Have you chosen your ONE WORD for 2025?

I have whiteboards, chalkboards, post-it notes, calendars, highlighters, phone apps, and lists, lists, and more lists! That seems to be the only way I can keep any semblance of order in my life—haha! Several years ago, though, one of our customers posted a challenge on her personal page. Instead of a lengthy New Year’s Resolution, she encouraged us to choose just ONE WORD that we wanted to focus on for the upcoming year. And you all know how much I love words 🙂

I’ll tell you, it is tough choosing only ONE WORD instead of a complete color-coded list including check marks, italics, and bolded lines when it comes to a Resolution!

The word I chose for 2024 was “NOTICE.” I wanted to be more observant by watching and listening, not only with people but with nature—our plants and our livestock. I hoped this word would remind me to not always jump up to DO something, but occasionally, to sit back and “NOTICE.” For our business, I opted to keep “KULA,” my rule-breaking second word from 2023, around for another year.

Unintended consequences—”NOTICE” made me take a hard look at myself and helped me realize that…I am the problem—it’s me lol! Why does my life feel so chaotic? Because I have a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). This probably came about after that life-changing cancer diagnosis back in 2020. It wasn’t all bad though…I also was able to be in the moment and notice the stars at night and the beautiful Milky Way. I noticed the pollinators buzzing around our new Monarch Waystation. I noticed how lucky I am to be able to sit and watch my kids and grandkids and appreciate how different they all are from each other—each with special talents and gifts to share with the world. This one word also helped guide me in creating one of our new projects for the farm…we now have a “Wander & Ponder” meditation trail. We’ve decided to embrace “KULA” as our long-standing word for Pfanny’s Farm. That tiny four-letter word meaning “community, clan, or tribe” describes how we want people to feel when they visit us. ♥

“NOTICE” also helped me choose my One Word for 2025. The word is boring, common, and unfortunately, perfect for my chemo-addled brain lol!

My 2025 word is MINIMIZE.

I used to be proud of how I could manage everything around here, homeschool 4 kids, do the gardening and food preservation, participate in volunteer work, keep on top of the accounting, and hardly miss a beat. Let me tell you, tackling all those things at this time in my life would be a big mistake-and very unsuccessful. Right now, I struggle just staying on top of the regular old everyday tasks.

Will minimizing help me get better sleep? Will it help me stay on top of that dreaded accounting? Will it create more space to enjoy life even more? Will it create more peace and comfort for me? We’ll see! At the end of this month, I will be leading a SMART goal-setting workshop for a small group of women, so I do have a SMART plan for achieving this whole MINIMIZE thing. I’m ready to reclaim my sanity…hopefully this will do the trick 😉

Once again, I’d like to extend the same challenge to you. Can you narrow your New Year’s Resolution to just one word? If you don’t do resolutions (probably because you haven’t had a history of success), perhaps it would help to look at it as a focus word instead of a resolution. Won’t you join me? I hope you feel comfortable enough to add your word along with perhaps a little explanation in the comments below.

Here are my words from previous years…

In 2018 I chose “GRATITUDE.” I wrote down 3 gratitudes almost every day. It’s one of those “glass half empty or glass half full” kinda things. Training yourself to see the good in life is life-changing!

In 2019 I chose “HYGGE” (pronounced hoo-gah). It means “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being” (taken from an online dictionary). I can’t say I felt even 65% successful, but we had quite a year lol! I did have some campers comment on the serenity and calm they felt while visiting the farm, so I’m counting that as a win 🙂

My 2020 word was “TEMPER.” Temper as in “act as a neutralizing or counterbalancing force to something.” Temper as in: I will temper my ambitions to do EVERYTHING. Instead, I would focus on things that are good for me and my family. Holy cow! Little did I know that 2020 would bring two “opportunities” to live out this word…first a cancer diagnosis, then a worldwide pandemic. “Temper” served me well.

For 2021 I chose the word “PIVOT.” Pivot: to utilize the ability to change directions as circumstances evolve…with one foot grounded and my intentions focused on life’s priorities. I chose it because it sounded better than “roll with the punches” haha! I’ve done plenty of pivoting this past year. I began the year with lots of Covid tests. We contracted the virus in late November of 2020. In fact, we were minutes away from the hospital in Omaha when they called and told me to go home. My stem cell transplant was postponed FOUR times, because even though I was feeling ok and I was no longer considered contagious, my body just couldn’t shake the virus. The transplant was completed on February 23rd. I spent 3 weeks in Omaha, then came home with lots of things on the “don’t even think about doing it” list. These included gardening, mowing, and going out in public…ugh! Pivot was a great word because that’s what I did! Some days I pivoted so many times that it made me dizzy lol! Don’t get me wrong, 2021 was a good year, it just taught me that I’m not in charge 😉 We’ve been blessed many times over!

2022’s word was “SUHKA,” a Sanskrit word meaning “good space.” This word had so many uses for me. I hoped it would remind me to slow down and pause before speaking a mile a minute (not so successful). I hoped it would remind me to stop and enjoy the laughter of my grandkids and fellowship with our farm visitors (successful). I hoped it would cue me to really listen when I ask “how are you doing” (progress made).

2022 allowed me many opportunities to feel as if I were in “a good space.” ❤️

2023’s word was “CENTER.” And because I’m not a rule-follower, I chose two words lol! Life was feeling so off-kilter because of that cancer diagnosis coinciding with a worldwide pandemic and the changes it caused in life and business…highs and lows swung like a pendulum! I hoped to gravitate more towards “center.” I’m not calling it a “fail,” but for most of the year, I didn’t even remember what word I had chosen lol! The word I chose for Pfanny’s Farm was “KULA.” Kula is a Sanskrit word meaning community, clan, or tribe. We know how important friends and neighbors have been over the years. We know how much we enjoy the company of our visitors and overnight guests. This year, we wanted to focus on building community or KULA even more. This word choice was wildly successful! We added additional picnic tables in our Binzebo area, entertained a group of young people with our newly formed “Seedlings” group, and continued welcoming folks from all over the country to our little farm. I love this word so much!

You can check out this website for more inspiration: http:/myoneword.org/