Ground Yourself in 2025: Choosing a Word of the Year

Listen Now:

About the episode:

If you’re listening in real time, happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to fill it with the people and things that are meaningful for you. The first episode of the year is one of my favorites to record because it’s the episode in which I share my word of the year. Having a word of the year has consistently served as such an empowering practice for me, for grounding and for calling in a new experience or a way of being that I want to cultivate in the new year. Another thing that I love about a word of the year rather than resolutions is that it focuses on being instead of doing – which is something that can be so restorative for empathprenuers. With that, I’m excited to reflect back on 2024 and what my word of the year made possible as well as my word for the upcoming year. I hope this episode encourages you to take the time to reflect and declare your own word. May your 2025 be prosperous, and may it be filled with purposefulness.

Topics discussed:

• Looking back at Catherine’s word of the year for 2024, simplicity, and where she was able to fulfill it, plus how it prepared her for becoming a mom
• Grounding yourself in the now and recognizing that the quality of your presence in business and in life is everything
• The evolution of Catherine’s own love languages and why now more than ever, quality time feels the most important to her
• Catherine’s suggestion if you’re feeling rushed, harried, or lonely as you move into the new year

Episode Resources:

• Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence 
• Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words 
• My Word for 2023
• Choosing A Word of the Year with Rebecca Arnold and Rebecca Eller-Molitas

Connect with Catherine:

• Apply to join the free Unbounded community, a vibrant group of empathpreneurs who are passionate about supporting each other on our entrepreneurial journeys. 
• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Sign up to receive my bi-weekly digest on empathic entrepreneurship and hear from voices committed to spreading this message, sent straight to your inbox since 2016, here.

Work with Catherine:

• Interested in working with a certified coach on her team, or joining one of her premium mastermind programs? Schedule a low-pressure call to begin the conversation here.

[expand title=”Click here for a raw, unedited transcript of this episode“]

Catherine A. Wood 00:01
Cat, hello. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast, Kat. Here. Happy New Year. I’m recording today’s episode on the Monday of my last week in the office before taking the next two weeks off completely from the business, and I’m feeling so excited for this holiday season. It will be my first spending with my son and my family and my best friend will be visiting home, and I just feel so grateful for getting to focus so much quality time with loved ones and my family and my son. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and filled it with the people and things that are meaningful for you. I love the holiday season. I love the traditions, the memories. I love buying gifts and receiving gifts. I love the art of buying a thoughtful gift for someone that I just I’m so excited for them to unwrap. And it’s the new year. It’s 2025 and this is not a new year, new you type of podcast, but it is one of my favorites that I get to record every year, and it used to be my favorite blog post that I would write every year, and it is the episode in which I share my word of the year. Having a word of the year has consistently served as such an empowering practice for me, for grounding and for calling in a new experience or a way of being that I want to cultivate in the new year. And you know, rather than making new year’s resolutions, which are so often clouded in changing something about ourselves that we don’t like focusing on something that we want to fix about ourselves. It’s also focused on doing. And in my experience, a word of the year focuses on being, because as ambitious empaths, we have mastered doing friends and it is start. It’s time to start being one of my one of my teachers once told me that, cat, if you’re not being on purpose, you’re being off purpose. And for me, that’s what a word of the year represents. It is a a word, an experience, a way of being that grounds us in intention and purpose. It serves as an anchor to come home to, and it’s an opportunity. It’s a way to bring us back to a place of personal power or self agency when we lose sense of where we’re going. Now I am delighted to share my word of the year with you all for 2024 oh gosh, I’m delighted to share my word of the year with you all for 2025 and before we do, I always love just taking a look back from prior years, because it’s first of all, always nice to look at what we committed to, what we put intention to, and then just to assess, how did it go? How do we do? What are the learnings? What are the takeaways? What is there to celebrate? So 2024 my word of the year was simplicity, and I was looking back at my podcast from last year, which we’ll include in the show notes, the episodes from the last two years, sharing a little bit more about past words of the year and some of my musings on them, but last year, my word of the year was simplicity, and in revisiting the episode, I realized that I wanted to call in more simplicity In four key areas, in empowering my schedule in minimizing my private practice, in parting ways with some business partners, which I was no longer needing in the business because I was wanting to simplify more and opening up my private community to the Public now, I fulfilled on all of those areas. And the fascinating thing for me was that when I recorded this episode last year, I did not know that I was pregnant, and I am so grateful for all the foundational work that I did in. Curating more simplicity in anticipation of bringing Micah into the world. You know, my schedule and my business and my business model look so different a year later, and I have no doubt it’s in thanks to to to really thinking with intention around what’s the experience of life and business that I wanted to create in 2024 because it certainly feels a lot more simple. I pulled out a lot of the weeds and really focused on the aspects of business that I loved, and let a lot of things go and and now, stepping into 2025, looking at my schedule, it is filled with so much more intention and purposefulness around how and when I’m available in the business and when I’m Not. And quite simply, it’s also a lot easier to empower your schedule when you have a beautiful, happy son waiting for you to come play with him. So wow, so grateful for for for simplicity. And you know, past years, I’ve chosen words like leisure and prosperity. Not surprisingly, I chose prosperity in 2022 when I also unknowingly was going to launch the podcast and name it the prosperous empath. The year before that, I declared pleasure is my word of the year. And it was also the year I got engaged. The year before that, in 2020. Was home, and that was also the year we purchased our first home. And the list goes on. I I’m such a believer that if we are not being on purpose, we truly are being off purpose. So I really invite you, as you’re considering this next year, what is the way of being that you want to cultivate? What is the quality or the experience of your life or your business that you’re wanting to nurture? It is such a useful practice in re anchoring ourselves in who we want to be, in how we want to show up, and from there, what are the practices that allow us to fulfill on that experience of life or that way of being? So many of us, we focus on doing. We focus on what we what we want to achieve, what there is to do, what there is to accomplish, but in reality, we do not want to accomplish for accomplishments sake, and especially as ambitious empaths. We want to accomplish things so as to make available a distinct experience of life, a new way of prioritizing our time, our resources, our energy. So it does not have to be this delayed gratification game. It does not have to be this zero sum game where we do do do, do do so that we can have a little more free time play a little more with our children. We can do that now. We can choose who we want to become and practice becoming that version of ourselves in this moment. And for me, that’s what having a word of the year has always represented. So with that, I am thrilled to share with you my word of the year for 2025 you know, oftentimes I feel a little sheepish sharing my words of the year feels like like a big, a big reach for me. But in reality, this year, my word of the year came very easily for me, and in looking back, I was actually shocked that I’ve never chosen this word of the year before, because it is a way of being that is something I’m a huge stand for in my coaching practice and in my masterminds. It’s something I speak with clients about often, because I notice that it is an experience. It’s a way of being that so many of us are craving right now more than ever. And for me, that way of being is presence. My Word of the Year for 2025 is presence. Now I was really reflecting on presence and what it means to me. And I really think that Eckhart Tolle, he has such a beautiful interpretation of it. He says, realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the now the primary. Great focus of your life. And what I notice, especially being a new mom, is that the quality of now is everything to me this year, now more than ever, because I look at Micah every day and he’s reaching new milestones. He is learning new things. He is looking different. He is gaining weight. He is growing. He is changing. He is evolving. And I don’t want to miss a single moment of it for me, the quality of our presence, the quality of my presence with him is everything, and I am so committed to cherishing and nurturing that in this new year now, I really believe that the quality of our presence is everything, not only in life, but in business as well, and particularly for us as Empath preneurs, the way In which we show up, the way in which we be with other people, is how empathpreneurs choose who to partner with in business, choose who to work with, choose who to become friends with, choose who to be in relationships with. And if we are so focused on rushing, on accomplishing, on not being in the here and now. We will lose sight of opportunities. We will lose sight of clients and collaborations. We’ll lose sight of the joy in the here and now. So for me, I think that the experience of presence is something that so many of us can can take something from in the new year and practice I uh, now what’s unique for me about choosing presence as my word of the year is that I have a lot of spaciousness in my schedule these days. I have a lot of time on my calendar, and it’s not that oh Haley, I want to, I want to delete that. I as I reflect on presence as my word of the year. Something I’m really mindful of is that I experience a lot of presence in my life. I have a morning routine that allows me to ground and and come to a place of centerness. And it’s not that I’m wanting more presence, per se, it’s really the quality of my presence that I’m wanting to really nurture and bring even more intentionality to this year. It’s the quality of my time, my energy and my relationships, and how I’m choosing to experience them this year, and I’m thrilled at the prospect of both enjoying and experiencing them with my full presence, with my full heartedness, with my full attention. For me, that experience of giving and receiving someone’s undivided attention, it’s just about the most important gift I could ask for. And something I’ve even been noting recently is that, you know, Gary Chapman has this beautiful distinction of the five love languages. And in years past, receiving thoughtful gifts and physical touch have always been my top two love languages. But what I’ve noticed over the past couple years is that my love languages have been evolving, and now more than ever, quality time feels more and more important to me because we live in such a fast and hurried world. Now, if you haven’t read the book dopamine nation, I really that was one of the my favorite reads of 2024 because it talks about just this idea that we are living in this world where we are addicted to dopamine. We are addicted to the highs of social media, of the craze of who liked and. Comments on our posts, and it is so hard for so many of us to slow down, to put away technology, to shut off at night and be fully present. And so for me, I just noticed that I’ve never craved someone and my my friends and family’s full presence more in my life, and I’ve never wanted to gift that to other people. So for me, this year is about bringing my full presence and enjoyment to myself, my husband, my son, my business, my family, friends, Mother Earth, our pups, our beautiful home, the beautiful neighborhood and and woods that we’re surrounded by. It’s about stillness. It’s about rest. It’s about enjoying. It’s about embracing idleness as a gift. I am so just present to the enrichment that this experience is going to bring me this year, and I’ll be excited to come back at the end of the year and share with you how it went. Now I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes, and it’s by David White. It’s from his book consolations, the solace, nourishment and underlying meaning of everyday words. Now I think that there’s so many of us who experience loneliness these days, you know, if we read often about how we’re all experiencing a loneliness epidemic, and I think it can be really hard to feel lonely when we are fully present. David White says, to feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. To feel abandoned is to be present in the universe and yet refuse to believe you are a part of it. This quote, for me, it reflects his deep understanding of presence as this intimate connection with the world around us and a refusal to isolate oneself from it. If you are feeling lonely, if you’re feeling rushed or harried or like you’re not enjoying yourself, your life, your relationships, your business as we enter this new year, I invite you to try on, gifting yourself more presence in the new year. Thank you so much for tuning in. I wish you the happiest of New Year’s. May your 2025 be rich, and may it be filled with purposefulness. I’ll see you in two weeks. You.

[/expand]