Welcome to Am I The Only One with Meg Mansell, our new regular Capsule columnist. Meg is one of our favourite members of the Capsule community, bringing us smart, warm and thoughtful pieces on mental health, body positivity, motherhood and more. For her column this month, she looks at the power of having a ‘word of the year’ and how it completely changed her life.
Ok. Here we go again, guys. I’m sure I’m not alone in finding myself saying the same things at this time of year without fail: “Wow that went really fast!” and “Man, time seems to be racing past me!”.
Plus, getting that overwhelming feeling of push and pull between relief that another year is over (especially 2024 for me, so long and miss you never!) and maniacal panic that ANOTHER YEAR IS OVER.
WHAT. HOW!
However, once we get through all of those complicated feelings, we can focus on *New Years*. For me, New Years isn’t a huge night anymore; in fact, I don’t think I’ve been awake for the midnight countdown in my 30s once.
But I love New Years for a different reason – I am a sucker for a good ending. I think endings get a bad rap, you see. A lot of the time we relate endings to something sad – an unwanted goodbye, a door slamming shut in our faces. But you know the saying: ‘without things ending, we would never have any beginnings’ or something along those lines? I completely agree.
Life would just be one very long monotonous movie without endings… and even your favourite movie would be insanely boring if it just went on and on and on. And look, we never actually have to wait until a certain date to decide to refresh and reinvent ourselves; you could, of course, do it tomorrow. New Years just so happens to be the perfect opportunity if you so need it.
Over the past two years, I have thrown the traditional idea of having a resolution in the bin and focused wholly on having a ‘Word Of The Year’. It’s not a new concept, but it has absolutely, wholeheartedly and – without being even the tiniest bit dramatic – totally changed my life.
At the end of 2022, my friend Hannah and I were talking about how we both felt really low, down, tired, unmotivated; like we were just moving through the motions of life. She mentioned that she saw someone online talking about a Word Of The Year and that we should give it a go for 2023.
I chose the word ‘radiant’, because it was the absolute opposite of how I felt at the time. I wrote the word down on a piece of paper and took a make-up free selfie with it, holding the paper with a big smile. We decided that in one year’s time, we would re-take the same photo, after each focusing on our word, every single day, to see if we saw any differences. [Scroll down to the bottom of the story to see the year-on-year photos!]
‘Every day I thought to myself, ‘what would a radiant woman do in this situation I’m in right now?’.’
The first few weeks I felt completely lost with it. I made a mood board on Pinterest and pinned a ton of photos that exuded what ‘radiant’ meant to me. Lots of smiling people with friends, tables of nice food, a clean room, freshly washed hair, getting outside in nature, a positive outlook on life.
I went into the smallest details imagining this dream life – from a candle lit at night-time next to my bed (that one stuck) to a full-body morning stretch routine (that one didn’t). It was a lot of guess work at that stage.
Every day I thought to myself, ‘what would a radiant woman do in this situation I’m in right now?’. Maybe she would go for a jog? Learn about Gua Sha? Drink a glass of water? Maybe she would laugh and casually roll her eyes over a curt email from somebody instead of festering over it. And whatever I imagined this ‘radiant’ woman would do, I did it. Or I gave it a good shot, at least.
Over time, the most amazing thing happened. These everyday decisions I used to have to give good thought to doing just became my own habits, activities that I would find myself doing unconsciously.
I can remember so clearly one day in August last year: I opened my Instagram and saw that somebody had replied to a story I had uploaded, saying, “Wow, you look so radiant in this”. I cried. I couldn’t believe that without prompting them, someone described me exactly as how I wanted to be seen.
I’ll be honest and admit that 2024 has been harder with my WOTY. I went for the much more ambitious word of: ‘REMARKABLE’. Oh my. What. an. idiot. I thought a ‘remarkable woman’ was a step up from a ‘radiant’ one. The kind of woman who looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink. Well, the universe sure wanted to test that theory on me.
Unfortunately, this year I’ve found myself feeling like I’m barely hanging on at times, let alone being remarkable by any means.
(Post edit Meg coming in here: after sending this column to my dear, sweet husband to read over for me, he said that I have been a remarkable woman to him this year. So maybe, I did become my word – in terms of how I was as a partner, at least).
After the trials I have faced in 2024, I am going back to basics with my WOTY. So far, I’m back and forth-ing between ideas like ‘hopeful’, ‘optimistic’ and ‘positive’. I’ll figure out what feels right closer to Jan 1st.
I wanted to leave you with a list of great WOTYs I wrote out, so you could maybe give it a go for 2025. I really think having an overarching word for the next 12 months is so much more fulfilling and helpful than one outdated resolution.
Let me know if you pick one, I’d love to which one. X
Possible Word Of The Years:
Resilient
Optimistic
Radiant
Trusting
Passionate
Courageous
Brave
Bold
Determined
Grateful
Adventurous
Wealthy
Free
Compassionate
Tenacious
Grounded
Supportive
Creative
Fearless
Vibrant
Fit
Joyful
Intentional
Liberated
Adaptable
Nurturing
Aligned
Curious
Authentic
Mindful
