Episode 41. Word of the Year 2026: How I Design My Year on Purpose

Solo Episode

Dec 30

I’m breaking down how I ditched resolutions, started using a single Word of the Year to design my life on purpose, and how my ART method led me to my 2026 word: Amplify.

Last year, my Word of the Year episode ended up being my most-listened-to show, so I knew I wanted to bring it back for 2026—with a little more intention and a clearer way of explaining how I get there.

I’ve never really connected with New Year’s resolutions. They usually feel like a chore list wrapped in good intentions. Instead, for almost a decade, I’ve chosen a single Word of the Year to act as a design principle for my life and work: Abundance, Expansion, Possibility, Consistency, Effortless, Determined… and now, Amplify.

In this episode, I walk you through the simple method I use, which I call ART: Assemble, Refine, Try. I share how I:

assemble the words, ideas, and themes that keep showing up for me, 
use AI as a mirror (not a boss) to spot patterns in my writing and notes, 
my list by cutting the “other people’s words” that don’t actually belong to me, and 
try on my top contenders with my future self before I commit.

I also talk about how last year’s word, Determined, showed up in real ways and pushed me closer to the life I actually want, and why Amplify feels like the honest next step for 2026—not as an excuse to do more for the sake of it, but as an invitation to turn up the volume on what’s already working and aligned.

If you’re over resolutions but still want your year to feel intentional, this one’s for you.

Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform.

Subscribe and leave a quick rating or review if you enjoyed it.

“I chose a word of the year and it was a total game changer.”

— David Peck

In This Episode, You'll Learn

Resolutions have never really worked for me, so I use one Word of the Year as a design principle instead of a long list of goals.
My ART method—Assemble, Refine, Try—gives me a simple way to choose a word that actually changes how I live, not just what I write in a journal.
I use AI as a mirror to surface recurring themes and words, but I still trust my own inner knowing to decide what really belongs to me.
Looking back at my past words (Abundance, Expansion, Possibility, Consistency, Effortless, Determined) helps me see the story I’ve been telling with my life.
I chose Amplify for 2026 because I’m ready to turn up the volume on the work and ideas that already feel aligned, instead of chasing more for the sake of more.

Transcript

I always knew that New Year's resolutions weren't my thing. They felt like a chore and they wrapped in good intentions, but they never quite worked. So I tried something different. I chose a word of the year and it was a total game changer. Last year, that simple idea of a word of the year was my most listened to podcast episode bar none.
This time around, I've got a simple method that helped me pick my word of the year. And it's the same method I use to design my year and my life, if we're really being honest. I can't wait to share that process with you and reveal my word for 2026. So stick around to the end, or if you're really impatient, you can skip ahead.
I mentioned last year that resolutions were really not my thing. For a long time, I really rebelled against the idea of doing a resolution. It felt like I was trying to edit something out of my life. And what I really wanted to do was add more positive things to it. So instead of doing a resolution, I'd like, here's the one thing I'm going to try for this year. And that was fine. It worked pretty well. But it felt like a to-do list. It never felt like a guiding principle that helped me grow as a person.
And so it's gotta be, I don't know, seven or eight years ago when I really started hearing about Word of the Year. I had never really considered it. And I started picking a Word of the Year to see if that would help guide my life. And it completely did. I don't want to like overstate it and say that choosing a Word of the Year changed my life, but it kind of did. So.
this year.
So before I get to my word of the year for 2026 I want to talk a little bit about how I got to it and the philosophy that I use it's a little bit of something that I've been experimenting with this year that I've been applying to lots of different areas of my life. And I've been sharing it with my friends and peers in these coaching programs that I've been and it really is working and it's super, super simple.
And I want to share it with you guys.
So for the past decade, I have been choosing a word of the year. And I've really been tracking it, I would say, over the past five or six years to see how it made an impact in my life. In fact, it's made such an impact in my life that I made the sign behind me that really reflects where I was at that specific time. And before I add this year's word, I want to talk a little bit about how I chose my word of the year. So it's really simple. And I've
boiled it down to this really simple phrase or word actually that you can use to design anything you want. So the first thing you're going to do is assemble.
So when I went about trying to decide what my word is going to be for 2026, I started using a methodology that I've developed this year that has really helped me see clearly how I design. And I had never really broken down what it is that I do when I go about designing, whether it's a dress or my life or my word of the year. And it's really simple. It's a really short word.
three letters, art, A-R-T. art is just, you know, I talk a lot about how do you design a life that you love and that, you know, your life is really a masterpiece and you're the artist and you need to design something that feels like you, that is reflective of you. And that can feel really overwhelming. But it's really simple. At least the process is simple. I'm not saying the actually doing it is easy, but
the art framework really does help. So the first letter A is easy. It's assemble So what you're going to do is you're going to assemble, in this case, for words of the year, what are all the words that keep reappearing in your life over this year? there may be things that you read or maybe it'll pop up on a billboard or a TV show. If you start listening for repeated patterns and synchronicity, you'll find that there
are words that somehow emerge. And I had a lot of those words this year. I've been in some coaching programs where we've talked a lot about resonance and getting your voice heard. I've really dealt a lot with what
is it that I'm trying to say? This podcast is one of those things, what I want to say with our store, what What is it that I'm wanting to do with my life? I feel like I'm in this pivotal point where I've done a lot and we'll talk about my word of the year last year and what I was determined to do. But yeah, this year really has brought all these new ideas into my mind that have sort of helped me solidify what it is that I am about and what it is that motivates me. Because it was always there, but I didn't have the language around it. And so I started collecting all of these words.
And after I collect all these things over the course of the year, usually around the beginning of December, I start compiling them. And this year I did use a little bit of AI. So I basically put a lot of my notes and writings and whatever,
and I said, can you find any repeated words or phrases that I either say a lot or I've been told a lot? AI helped me. to compile a list and like see repeated patterns. That's something I think it's really good at is looking for repeated information.
I wasn't asking it to come up with a word because I think it can't do that. It's not in my brain. It's not in my soul. And so what I can ask it to do is filter through all the information. I asked it to go through all the transcripts of all the podcasts that I recorded this year. And were there any repeated words and phrases that, just kept coming back.
So that was the first thing, assemble, really easy. I didn't put a lot of pressure on that step. It was really just a fact finding mission. I thought about words that made me feel good. I thought about words that you know, maybe challenged me a little bit. And so after I got done assembling, the next part is refining.
And so refining really is, there's a lot of words that felt like they were other people's words. They were words that other people were using, but they weren't mine. I loved them. I loved what I learned from those words, but they weren't my word. And that's another reason why chat GPT can't tell you what your word of the year is, because it can only regurgitate that information. And it's your job as the human being to comb through it and say, is that mine or is it not? And if it wasn't mine, I set it aside.
It didn't take very long and I was able to narrow it down to a small group of words and it was about three. And as I was going through this process, I was like, you know, these feel like they could be it, but I'm not quite sure. And so the next step in the process is to try. So I would role play and be like, okay, what would it feel like if this word were my word of the year? What would it feel like if that word were my word of the year? And I really sat with it and I didn't try to jump to conclusions.
I really tried to be like, if I got to the end of 2026 and this were my word of the year, how would I feel if I'd really embodied and become that word? How would I feel with all of the goals and things that I want to accomplish? Would that word help guide me there? And it became really clear. not only what was not my word and what were other people's words, but the way I wanted to feel about my year in 2026.
And it sort of came subconsciously and there was a day I just knew that that's my word. I knew it. So I would highly recommend that you try this method, this art method, assemble, refine, try. It's not hard. It's really easy. It takes time. but it doesn't take hours of just sitting and thinking about it. Like I did each of these steps on different days and you know, I collected over time and then I refined over time and then I tried it on and you know, it came to me really naturally.
So. It really should feel, I think, by the time you get to your word, intuitive and it couldn't have been any other word for this year. There will be other words maybe that you tried on for this year that weren't this year's word, but they could be next year's word. Maybe you weren't ready for it. Or maybe that was a word that could have fit really well for the previous year. But you'll know like it's just an inner knowing of what that word is. It just takes practice and repetition. So try my method, try the art method, see what you think.
Okay, so for the big reveal of my award of the year for 2026, let's look back a little bit at previous years. So when I really started tracking my words of the year, the first word was abundance. And abundance was really like I was looking to have more fulfillment out of everything in my life. And what was strange was I chose that word in 2020 and it was the year of the pandemic.
And what a year to have chosen abundance. But somehow we made it through that year stronger than ever. And I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish. And that set us up for our next year, 2021, which was expansion. And that was when I signed the lease for our current store space and retail space and we started building it out. And it really was a year of expansion. which led us into the following year, which was in the year of possibility because we had never been in a proper retail space before, at least not one that was this large that had foot traffic and possibility just felt like what is possible in this space? I'm not gonna limit what is possible.
I'm going to lean into the possibility of everything that could happen. And we did that and we expanded and we figured out what was possible and then some. And that led us to really figuring out consistency because you can try a lot of things, but unless you can get consistent systems and practices in place, consistency is the thing that's gonna help you not only make money, but also be fulfilled Creativity is awesome, but it also can be an emotional and physical drain.
And you need minutes of rest. So you need time when you can be creative and you need time when you can rest from that creativity. And then the next year was effortless because we did so well. in that year of consistency. was our best year ever, but it didn't feel good. And if you want to hear more of that story, you can go back to last year's episode, My Word of the Year for 2025. that consistency was not effortless. It was a big lift.
And so what I was really looking for in that next year was how can this be more effortless? it was a tricky year, but we got rid of a lot. were people who, you know, worked here, who ended up leaving for whatever reason. everything reorganized and reshuffled and it did feel a lot less effortful. and that was, that was a really good thing. And then that led me to this year because we ended last year down from the previous year in terms of revenue. And it just felt like, okay. We're really trying to make things not such a heavy lift, but you know, we also want to have the profitability and everything that we had had the previous year. And I also knew that for me personally, there were a lot of things that I wanted to accomplish and they were things that were related to the store, but they were also related to big lifelong dreams that I've had. And so when I landed on my word of the year for last year, it was determined and determined.
for me meant so many things. It was determined to get the thing done. Like that is one way of looking at determined, but determined is also, I know that I'm destined. You know, this has been determined for me in a way. Like I knew the back of my mind, like there is something bigger I'm meant for. And it's this year that I need to make those steps to accomplish those things and put those things into motion.
And it didn't mean that I was going to fulfill. those dreams in one year, but I was determined to not stall any longer. And so one of the things that I had determined that I was going to accomplish was write a book. And I had no business writing a book. I used to write a lot when I was younger.
It was one of my favorite things to do. I always thought I was going to be a writer and life has intervened. I became a business owner, entrepreneur, and writing had fallen by the wayside. I mean, I get to write our newsletter and things like that, but I hadn't really delved into the kind of writing that I wanted to do. And so I found this amazing program with a wonderful mentor, Lavi, who has the book academy. And I took that program and I am happy to say I completed my book proposal.
That is one step in a very, very long process of writing a book, but it was a huge lift. know, it's a I can't even remember, 75, 80 page document at this point where it's got the whole structure and outline of the book, chapter summaries. And it was such a big lift for me to do this year. And it really stretched me in ways that I would have never imagined, but I was determined to get it done. And I'm so thankful for that. And what came from that book preparation was really delving more into who I wanted to be as that author, as that leader, as that thought leader.
What is it that I wanted to say? Because I say something with my designs and what the art that I put out into the world. But if I'm writing words and I'm immortalizing them in a book, and if I'm talking about issues and things that are important to me that are sort of related to the store, but not really. You if we think about a Venn diagram of who my ideal audience is, you sort of have like the circle of people who shop at the store and then you have this circle of people who are interested in what I have to say. And there is an overlap in the middle. I don't think that they're completely separate, but they do have their own worlds. And I didn't really know who that other audience was and what it is that I wanted to say. so I did a lot of experimenting this year because I was determined to figure out what it is that I wanted to say, how I said it.
I ended up in another program with a wonderful person, Macy Robinson, who was one of the coaches in the book academy. And I've learned so much. And that's part of the reason why I was able to develop this art framework was because I was really trying to simplify a lot of really complicated ideas about life and design. I have so much going on in my head that sometimes it can be very esoteric and I can talk for a long time, but I need to circle around to the point and I needed to figure out something really simple, at least for my sake, that allowed me to continue to design and create a life I love and the art framework was born. that really brings us to this present day and thinking through this month of December, what
Is my word going to be for 2026? There's a lot left that I need to do with the book. I need to get an agent, get a publishing deal, all of those things. I need to build an audience, for instance, that is not just our store audience, but an audience that is interested in my writing and what is going on there.
And so I realized that the thing that I most wanted to do was amplify. what it was that I had learned in this year. And so the word that stuck with me and my word of the year is amplify. And if we look at the simple definition of amplify, Merriam-Webster says it's to expand something such as a statement by the use of a detail or illustration or by closer analysis, or to make larger or greater or to increase it, or to increase the strength or amount, especially to make a lot.
So what amplification means for me is taking everything that I built and not just making it louder, but figuring out those spaces where it really resonates and reverberates and naturally grows in a way that it meets the right people, the people who want to hear the people who need to hear it. I want to. be able to say at the end of the year that I have found an audience that really resonates with what I have to say and sort of like these ideas of designing a life that you love.
Because to me, it's so important to not only have a life that is aesthetically beautiful, like that's important to me. And that can mean many things for many different people, but also designing a life in terms of a schedule and values that really are a reflection of me. And I want to amplify, I want to make that message bigger. And it's what I really align with that I want to put out in the world and see how much it grows.
And I've already started experimenting with little ways of doing that, of this amplification. I've started doing these little experiments on TikTok where I will just... ramble for 10 minutes about a certain topic. And then I will take the transcript of that and analyze it and figure out like, okay, what are the things that really are the core of that message? many of the podcast episodes this year have been a result of taking those TikToks and playing with them and building out a structure.
And I've had so much fun with it. feels really natural to create that kind of content. And I've had so many wonderful conversations with people who it, and it feels really organic. And I think that's the best amplification is it's not this artificial. I'm just making something louder by turning up the volume. It's like, no, I'm making sure that it reverberates. It's like in a canyon, right? When you say something in the right space, it keeps going and going and going, or like, you know, ripples in the water. That to me is exactly what I'm trying to do.
So now it's up to you. If you've already chosen your word of the year, I would love to hear it. I would love for you to drop it down in the comments below. Or if you're still figuring it out, why don't you ask the questions? Like, have you tried assembling all of these ideas?
Have you put them all? In one place, have you edited them down and refined them? And then have you tried them on for size? Have you tried to see if those are things that you want to live with for a year? Because remember, this is a word that should be sort of the guiding force, your guiding light for an entire year.
You're going to make decisions based on does this really align with the word that I've chosen or is it complete odds with it? So. From me to you in this new year, I am wishing you a year full of whatever intention it is that you put out there. For me, it's amplifying what matters most. And stay tuned, obviously, for more updates.
And there's so much more where this comes from. I'm going to be doing quarterly check-ins this year on my Word of the Year and let you know how it's going, the highs, the lows, the challenges. the things that I've run up against.
Because I think in addition to being something that I'm sharing with you now, there's a sense of accountability. And we're building this together. And I'm really excited to see where it leads. So stay tuned for more updates and keep designing a life that you love.

Know someone who hates resolutions but loves a fresh start? Send them this episode.

Key takeaways

Cultural power is often quiet - and built through long-term, intentional decisions.
Karl's genius was timing and cultural fluency as much as design.
High-low collaborations can expand a legacy when the story is clear.
Definitive books are marathons: access, funding, and stamina matter.
You can build a career at the intersection of art, fashion, and storytelling.