Do you have a word for the year 2022? Last year my word was ‘focus’ and I must say that it truly helped me. When things started to get crazy, I would start telling myself “Focus, focus focus”….like a mantra. It seemed to help me get centered again, take a breath and start on the tasks at hand.

I did well until around October or November when things started getting really hectic with my ‘real job’ and trying to get products ready for a few craft shows that I had signed up for. I was so overwhelmed that I began to procrastinate by waiting until the last minute to complete the projects that should have been done several days or even weeks before. I even had to cancel out of two shows because I just wasn’t ready. I had lost my “Focus”!

This year I had a really hard time focusing on one word for 2022. I took several quizzes like:

1. dayspring.com/yourwordquiz

2. buzzfeed.com

3. myintent.org/pages/whatsyourwordquiz

The words that the quizzes gave me were: Relaxing, Strength, Disciple, Fearless, Courage, Hope, Empowered, Encouraged and Let Go. All great words but they just didn’t seem to be the right word for me…for 2022.

A great article I read about choosing a word for the year is https://mountainmodernlife.com/word-of-the-year. He gives these 5 Steps:

While I was working through Step #2, my goals for 2022 and reflecting on 2021, the word that kept coming up was “procrastination”. That is one of the main things that I’d like to overcome in 2022. So I began to look for antonyms and came up with words like:  complete, continue, expedite, forge, and persist.  Once again, these are all great words but they just didn’t seem to fit.

Then I finally saw the word “diligent” and it was the light bulb moment for me and I realized that that is my word for 2022!

The first thing that I wanting to do was to find a scripture that encouraged me to be diligent in my work and not to procrastinate. The book of Proverbs is filled with verses about being diligent or not lazy.

“Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches” Proverbs 10:4

“The diligent hand will rule, but laziness will lead to forced labor” Proverbs 12:24

This is exactly what I want to focus on in 2022. Not to become a millionaire (although it would be nice)….but to not have idle hands and be lazy. I truly need to cut out so much social media, games on my iPad (even though some do say that they are a way to prevent Alzheimer) and watching craft videos of things that I’ll never do. I need to stop thinking about DOING and actually START!

I also love the verse in 1 Timothy 2:15 - “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Wow…that’s powerful! I definitely do not want God to be ashamed of the work that I do.

Merriam Websters definition for ‘diligent’ is : characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort : PAINSTAKING.   Under the section ‘Did You Know?” it says “You're more likely to be diligent about something if you love doing it”. I love that because I do love what I’m doing. I just let other things get in the way.  

At the end of 2022, I want people to say that I was very diligent in everything that I started. Also, that “lazy” is not a word that describes me!

What is your word for 2022?  Let me know so that we can keep each other accountable during this year!