Being Whimsical in 2025

Choosing My Word

This my now my third year doing a “Word of the Year”. My word for 2024 was “Groove” and for 2023 it was “Intentional”. This year was the hardest of the three years to come up with a word to focus on. “Groove” last year was hard to come up with because I wanted to have a snappy word to capture a lot of the sentiment, but the sentiment was at least always clear to me. For this year I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to focus on, which I don’t know if that means I’m more directionless or in a better spot than in previous years.

To brainstorm I started putting down words (usually adjectives) that I wanted to be able to describe myself as or thought myself lacking in. Then I would cluster those words together to see what kind of themes arose. I ended up with 11 total word clusters, some slightly similar, but most of them were pretty different from each other. However, there can only be one word of the year, so I chose “Whimsy”.

I chose this for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I want to be more playful, take things less seriously, and have more fun. I think I tend to be in my head a lot and hurt my own feelings or agonize how I showed up in various conversations, things that prevent me from being as happy as I want to be.

• I want to be a better conversationalist: more confident, fun, and flirtatious.
  • I have the most fun in conversations where I am to joke around, even if I am just amusing myself.
• I want to be a better host who can command a room and connect people with each other.
  • I find myself letting gatherings self-organize, which does work, but I could help facilitate more connection if I take charge sometimes.
• I want to find a practice of play to integrate into my life.
  • I don’t really like games (card/board/video)
  • Reading/TV/Movies is more about thinking or entertainment
  • Interior design experimentation serves as play for me at times, but it is limited by the amount of space that I have

Sub-Goals

I have less sub-goals this year because I want to mostly maintain what I have already been doing, with a slight focus on some things that I think would make my year more fulfilling and growth-oriented.

Focus on health (to have energy for whimsy):

• Be on screens less
  • Read more physical books
• Get more daily steps (8,000+)
• Continue lifting and making progress
• Be out in nature more
  • Go on hikes

Speak more to strangers (to become a better speaker/more outgoing):

• Take out headphones in some public places
• Say good morning to desk people at work
• Compliment random people
• Speak up and don’t mumble

Continue decorating the apartment (to fill my apartment with whimsy):

• Find more art
• Get more colorful and/or fun decor

Gather people and spend time in community (to have fun and share it with others):

• Plan better friend hangs?
• Host cool/unique themed events