Remember last year when I said that it makes sense to post the Word of the Year a few days into the year? Well, I’m really leaning into that this year! Not since 2021 have I posted my Word of the Year so late. But still. Posting it today feels right. I just got home from a very long day, including a committee meeting, working at my day job, a full body workout, and a super-fun rehearsal for an upcoming project. And now I’m sitting at home, drinking soda water and watching Drag Race. When you look at my 2025 Word of the Year, it’ll seem very appropriate.

Reflections on 2024’s Word of the Year

Last year, I wrote that my 2023 Word of the Year, Intentional, was a garbage fire of a word. This was true. But thank god this year’s Word went better.

I’m not going to pretend that I picked the word Priority and then immediately got all my priorities in line. I’m not going to pretend that I immediately phased out the people in my life that didn’t ever make me a priority. I don’t think anyone could do something like that.

However, what I will tell you, is that I feel like I walked out of 2024 with a good sense of what I want to prioritize in my life. I spent the year slowly building more and more habits to focus on my wellness, from journaling to regularly seeing a chiropractor to actually delegating things for the first time in my life. We did a massive production of Riverona this summer (as my readers likely know) and I actually let people help me. 

The whole process of letting people in to help also served to identify what qualities I want in my collaborators moving forward. I may be a little bit pickier in the future, who can say? And I made so many new friends!

All of this culminated with Tyler and I joining a gym and getting personalised workout plans. I know I go to Moveology regularly, and I don’t intend to stop that, but I want to lift weights. To be quite honest, I’m ready for a body transformation and I’m willing to work hard. 

My 2025 Word of the Year – Elevate

And I’m also very embarrassed to admit it. The fact that I’m eating and drinking and working out to change my body in some way. It goes against all the work I’ve done on loving myself and breaking down the toxic discourse around my body. It’s not supposed to be where I get my value from. Yet I still want to change.

All that brings us to my 2025 Word of the Year. Because I’ve decided to reframe how I’m approaching this. It’s not about changing my body because it’s bad. It’s about elevating it. Making something I love even better.

That’s what I think this year is going to be about. Elevate. Full Circle Theatre is ready to go to the next level and we have so many amazing things planned for the first half of 2025. (Some announced, many not yet in the public consciousness. Y’all are going to lose your minds when you find out, though.) I have some plans that I think will make keeping this blog alive easier. I’m building the type of relationships I want to have in my life. Even at my day job, we just hired a good friend of mine to work on my team and I know we’re going to do such amazing work. (Also, I’m motivated by collaboration.) 

Plus I’m literally going to lift some weights.

So, we’ll see how it goes this year! This year, my regular challenge spread is going to look a little different. Though I’m stretching and yoga-ing a ton, the 12-week challenge at my gym is going to override my usual yoga challenge. However, I will still be completely a Slightly-Damp January, and a No-Spend challenge hosted by the wonderful Jenny. For interested parties – I’ve only drank once in January so far, and it was a single beer, so things are looking good!

If you were to pick a word of the year, what would you pick? Do you do resolutions instead?