My Word for 2024: Do

I’ve be choosing a word of the year for the last five years. I started doing this when my favorite planner company posted a fun gif to choose a word of the year back in 2018 (for 2019.) As the gif played in Instagram stories or a reel, you were supposed to pause the screen and whatever word it landed on was your word for the next year. I ended up using words from their original list the next 4 years.

My word of the year for 2024 is ‘do’.

No matter what my word of the year is, I treat it as a kind of theme for the rhythm of my life the following year.

Do: dramatically undefined, while defining everything.

It’s not about action in the sense of doing, going, hustling, more. It’s about intentional action. In so many areas of my life, I’m incredibly indecisive. I’m very distracted and I easily procrastinate. So this year is more about deciding and doing it. Whatever “it” is.

Do something
Do nothing
Do pray
Do move
Do sleep
Do the dishes
Do the laundry
Do more
Do less
Do nourish
Do indulge
Do work
Do stretch
Do rest
Do the family dinner
Do morning Quiet Time
Do read
Do watch the show
Do it.

Along with my word of the year, this short quote from St. Mother Teresa stuck out to me. I made it my phone lock screen as a reminder that everything I do is for Him and with Him.

“Everything for God. Everything with God.”
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta

How to choose a word of the year

To choose a word of the year, I reflect back and look forward. I think back on what the previous year has been – was there something I was missing? Something I did too much of or to little of? I examine my life as a whole – mind, body, faith, relationships, work – and try to choose something that flows with it all. It’s not a very methodical process that I sit down and analyze one day. It’s more intuitive and comes to me over time, although I tend to settle on it by December 31 each year.

Since that first year when I used the gif to give me a word, what tends to happen is I notice a recurring word toward the end of a year. It’s a little hard to describe because it’s totally internal but it’s a little tug on my heart and mind that keeps coming back to me. I’ll see it in scripture, I’ll hear it in songs and on podcasts, or maybe the Holy Spirit just places it on my heart.

Since this is the first time I’ve written a blog post about my word of the year, I thought I’d share with you a snip it of my words from previous years.

Previous words of the year:

2023 – Peace: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Colossians 3:15
After several years of what felt like utter chaos I needed to seek peace. I looked for it everywhere and tried to create it in various areas of my life. As a Catholic Christian, Christ is the ruler of my heart and Colossians 3:15 kept finding me toward the end of 2022. So I set that as my theme and ran with it.

2022 – Hope: Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
Isaiah is a book of the bible that has come up for me a lot over the last couple of years. This year’s ‘hope’ was some different and some the same as 2020.

2021 – Wellness: The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Isaiah 58-11
Like with so many, many people I know, 2020 wreaked havoc on my health. I didn’t notice it as much until we neared the end of the year. I needed overall Wellness to be a focus the following year.

2020 – Hope: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
I went into 2020 with a lot of hope for hurting relationships.

2019 – Rest: Words of the year are new to me. I did rest more in 2019. I planned it, I chose it, and I will keep doing it because resting is so good. And honestly, I need it in abundance after a crazy busy December.

If you have a word of the year for 2024, I’d love to hear it! Please leave a comment and let me know.