Word of the Year- Welcoming 2023 w/ Shawna Rodrigues -28

2023 is upon us. We are days away from a brand new year. What does that mean to you? If you've been part of this community. You probably know that I'm a fan of New Year's Eve. I enjoy celebrations and the symbolism of new starts. But here or The Grit Show. We're all about nuance. So we're going to spend some time talking about what that might mean to you and some different ways to look at that. Have you ever chosen a word for the year? It's a different approach than resolutions and one we're going to chat about more today. Welcome to The Grit Show. Where people come together. For growth on purpose. Each week we get tools for our arsenal to live life with a little more ease and a lot more joy. I'm Shawna Rodrigues your partner in this journey who like you has given more than I thought I had to give, been surprised by my own strength, and is grateful for that grit. But also wants to learn how to live life a little smarter. Not harder. As well as cherishing my time here with you each week, my love of podcasting has blossomed into a network where I find purpose in supporting others to amplify their voices with a goal of 37 by 27. Moving the needle on the number of women hosting podcasts. Thank you for being here with us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on your favorite platform. So you don't miss new episodes when they come out. Today is a solo episode and I'm going to keep it brief. For many, this is a holiday week. So I want to honor the time you have with your family and friends. I also took to heart last week's episode on burnout. And realized that I needed some time off. So I juggled things to make that happen. Showing up consistently is important to me. So the compromise was a shorter solo episode. That required less than the typical production timeline. If this is a week, you happen to have more time for listening. I'll be sure to make some extra suggestions at the end of the show. To give you some ideas of other episodes you can revisit from The Grit Show. The one about burnout is a good one. If that title resonates with you. Let's start with touching briefly on resolutions. New year's resolutions are a tradition. At least with most people I know, and it might be an American thing. I'd be curious for those in other countries to give me feedback on how common this is in other areas. Since I only know what I know. It's something I've heard about since I was a kid and often came up with a couple because it's just something you did. They weren't always things I remembered and often things that I did for a short time, if I did them at all. There was a new concept that that came into my awareness a number of years ago, that kind of clicked a little bit better with me and had a little bit more resonance. So we're going to talk about that today. It's this concept of having a word of the year. I can't remember when I first stumbled across it. But I can tell you that it has been very powerful for me. The first word I ever chose was the word grace. It was largely about giving myself grace. But letting go of judgment and forgiving myself for all the things I couldn't get done perfectly. Being less of a perfectionist. And about just going with the flow more. The beautiful thing was the more I gave myself, grace. The easier it was to have grace with others. The more understanding there was about everything overall. Grace held gentleness and kindness. It was such a significant word to start with. And I'm so glad it happened to be the one that I started with. The next year I had the word of gratitude. It really was wrapped up with this big obsession I have with gratitude. If you've listened to the show. You know, I'm big on this. And I feel as though a gratitude practice is the single biggest thing that I've done to change my life for the better. It is something worth considering to make big changes happen in your life as well. Interestingly, I had a project for awhile called grit, grace gratitude. And it ended up kind of coming out of grace gratitude, being my words of the year. And in retrospect, I realized that the year prior to those two years, was really a year of grit. Grit in spades. It was actually the year that The Grit Show title came to me. Even if I wouldn't have made it at a podcast back then, it was more kind of a loose thinking for a blog title, even of show was in the name of it. Right? I didn't know anything about podcasts then. So even before I chose a word of the year, there was a word for the year. Last year I let go of alliteration and the word I chose was create. I even got a necklace that my sweetheart gave me that has my favorite flower a peony and the word create on it. I love it. And I did wear it often, especially in the beginning of the year to keep that top of mind. And it's kind of fun; at the end of the year I wasn't wearing it as much, and it was great to have this podcast as an impetus for me to kind of look back and think about things that I did create. The biggest, one of the thing I am most proud of is this podcast that was huge for this to finally happen. And for me to finally create this. Did y'all know that The Grit Show ranks in the top 10% of all podcasts? Isn't that great? It's amazing. I'm very honored by it. I thank you for being part of that success and for sharing it with your friends and to help it grow and get the information that we share out to others, that's the reason why I do this. We all need a little bit of this and this community is important. The success of the show and how much I love doing it is also what led the creation of an entire podcast network. The formal launch isn't until February of 2023, but the creating has largerly been happening in the last two months of 2022. It's been enormous. I also created a novel under my pen name. And I've also done some some short stories. One of which is Every Mother's Peanut Butter. Which is coming out as part of the anthology, A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood, which releases in May. I'll let you know, and that's up for pre-order. So, a lot of creating. I also created the Author Express podcast. It's about hearing the voices behind the pages of incredible books. In an express format. Hence the title, Author Express. And it's been a delight to connect with more authors that I've known and worked with and to be meeting new authors that I'm very excited to have on in the coming months. So more ways of creating and more ways of connecting. I felt like my creative side had been a little bit dormant, and I've been doing so much work over the few years, especially during the pandemic. And so it was really nice to get back into that creative side. And I'm very excited about the things I was able to create as a consequence to that. The way I see words of the year is boiling down what you want to focus, enhance, and amplify to one thing. One singular concept, one word, one area. Whether you want more grace, more grit, more gratitude, or to be more creative, to create more, to have more creation. It's just any one word that you choose. Sometimes it just comes to you. Like grace or gratitude came to me. I think I came up with grace, when I was actually introduced to the concept as part of an exercise, I feel like I was at a training or something as somebody talked about it and it kind of just came to me that that was my word. And then with gratitude. I was part way through the next year and was already trying to focus in on that and then remembered the concept of a word of the year and decided to make gratitude my word for that year and integrate it more and make it my focus. So, it happened two different ways. And then when create became my word of the year, it was actually a brainstorm of what I wanted and I had options and came up with that. This year. When I was trying to figure out some of my scheduling for the podcast. I was brainstorming on a plane. I decided I wanted to do something on the word of the year. That was a plane trip some of you might be aware of, because I did an Instagram post regarding a little extra searching I got at the airport. I did some searching of my own while on the plane. Fits, right? So plane trips are great for me when it comes to reading and brainstorming because I'm in one spot and don't have much room to work with things. So a book or a note pad's about all I have space for. So it was easier to center down and really think through different words. And I wrote some of them down. So when deciding on what words I might want and what words they should be, I've kind of looked through my year ahead, kind of a flash look at it. So mid year I have the wedding coming up to the love of my life. so I needed a word that would fit that. I'm launching my podcast networks. That's gonna take a lot of focus and energy. Growing this podcast, as well. So, balancing that with everything. We're also talking my partner and I about a house that better fits our needs because our house right now is kind of small. And so there's the different things that I'm trying to balance or fit in. Balance was one potential word, like, as I was looking at it. And what really rose to the top for me. Was Savor. So not balancing because we hear too much about balance. I wanted to actually SAVOR. How many times in your life do you launch a podcast network for me once? This is a huge, exciting thing, and I didn't want it to be like something. I was just trying to balance. And my wedding to the love of my life. I've waited my whole life for him and for this and this opportunity to share this with the people that I love and care about that are traveling from all over to share this with us. And I don't want it to be like a checklist of things to get done. I want to actually be in the moment with it. Be part of it. And finding our house, our next house, this house that I talked about in previous podcasts, that I'm very excited about. I want to savor these things. I don't want them to be checklists. I don't want to be overwhelmed. I don't want to be burnt out and just trying to trudge through, I want to savor. That is the word that I chose for 2023, so that I will constantly be reminded that I am here to savor. I'm here to enjoy and here to be present, to be part of these things. And I want to savor them. And balance. Nope. I'm not trying to balance. I want more than that. I'd just be in present as part of it, but it's more than that. I want to savor them. So, that is my word for 2023. And again, you all know that I'm an author, I'm a writer right? The nuance of the word, like it needed to have some resonance with it. So savor is that I came up with my 2023 term. Um, yeah, word hippo.com. I came up with that just on my own, but if you're there's times when I'm writing and I need to have the right word, because I am big on words and wordhippo.com is like this excellent thesaurus. My dad gave me a thesaurus when I was in elementary school. I still have the green thesaurus that he gave to me because I've always been big on words. A dear friend of mine, you know who you are, Laurie. She used to tease me about my $5 words. Cause I have my big words, but. I love words and so savor is my word for 2023. So, what about you? Is the word of the year something that speaks to you, like one word that can remind you of what you want to get out of this year, what you want to rise to the top. What thing you want to work with that you think will make an impact for you? Is it something you need more of in your life? Is it a state of being that you want to invite in? Is that a practice that you want to enhance? Is there a word that's tugging at you right now while you listen? Is one of the words that I've had one that resonated and spoke to you? Do you need a more systematic way to find this? If so. Make time for that. Find space for that. Maybe it helps to think through. What are the big things for you in the year ahead? Are there things, projects or activities that you want to be more mindful of? Is there anything you've been craving more of? Are there themes that have been coming up for you? Each time you hear the self care segment, do you think to yourself that you need to put yourself first? Is there a word that represents that or represent self care for you? And Hey, it's okay to use self care. I mean, hyphens, right? You can, you can use letting go too, I know it was two words, but you know, it's the concept that we're talking about here. I don't get too particular on, on the rules around it. So just brainstorm a little, use a scrap of a paper. If that's what you have handy or get an enormous sheet of tag board from the dollar store or your favorite craft store and get a pretty one. You do you, whatever. Whatever it takes to get it done. Use colorful markers use, whatever pen you find, grab a pencil. Grab the crayon when your kids are coloring something else, whatever. Whatever works for you to get it done. And then just freely write and see what resonates for you. See what word rises to the top. Is it something around self care? Is it patience? Do you want more joy? More solitude? More understanding? Is it something we talked about? Do you want more grace? With yourself or with others, it doesn't matter. Grace encompasses all of that. Do you want more gratitude? Do you feel like that's a practice that will help you? That keeping gratitude front of mind and reminding yourself to shift to that thinking, to overpower the other gremlins that are getting at you, is a good thing? Do you want room to create? What about being centered? Do you want to be more centered or more grounded? Does that speak to you? You could have savor. I will share savor. Do you want to savor? Do you want to be present? Is that a word? Do you want to celebrate? Do you want to celebrate every little thing? What about in the moment? In the moment you can have that too. The laughter. More laughter. Brainstorm and think. If those spoke to you. Or you could just spend a couple of days just pondering and see what words somebody says that kind of grab you. Sharing openness. Fulfilled. Do you want to be fulfilled this year? Do you want that? I keep a planner every year, very old school handwritten planner. And I write it in the front of my planner. So I'll glimpse it ever so often and be able to look at it. And last year, like I said, I actually had a necklace that I wore that had the word create on it. So put it somewhere you'll see it. Write it on the window where you do the dishes write on your bathroom mirror. Give yourself a little reminders. Put it somewhere where you're going to see it. Put it on a scrap of paper, pretty decorated, put it in your wallet. So each time you open your wallet, you see it and you can have that reminder. Find a way that speaks to you as a way that you're going to see it and be reminded that's your word. And bring yourself back to it so that you can think of ways to integrate it and find it and see it. And honestly like that necklace. I tell you that there was more time that I spent in the beginning of the year with create, being the word and thinking of create as my word. And later in the year, not so much. And it was so nice to revisit here, in the last couple of weeks. Planning this podcast thinking about this. To realize that I did invite that in and that. I did create a podcast and I did do more creative writing and did do more with my writing this year. And that I am creating a network and that there is these pieces of creating that I did. And we actually created the, I hadn't thought about that, that we created a little gifts for my fiance's coworkers, we gave them that was a little creative thing that I did for that. Which I haven't done that for some time because of. You know, Things like the pandemic and whatnot. If you start with it and sit with it, it'll find its way in. Even after you're not as focused. Which I love about that, right? Like it find its way in. And I still have that grace and that gratitude and those other pieces that I had from previous years, like they're still there. They're like they become part of the bedrock. Once you have them, a lot of them sleep in. That's what I like about the word of the year. I can't tell you what my resolutions are from five years ago, but my words of the year, are still something that I can pull up because they kind of became integrated into things. And part of me more, because they were just a word, which is a little simpler they're big concepts, but they're words that they, they feel more manageable. At least for me. So something to think about. And if you do do this, I would love for you to connect with me and let me know what your word is. And I will actually put a post on instagram. If you happen to be on Instagram, I'd love for you to stop by and tell me what your word is, or just send me the email if you're on our mailing list and respond on the email, let me know what your word of the year is, because I would love to know if you had the chance to do this. And what actually spoke to you, what you came up with. That would be amazing. I would love for that. And for the self care spotlight today. I might've mentioned this. Some other point in the podcast; one of my favorite little self-care rituals is actually baking. But baking, while I'm dancing around the kitchen with my music playing. And not cooking. Baking. My fiance often cooks dinner. And when I cook dinner, I do that also, but I often listen to podcasts. And I'm more focused on things. It takes more precision for me when I'm making dinner and cooking. So to speak. When I bake it's like muffins and cookies and flourless torts or baked brie or rice crispy treats or truffles. I made truffles for the holidays. So it's like a joyous treat and it's like dancing and music and singing along and just losing myself and creating and being part of something. And like, there's just joy that goes with it. And to me, that is different somehow. And that's more self-care. Tapping into joy. So that is my little self care spotlight. The reason we do these every week on this show is to give you guys glimpses of how different people take care of themselves and integrate that so that when you need a reminder, you have this toolbox of different ways. People take care of themselves too. To grab onto and see what fits for you and what feels right for you to take care of yourself. So that's one way that I take care of myself. That I enjoy and can pull out when I need to have a little me-time. So before I let you go, I promised to recap of episodes to revisit. If you have extra time. Over this, sometimes slower season for others, it's really busy end of the year stuff. So it varies. But if you have some time. I'm going to give you a few recommendations. So. As I mentioned the bounce back from burnout, which is episode 27, says all in the title. If you felt less effective at work or at home overwhelmed, it can be signs of burnout. So give that episode a listen and check out the tools in the show notes. And as you look at 2023. If you're looking for more alignment in your relationships. If you feel a little out of sync with the people you care about, or with that part of your life, with connecting with others. You might give a listen to episode 13 and in the show notes, there's the quiz on love languages. And I feel like that's just a powerful thing. Understanding what your love language is. And maybe hearing a little more about love languages and alignment relationships can be a valuable tool. So. Check out episode 13. And if you. Have some thoughts about things to focus on in 2023 and the word of the year, but you're feeling unclear about yourself and you feel all muddled up and how that all flows together. And we had Belle Lockerby on, she had some great insight around the words that you have and how you define them. In other words, people have given you and questioning the definitions of words and how they fit you in your life. And that's episode 12. And if your career is somewhere where you feel a little stuck. Like either you're looking for ways to network and move forward, or whether you're kind of looking at your strengths, how they align with your work, or you feel like you're a fish out of water with your work sometimes, and you don't get appreciated for the gifts that you have. Episodes 1, 15, or 17 all great options. Look at the titles. they'll tell you more. One, 15, or 17. So check those out. Or just, you know, scroll through the titles and the descriptions have more for the different episodes. But those are all some good things for you to check out. We're fortunate here. We've been around long enough now that. The Grit Show that we have some options for you to look at. I'm excited for January. We had some fantastic conversations. They're a little bit more about lifestyle and not so much about resolutions to kind of give you some different ways of looking at things. So we have conversations around intuitive eating, doing as a destination kind of focus, as well as delaying not denying, which is around intermittent fasting. Which is intriguing because intuitive eating and intermittent fasting can kind of come from two different camps around thinking, but listen to the episodes because they're both different and they're different tools and ways of a thinking of things. And I would love for you guys to listen to them, tell me what you think about them and what resonates with you, because I want you to find what resonates for you. And they're both more of lifestyle/ thinking, than resolutions. So getting away from that. But I know a lot of people are thinking about those things this time of year. So we're giving you some different ways of looking at things. And both of them spoke to me in different ways. So hopefully you can let me know what speaks to you. And see how they come together for you. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode and the concept of a word of the year is something that connected with you. If you did enjoy this episode. Please take the time to share it with a friend. If you go to TheGritShow.com and select listen to our latest episodes, you'll find links to all of our episodes. And after selecting an episode it's easy to find the specific link to share that one episode. Follow us on Instagram @The.Grit.Show. We love to connect with you on there. Send us a DM. It's the easiest way to reach me. And no matter how your day or week has gone. Just remember. You are the only one of you, the only unique individual with your perspective, talents, and skills to offer, that this world has got. And that means something. I'll be here next week. And I look forward to connecting with you then.