Word of the Year
This is the time of year when most people are making resolutions, setting goals, and welcoming the new year. But what if you’re not interested in setting resolutions that are broken within minutes of “Happy New Year!” being shouted across the land?
Why not focus on a Word of the Year?
Ironic I should say “focus on” as “Focus” is my word of the year for 2026. In this blog on creativity I relate my story on adopting a Word of the Year.
In 2021 I chose to join the trend and pick a word of the year. What was the worst that could happen? I’d have a word posted in my craft/writing room that would be a reminder of something positive. At best, I would improve on that one thing I’d had in front of me all year. The word I chose was “Faith.”
That word has seen me through a lot of change, as I chose to keep using it for the last 5 years. We were still coming out of the pandemic. I was still mostly working from home for my day job while developing my creative practice on evenings and weekends. I was trusting in faith for a lot of things that I would have not done if I’d let doubt run my life. Writing hadn’t even re-entered my world until late 2022. That was when I started my 15 minute writing habit thanks to the Christian Book Academy. Within months I had enough material to start working on my first devotionals, and by October 2023 I released my first book. Here it is entering into 2026 and I’ve self-published 7 titles. That took a lot of faith. Not to mention sharing my art on Redbubble, Spoonflower, and Zazzle.
All the while I’ve been working on my creative practices, learning surface pattern design (initially to use on my ceramic art projects) and print on demand platforms. I’ve continued growing my skills in watercolour, quilting, sewing, drawing, crochet, and even relearned knitting, not to mention learning to play piano and guitar. Some of those things did take faith — leaps of faith where fear would have kept me from trying (and admittedly, still sometimes tries to hold me back). But what I have is a lot of passions pulling me in different directions and I don’t feel like I’m making progress in any one of them.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still some progress happening, it’s just slow and doesn’t feel like I’m growing. Why?
Because I’m trying to do too many things at once and not focusing on one thing at a time.
I’m notoriously bad at focus. I’ve found one of the aspects of creativity is the “Squirrel!” syndrome. Or as Matt Tommey calls it - “SOS - Shiny Object Syndrome.” Yes, that’s me; a confirmed SOS person. So many things capture my attention, how do I pick just one? Or even two??
So, that is why for 2026 I’ve chosen to pick the word “FOCUS” for my word of the year. I’m trying to not be discouraged already; I’ve written out my list of goals and they seem to be as diverse as ever. My hope is that with this Word of the Year in front of me, I can build on faith and stay focused.
If you haven’t tried a word of the year (or several years!) before, why not give it a try? I’ve included a link to a list of 20 positive words you can use for a word of the year. Reach out and let me know which one you’ve chosen!
All the best in 2026!
Jackie