My Word of the Year for 2022
Last year was the first time I ever declared a word of the year.
I don’t think that the concept was new to me by any means. Instead, I think it just finally made sense to me to make one.
See, all the January’s before 2021 were exciting, but not necessarily with intent for how I wanted to approach the year.
I can pinpoint what a handful of the years represented in one word in hindsight.
2018: Acceptance
2019: Fun
2020: Discomfort
Of course, I didn’t intentionally go into the year with these words in mind (well, maybe I did for 2019.)
Instead, looking back, these words represent the experiences I had.
However, last year, I did go into the year with one word in mind.
I wanted to remember one word and keep it in front of me month after month.
My 2021 Word of the Year
In 2021 my Word of the Year was consistency.
I chose this word because it was my first full year as a business owner, and I heard all the pros say, “all the success you desire is on the other side of consistency.”
And admittedly, I hardly even knew what that meant when I heard it.
“Being consistent will bring me all the success I desire? Ooookay, pros!”
Confused but hopeful, I trusted the pros. So I chose that word, and I went with it.
In the beginning, I defined consistency as showing up as often as I said I would and in the exact same way every time.
So I innocently committed to a few things at the beginning of the year and hoped that success would follow from following through on those things consistently.
And in the most ironic turn of events, I didn’t exactly get successful by doing this.
Instead, I was stressed AF.
How my 2021 word stressed me out.
Being a new business owner, I hardly knew what worked for my business when I made commitments for the year.
I was very much still figuring things out.
And once again, after committing and following through on what I said I would do, I realized that these things were definitely not in alignment.
I was doing them because I felt I had to honor my word of the year, not because they felt right or were getting me where I desired to go.
So about halfway through the year, I decided to make some adjustments and redefine what consistency meant to me.
Instead of thinking about consistency as “showing up, in the same way, every time,” I redefined it as “keep showing up and share the messages that I’m meant to share.”
And immediately, everything fell back into alignment again.
And success followed a lot more effortlessly.
My 2022 word of the year
After the experience above, my word of the year for 2022 definitely revealed itself to me.
My 2022 word of the year is…
::drumroll please::
Ease.
The word ease actually feels like it chose me more than I decided it.
It’s almost impossible to *not* make this my word of the year, after how my business transformed after making a few tweaks last year.
Early in 2021, everything just felt really hard.
Making money was “hard.”
Attracting new clients was “hard.”
Identifying what was missing was “hard.”
Running a business was “hard.”
It all just felt confusing, perplexing, and challenging, and in many ways, I was lost in comparison and self-doubt.
Finally, I stepped away from work for about one month, and I asked myself some really simple questions.
What do I know that I can help other women with?
What would it look like for me to show up for this and this alone?
The funniest thing of the above is the answer to question one was “breakthrough their fear and self-doubt and reach their potential.” Yet, up until that point, I was swimming in the pool of self-doubt thinking that wasn’t enough for my business to be founded on and that I needed to offer something different than that.
Oh how we learn and we grow, my friends.
Once I woke up and realized that I can absolutely serve this group of women, that I am meant to, and that they are literally everywhere, I showed up for them.
And everything felt aligned, effortless, and success came my way.
Ease, my friends.
Ease!
Why I struggled to announce my 2022 Word of the Year
Admittedly, I planned to announce my 2022 word of the year in the first week of the year until so much went haywire with my mom’s health.
I remember sitting in ICU, experiencing the most challenging time of my life and thinking, “how could I be so wrong about what 2022 had in store for me? How can I declare my word of the year as ‘ease’ when things have truly never felt so hard?”
I let that thought float away, and from then forward, I stayed present and next to my mom.
Thankfully we had brighter days ahead.
My mom was moved from the ICU back to the regular hospital, and slowly, she began healing and coming back to us.
I still mentally wrestled with the irony of my word of the year vs. my reality of the year, but I decided to let that go.
Because sometimes, to move forward, you do just have to let go.
And I’m back to believing that this year can feel easy.
How I have been challenged with and embraced my Word of the Year since.
Adopting our dog Rebel has been a mental game of “it can be hard, or it can be easy.”
Transparently, Rebel was the easiest decision I’ve made in a long time.
From the moment we met him, it was an easy yes.
He was adorable, cuddly, well-behaved, and so loving, and we knew right away that Rebel was coming home with us.
After a few days of having him, I realized just how easy a dog he was.
He is mostly potty trained, rarely chews things he shouldn’t, has been great with other dogs, sleeps through the night without crying or needing to go out, and sleeps most of the day during client sessions.
Frequently I’ve thought “how is this so easy?” in a way that makes me feel like I did something wrong in adopting an easy dog.
Wanting things to be easy but feeling guilty for it, I asked to be coached on this by my coach.
She pointed out immediately that these thoughts and feelings had nothing to do with Rebel and everything to do with me being attached to a story that because I can do hard things, I should always do hard things.
After then, I let that story go, and I embraced and cherished the ease that is Rebel.
How I plan to channel my 2022 word in the year ahead
I don’t have a clue what’s in store for my 2022, the same way that I didn’t have a clue what was in store for me this past January.
But I will tell you I desire to be someone where things just come easily.
Where success comes easy, and money comes easy, and life feels light, easy and free.
And one year ago, I would have read that and thought, “sure, Jeannie, I desire that too, but that’s not life.”
But what if it can be life? What if that’s exactly how I felt my ending to 2021 was, and it’s what I choose to strive for moving forward?
I get to have an easy dog.
Attracting clients gets to be easy.
Work puts me at ease.
It gets to be easy, and I desire it to be easy.
And sometimes ease is a choice your mind makes that you really have to believe in and follow through on.