Resilience - Word of the Year
Resilience
“the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness:”
Before I get into why I chose Resilience as my Word for 2025, let me give you a little background into why this practice is important to me…
Have you ever engaged in the practice of selecting a Word of the Year for yourself? It is the practice of selecting one particular word (sometimes a short phrase) that will serve as your motto, guide, or focus for the coming year. People go to great lengths to come up with a word that will truly convey what their intention or goal may be for the year. Research may be employed to determine the best word, even prayer and meditation are used as guidance in selecting a word. The past couple of years, it has actually taken me longer than expected to determine a Word for myself… I take it seriously! So seriously, to be honest with you, that I actually set reminder alarms in my phone to check-in with myself to keep the focus as I move through the year.
In my opinion, choosing a Word of the Year is much different from creating a New Year Resolution, a practice many of us may be more familiar with. Oftentimes with resolutions, even though we have the best intentions, we have the tendency to create unrealistic and rigid goals for ourselves that do not always foster growth and awareness. Instead, resolutions give us a task that is to be completed, a box to be checked upon completion. When that task is not achieved, we may feel defeated and give up on that focus altogether. In my opinion, with a Word of the Year, we have more flexibility to establish exactly what that word means for us individually. Any given word may have a complete different meaning and impact from one person to the next, and that is perfectly fine. That’s actually the beauty of it! You, and you alone, are in control of the interpretation and execution, in your own way and in your own time.
Now, how did I come to choose the word RESILIENCE?!
Well, 2024 was tough (to say the least)! And if I’m being honest, I wasn’t able to handle some of the hits my family and I took as well as I would have liked to. BY WHOSE STANDARDS, you ask… my own. Now I surely understand that there is no right or wrong way to handle losing a loved one (or three)… no right or wrong way to handle illness in the household… no right or wrong way to handle many of the unexpected occurances that life throws at us. But, moving forward, I pray to be able to equip myself with the tools that are important to me to cope…. tools that I have since gained.
According to the American Psychological Association, “resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
Verywell Mind states it simply as: “A resilient person is someone who has strong coping skills and is able to marshall their available resources, ask for help when needed, and find ways to manage the situation they are facing. People with psychological resilience are able to use their skills and strengths to respond to life's challenges. People with resilience do not experience less distress, grief, or anxiety than other people do. Instead, they use healthy coping skills to handle such difficulties in ways that foster strength and growth, often emerging stronger than they were before.”
KEY POINT: I do NOT expect to experience anything less than anyone else, I just pray to cope in a healthy manner… physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Trials and tests will always occur, but I’m striving to make 2025 the year that I grow more hopeful and optimistic AND prayerful in the MIDST OF and IN PREPARATION FOR whatever may lie ahead of me this year. Sounds relatively easy, huh? On the surface, yes. But when I think deeply about it, I know that this will be quite the process. Even the definition of resilience that I shared above is a bit too simple. Resilience is personal and individual. It is absolutely affected by our personal traits, our environment, our family, and so many other factors.
This Word… this year’s focus… is going to take some work on my part. Thankfully, I’m willing to put in that work. I’m not perfect, but God is. So, I will pray AND put in the work.
My challenge to you is to do the same…
