I Don’t Do Resolutions…But I Do One Word

I don’t know about you, but I gave up making New Year’s resolutions several years ago. If I were lucky, my resolutions would maybe last two months, more likely though, they lasted less than 30 days.

About a decade ago, I started choosing one word that I would focus on for the year. This practice is based on a book titled One Word That Will Change Your Life.

Until 2024, I would choose the word based on what I thought I wanted to manifest or what I needed more of in my life. Last year, I allowed the word to come to me. Interestingly, I thought I had my word, until a seashell washed up on Siesta Key, FL as I walked in the surf in December 2023. And as I turned it over, I saw what appeared to be a set of headphones. And suddenly, I knew my word for 2024 was “listening.”

And I did a lot of listening in 2024…to the voices around me that I trusted…to the new people who crossed my path for a variety of reasons…to those who hold different opinions from me politically, emotionally, and spiritually.

So when December rolled around this year, I thought for sure that my word would be “seeing,” as it seemed like a good choice to follow “listening,” and because I often struggle to feel seen.

But once again, my word for the coming year chose me. And as it kept showing up in things I was reading, in conversations, and in not-so-random places, my word for 2025 is “belonging.”

I wrestled a bit with whether it should be “belong” or “belonging,” but the former has more to do with owning something, while the latter conveys having a sense of connection, acceptance, and/or security.

So, yes, “belonging” is the absolute best choice for my one word for 2025. My focus this year will be to spend my time in places where and with people to whom I feel a strong connection. I want to be and go where I feel accepted as I am, where I feel safe to be myself, where I can be authentically me.

I’ve learned over the past two years that there is a big difference between being welcomed and belonging. One might be profusely welcomed into a new group, a new team, a new organization…but it will take a bit of time to see if one feels that sense of truly being a valued part of the group.

Belonging doesn’t come easily or quickly. It takes time to know if one has found a new tribe that she can call home and be herself.

Substack has been one of those places where I have questioned if I was accepted and free to be myself this past year. I’ve been writing in some capacity or another for most of my 30-year professional career, and unprofessionally, I’ve been writing since grade school. So I never expected to have this feeling of unbelonging…this feeling that I’m not good enough…this feeling that my work is not accepted here on Substack. When I began this Substack blog, I saw it as an opportunity to have meaningful dialogue with my readers. So far, that’s been fairly limited, but this is a new year, and perhaps those conversations and feeling of belonging will happen in 2025. So, I will keep writing notes for my neighbors.

How about you, neighbors…do you make resolutions or choose one word to focus on each year?

Happy 2025! I hope to hear from you this year.

—Angie