What's Your Word Of The Year?
Nearly 20 years ago we decided a fun date night would be to privately write down our favorite baby names and then compare our lists to decide on the name for our 1st Son. Well, what we thought would be an epic evening of lively debating names, and ultimately landing on one together, turned out to be a non-event because the #1 name on both of our lists was the same. And it wasn’t even Dominick or Dominique…it was Dominic!
How wild to think that after both of us privately contemplated names for weeks in anticipation of the big debate and decision we discovered that we had the same name and spelling in mind, and yet we’d never talked about it before. So we guess it was meant to be that our 1st born would be named Dominic.
Fast forward 20 years and just like choosing Dominic’s name, deciding our word(s) of the year seemed meant to be. As a reminder, this time of year we always take the opportunity to review our vision boards and reflect on our accomplishments while also considering how to evolve our boards to attract what we want to experience in the year ahead. And we always pick a theme word to guide us, sort of like our Northstar.
So like usual, we decided to have a date night to talk about our ambitions for next year and what our theme words would be. For 2024, Matt's was Aloha and Christina’s was Preparation. This year as we gathered for the big reveal, we were shocked to learn that we had chosen the exact same word - Peace!
Shortly after the big reveal, we went for a hike to discuss what the word Peace means to us. We talked about an inverted pyramid (upside down, which also is the same shape as the peace sign). Imagine us at the bottom holding up all of the layers above us. The first layer above us is our friends and family, the next layer is our community, the third layer is our Country, and then the final layer is the whole wide world. We came up with the idea that we want to keep getting better at inner peace so we can attract and contagiously share it with each level of the pyramid above us. And so peace is a gift we give to ourselves and then give to others. We believe as we share the gift it returns to us…just as “like attracts like”.
After the pyramid idea, we then experienced another epiphany. We were reminded of how the word Peace shows up so prominently in two of our favorite prayers. Sometimes you say a prayer from memorization and you sort of forget the meaning behind the words. This is a reminder that our frequent prayers have in them exactly what we need and want to give to others. We were pleasantly surprised to find ideas in two of our favorite prayers. One by St. Francis who said “Lord make me an instrument of your Peace, where there is hatred let me sow love, where there is injury…pardon, where there is doubt…faith, where there is despair…hope, and where there is darkness…light”! We were also reminded of Mother Theresa’s prayer that “the fruit of love is service and the fruit of service is Peace”!
So for 2025, we’re going to spend even more time working on inner peace so we can spread it to others, we’re going to be instruments for peace in our networks, community, and beyond and we’re going to continue to serve others to spread love and peace.
We hope our tradition of creating vision boards and annual theme words inspires you to dream and attract good things to you. Every year we are shocked at how this simple practice works like magic in our lives.
Until next time, may your year ahead be your best one yet!
Peace!
Matt & Christina
Matt & Christina are Team Skally, top real estate agents in the Seattle Metro with expertise in luxury homes on the Eastside including Bellevue, Newcastle, Mercer Island, Renton and Issaquah. Their client testimonials say it all - they deliver exceptional service and record-breaking results. Recognized as top agents on social media by Property Sparks, Diamond Award winners for best client service, Nextdoor’s Neighborhood Faves and regularly featured in online and print publications including Greet - Newcastle & Newport Hills Magazine. In addition to serving clients, Matt and Christina love family time with their two boys and two Goldendoodles as well as volunteering in the community.