A Word for 2026

If you are new around here, every year I pick a word that has to do with something I want to focus on for the year. If you search in the search bar on my right sidebar (or bottom of the page if you are on a mobile device) and type in “a word for” then you should find some of my old posts!

I have been thinking about my word for 2026 for several days (as you can see we are already well into January!) because I really take this seriously and wanted to get it right. Something that I feel really hit me harder than usual this past year is just how fast time is going. Emma Kate is in 5th grade. She wears the same shoe size as me. She will be in middle school next year. She isn’t a little kid anymore and it just crushes me. Since I only have one kid, I only get to “do this” once and I want to savor and enjoy it, not hurry through because of busyness, a hard season, etc.

So this year I REALLY don’t want to waste the precious time I have. I want to really live in those moments and not have any regrets with my family. You never know how long you are going to have and I want to live my life to the fullest and not waste it on doom scrolling and being lazy.

So my word for the year is INTENTIONAL. I don’t want to do something just to do it. I want to say yes to the things that matter, and be strong enough to say no to the things that don’t serve me and my family, or the things I care about supporting the most. I don’t want to fill my schedule with busy. I want down time. I want lazy days. I want sitting around talking. Playing games. Playing outside. I want those moments and memories that time steals and you can’t get back.

So that’s where I am right now. Being very selective with how I spend my time, who I spent it with, and what I spend it doing. For work that looks like saying no to lower paying gigs that are time and energy vampires. it means saying no to unpaid press trips where they pack the schedule so full you don’t have any free time to enjoy the destination yourself. At home it means putting down my phone more often and mindlessly doom scrolling to fill every waking second.

I don’t have exact metrics on time because honestly I don’t know what it will always look like. But at least I am starting, and I am excited about this one. This year is one that may not be the most impactful as far as money, or knowledge or success as the world sees it, but I don’t care. I want it to be successful in my daughter’s eyes, so she will look back one day and say that her mom spent so much time with her growing up. THAT, my friends, is success.