Word of the Year 2021 recap

Happy final day of 2021! Wow, this really blows my mind. I remember NYE 2019 very vividly, leading into 2020 with all sorts of excitement….and then that all happened, and here we are now after yet another year. I wish I had time right now to do another year end recap like I did for 2020. Maybe this weekend???

Word of the Year 2021

I haven’t settled on a “word” for 2022 yet, but I have some ideas. More on this to come.

In 2020, my word was INTENTIONALITY. In 2021 my word was PEACE. (Here is the full post about why I chose that word.) Because I know from my blog stats that most people do not click on links in posts 😉, here is what I said about this choice, last year:

“I knew I wasn’t being drawn to a super “intense” word. I am not feeling a major pull to necessarily “go get ’em” this year, though hopefully I will still achieve a lot this year! Words like “achieve” or “unstoppable” or “commit”, etc. felt all wrong.

When I sat and thought about what aspect of my life I wanted to really work on this year, I realized that I’d really like to let go of some anxious tendencies that I have. I tend to be a wee bit too easily stressed, worried, concerned, etc. about things- many times things that I cannot even ultimately control (or things that won’t REALLY even matter, long term).

I want to work on catching myself in these moments and learning to let go.

My short list of words included:

-aware
-balance
-breathe
-ease
-quiet
-release
-allow
-PEACE

I ultimately decided that PEACE was the most all-encompassing word for me. If I keep in mind that peace is my primary goal in life, other things may lose their power.

Irritated with the kids?? PEACE.

Worried about X,Y,Z that I can’t control?? PEACE.

Stressing about the news?? PEACE.

Person in traffic cut me off?? PEACE.

Feeling overwhelmed with life?? PEACE.

It felt like the best word (or mantra) that I can keep coming back to in those inevitable moments.”

– Me, December 30, 2020

I hung this on my office wall a year ago today (the edges are all curling up now….). I wrote it in (at least some of) my monthly calendar pages. It became part of my password for the United Network of Organ Sharing log in that I use for work everyday! (don’t worry, I’ve changed it recently, in case anyone was going to go try to log in 😉 )

So, how did I do??

Overall, I think I did well with this one! Some people close to me might disagree or think, Hmm… you still seemed kinda stressed out a lot. Which isn’t totally false. I’m not claiming I gained the peace of a Buddhist monk this year.

However! I know I made progress!

1- I didn’t forget about my word. That right there is an accomplishment. 🤣

2- I found myself “returning to the mantra” often. As in, focusing on that word didn’t necessarily prevent me from getting riled up about something, but I did find that in the midst of my little downward spiral, I would CATCH myself doing it- and literally would often think: Stop. PEACE.

3- At other times when I would find myself ruminating on things out of my control, I would also return to the idea of PEACE as my end goal. Is this worth stressing about?? What’s the end goal? Peace? Okay, then. Let’s let that one go. Relax. I found it was helpful to determine my next steps sometimes. Your actions can be different if you are trying to go down a path toward “peace” versus if you’re trying to get somewhere else.

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I liked using this word as an underlying foundation for my life. It’s just a nice sounding word, too, which I think makes it a good “mantra”.

For 2022, as I said, I’m still deciding. Contrary to what I said in 2021, I actually DO currently feel drawn back toward a theme more along the lines of motivation/ achievement/ accomplishment/ commitment. Maybe I’m just tired of the last couple years of everything feeling so crazy and the whole “take it easy on yourself/ let’s just get through this” mindset….

I’ll elaborate more on this in another post, but I’m getting annoyed with using the “excuse” (no matter how valid or good it is) of the pandemic for everything. (Speaking about myself, personally. These ARE tough times, so I don’t mean to discredit anyone who is feeling exhausted and truly needs or wants to cut themself some slack.) For me, though, I’m feeling inspired to get back on the proverbial horse and get out of the pandemic fog.

Do you have a word? I know it’s not necessary, but, it’s kind of a fun little exercise. 🙂

I hope you’ve had a decent 2021. (I’d say great, but I know for many people it still was not great. So let’s go with “decent”. 😁) I actually think overall we had a really good year at our house in many, many ways- minus the underlying “weirdness” or general sense of stress/discontent from the pandemic still carrying on. I guess that would be my biggest beef with 2021.

Happy New Year!!

PEACE out, 2021. ✌️

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for playing Charades with the kids last night (new Christmas gift). It was hilarious and a lot of fun. 🙂

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