiritual elements of all of life, that all things are connected. In 2020, I am creating something spectacular. Complimentary words are believe, focus and peace.
I love that word!! And your complimentary words are powerful too. Can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store for you!
My word for 2020 is, courage. To face my personal and my professional challenges with courage, realizing the difficulties and fears, but nevertheless confronting them
What a way to begin the new year!!
I had picked Believe as my word for 2020 as well! I have set some major goals for myself both personally and professionally. The power of belief will help. Believing is seeing!
Love it! We are on the same page!!
Care _ need to learn to take care of myself ~ YES!
Yes! When you do that, you are so much stronger for everyone and everything else!
I loved this idea when I came across your website last year and I look forward to it again!! For 2020, I choose the word HOPE. I have made so many positive, healthy changes over the past few years that have made a true difference in my life and I absolutely love it! Although I was able to make these changes to better my life, there are still a couple areas that I feel less than happy with that aren’t in my complete control. For this reason, I am choosing to enter 2020 with lots of HOPE that these things will be resolved and leave me with a greater sense of overall peace and happiness!
Thanks, Elise!
Thank you, Jody for sharing! Good for you for making all those changes and continuing on your path!
I started this word of the year 2 years ago and love it!! My word for 2020 is clarity… I need clarity for my work… what exactly fills my heart. Clarity in boundaries….with relationships that drain my energy, Clarity on the foods that nourish my body and make me feel good, rather uncomfortable. It is also my favorite time of the year to pick my word! I teach yoga, and my first class of the year, pass out paper & pencil and ask everyone in class to pick a word too! ❤️… thank you for sharing this idea!
Thank you for sharing your powerful word and what a beautiful exercise to do with your yoga class!!
My word for 2020 is abundance. Not so much just financial abundance, but shifting my mindset to coming from a place of abundance, rather than a place of scarcity and making decisions with that perspective in mind.
Ohhhhh I like that! The mindset shift makes all the difference!
My word is FLOW. On 2019 my word or concept was “pre-paving” or being intentional, and I did a lot of pre-paving and setting Intentions and I have been ready for the stream of joy and abundance to flow into my life. I choose to release resistance and be accepting, resourceful, and navigate through life with ease, grace, and flow!
Ps so inspiring to read everyone’s words and comments!!!
Love your word and had thought about FLOW too. And I totally agree that we inspire one another:)
My word for 2020 is positivity!
You cannot go wrong with that attitude!
My word for 2020 is appreciation!
Always a good one!!!
My word for 2020 is confidence. Confidence in being who I want to be, what I want to do, what I believe and just daily confidence in myself.
That feels so empowering, Elle!
My word for 2020 is MINDFUL. Mindful in everything I do, whether it be eating, walking, communicating, listening, working, etc. Also, mindful in everything I think. If it is negative, do not entertain those thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts.
Too many of us are walking through life on auto-pilot. Becoming mindful and having a Beginner’s Mind in everything we do AND think creates curiosity, joy and positivity into our lives!
Such a great way to live and be fully present!!
My word of the year is Abundance – abundance of new experiences, new learnings, tons of blessings, abundance of cheers, abundance of love, abundance of celebrating each day, abundance of joy, abundance of positivity and possibilities, abundance of everything that will make me extremely grateful of having no matter how miniscule or grand they are.
Wishing you the most abundant and magical year!
I do this every year and I had already chosen the word LOVE. Let’s hope o get to give and receive lots of it!
I love that you do this too! And LOVE is always the answer!!
Thank you for this encouraging fun way to end the year. And start the new with joy.
My word is ACCEPTANCE. i will not resist anything that comes my way. Even little bumps of a day. I will
Be more accepting too if all the lovely people in my life. Old
And new people coming in. Come on 2020. I welcome you with ACCEPTANCE ♥️
Such a beautiful mindset to start the new year!
My intention for 2020 is to focus on my alignment with my highest self – my word for 2020 is alignment 🙂
Everything improves when we live in alignment! Great word!!