Can a lone word change your life?

Can it define you? Describe you?

Is it possible for a single word to set a pathway for you for an entire year?

It’s an interesting idea. One I’ve bought into for the past couple of years. I think there can be tremendous power in a single, well-chosen and thoroughly-lived-in word.

In 2022, a friend gifted me the book, “One Word That Will Change Your Life,” by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page. It’s about finding a word each year, that defines what you want to embody for the next 365 days. The book teaches that it’s not so much about plucking a “good” word from the ether, but sitting with the idea of what you want to accomplish in the time ahead of you, where your values lie, and how you feel about your place in the world. And, after thinking and distilling, you’ll discern a word that resonates with you, and that word is your guiding touchstone for the year ahead.

Last year the word that came to me was “intention” or “intentional.” For a “let’s touch the live wire and see what happens” kind of person, living with intention wasn’t easy. I forgot.

Frequently.

But when I did remember, I remembered to ask myself, “Are you doing this with purpose, are you being intentional in this choice?” Man, oh, man, those conversations with yourself are sometimes the most difficult. I wasn’t always intentional. Sometimes I just swung, and hit or miss be damned. AND, sometimes my word came to me softly, like an echo in the back of my brain, and gave me the moment to sit and consider.

I am always and forever an evangelist of words. I love them. I have since I was a child and found a kind of sanctuary in our town’s public library. I love how they roll around in your pinball machine of a brain, and as they slide through the lips, they become something new and differently shaped. Every day I grow older, I keep learning how much words matter. All the words matter.

And so, I have a new word for 2024. When I was sitting and thinking on my word choice, I thought I had chosen a different word, but this word, my 2024 word, kept stepping forward and crowding out the other one. It wanted me.

I’m not going to share it with you yet. It feels too close, too personal. After all, it’s brand new. I’m going to try to live up to it’s potential. I want to make it proud of me. I want to be proud of the human I’m becoming through this word.

What more could we ask of our words?

LB Adams is the CEO of Practical Dramatics, LLC, and communication strategies consultant. She is an award-winning speaker and author.