Choosing a word for the year 2025
And how I'll be putting it into practice in the coming days, weeks and months
There’s been a word circling in my mind for some time now. It kept coming up whenever I felt frustrated, or lost, or joyful. I would think things like, “I want to be more eco-friendly” or “I should be more sociable in 2025” and then I’d realise that above all else, what I wanted to be was more deliberate.
2024 felt very much like it ran out of my control. The events of the year took me by surprise and challenged me in almost every single way, and every time I felt like I had a small sense of agency so something else would happen, the tides would change, and I’d be adrift again.
I know this could all repeat itself in 2025. Life does have a habit of throwing you things you least expect. I won’t pretend that I will deal with grief any better just because I’ve chosen deliberate as my word of the year.
I do, however, want to take more care over the things that I do have some element of control over. My time, my energy, my attention, my finances and my love.
‘Deliberate living’, as you might call my resolution for 2025, is a promise of awareness and mindfulness as you go about your day. It means being conscious of the decisions you’re making, however small. Switching off from auto-pilot to consider things you might not have ever questioned before. This could be as simple as saying, “do I really want that cup of coffee, or is it just habit?” to big decisions like, “what am I working towards and do I really want what’s at the end of this path, or have I just assumed it is because it’s what I feel I’m supposed to want?”
For me, the ways I’ll be living more deliberately this year are:
1. Shopping deliberately (if at all)
A few months ago, I came to the realisation that I just had too much stuff. I started decluttering (and listened to this fab audiobook during the process) but I now need to commit to shopping more deliberately. This means I’ll:
Only buy to replace. If something that I use breaks or is no longer fit for purpose, I can replace it. If I want to buy something that I don’t have currently, I’ll need to get rid of (i.e. donate) something else. Declutterers call this the ‘one in, one out rule’ and it’s a mindset I’ve found really helpful, especially having just received new things for Christmas!
Purchase sustainably. In both senses of the word – good for the planet and long-lasting. AKA not one single Primark purchase, not even if I’m out and I spill hot chocolate all down myself before meeting someone important. I’ll try to shop locally and seasonally, without going into debt. Choosing loose vegetables over bagged ones (Why do so many things come in plastic bags!?). Visiting our zero waste shop, which, as it turns out, sells some items even cheaper than our local Tesco.
Make do and mend. I have a sewing machine that I bought with a gift voucher three years ago that I have never used. That will change this year. Mending holes, sewing on buttons, shortening hems, etc. My first use will be to turn some really, really sorry looking clothes into cleaning rags. Easy. Probably.
2. Allowing myself to pause before making a decision
I have a habit of making impulsive decisions. I tend to get carried away by my emotions and say yes, or no, to things before I really think about them. See also, starting this Substack last year without any forward planning and then quickly giving up writing because I hadn’t factored in that I’d actually have to spend time writing the thing.
I’m sure I’ll still make some decisions without properly thinking them through, but I’m hopeful that this year I can allow myself a moment of pause before committing to anything new. Fashion psychologist Shakaila Forbes-Bell suggests a 4-3-2-1 process for considering any new purchase and I’m creating a similar set of questions I’ll ask myself before making other types of decisions. More on that soon!
3. Doing things to feel good
I always feel like I have to justify why I’m doing something that costs money. Last month, I went to a yoga class that was £13 – which feels ridiculously expensive, or is that just how much these things cost now!? – and I absolutely loved it. But I haven’t been back, because I keep thinking I should be using that money on something that doesn’t just provide me with happiness. What a thing to admit! Do I value my own happiness so little?
I can’t imagine I’ll go back to that yoga studio every week, but I do want to commit real time and money to feeling good, mentally and physically. I think I deserve that much after the toll of 2024.
Next Tuesday, I start an intermediate ceramics class at a nearby college. I am SO excited about it. I’d originally signed up to start back in October and I thought, “great, I can use the course to make Christmas presents for everyone!” See how I was justifying it to myself not in terms of how much I’d enjoy it, but how economically useful it would be? Then, the day before the first lesson, I had a call to say it’d been cancelled. They hadn’t had enough interest. Would I like to be put on the January course instead?
At the time I was a little upset, but on reflection I think it’s better this way. Now, I’m making for me, for fun, for pleasure, to learn rather than produce.
So, that’s three ways I’m hoping to live more deliberately this year. What about you, do you have a ‘word of the year’? If you don’t yet, I would recommend this exercise from Slow Living LDN to help you generate some ideas – I only discovered their article after already deciding my word would be deliberate but I think if I followed their steps, I’d come out with the same result!
Happy New Year folks, looking forward to comparing notes with you x