For a few years, my sister Elizabeth and I’ve began every year by selecting a one-word theme to sum up what we would like the subsequent twelve months to carry.
For 2025, my theme is “Door.”
Why do it? Whereas for many individuals, New Yr’s resolutions really feel intimidating or draining, there are different efficient methods to set our intentions for the subsequent twelve months.
In distinction to a New Yr’s decision, a one-word theme leaves room for creativity, whimsy, and enjoyable.
Over time, I’ve discovered {that a} one-word theme works greatest when it’s a phrase with a number of meanings and associations. As an illustration, my 2024 theme of “Wave” carried many thought-provoking associations: ocean waves, mild waves, waving whats up and goodbye, Underneath the Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai.
It’s a inventive process to summarize your aspirations in a single phrase or phrase: “Harvest,” “Enable,” “Contemporary.”
Additionally, in comparison with an inventory of resolutions, a one-word theme is simpler to maintain uppermost in your thoughts, so it could information your actions all year long. To assist me maintain my theme high of thoughts, I write my phrase on an index card and put up it above my desk; my sister makes her theme into her telephone’s background.
My 2025 theme of “Door” works on a number of ranges.
I’m coming into the “open door” section of parenting, so a door is an applicable image for my new stage of life, which is a time of transition and expectation. I like to learn, and literature is filled with vital doorways. And naturally, a door is an precise bodily object, so it lends itself to a visible image.
To select your individual one-word theme, strive brainstorming an inventory of potentialities, or simply take note of a selected phrase or idea that resonates with you.
To get began, you may ask your self a couple of Know Your self Higher questions:
- What would you like extra (or much less) of in your life? (Peace? Satisfaction? Motion?)
- What are you interested by? (Journey? Thriller? Pathways?)
- What’s a particular intention you’d prefer to tackle? (One 12 months, my sister selected “Sizzling Wheels” to assist conquer her concern of driving.)
- What phrase has particular energy or significance? (Peacock? Rally? Bounce?)
Your phrase may be a noun, a verb, or an adjective. There’s no incorrect solution to choose so long as it’s significant to you.
Listed below are a few of Happier listeners’ one-word themes:
- Juicy
- Magic
- Nest
- Threads
- Mirror
- Resilience
- Season
- Each day
- “Stick with the plan”
- “A part of the hive in 2025”
- Coloration
- No
- Heal
- Retirement
- Liberation
- Oasis
- Dissent
- Glimmer
Are you going to decide on a one-word theme for the 12 months? It’s a surprisingly enjoyable solution to mirror on what we would like from the approaching 12 months, and to generate concepts to satisfy these goals.
