I am so excited about my word of the year for my home this year. The right word feels good. It feels good to say—out loud or over and over again in your head, like a mantra.
UPDATE: I choose a guiding word for my home every year. Read on to see what I chose in 2017. Then, check out my guiding word for 2018 and see how I’m displaying it in my home.
The right word is a guide for how you want to feel and be in your home over the next year. It’s a compass. It’s a guidepost. Sometimes it’s a beacon of light.
Last year my guiding word was ALIVE. I wanted our home to feel alive with music, laughter, and ambience. For the most part we achieved that. Unfortunately, I spent much of the year with back pain feeling anything but alive. But my word of the year, displayed on the mantel, reminded me in the darkest of moments that there were simple things I could do to make things lighter—alive again.
Choosing a guiding word for my home is a yearly tradition. Last year I wrote a workbook to help you choose a guiding word for your home. In it I share the questions I ask myself every year to discover my word.
The questions are fun to answer yourself (journal them out) or to use as conversations starters with your family. I’ve found that my kids are particularly insightful with these kinds of discussions.
Download the free workbook to choose a guiding word for your home
Our Guiding Word for 2017
Now…drumroll please…the guiding word for my home in 2017 is OPEN.
This word feels amazing to me. It feels expansive. It feels right.
I love that OPEN can have so many different meanings…
- OPEN door
- OPEN spaces
- OPEN mind
- OPEN to possibility
- OPEN to healing
- OPEN to adventure
- OPEN to new things
- OPEN to change
You can see that the right word can expand far beyond guiding your home. It can become a guide for your whole life.
I’ve always preferred choosing three guiding words, one for my home, one for my family, and one for my business. But more and more I’m realizing that the word I choose for my home is the most important. It’s the precursor to my other guiding words.
For example, my guiding word for my business in 2016 was GROWTH, which was only achieved when I came ALIVE in my business by releasing new products, teaching on webinars, writing, and sharing videos. For my family, it was PRESENT—being in the moment with each other. Again that only happened when we were ALIVE in the moment.
I found the guiding word for my home became an anthem for my whole life. It makes sense because I believe our homes are launching pads for everything else we do in life. That’s why I’m so passionate about helping people improve their homes.
The guiding word that sets the tone for our home, also sets the tone for our lives.
Displaying Your Word of the Year
Because I believe so much in the power of a guiding word, I like to find a way to prominently display my word of the year in my home. It serves as a constant reminder of what we’re striving for.
A few years ago, I displayed our word RELISH on a handmade pillow.
Last year, I used my brass stencils on the mantel to spell out ALIVE.
This year, I got a little crafty with it. I found this cool brass folding frame at Home Goods and knew it’d be the perfect way to display the four letters in OPEN. I decided to cut the letters out from scrapbooking cards. Instead of simply choosing patterns I liked, I deliberately chose papers to symbolize things we wanted to be open to this year (both at home and in life).
- The O is cut from a blank piece of paper to symbolize the next chapter in our story…the page is open, unwritten.
- The P is from a map to symbolize that we are open for adventure and open to wherever life takes us.
- The E is cut from a calendar page to symbolize an open schedule, that we have all the time we need for the things that are most important to us.
- The N is covered in travel stamps to symbolize our desire to travel more, venturing from home to experience more of what life has to offer.
In 2017, our home, our life, our future is OPEN.
What’s your guiding word?
I thought it’d be fun to roundup a list of the words my readers and students came up with last year. This is a good list of words to consider.
Connected
Blessings
Priority
Blessing
Mindful
Welcoming
Honor
Peace
Heart
Fulfilling
Serene
Declutter
Calm
Content
Grounding
Restore
Harmony
Simplify
Joyful
Alive
Relish
Open
Whole
Comfort
Don’t worry if none of these words speak to you. They’re just here to ponder. To find the right guiding word for your home, download the Word of the Year Workbook below. It has all the questions you need to answer, space to brainstorm, and is sure to help you find the right word.
Once you find your guiding word, please come back here and share it in the comments below. It may inspire someone else reading this.
Action
Thank you for this insightful and timely article! I plan to have my whole family involved in creating our word!
Supportive
Thank you for the morning mind exercise Jackie. 😊 It came through after doing the exercises you provided on the worksheets.
That’s a very good word Deborah.
Thanks Jackie, great post!
FREEDOM is my (our) word for 2017. At first I didn’t know how I was really going to apply it, but the word just kept coming back to me. It turns out there is an infinite list to go with this word. ……Freedom to be carefree like a child, to dance and be silly; Freedom from expectations of others and society that don’t serve our family well; Freedom from past hurts that are stealing our joy; Freedom from financial debt; Freedom from bad health (and a few extra pounds!); Freedom from perfection; Freedom to just be in the moment despite the outside demands; Freedom from “stuff”; Freedom to say yes (or no); Freedom to be our true selves, the people God created us to be in this world; Freedom to be spontaneous…..my list is so long and just keeps going.
Melissa, I love that. So many great things to think about with freedom. My favorites here are freedom from perfection and from expectations.
Last year, my word was “finished”. I had so many unfinished projects and things I planned to do and my house didn’t feel right. It felt unfinished. I got in gear and completed most everything I wanted to do with the help of a deadline: getting the house ready to sell. Now that we’re moving into a brand new house in two weeks, I’ll have to spend some thought on our word for 2017!
I plan to share my home more with friends and family this year. We live on a farm and the views are gorgeous, places to walk or sit and take it all in.
Hi there. I have been through a lot of changes in the last 5 years. I quit my job and moved to a different city after 32 years. My husband and I moved in with my ageing parents to help Mum care for Dad who had Dementia. My husband died unexpectedly, then my mother got sick and passed. I then cared for my Dad until he passed last year. Then I had the enormous task to clean up my parents home to sell, and they had a lifetime of stuff to clean up. The house got sold and I had to find my own new home. I found this webpage because I wanted to know how to make this place my own. I have a lot of my parents things that I care for. I am definitely starting over on my own, and could retire, but I may want to work for awhile. I love art’s and crafts and do it yourself. I thought about all of this and the word I came up with for my home is “Refresh”. Just reading your article and hardly even thinking about it, I came up with Starting over or Fresh start and then “Refresh” just popped in and made sense in all areas of my life. Thanks for your “refreshing ideas” to help me get on with my life.
Refresh seems very appropriate in regards to the path you have been on these last few years. You are a strong, survivor looking towards the future.
Wow! What is strong and faithful woman you are! Praying God’s blessings on you for 2017!
Debra, My heart goes out to you. You’ve been through so much and you are clearly a very strong woman. Refresh sounds like the perfect word for some new beginnings for you. I wish you all the best in 2017 and beyond.
Serene… Our family has had a few tumultuous years, and I want this year to be serene. Merriam-Webster give three thoughts to the definition of serene: 1) clear and free of storms or unpleasant change, 2) shining bright and steady, and 3) marked by or suggestive of utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude. I want all of that for my family this year and always. I plan to post this word throughout our home so that as we make decisions and go about our days we can choose serene or the path that will take us there. Thank you so much!
Beautiful word and I love all the definitions you uncovered.
My word is “settled”. We moved out of state last summer and still have boxes stacked in the garage and around the house because of delays in renovations. Can hang pictures till we paint, can’t paint till the kitchen reno is done, can’t finish that until our contractor finally gets it in gear. I miss my stuff! Last weekend I finally got to unpack my books. I was glad to see them! I also hope to become more settl d into my role as a retiree after leaving my job of 19 years that I loved.
Great word for a new home Susan. Just remember the “settled” feeling is also a mindset, it’s not all about having all the projects done. Remember to enjoy this season and process. Take time to marvel and be thankful for all the work being done to create your home.
Jackie, your article is great again. My word is creating for 2017, although the word create is so common. I will challenge myself and create various kinds of things to my home.