One Word for 2020


I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided on my one word for 2019. It was a week after my husband had told me he wanted to split up... and I chose EMBRACE as my guiding word for the coming year.

At the time, I had good intentions about business development, embracing and growing several different initiatives. Optimism is a good thing but, looking back... well, duh! It was more of a year of shedding: my 16-year marriage, my house and garden, and lots of things I'd accumulated.

It wasn't all bad -- I taught three 11-week courses, partnered in the second successful Social Media Day Halifax Conference, moved myself and clients to a new bulk email service provider, built nine websites, and supported clients with their ongoing marketing. But I didn't really embrace anything; in fact, I turned business away several times.

All is not lost. The word embrace has served me well for the last month of 2019. I'm settled in a new place with a lovely new office. I finally refreshed my own website, confident about promoting email marketing services again since I partnered with ActiveCampaign. I started blogging again after a 3-month hiatus. I'm doing more consulting.

I considered reusing embrace as my one word for 2020. Instead, I'm going to be more daring and brave... and specific. My one word for 2020 is DOUBLE. This means doubling my income, doubling my client base, and doubling the enjoyment I get from work by doing things I love. Each of these things is achievable with effort and I'm ready to embrace the challenge.

Following The Phone Lady's example, I looked up the definition of DOUBLE -- as a pronoun, it means "a number or amount which is twice as large as a contrasting or usual number or amount". That's darn specific and a little daunting.

Have you picked one word for 2020? I'd love to hear your story in the comments.

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