word of the YEAR
Every October or November, I begin to pray about what my Word of the Year will be for the upcoming year. I have a running list that goes back to 2014 when I began to track them. There has always been a theme or word that seemed to follow me each year for as long as I can remember, and it has been interesting to look back through the journals to see how the word played out for that year.
In 2025 the word was CULTIVATE. When the Lord gave that to me in October of 2024, I prayed over it, and believed it meant I would deepen relationships or increase my involvement in things at church. I had no idea it would come to mean so much more than that.
Cultivation is an agricultural term, and the primary definition is:
to prepare and work on (land) in order to raise crops; till.
to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention.
Last year, we finished putting in all new flower beds around the house. It was a LOT of work. We cleared the ground, put down weed block, added a stone border, and filled the beds with top soil and mulch. Then we planted new flowers, bulbs, and shrubs. We cultivated the ground to give the new plants the best chance of thriving.
When I quit my career in finance and banking, it rearranged our entire routine. For the first three months of 2025, I decompressed from the stress that had been slowly building at my job for more than a year and planned to spend the year CULTIVATING a new me. I had to let go of who I had been for the last 30 years or so.
After the first couple months home, I picked up writing again and knew that was what I most needed to focus on moving forward. Robert and I prayed about it, and he agreed. We made the decision to invest time and money into making my writing a full time job.
Cultivating a new mindset came slowly and with a lot of fears to overcome. I had been away from writing for nearly 7 years, and I had lost all the connections and friendships I’d once had in the writing community. Which gave me a wonderful opportunity to re-invent myself and how I wanted to present myself as not just a self-published author, but as a business woman. I’ve shared bits and pieces of this journey already, and it was an amazing experience.
So here we are on December 31st, and I am reflecting on how CULTIVATE played out in my life. I have not only updated my branding to something that better reflects where I am now, but I’ve discovered who I am as a writer, who my target audience is and who it is not. I’ve given myself time to settle into the identity as an entrepreneur, and what that should look like as I begin to move forward.
In the end, I realized I am finally cultivating the real me. I was who I needed to be for my employer, my previous friendships, and even to my family. But going into 2026, I feel like I am finally closer to who I know I was created to be, and I am so excited!
So what about 2026?
Even though I am always surprised by how the Lord applies my word of the year in ways I never saw coming, I still like to write down what I anticipate it will look like played out in my life over the upcoming 12 months. Sometimes I am right, other times I am VERY far off - cue 2025! But, these are my initial thoughts for what 2026 might have in store:
My gut feeling tells me I will be tempted to quit due to a lack of visible growth in my business. This year was a huge growth year, and 2026 will expect me to step into and beyond that initial growth toward the dreams I’ve had ever since I started writing my very first novel all those years ago. My gut tells me there won’t be much evidence or reward this year, at least not in the monetary or notoriety fronts. If last year was cultivating my own heart, goals, and identity, then 2026 will be a year of finding the right environments, attracting the right followers, connecting with the right people, and building a solid reputation my readers can trust.
There will be push backs, setbacks, and missed opportunities. That is what growth looks like. Especially when a new plant is fighting it’s way above ground to push out new stalks and leaves that will bear fruit when the time comes. 2026 might look like the growth is barren, all leaves and twigs but no fruit.
Those plants we put in the new flower beds in 2025? They aren’t likely to be much larger in 2026. They will be getting established. They need time to adapt to their new environment. We also have many fruit trees that are still a year or two away from producing more than one or two apples, pears, or peaches. They need time to mature.
And that is why my 2026 Word of the Year is STEADFAST. I fully expect that I will need to stand firm and refuse to give up when it looks like nothing is working. Growing a platform, a following, a readership, and a reputation isn’t an overnight endeavor or a one year process!
I am in this as an author for the long haul, and unless the Lord choses to set me up for a miracle, the hard work is just beginning. I hope you will travel with me as I continue to share the lessons I’m learning along the way.
May 2026 be your best year ever!
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