Another year has come and gone and 2023 is somehow upon us… crazy right?

By now you’ve probably heard of the trend going around where people are choosing a word of the year to help kick off the new year and get off on the right foot. But if you haven’t heard of the trend yet, well then, you’re in the right place!

2022 was the first year where I decided to give those old New Year’s Resolutions the boot and pick a word of the year. My word of the year last year was ‘EXPAND’, for multiple different reasons. 2022 was a year of big change for my wife, Janea, and I that led us to Southeast Texas for the first time. Before landing in Beaumont last January, Janea and I were full time missionaries living in Zambia, Africa. Zambia holds a huge piece of our heart for many reasons, with the most prevalent being that is where we met back in 2019 and where our love story began. Two months after finishing undergrad I moved to Zambia, where I spent four and a half years. In December 2021, I was offered a job to work in the athletic department at Lamar University and after much thought, consideration, and prayer, Janea and I decided it was time to leave Zambia and move to Beaumont to begin our lives back in the U.S. As you can imagine, working in college athletics can be a vastly different experience than being an overseas missionary.  When starting my new career, I realized that I never had worked a ‘real job’ since I moved across the world right after college. I knew that if I was going to be successful at Lamar and in SETX, I was going to need to expand my comfort zone, knowledge, skill sets, and mindset.

You may be wondering why people would choose a word of the year over setting traditional new year’s resolutions. Well, first off, how many resolutions have you actually stuck to? Yeah… if you’re anything like me the answer is probably a big, fat, goose egg, zilch, zero, nada. However you want to phrase it, the truth is: not many people stick to their resolutions. Jon Gordon, author of One Word that Will Change Your Life, states that “9 out of 10 people will fail with their resolutions [and] 50% of resolution makers will fail by the end of January”. Selecting one word helps you give your new year meaning, purpose, and helps you kick the new year off on a mission! 

Now to the good stuff, how to decide what your word of the year should be. First and foremost, your word of the year should be something that you put significant thought into. It should not be something that you pick at random. It should be a word that you allow to choose you. When picking your word of the year, it’s important to reflect on how 2022 went for you and think through some areas of life you would like to grow. Allow yourself some time to think about what your goals are for 2023 and ask yourself these questions:

1. What do you want to be your main focus for 2023?
2. What is standing in your way to achieve your goals?
3. What do you need to spend MORE time doing this year?
4. What do you need to spend LESS time doing this year?
5. What in your life needs to change?
6. What matters most to you this year?

My word of the year for 2023 is STEADFAST. To be steadfast is to be strong, firm, unwavering, determined, and loyal. I spent a lot of 2022 focusing on expanding myself in the workplace and expanding our family hot sauce business, and I allowed myself to lose focus of my daily routine. My main focus for 2023 is to take the progress I made in my career last year and stand firm and unwavering, while getting back to my daily routine of my health journey. In order to do this, I need to not only get back to my daily routine of running, eating healthy, and losing weight but also to be sure to spend 30 minutes resting with a cup of coffee before heading off to embark on my day.

The biggest thing standing in my way, and I can imagine this is the same for many of you reading this, is myself. If I am able to get past myself this year, the sky is the limit. I am my own biggest critic and worst enemy. If you can relate to that, let’s agree to work together to get past ourselves this year and allow our word of the year to percolate into our everyday life. 

What in your life needs to change? What one word jumps out to you when you think of your goals, vision, and hopes for 2023? What area of your life needs more focus in order for you to thrive in 2023? What area of your life needs less focus in order for you to thrive in 2023? What matters most to you in life? What matters most to you this year? What, or who, is standing in your way to achieve your goals in 2023? What is your 2023 word of the year? 

Write down a list of words that immediately come to you when you answer these questions. Comb through that list and pick three to five of those words that jump off the page at you more than the other words. After you narrow down your list, give yourself some time to think and pray through your list. Once you pick your word of the year, I highly encourage you to write/post that word everywhere. Find a picture online with that word and make it your phone/computer background, write it on your bathroom mirror, place sticky notes around your house and office with your word. Make it known to yourself and those around you that you are focusing on bettering yourself and allow them to help keep you accountable! Once you select your word, take time each day to ask yourself “How can I be more                 today?”.

If you need help with accountability with your word this year, please feel free to shoot me a message on Facebook and I’d love to work together to keep each other accountable!