Everyone Picks a Word for the Year — Almost No One Knows Why

It is the New Year.

And suddenly, everywhere you look, people are declaring their word of the year.
Facebook. Instagram. LinkedIn. Stories. Posts. Carousels.

Focus. Abundance. Discipline. Alignment. Power. Ease.

Blah, blah, blah.

I’ve always wondered how people do that.

How do you just pick a word and confidently say, “Yes. This is the most important thing for me this year.”

More importantly, how do you know?

And what does choosing a word actually do?

Because if we’re honest, we already know how this usually goes.

January hits.
Gyms are packed.
Goals are loud.
Intentions feel sharp and shiny.

And then… February.

The fitness industry knows this cycle well. January is their best month. After that? It drops. Hard.

Not because people are lazy.
Not because they don’t want change.

But because wanting something consciously doesn’t mean you’re aligned with it internally.

You can say you want to quit smoking — and still want to keep smoking.
You can say you want rest — and still be addicted to proving your worth through exhaustion.
You can say you want clarity — and still avoid the truth that clarity might disrupt your relationships, your identity, or the version of you others are comfortable with.

Most goals fail because they are decided in the mind, not discovered in the body.

And the body always tells the truth.

That’s why so many resolutions don’t survive the year.
People don’t quit because they’re weak.
They quit because they never learned how to listen.

They don’t know how to set goals because they don’t actually know what they want.
They haven’t been taught how to formulate desire beyond what sounds acceptable, productive, or socially approved.

At MotivAction® (registered trademark), we see this every year.

That’s why we don’t start with goals.

We start with listening.

There’s an old psychological exercise — often attributed to early psychoanalytic work — where a word emerges not from effort, but from association. A simple series of prompts. No thinking. No forcing. Just letting the unconscious speak.

We’ve adapted that exercise and used it with our community for years.

Every time, it’s the same reaction.

“That’s not the word I thought I’d choose… but it’s the right one.”

Because the word doesn’t come from who you think you should be.
It comes from what your nervous system has been asking for all along.

That’s also why our Manifestation Mixer workshop sold out in days a few years ago. Twice!

Not because people wanted another vision board.
But because they wanted permission to dream honestly, and tools to move toward those dreams without abandoning themselves in the process.

We didn’t teach hustle.
We taught regulation.
Clarity.
Small, aligned steps that the nervous system could actually sustain.

And the stories that came back?

People achieved what they wanted. Not overnight. Not magically. But consistently. Because the desire was real — not performative.

Recently, a close friend and I were having tea together. As we were leaving, he stopped and said,
“You know what I wish for you? Clarity. Because when you know what you want, you always get it.”

He wasn’t wrong.

My gift has never been grinding harder.
It’s been knowing what I want — even when that knowing made things uncomfortable.

Because clarity changes you.

When you truly start listening to yourself, you become uncomfortable for other people.
You stop fitting into old expectations.
Old dynamics shift.
Some people miss the version of you that didn’t take up space, didn’t speak clearly, didn’t choose deliberately.

And that’s where courage is required.

Because sometimes, when you dig deep enough, you find wants you don’t immediately like.
Truths that don’t match the identity you’ve been rewarded for.
Desires that challenge the life you’ve built.

But self-betrayal costs more than honesty ever will.

Clarity isn’t a word you pick for the year.
It’s a relationship you build with yourself.

And maybe that’s the real resolution — not becoming someone new, but finally accepting who you are, with all your perfect imperfections.

That acceptance?

That’s a gift you can give yourself.
And it changes everything.

If this resonates, we teach leaders and teams how to build clarity without force — and change without burnout. Reach out to us, or watch this video on how to find your actual word of the year.