You may have heard someone talk about choosing their “One Word,” “setting an intention”, or something of that nature at this time of year. For me, it has become a yearly tradition to choose one word or phrase to be my primary focus for the new year. After reflecting on my past year and where I want to go in the future, I usually pick a word to sum up my top priority goals for the new year or a concept that I want to remind myself of regularly. If you’d like to learn more about what a One Word Focus is and how to choose your own, click here, where you can find a whole blog post about it with a free worksheet. But in this post I will review how it went with my 2022 focus and reveal what I’ve chosen for my one word for 2023 focus.
If you’d prefer to watch the video version of this post, click here to watch it on YouTube
Review of My 2022 Focus
My focus for 2022 was “CONNECT” and “CELEBRATE.”
You can read more here about why I chose these 2 words and what they meant to me, but the quick summary is that I wanted to spend more time connecting (networking, collaborating, making new friends, deepening old friendships, etc.) and celebrating every little win and progress.
The connecting half didn’t go quite as well as I hoped as I was dealing with some extra mental health struggles and fatigue, but I did still meet a lot of new people, had quality time with friends, family, and network connections, and collaborated with a couple fellow content creators. I also continued to put a lot of energy into trying to better understand my “anxious attachment style,” and develop healthier coping mechanisms and self-soothing techniques. It honestly brought up a lot of pain, more than I even expected.
It felt kind of like when you’re cleaning a room and it looks worse before it gets better as you take things out to assess and reorganize or dispose of what has no value or use to you.
I’m not going to lie to you; if you haven’t already discovered it for yourself, self work and growth can often be painful. Addressing past trauma can be extremely painful. But I’ve seen past work benefit my life tremendously, so I continue to have hope that what I’m working on now will one day produce fruit. I’m grateful I found a good therapist to help me navigate it all.
In focusing on “celebrating”, I made a highlights section before each month in my bullet journal and used different colored highlighters to mark when something related to my connecting or celebrating focuses. Here are some of the things I got to celebrate in 2022!
Personal
- Ran in my first 5k!
- Read 22 books
- Found a great new doctor and my first psychiatrist
- Used my first bullet journal for the whole year
- Attended SoloCon, Story, and WisdoMania
- Decorated and hosted a graduation party on Animal Crossing
- Finished the video game, Ori and the Blind Forest
Professional
- Guested on Joyce’s channel about 7 Female INFJ Content Creators
- Guested on Up4theChallenge’s podcast, It’s Good to Talk, about my Journey With Mental Health
- Created 2 videos and 3 blog posts
- Helped plan the Mental Health Blog Awards & ran social media during the event
- Updated my resume, applied for a library job, had 2 good interviews, and was hired at the library! I also made my first book display!
- Created around 19 digital art pieces, 15 of which were for a commission
- Bought my first graphics drawing monitor
My Focus for 2023: CLEAR
What does it mean to me and why did I choose it?
It became clear (see what I did there?) to me that CLEAR encompassed quite a few of my goals. The top 3 are:
- Brand: I want to get clear on what my brand is all about. Who am I best equipped to serve? What’s the best way to approach content creation and business in this season of my life? Where have I been and where do I want to take my brand?
- Brain fog: I’ve suffered from “brain fog” my entire life, but it seems to have been really bad this past year. Most days I felt really disconnected from my body or even reality itself. Like I’m living in a dream. My mind feels fuzzy and thoughts are fleeting. I want to keep making progress in finding ways to feel more clear-headed again.
- Boxes: I have a lot of boxes from both my last move and from my old childhood bedroom that I’ve put off going through. I want to clear my space by clearing out a lot of the boxes. Deciding what I want to get rid of and reorganizing what I keep to make the best use of the space.
My Reminders
I always create or buy something to help me keep my one word focus at the forefront of my mind. This year I actually got several items. I bought a rainbow fluorite crystal that supposedly can bring mental clarity (I don’t personally believe in crystals, but I liked the symbolism for my visual reminder…and it’s pretty lol).
I also got a rosemary and peppermint scented candle to light in my quiet morning time as I prepare for and focus my day because both of these essential oil scents support wakefulness, alertness, and clarity.
This past year I kept seeing articles and videos about the power of mushrooms and how specifically Lions Mane mushroom is really good for your brain, memory, cognitive function, and clearing brain fog. So I bought a Lions Mane supplement to try out. I’ve already noticed a difference since I started, but we’ll see how it goes with time!
And finally, I made a collage in the back of my new 2023 planner to represent my One Word and goals for the year.
Comment Below:
What’s YOUR One Word focus for 2023? Need some help choosing it? Click here.
If you’d like to read about my past past focuses, check out the links below:
Want some tips for setting and reaching your goals? Check out these posts:
I totally got sucked into you Star Wars video, I love this idea! Goddamn Anakin though… I’ve never hated a fictional character SO much in my entire life!
I love the word you picked for 2023 and I hope this year is good to you!
Aw thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it! It really is so sad to watch that cute little kid turn into someone with a punchable face who kills kids 😭
I hope you have a great year too! Thanks for watching and reading! 😊💜
Cheers!