It came to me, as these things often do, in the soft, gray hour before waking. In a half-asleep state, a word popped into my head that woke me right up. “Oof,” I thought, “that may be my One Word for 2024….”
Since 2011, I’ve done the One Word practice every year: choosing one word as my intention, guidepost, and rudder for the next 12 months. Different than a resolution, it is less something to DO and more something to FEEL.
One Word isn’t about accomplishing anything, it’s about how I want to be.
After all these years, I’ve found that choosing a word works best if I think less and feel more. I can get all tight in my eyebrows and try to decide what would be the best word...and that never goes well. When I get all thinky about it, I end up with a word that feels flat and that I mostly forget about by February.
If instead, I relax and get curious about what feelings and experiences I’m craving and pay attention to the words that show up around me, a word finds me that sustains me all year. (Especially if you’re new to it, you can read more about the One Word practice here and here.)
When choosing a word, I tend to find one with a bit of an edge: something that feels challenging, risky, and even maybe a little scary. “Yikes,” I often say to myself, “I’m going to have to do this and that with this word.” I can see where it’s pointing and that direction is often new to me. My One Words often ask me to stretch.
But this year it feels different. There is that Yikes sensation, but it’s less because of what this word is asking me to do and more because what this word is asking me not to do: not to push, not to control, not to hustle, not to be good.
About 10 years ago, I had a similar word, but it was the noun version. That seemed more relatable and approachable somehow that the openness and space of this verb version. This word is asking me to trust.
When the word came to me, I remembered this from author and total badass Liz Gilbert,
“I'm tired of being good. Now all I want is to be free."
She goes on to say,
[Good] is obedience; [Free] is self-trust. [Good] is a bit easier (just follow the rules) but I'm not sure it leads to happiness and creativity. [Free] is harder (sometimes you go against culture and tribe), but I have a feeling it leads to...EVERYTHING.
My reminder to you this December, whether you’ve been choosing One Word for ages or this is your first time, is that your word can be challenging in different ways. It may invite you to show up in edgy, brave, unfamiliar iterations of yourself. It may invite you to show up with fewer expectations, more curiosity, more trust. Your word might invite you to be truer ... and that might be, as it is for me this year, just as unfamiliar and just as challenging.
My One Word for 2024 is FREE. What’s yours?
SUSAN’S ONE WORDS
2011 – OPEN
2012 – RELEASE
2013 – SPACIOUS
2014 -- WORTHY
2015 -- FREEDOM
2016 – heARTful
2017 – AWAKE
2018 – HEALING
2019 – CLEAR
2020 – CALM
2021 – TRUST
2022 – GRACE
2023 – RESONANCE
2024 – FREE