It seems as if everywhere I look these days, people are declaring a WORD of the YEAR! It’s a practice I’ve been doing for more than a decade now…so it does my heart good to see that the trend has become so popular. If we can gently 
hold that word in our mind and check in with our souls as we make decisions and take actions towards our goals.
Because I know how powerfully my word influences me and sets a tone for the year, I don’t rush my decision.
I begin my personal process by first playing around with what I desire.
How do I want to feel? What do I want to experience? What do I need my business to look like? What am I longing for? What to I want to achieve? What are my wishes and dreams?
Then, I do an annual (hour-long) reading with Theresa Reed, usually in the early fall.
As we discuss my business plans and personal goals, I see what has begun to bubble to the surface in terms of themes and oft-repeated words. Sometimes, a particular Tarot card comes up again and again, giving more clues. This year, because of my little inner voice telling me that my business needed to shift more dramatically in 2016, I did my annual reading in July.
Then, after implementing several of my big business actions – turning email courses into workbooks, writing and publishing my book, and reducing my newsletter publication from weekly to bi-weekly – I did a shorter, follow-up call with Theresa in December.
I get a Goddess Reading from Amy Palko.
I’ve done this for three years now, and each year I am in awe of how perfectly the Goddess’s themes fit my needs. This year, I received the Mayan Goddess IX CHEL and the words Amy suggested to go along with her were: 
creativity, release, flow, abundance, fertility.
I go through an inquiry process and firm up my goals for the year.
We can only find our answers when we ask questions. So, I work through my own eBook (Make 2016 Your Best Year Yet: Define & Embrace Your Heart’s Beacon).
I also explored Leonie Dawson’s 2016 Create Your Shining Year in Life. (I got the entire set of books from Leonie this year, but the questions in the “life” planner were more applicable to me choosing my Word…because my personal life has the veto power over my business world.)
Then it’s time to write down my goals for the year.
Then came reflection.
I looked back at recent journal entries. Re-read letters from my girlfriend we’ve been exchanging on creative living. I listen again to my readings from Theresa (she records them!). I write down potential words and phrases. I flip through magazines while pondering.
Then I make a choice.
Because I know I’ll be writing about it throughout the year, the ego begs me to choose something that sounds exciting and sexy. And no matter how many ways I tried to spin it or sex it up, my soul continued to insist upon simplicity. Not a phrase. Not a trio of words. But one single, seemingly simple word.
No matter how you slice it, I believe that in order to have the kind of life you desire, you must choose to create it.
Today is Sunday and we have completed the first week of 2016.
Our little family is firmly moving into the year. I saw how Create surfaced time and time again as I journeyed through these first days of the year. I took JB to the airport early this morning for his first business trip of 2016. Though I don’t normally work on Sundays, with JB gone and the house incredibly quiet, I’m going to tackle a few big items on my To do list.
The fireplace is blazing and my devotional candles are lit. We’re experiencing our first real snowfall of the winter. I have some chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot. My heart is full of joyful anticipation. Life is indeed very good.
I’ll be sharing more in the coming days with you about what the word “Create” means for me in 2016.
(Stock Photos via PicJumbo – Graphic by Me.)
Tell me, darling, what about you? Do you choose a Word (or phrase) to set the tone for your year? What’s your process like? What wisdom do you seek? How is 2016 treating you so far?
