Words are powerful. The way we speak to ourselves matters, and the way we communicate and interact with the world around us matters. Which is why a focused word of the month can be such a powerful tool in your life and journal.
While many of us are familiar with a word of the year, a word of the month is also a great way to stay focused in your life and your belief systems. When the calendar turns to a new month, it’s something that forces you to take stock of your priorities for the next 30 days, AND it’s something you can incorporate into your journal for the month.
Why do you Need a Word of the Month?
Deciding to have a word of the month is similar to having a mantra. Mantras are used in different cultures as a way of bringing different beliefs and ideas into existence. If you say something enough times—eventually you’ll believe it.
Maybe you are someone who wants to cultivate better relationships with the people around you. You might choose the word “community” as your word of the month.
If you want to step outside of your comfort zone and experience new things, you may choose “courage” as your word of the month.
Your world of the month could be something that inspires you and propels you into action in your day to day life, or – conversely – reminds you to take a break and give yourself a rest.
How to Choose your Word for the Month?
There are lots of different ways to choose a word of the month…the best method is one that works for you.
An Improvement Word
Think about something in your life you want to be better at. This could be something that affects how you interact with your physical world such as keeping your space clean and organized, spending more time outdoors, or finding a new job.
A Spirituality Word
It can also be a word that drives your spirituality. Maybe you want to spend more time meditating, being grateful, or doing yoga. Or maybe there’s a word from scripture or your religion that speaks to you.
A Thematic Word
Another option is drawing inspiration from the world around you or from the calendar itself.
For example, since September is often associated with the new beginnings of back to school, maybe you choose a word like “fresh start” or “shift” for September. This would work for January, too!
In July, maybe your word is “outside” because you want to spend less time at your computer, and more time in nature.
How Do You Pick One Word for the Month?
There are endless words you can choose your single word for the month.
Perhaps start by looking at a dictionary for the definition, or the thesaurus for synonyms of a word you have in mind. Maybe the word you have in mind is “love.” Check to see if there is a synonym that speaks to you better like cherishing, adulation or passion.
How to Use your Monthly Word?
Once you have found the perfect word of the month for you, start writing it everywhere!
Write it in your journal (you could even incorporate it into your vision board, scripting manifestation, or 55 5 method), have it as the lock screen on your phone, tablet, and desktop, and write a note and stick it in your bathroom mirror.
When you wake up in the morning, start your day by saying your word of the month outloud to yourself and embracing the weight of the word. Let it wash over you and picture what embracing that word will look like for the day.
How will it make you walk, how will it make you talk, how will it change the way you interact with the world around you? Will you make your breakfast differently than the day before?
Start believing that you are all the things you wish to receive from your word of the month. Every time you see that word, let it fill you with that belief.
Another great way you can use your word of the month is to make a brain dump. Write about how the world makes you feel and all the associations you have with the word.
Words may have definitions, but they also carry very different definitions depending on who is using them.
108 Word of the Month Ideas So You Can Choose a Different Word Each Month
- Achieve
- Advise
- Advocate
- Apply
- Assemble
- Balance
- Budget
- Build
- Champion
- Clarify
- Collaborate
- Compassion
- Conserve
- Consolidate
- Craft
- Create
- Customize
- Delegate
- Demonstrate
- Design
- Detail
- Determine
- Discover
- Display
- Diversify
- Document
- Draft
- Earn
- Emphasize
- Encourage
- Energize
- Enthusiasm
- Excellence
- Experiment
- Facilitate
- Familiarize
- Forage
- Foster
- Guide
- Gratitude
- Harness
- Honor
- Identify
- Imagine
- Implement
- Improve
- Improvise
- Inclusion
- Increase
- Influence
- Innovate
- Initiate
- Integrity
- Inspire
- Invent
- Justify
- Launch
- Listen
- Maintain
- Manage
- Master
- Measure
- Mediate
- Meditate
- Mindset
- Monitor
- Motivate
- Navigate
- Nominate
- Normalize
- Observe
- Offer
- Organize
- Outsource
- Overhaul
- Participate
- Perceive
- Perfect
- Perform
- Perspective
- Plan
- Predict
- Prepare
- Prioritize
- Progress
- Project
- Provide
- Qualify
- Rebuild
- Receive
- Recognize
- Redesign
- Repair
- Restore
- Secure
- Streamline
- Strengthen
- Support
- Transcribe
- Transform
- Unify
- Upgrade
- Validate
- Verify
- Willpower
- Win
- Write
- Zest
Having One Word To Focus On Every Month is Empowering
Having a word of the month is empowering because you are allowing yourself to bring change and intention into your day to day life.
You can choose to instead have a word of the day, week or even year. That is perfectly acceptable too. Just be sure you’re giving yourself the time you need to feel the change your word will bring you.
Over the course of the month you may find that your definition of the word will change too. That is perfectly normal! Your experiences and thoughts are constantly re-defining your beliefs about the world around you— just as experiences and thoughts will deepen and change how we define our language.
This might also help you choose a new word for next month.
Words carry weight and energy.
Make Your Word into a Mantra
Another great way to use your word of the month is to write down as many mantras about it you can and say them outloud to yourself.
If your word of the month is “love” you could say:
- I am loved
- I deserve to be loved
- I love the people around me
- I have endless love to give and receive
Mantras are powerful. Saying them every day is a great way to fundamentally rewire our belief systems.
Maybe something happened in your life that led you to believe you were not actually worthy of love, or capable of loving others fully. Just because you have had these experiences does not mean you need to believe these hurtful things.
You can share your word of the month with someone around you that you trust as well. This will be a great way to stay accountable and truly feel the full power of your word of the month!
Lindsay loves documenting her travels and adventures through photography, videography and bullet journaling.
She is an avid traveler and has been to 13 different countries- with many more to come! You can follow her adventures on her tiktok (@lindsayamanphotography), youtube (coming soon), instagram (@lindsayamanphotography ), and her website.
