For the past several years, I’ve set a word to help me gain focus and clarity for the year. Having a word of the year has always helped to clarify the direction I want to take for the year and acted as a touchstone to keep my vision in focus. I’m an ENFP (Meyers Briggs) which means that full of encouragement, easily excited and have no less than one million great ideas on a regular basis. Having a word of the year has always helped to keep me in check. Affiliate links present.

This year, I was surprised that my word of the year wasn’t actually one word, but two. But before I go too much further, I’ll remind you of my word of the year from previous years.

2013 word of the year: Savor

Savor was a great word of the year word for me. It didn’t come to me until late in the year (April) but it really helped me put my year in focus. The definition I held to was “to taste and enjoy completely.” (Dictionary.com definition) In 2013, Lola was born and I was really scared about how Malone was going to transition into his role as a big brother. And I was scared about how I was going to transition into a mom to two kids. Having savor as my word of the year really helped me settle in motherhood. You can read more about my word 2013 word of the year here. 

2014 word of the year: Intentional 

It wasn’t long after Lola was born before my 2014 word of the year came to me. I chose intentional as my word of the year because I wanted to do life well. I held close to the definition “done by design” (Merriam Webster definition). 2014 was the year when my growth plan for A Cookie Before Dinner really started to come together and I began to lay the foundation for this space to transition from a hobby blog to a part time job. I wanted to transition to a life on purpose and over the course of the year, I made small changes to make it happen.

I have a calendar full of ideas for this space and for my family. Big dreams and little dreams are planned in pencil. I have dreams that are far off in the distance, but almost close enough to touch. I have goals, an action plan, and a fresh take on a life well lived.

I wrote those words in 2014 in this blog post. It was a big year for our family and my word of the year really grounded us.

2015 word of the year: Create 

I didn’t write about this word much, but it was almost always in the back of my mind. At the beginning of 2015, I went through Lara Casey’s powersheets. I made it through all of the hard work- the prep pages and then abandoned the monthly tending lists. I still wrote a lot about my goals in this space though… so that’s a win. In 2015, I really put the action plan I had created both for my family and blog into place. My family created a lot of awesome memories and I created a lot of work for myself. I found myself in the constant push and pull of saying yes to a lot of great things and then backing off when the season was over.

Which brings us to present day… where I have two words for 2016.

Word of the Year 2016: Portion & Purpose

In 2015, my faith was really renewed. The Lord worked mightily in my heart and in my family. Chains of generational sin were broken for me at the Declare Conference. And in prepping for 2016, I found myself spending a lot of time in prayer and seeking the Lord as I prepared for the year.

Portion is a personal word for me this year. It comes from Lamentations 3:22-25

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Bottom line? The Lord is going to provide for me everything I need. I am stepping into the calling he’s placed on my life and I am going to get cozy as I wait for Him and his timing. I spent a lot of time in 2015 trying to force things to happen. Maybe I was trying to create too much!

Purpose is a “work” focus word for me for 2016. I spent a lot of last year trying different things to see what I liked and didn’t like about being an internetter (someone who makes an income from their life online). This year, the word purpose is going to remind me find satisfaction in my hard work because I know why I am working/what I’m working towards. I’m excited to really see where these words take me this year!

Lara Casey’s powersheets are sold out currently but her book, Make It Happen, is awesome. You can work through a lot of the same principles there.

I recently talked my word of the year on the Boss Mom podcast with Dana Malstaff. You can catch that here.