Let Your “Word” Help Create Your World in 2025
“Words create worlds.” – Attributed to many. “Worlds create words.” – Me
I believe words matter. Apparently, so do the many others who, as with me, make one of their New Year’s rituals to pick their “word for the year.” This is a word, short phrase, or quote that represents a personal and/or professional aspiration that will serve as an inspiration, motivation, guide, anchor, or “theme” for the upcoming year. Over the years, mine have traditionally been “self-created” words, often a combination of words, that energize me and serve as a guide compass to help keep me aligned with my stated priorities … they have helped me “create my world” for the year.
Indeed, words are symbols for thoughts and ideas, and we personalize them according to the meaning we associate with them, which makes our language a dynamic one. Or, as Gregory Barlow, President of Merriam-Webster says, “The one constant of a vibrant living language is change.” In fact, this year the folks at Merriam-Webster added 200 "new words" (or new definitions of previously used words) to their dictionary, many of which we had been already using collectively, such as beach read, ultra-processed, heat index, and MAGA. In these cases, the world we are creating helped necessitate the need for new words to describe it, and by creating a commonly accepted meaning, these allow for us to more effectively communicate with each other.
In the past few years, my self-created words have included “zilience,” “reslove,” “cor,” “bemusedament,” “rēpiphany” and for this past year, “awepique.” My understanding of awepique was the quality or state of experiencing a profound sense of awe and wonder in everyday moments, combined with a feeling of being gently prodded or nudged towards recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In next week’s blog, I’ll share more as to how awepique helped to create and impact my world this past year.
For 2025, my word that will serve as both an inspiration and an ever-present reminder will be “liminicious”, a Latin-inspired word combining “liminal” (threshold, boundary) and “icious” (suffix meaning "full of" or "characterized by”). This word for me captures the essence of what feels like in the transitional or even transformational space I have entered as I take on an interim leadership role at work and the dynamic, unpredictable, and creative (“juicy”) energy doing so will have on both my professional and personal life. I look forward to seeing how this liminicious time and my liminicious attitude will challenge, stretch, bless, and propel me in 2025, and look forward to sharing more at the end of the year.
How about you? What might be the word or words to help you frame your year – or perhaps for you it’s a picture, quote, song, or poem (or all of the above!). Consider picking one or more and sharing their meaning with those close to you, including your PeerRx partner if you have one. I’ve found that doing so is great fun, can provide you insights into your psyche, and by inviting others into the conversation, can supercharge your intention by providing some encouragement and accountability around it. Looking back one year from now, what kind of world do you want to have helped create in 2025? Well, it can all start with just one word. Why not give it a try ….