In She Means Business, Carrie Green writes something that stopped me mid-page:
“I didn’t know what I was supposed to do in terms of a business, but I knew the kind of person I wanted to be, and I made the decision to work on being that person.”
She did not start with a strategy. She did not start with a product, a plan, or a perfectly mapped out vision. She started with a decision about identity. Who did she want to become? And then she worked backwards from that woman.
This is the thing nobody tells you when you are standing at the beginning of a new year wondering why your goals from last January look exactly the same as the ones from the January before. You don’t need another 10-page plan. You don’t need another resolution you’ll abandon by February. What you need is a word of the year — one word that captures who you are becoming, and anchors every decision you make for the next 12 months.
That’s what this post is about.
Carrie chose TRUST.
In 2012, a year into running her business FEA, Carrie was struggling. Things were growing but nothing was financially sustainable. She describes the panic of those days honestly — the voice that kept saying go and get a job and put yourself out of your misery.
Instead she chose a word.
TRUST. Fierce trust that she was exactly where she needed to be. That she was moving in the right direction. That everything would work out as it was supposed to — even though she had no proof that it would.
She designed a small graphic of the word, printed it out, and stuck it on her wall. A daily reminder to trust the process even when the process felt impossible.
It worked. And TRUST became one of her big words — one she still returns to today.
In 2015 when she wanted to break through and up-level her business she chose COURAGE — to play a bigger game, to be bold, to dare to shine more. Whenever she felt out of her depth and wanted to hide, she leaned on her word to push her forward.
There was another season when she realized she had been working so hard she had forgotten to have fun. So, she chose FUN — and intentionally pulled more of it into her life. More vacations. More joy. More of what made her feel alive.
One woman. Three seasons. Three words. Each one chosen for exactly the moment she was in.
Nikki chose FAITH.
In 2013, Carrie’s friend Nikki Elledge Brown was searching. She did not know what she was meant to do. But she chose a word and built a daily practice around it — waking up before her husband and toddler every morning to take quiet time for herself. Journaling. Praying. Reflecting.
Within a week she had fallen in love with those mornings.
She had been receiving encouraging messages for years — you should write a book; you have such a gift — but the stillness her word created finally gave her enough space to hear them. Carrie calls these messages divine breadcrumbs. The signs that have been trying to reach you all along. Most of the time we are simply too busy, too loud, too scattered to notice them.
Nikki’s word gave her the stillness to pay attention. And she followed the trail — even though it scared her. Even though playing bigger always does.
I chose SOVEREIGN.
For me it was about more than investing money. It was about becoming a woman in charge — of her decisions, her direction, her empire. Not managing. Ruling. Not waiting for permission to expand. Just expanding.
SOVEREIGN was the word that matched that season.
Every decision passed through it. Does this align with a sovereign woman? Does this expand me or shrink me? Does this move me toward the life I am building?
I did not know exactly what 2026 would bring when I chose that word in January. But it became my compass. And it still is.
Your word is waiting.
John C. Maxwell writes: “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.” Your word of the year is that daily thing. It is the question you carry into every room, every decision, every morning before the world gets loud.
Carrie chose TRUST when finances were uncertain. COURAGE when she needed to play bigger. FUN when she needed to remember why she started.
Nikki chose FAITH when she needed to follow the breadcrumbs she had been ignoring.
I chose SOVEREIGN when I was ready to stop managing and start ruling.
What season are you in right now? What does this moment require of you?
That is where your word lives. Not in a list of inspiring options. In the honest answer to that question.
Carrie writes it plainly: “Words are so powerful. When we pick one that means a lot to us and use it to keep us moving in the right direction, miraculous things can start to happen.”
You have 67 days left in 2026. Enough time to choose your word, build your mornings around it, and arrive in 2027 already becoming the woman you decided to be.
What’s your word?
The 2027 Word of the Year Workbook
A 143-page guided system to help you find your word, anchor it to your identity, and build your year around the woman you are stepping into.
Instant PDF download — edityourinnerworld.etsy.com
Pause, grab your journal, and write your next chapter.
With all my love,
Salima
