Why You Should Lean Into Your Word of the Year
In this episode, I talk about choosing and using a word of the year. Sometimes we pick a word, and sometimes it feels like the word picks us! Either way, it can help guide our business decisions and daily life.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- How to embrace your word of the year, even if it surprises you
- Ways to use your word to guide your business choices
- Why it’s okay if your word changes during the year
My word for 2025 is “gentle,” and it wasn’t what I expected! But I noticed I was already using it without realizing – in my coaching style, my business approach, and even in how my mastermind group works together.
This word is already changing my business. It helps me make better choices about my time, especially while caring for my mom. When I feel pushed to do too much, “gentle” reminds me to slow down and focus on what matters.
That’s why I’m even changing my podcast name to “Doing Business Gently.” It fits perfectly with how I want to help others run their businesses – in a way that doesn’t burn them out.
Want help finding your word?
I’ve created a 15-minute
Word of the Year Clarity Guide.
Remember, there’s no rush to find your perfect word by January 1st.
Take your time and listen to what keeps coming up in your life and business. Your word might surprise you, just like mine did!
Let’s Connect:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/martagoertzen
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/selahstudiosco
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Are you ready to start your own business clarity journey? I’d be honored to help:
*** BUSINESS CLARITY COACHING: If you are in transition in your business or if you are feeling stuck and unsure what your next best step is, Business Clarity Coaching can help. Together we look at your options and create an action plan to help you get unstuck and moving forward again. — https://SelahStudios.co/business-clarity-coaching
*** SELAH SOCIETY MASTERMIND: For when you are ready to take action on the clarity you have found in your business. It’s time to refine your clarity, take bold action, and do it all with the support of a Gentle Business Coach and an incredible community of women who are on the same path. — https://SelahStudios.co/mastermind
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Marta Goertzen: Well, here we are dashing into Christmas with New Year’s right behind it. Often, this comes with pressure to have everything figured out in your business and be ready for January 1st. We’ve talked about this on the podcast before—you are not behind. It’s okay if you don’t have it all figured out by January 1st.
[00:00:22] It’s okay to plan your business at your own pace. One thing that comes up a lot this time of year is picking a word of the year. I did a few episodes earlier in the podcast about picking a word of the year and what to do with it. I’ll link to those in the show notes below.
[00:00:40] Often, we end up picking a word—or sometimes a word picks us—that we’re not quite sure why we chose it. That’s happened to me recently, in the past couple of years, and especially this year. I ended up with a word that I’m not quite sure what to do with in some respects, but in others, it’s prompting some big changes for me in the coming year.
[00:01:00] So I wanted to share with you a few reasons why you should lean into your word of the year, no matter what it is and no matter how you might be struggling with why this word chose you.
[00:01:23] Hello there and welcome to the Selah Entrepreneur podcast, where we take a look at doing online business a little differently for women over 50. The goal of each episode is to help women just like you find the clarity needed to confidently redesign their business so it aligns with their values and purpose, with the goal of feeling less stressed in the process.
[00:01:51] There are years, and this year included, where my final word of the year is something I’m just looking at and feeling a little stumped by. Like, what in the world? Where did this word come from? I’ve had other years where I fought it repeatedly, thinking “This is not my word,” but finally just gave in and said, “Yep, that’s my word” because it was something I needed to learn.
[00:02:13] It’s something that keeps coming up—a repeating pattern. They’re words that I find myself using or words that I hear being spoken around me, and I don’t take that lightly. I don’t take that as something I should ignore. That’s what’s been happening with this word. Looking back, it’s a word I’ve been using since probably about mid-year, and I just didn’t realize how important that word was at the time.
[00:02:34] Its growing importance through the end of the year is already prompting changes and new ideas for how my business will be in 2025. So, I will tell you my word of the year is “gentle.” I love the word and my idealized version of what it means, but when you start looking at the definition, it talks about being docile, soft, sometimes weak, and I’m thinking, “That’s not what I’m talking about here.”
[00:03:08] When I think of the word gentle, I think of somebody who has a gentle personality—someone who’s gone through something and come out the other side with a more empathetic, more compassionate viewpoint. They’re not so rushed or stressed, and they’re somebody who really takes care of other people. They just have a different attitude about life in general.
[00:03:52] That’s more of what I’m thinking about in the word gentle as it applies to my business. I’m sharing this because often we don’t pick a word that is all butterflies and rainbows. Sometimes our words are difficult—words we need to learn about and figure out how to apply to our life and business.
[00:04:14] When I look at this word “gentle” and look back over just this year, I realize I’ve been using it since earlier this year. I started calling myself a gentle business coach, and then I started describing my approach as gentle business coaching. I have an episode about “Is gentle business coaching for you?” and I’m realizing there’s a reason for that.
[00:04:48] There are things I was learning along my entrepreneurial journey that were teaching me that gentle is the way to go for me. When I was talking with several members in the mastermind, the word gentle came up frequently—the gentle approach, the gentleness we’ve created, the gentle atmosphere we’ve created in that community.
[00:05:09] I thought I was going in a different direction. I really had two other words picked out, but suddenly, this word popped in and hasn’t let me go. Again, I don’t take that lightly. That’s not something I can ignore. As a woman of faith, I believe there are times when I get promptings that this is something I need to pay attention to, and I’ve taken that seriously.
[00:05:31] I feel the Lord has been guiding me toward this word, and it has started to spark some big ideas for the new year. Some I will be sharing in future episodes, and one I’m going to share right here is that this podcast is ready to grow and evolve. It’s time for it to take its next step.
[00:05:56] Over the past 80 episodes—today’s episode is 81—I have learned so much about myself and my business. I have found my voice. You’ve joined me on a journey of discovery, and I’m so grateful that you’ve come along for the ride. But I chose the name “The Selah Entrepreneur” kind of out of desperation. One, it fit my brand and it worked, but I couldn’t think of anything else to call the podcast, which is not a great way to pick a podcast title.
[00:06:25] Still, it served its purpose. It got me launched. It got me out there. It got me using my voice. It did its job, but now it’s run its course, and it’s time to create a different title for the podcast—one that gives you a better idea of what it’s about when you land on it, what we’re talking about, and what’s included in the content.
[00:06:49] The current title doesn’t do that for you or for me, and I feel somewhat hemmed in by it. So the new podcast that you’ll be seeing coming up soon is called “Doing Business Gently.”
[00:07:19] The word gentle came in, and I thought, “Okay, so this is why I need to pay attention to this word.” There is a theme, a direction to take. There is clarity I’ve gained over this year about my approach to coaching and how I want to run my business. “Gentle” is definitely a word that both my clients and I have used quite a bit.
[00:08:01] Another influence is the changing health needs in my mother’s care. It’s becoming more demanding on my physical and mental health, and I need a gentle approach to business and the podcast so I can reserve the time and energy for her that she needs and that I really want to give her.
[00:08:12] These are just different ways that choosing a word of the year impacts your life and business. If you’ve been in business for a while, you understand how working from home often blurs the lines between life and business.
[00:08:31] We need to think about how these two worlds interact and overlap. Often, what we learn in life we can apply to business, and what we learn in business we can apply to life. So when we look at the new year and consider how we want it to go—how we want to do business, how we want to interact with clients, how we want to feel at the end of the year about our accomplishments and goals—”gentle” is that word for me.
[00:09:01] If you need help picking your word of the year—if you’re hearing this and thinking, “I wish I had a word of the year but don’t know where to start”—I have a guide for you. I’ve never really put one together before because I’ve never had a process, but this year I felt I needed one.
[00:09:17] So I got some help and put together a 15-minute Word of the Year Clarity Guide. You’ll find a link to that in the show notes. If you’re looking for help on how to have a word of the year or a theme for the year, you can download that at SelahStudios.co/wordoftheyear.
[00:09:34] If you would like help taking that word and using it throughout the year, at the end of the guide, there’s a list of resources. You’ll find links to the podcast episodes where I’ve discussed word of the year, and also a series of blog posts I’ve written over the years about using a word of the year—how to lean into it, learn from it, and apply it to your life and business.
[00:10:01] When you’re looking at your word of the year and planning for the new year, you might wonder: Do you set resolutions? Do you set goals? For me personally, I believe it starts with the word of the year. It doesn’t for everybody, and if it’s not for you, don’t worry about it. Take what you need and leave the rest.
[00:10:17] But for me, it starts with the word of the year. That becomes a theme, a focal point, a filter in many ways for how I approach business. Am I doing things gently, or am I overdoing it? Am I overtaxing myself? Am I approaching how I serve clients gently, or am I making things so confusing that it’s not easy for them to understand what I do or how they can spend time in my world or work with me?
[00:10:50] Am I showing them how to be gentle with themselves in their business, or am I throwing so much information at them that working with me and being in my world no longer feels like a safe place to land?
[00:11:08] When you look at your word, its meaning, its definition, how you interpret it, and how you want to apply it, that gives you a starting point for how you can lean into that word and follow it into the next year. You can pray over it, use it, journal about it. I call it “artifying” your word—you can go into Canva and create a really cool template that shows your word of the year and have it visibly displayed so you’re reminded of that filter and what you’re working on, what your theme is for the year.
[00:11:46] “Gentle” for me is also reminding me that I need to set better self-expectations. I haven’t done a good job of that in seasons of this year because my mom’s health has changed, because my business has changed. I’ve changed, I’ve grown, and often I’m so excited about the growth that I just push through to try to get stuff done.
[00:12:06] But then I don’t really have the energy for my mom, or my mom has a tough season and I need to be more present with her and work with her care team, and I don’t have enough left over for the business—or as much as I would like.
[00:12:22] I highly recommend you at least consider the idea or grab the 15-minute Word of the Year Clarity Guide so you can explore the idea of having your own word of the year. Consider how it could set up your new year, how it could help you look at your year differently.
[00:12:40] That’s what a word of the year has always done for me. But again, a word of the year isn’t essential—not everybody uses them, and that’s totally fine. If you choose a word of the year, maybe within a few months it’s served its purpose. It’s done what it needed to do to help you get ready for planning in the new year, or it’s taken you on a journey where you’ve learned everything you needed to learn.
[00:13:03] And guess what? It’s okay to leave it or pick a new word, pick a new theme that you want to work with for a few months or for the remainder of the year. It is a tool. It is doing your business gently. It is approaching your business and goal setting and planning from a different perspective, and often your word will influence those plans.
[00:13:26] It is a personal journey. It is a flexible experiment. It is something where you can test the waters and see if this is something you want to pursue further. I’ve been choosing a word of the year since about 2015, and I know for me, the years that I don’t pick a word feel different.
[00:13:47] I’m not as focused. I’m not as deliberate and intentional in my decision making. The year just feels different. In those years, I kind of regret not picking a word of the year or picking one and then never using it. I’ve done that a few times over the years as well.
[00:14:07] Do you need a word of the year? No, you really don’t, but I suggest you at least consider the idea. Download the clarity guide and figure out if this is something you want to add to your repertoire this year and see how it could impact and influence your business in 2025.
[00:14:27] As we close here, I just wanted to share a big thank you for hanging out with me as the Selah Entrepreneur podcast.
[00:14:34] It has been an unexpected delight over the last year and a half of discovering that I love audio. I love the podcast. I love podcasting. I love learning from other podcasters. So thank you for coming on this journey with me.
[00:14:54] This is the last episode of the Selah Entrepreneur podcast. I’m going to take a little break as I record new episodes and finish the refresh and rebranding of the podcast. I expect to be back in early to mid-January.
[00:15:20] One of the ways I’m using my word “gentle” is that I’m using this break from the podcast to get ahead so that when we’re ready to launch the podcast as “Doing Business Gently,” it’ll be from a much gentler perspective. It won’t feel so hectic and stressful some weeks as I try to get everything ready to launch and publish the podcast.
[00:15:39] Thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate you coming along this journey with me. Let’s keep moving forward, and we’re going to do this under the new name “Doing Business Gently”—creating a business simply, sustainably, and gently so that you can steward your gifts, your calling, and your business
Marta Goertzen is a Gentle Business Coach and founder of Selah Studios, host of the Doing Business Gently podcast. She helps Christian women entrepreneurs over 50 rediscover who they’ve become, realign their business to match, and fall in love with their work again, gently, at their pace, without starting over. As an avid photographer and lover of the outdoors, she daily explores the trails and beaches of the South Central Oregon Coast with her dog Mochi in tow. Take the free Business Alignment Audit as your gentle first step, a way to pause, get honest, and see clearly where you and your business are right now: https://SelahStudios.co/alignmentaudit