Choosing a Word for 2025
Forgoing traditional resolutions for guiding intentions.
Hello, Friends —
Happy New Year! I don’t like to get too intense around New Year’s with lofty goals and resolutions. The onslaught of highlight reels and “best-of” lists can feel… bad. So I tend to buck up against the idea of creating the best me in January… I mean, I want to improve various aspects of my life (who doesn’t?!), and there are things that I want to achieve (of course), but geesh... everyone just calm down! And by “everyone,” I mean advertisers and influencers!
Here in the northern hemisphere we’re still in the bitter cold months of winter. I’m not getting enough vitamin D to create the best me right this moment! This is probably why over the last couple years of writing this newsletter, I’ve encouraged people to embrace imperfection and celebrate invisible growth in January instead.
I did like having a word of the year in 2024 — Commit. Ironically, committing also involved some quitting. Early in the year, I quit a day job that was not right for me, and fortunately, I found a new one that has been a much better fit so far. Later in the year, I scaled back this newsletter from weekly to monthly to make room for bigger creative projects. Meanwhile, I sold my work at more zine fests and markets and connected with more people in person than ever. I published Stardust — a book of illustrated poems about grief and growth. And I learned more music (on guitar and bass!) and played for more people this year than I have in over a decade.
I don’t think using “commit” as my word of the year helped me achieve or do anything I wouldn’t have otherwise. Honestly, I didn’t make as much art as I would have liked. I waffled and struggled to move forward on big projects. But hopefully I’ve laid the groundwork to create more space for the things I care about making most.
For me, picking a word of the year isn’t about achievement — it’s about highlighting a key intention that’s easy to reference. When faced with decision throughout the year, “commit” was the concept I pondered to help me to decide. The word “commit” made it harder to quit some things and easier to move forward on others. It made me consider the concept of committing in a broader capacity, which included quitting and prioritizing. You can’t commit to everything! (I keep trying to, but it never works out well!) So, with all that said, a word of the year is something I’ve decided to continue in 2025.
My word for 2025 is Connect.
What does that mean? For me, I’m defining “connect” with these three guiding principles:
Prioritize relationships over projects.
Prioritize projects that bring me closer to others.
Prioritize sharing my work.
That third point is easily the scariest one for me! But as I reflect on 2024, connecting with others has been an important reminder of why I make art in the first place: not only to process, but also to connect.
At my last market of the year, a woman came up to my table and picked up a copy of Stardust. She started paging through and eventually looked up, tears in her eyes and said, “I wasn’t planning to cry at the makers’ market today, but here we are!” She proceeded to tell me that she and her husband had to put their dog down yesterday. Her husband was already putting away items like the water bowl and the leash because seeing these reminders kept making her cry. But she’s not ready to put them away. She wants to see them. “Your line in here about pressing on the bruise,” she said, “that’s exactly what it is.” By the time I was putting a copy of Stardust in a bag for her, I was crying too!
That was just one of many meaningful interactions at the makers market that day. I wasn’t planning to cry at the makers market either! But here we are.
How are you forging onward into 2025? Tentatively? With gusto? With a word of the year? With a long winter’s nap?! There are no wrong answers! Let me know in the comments.
xoxo,
Sheri
P.S. If a word of the year isn’t your thing, you might enjoy this post from Kelcey Ervick Forget resolutions and words of the year. Choose a New Year's Imperative instead.