My year of HOPE + my 2022 OneWord

I normally write two separate posts for these shares. One to recap my year and another to share my new OneWord. This year, however, the words connect and writing one post felt most right.

If you’ve been a part of my community for any length of time, you know that rather than making resolutions I choose OneWord to embody my year. Actually, the word chooses me, an invitation to let that word be my guide for the year.

In 2021, my OneWord was HOPE. I resisted hope as my word because it felt like a cliché especially after all we went through in 2020. In time, though I was able to connect with it. Creating my vision board helped with that process (you can see it and read about that here).

Vision Board Magic

Actually, my vision board helped me understand this year of hope more than anything else. As usual, my board worked its magic. I put the word “teach” on my board, not 100% sure what that would look like, only that I wanted to lean more into my gift as a teacher.

This year I started teaching at Queens University and have been doing some contract work on our local community college, Central Piedmont. I also wrote three new curriculums this year and hope to offer them more in 2022. I’d also like to write one or two more next year.

Seeds of Hope

Ultimately, however, this year proved to be about planting seeds of HOPE. Seeds of possibility, of new dreams, new ways of experiencing my life and my world.

Creating my own lane in my work, changing the quality of my life, finding new dreams, reclaiming desire and play. These are all things that were on my 2021 vision board. I can feel them taking shape within me AND they haven’t fully formed yet.

2022 OneWord and Vision Board

This is where my 2022 OneWord comes into play. My word is BELIEVE. For a while, I thought it would be something else. In the end, however, BELIEVE landed as the right word. The invitation this year is to BELIEVE that the seeds of hope planted in me during 2021 can and will take root and bloom in 2022.  

And my Vision Board speaks to this idea so beautifully. I’ve been creating an annual vision board since 2009. This year’s board took the longest to take shape than any I’ve ever created. I trusted the process though and the result is a board that resonates deeply for me.

This board stirs something in me that I struggle to put into words. It feels pregnant with so much possibility. The possibility of reclaiming parts of me. Of uncovering new hopes and dreams. Of thriving not simply surviving.

Of staking claim to a new narrative, one that feels more aligned with who I know myself to be. I can’t explain exactly what I mean today. Maybe by the end of 2022, I’ll have more language for it.

A year to BELIEVE

For now, it is enough to know that I will lean into BELIEVE and see where the adventure takes me. After all, the biggest lesson I am taking with me from 2021 is to trust that the journey unfolds exactly when and how it is supposed to.

Ideas and plans are forming in my head around all these possibility AND I’m taking things slowly. I’m not jumping into anything right now, just trusting that as I follow the nudges, my year of BELIEVE will surprise and delight me.

Now I’d love to hear from you. How are you feeling about 2022? Do you have a word or a theme to guide you? Tell me in the comments below or you can email me at makeda(at)makedapennycooke(dot)com.

From my heart to yours, 

P.S: If you’d like to be more intentional as you step into 2022, click here to learn about the 2022 Visioning Guide. This guide will take you on a journey to look back, look within, and look ahead as you consider how you may want to do 2022 differently. You’ll also received detailed instructions for creating your own vision board. Grab your copy here.