For a few years, my sister Elizabeth and I’ve began annually by selecting a one-word theme to sum up what we would like the following 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 following 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 finest 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, gentle waves, waving hiya and goodbye, Below the Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai.
It’s a inventive job to summarize your aspirations in a single phrase or phrase: “Harvest,” “Enable,” “Recent.”
Additionally, in comparison with a listing of resolutions, a one-word theme is less complicated to maintain uppermost in your thoughts, so it will possibly information your actions all year long. To assist me hold my theme high of thoughts, I write my phrase on an index card and publish it above my desk; my sister makes her theme into her cellphone’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 stuffed with vital doorways. And naturally, a door is an precise bodily object, so it lends itself to a visible image.
To choose your individual one-word theme, attempt brainstorming a listing of potentialities, or simply take note of a specific phrase or idea that resonates with you.
To get began, you would possibly 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 in? (Journey? Thriller? Pathways?)
- What’s a selected intention you’d prefer to tackle? (One 12 months, my sister selected “Scorching Wheels” to assist conquer her worry of driving.)
- What phrase has particular energy or significance? (Peacock? Rally? Bounce?)
Your phrase is likely to be a noun, a verb, or an adjective. There’s no improper option to decide so long as it’s significant to you.
Listed here are a few of Happier listeners’ one-word themes:
- Juicy
- Magic
- Nest
- Threads
- Mirror
- Resilience
- Season
- Each day
- “Follow the plan”
- “A part of the hive in 2025”
- Colour
- 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 option to mirror on what we would like from the approaching 12 months, and to generate concepts to fulfill these goals.