Glowing Grey

There’s something magical about the new year.

It’s a time when ideas, dreams and goals come forth and the blank canvas of a new beginning brings hope and optimism for better times ahead. No matter how good or bad the previous year may have been, a new year always brings with it a fresh perspective.

The new year is also the prime time to set our carefully crafted resolutions. You know, those goals we firmly believe we will achieve, and set a course for self-improvement, personal growth, or better habits.

Over the years I’ve come to realise that I’m not a ‘New Years Resolution’ kind of person. They don’t work for me and are nothing more than ideas that never come to fruition and goals that set me up to fail.

Instead, I have found an alternative; choosing a single word to focus on throughout the year.

Why you need a word of the year

When our world if full of information telling us we have to hustle, to be passionate, to be energised by achievement, it can leave us feeling defeated and frustrated when we just can’t seem to see step up to this level of energy and drive.

But setting goals and having dreams are what motivate us to move forward so finding a balance between intention and action has been difficult for me. So instead I’ve found using a word of the year helps me to find the over-archiving theme that will filter through all aspects of my life.

Choosing a word of the year helps me to set my intention for why, what and where I want to focus my time and attention.

In the past

I’ve learned a few things over the past few years of doing this practice.

Even though this is not a goal setting exercise, choosing a word that is both realistic and somewhat measurable is key. Some years I’ve nailed it and others I’ve come to the conclusion that certain things are part of me and simply can’t be changed.

For example, Procrastination and Focus have been on the list on more than one occasion I’m ashamed to admit and if I wanted, they could form subheadings for every word in the years to come. But I’ve come to learn that they are simply part of me and my personality so I’ve learned to work around them as best I can.

This blog post is a prime example. It is now the end of January and it has been sitting in the nearly finished stage since the beginning of the month. But I’m not going to stress about it. Instead, I just shrug my shoulders and say, “It is what it is.”

Why Curiosity?

Children are naturally curious. From the moment we enter this world and discover our little fingers and toes, we begin a lifelong journey of discovery and learning. Children explore the world with wide-eyed wonder, constantly asking questions, investigating their surroundings, and challenging the status quo.

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
– Albert Einstein

As a child I had a seemingly endless supply of questions. From “Why is the sky blue?” to “Why do we get hiccups?”. My parents, bless their patience, answered when they could, but I’m sure I was the source of utter frustration on more than one occasion.

More often than not my questions were harmless but on the odd occasion they would get me into trouble. Like the time I wondered if cutting the loop pile carpet automatically makes it shag pile; so went to get the scissors to investigate further. Sorry Mum.

But my questions refused to be limited to the four walls of our home. I would also harass my elderly neighbour until he eventually had to put me on a 3 question limit each day. I remember walking over to his place one day while he was washing his car and said, “Hey Buddy (my nickname for him) what are you doing?” to which he promptly answered, “You can see what I’m doing, now you’ve just wasted one of your questions.”

I was not daunted, but it was a good lesson in learning to choose wisely.

However, as we age, many of us find ourselves losing that curiosity. We settle into routines, grow comfortable with the known, and begin to view questions as unnecessary or even inconvenient. We prioritise efficiency over exploration, certainty over inquiry.

In search of the curious childhood me

As we age we often stop asking my favourite question of all….“Why?”. We lose the joy of discovery because we’re too focused on achieving results. Dr Diane Hamilton argues that while curiosity is a fundamental part of our cognitive and emotional development, it’s often stifled as we grow older due to 4 primary factors she calls F.A.T.E.:

• Fear – as adults, we often have a deep fear of making mistakes or appearing ignorant. This fear discourages us from asking questions or seeking new information. We become more focused on looking competent and avoiding failure than on learning.
• Assumptions – over time, we accumulate knowledge and experiences that make us feel comfortable in our routines. This sense of comfort discourages us from exploring new ideas, habits or perspectives. The status quo becomes “good enough,” and curiosity fades into the background.
• Technology – the age of the internet and social media has given us access to an overwhelming amount of information. Never in history has so much information been at our fingertips but it can be difficult to keep up with. Technology has both the power to provide all the answers we seek but also to limit our curiosity when we thoughtlessly embrace it, relying on algorithms instead of asking what, when, how, why or where.
• Environment – from the moment we go to school or the workplace we don’t have to go far to find the people and processes that put the brakes on asking questions. Curiosity fosters both growth and innovation and allows us to keep an open mind.

With this in mind, 2025 is going to be my year of reclaiming my childhood curious self.

How I plan to cultivate curiosity in 2025

My last word of the year was Possibilities. At a time in my life when I had finally jumped off the menopause rollercoaster and sorted out my health, I was ready to rejoin the world. My focus was not only on keeping Bruce in check, but on looking ahead and narrowing down the myriad of creative ideas I wanted to pursue. It was an ongoing exercise in understanding the difference between ‘what I want to do’ and ‘what I want to want to do’. Who knew there was a distinction between the two.

Curiosity feels like the next logical step.

“When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” – Walt Disney

When I think of curiosity I think of exploration, wonder and discarding the rules and expectations.

It is asking:

“Why does this do that?”
“What would happen if I do ____?”
“How does this work?”
“What could possibly go wrong?”
and so on……

It’s playing and experimenting and learning and trying something new. It’s focusing on the doing and not the end result; something I continue to struggle with.

But if curiosity is the overarching theme of the year, then creativity is my area of focus.

Being creative is reflected in all areas of my life from drawing, painting and photography to cooking up something new in the kitchen, or maybe writing or gardening.

Artistic creativity is what both drives and hinders me on a daily basis.

I’ve spent so much time working on my issues with perfectionism, fear and procrastination and now understand the damaging effects they’ve had on my creative expression. I’ve discovered it is actually in my DNA, a physical need and drive to produce something, to get it out of your mind and into the world. When you suppress that creativity, for whatever reason, you bottle it up until it’s a physical knot in your solar plexus that affects your mental and physical wellbeing.

So 2025 is my year to express myself freely through whatever creative outlet speaks to me on any given day and to not be afraid to ask the why, what, how questions.

How novel would it be to begin something purely for the joy of it. To find fun in the process of experimentation and exploration and see what happens; no judgement and no expectations of an end result.

How novel indeed.

So there you have it

Choosing a word of the year is a powerful way to set a clear, overarching intention for personal growth. Curiosity, as my word for 2025, will be my constant reminder to embrace the unknown, question the routine and status quo, and remain open to learning.

Curiosity is a skill that we can all nurture, no matter our age. By reawakening it, we don’t just become better learners and problem-solvers – we become more engaged, compassionate, and resilient human beings. This year, I’m choosing to explore more, ask more, and embrace the endless possibilities that curiosity brings.

Until next time,

Thank you for reading.