My word of the year is...

...drumroll please...

Every year, I choose a word or theme of the year to serve as a guidepost for my thoughts and decisions. In past years, I’ve explored Trust, Courage, Truth, Gratitude, and Generosity—ya know, typical philosophical virtues I wanted to cultivate in myself.

This year is something a little different.

This year, the word makes me really uncomfortable.

Honestly, I’m not even sure how to relate to it.

I selected this year’s theme because I found myself repeatedly bumping up against internal resistance to, well, good things happening in my life in 2025.

I realized that I’d started to subtly sabotage myself: When several agents said good things about my book as they declined to represent it, I stopped looking for someone who would. When thousands of people followed me on social media, I stopped posting and went into hiding. When several new clients signed on with me, I failed to send timely invoices.

I started to see a pattern arise. It was almost as if my fear of success was waging an internal war with my fear of failure. It was almost as if I couldn’t allow myself to accept what the world had to offer me.

So, this year, I plan to deeply explore what this is about.

And thus, my word for 2026 is…

Receive.

This word makes me squirm. It raises the specters of greed, selfishness, unworthiness, and laziness. It rolls its eyes at entitlement. It shames me for my unearned privileges. It asks who the hell I think I am.

I see the same things arise in my clients as they agree to receive a year of coaching from me and struggle to see themselves as “worth it.”

But as proven again and again with my clients, I know that if we change our relationships with receiving, it will yield not only more material success, but immense spiritual growth and an increased sense of freedom—the true thing I think we’re all after.

So bring on 2026. It will be a year of learning to hold and to be held.

Let’s do it together.

How are you at receiving? Please comment to this blog or write it in the comments on Substack!