Every January, millions of people set New Year’s resolutions with the hope of transforming their lives. Yet, by mid-January—often referred to as “Quitter’s Day”—many find themselves abandoning their goals. The newest episode of Self Love and Sweat THE PODCAST talks about instead of relying on resolutions that often feel restrictive, there’s a more intentional and adaptable approach: choosing a word of the year.
Timestamps to help you navigate this episode
0:00 Intro
0:24 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
2:54 Slowing Down To Reconnect
5:13 Finding Your Word of The Year
7:39 The Deeper Meaning of the Word “Valiant”
Why Choose Your Word of The Year?
Resolutions are often centered around external achievements—losing weight, saving money, or hitting a career milestone. While these goals can be meaningful, they are also limiting. Life is unpredictable, and when unexpected challenges arise, resolutions can quickly feel overwhelming or unattainable. A word of the year, however, allows for flexibility. It shifts attention to how to approach life’s experiences.
Valiant: Embracing Strength and Resilience
“Valiant,” a powerful word that embodies strength, bravery, and resilience. To be valiant is to face life’s challenges with courage, standing firm in the pursuit of goals and dreams. It encourages persistence in the face of adversity and serves as a reminder that bravery isn’t about being fearless—it’s about taking action despite fear. Whether in personal development, relationships, or career aspirations, the word valiant inspires a mindset of resilience and determination.
How to Integrate Your Word of the Year Into Daily Life
Writing it down your chosen word in journal, placing it somewhere visible, or incorporating it into daily affirmations can help reinforce its meaning. Reflecting on it regularly and asking, How can I embody this word in today’s challenges and opportunities? creates a deeper connection to the intention behind it.
So, as 2025 begins, what will your word be?
Full transcript episode 199
Lunden Souza:
Welcome to Self Love and Sweat the podcast, the place where you’ll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections and do what sets your soul on fire. I’m your host, Lunden Souza. Hey, before we jump into this episode, I just want to make sure that you get all the free things possible, if you haven’t already. You need to get your self-love and sweat free monthly life coaching calendar. Honestly, the way to experience deep change in your life is by doing small little things over time, and so that’s what you’ll find in this free calendar. You can get it by going to lifelikelunden.com/calendar. Get yours for free and let’s get into today’s episode. Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. Happy New Year. We are back
Lunden Souza:
I definitely took January off. We didn’t upload any episodes in January, so I am choosing to start my new year in February. So, happy, happy New Year. Today’s the last day in January. Tomorrow is February 1st and I definitely. I don’t know about you guys, but gone are the days.
Lunden Souza:
Are the gung-ho new years right, like let’s go new me who dis? Let’s roll all the goals, all the motivation, right? And then I think it’s the 12th or the 14th of January. It’s actually called like quitter’s day. It’s like the day that everyone went out the gate too fast and got exhausted and burnt out and went back to their old ways because it was easier, right. And yeah, definitely felt that this year it was just like nah, I have some things to work on, right. I talk a lot about the workouts and the work-ins. I had a lot of work-ins I’ve got to do and I actually just recorded an episode with Dr Erin Pollinger that will air probably within the next couple of months. So, if you’re listening to this episode, like, right, when it comes out it’s not there yet, but it will be and this is all on manifesting magic and tapping into that feminine receiving energy and all the different feminine avatars that are part of who we are as women. And yeah, I share a lot on that episode about what I’ve been going through since like end of December to end of January. So if you want to tap into that, get ready for that episode, or maybe, if you’re listening to this episode later, it’s already available. It’s going to be called Manifesting Magic and Feminine Power, something along those lines.
Lunden Souza:
Anyways, I couldn’t push the gas. It was time to push the brakes and I’m grateful that I have a wonderful assistant that still provided lovely clips on social media and all the things so that I can continue to show up and be that presence online. But from a creative perspective, it was much more about nurturing myself and creating a better relationship with me, rather than needing to go out and use the new year to promote something, and all of that. I just didn’t feel that this year. So, anyways, here we are. Happy new year.
Lunden Souza:
Today, we’re talking all about our word for 2025. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that we don’t do New Year’s resolutions around here. Right, we choose words of the year, and I love this so much better because our word of the year can transcend into so many other areas of our life. Right, it doesn’t have to be a New Year’s resolution that’s so fixated on one thing like our health and losing weight. It’s like what word do I want to embody while I’m on the journey of pursuing better health, while I’m on the journey of pursuing better connections and relationships? Right, it’s like what word can I use, no matter where I’m showing up and what container? Right, and that’s what I love about words of the year because, yeah, you get to utilize them in so many ways. And we’re in 2025, so 24, 23.
Lunden Souza:
In 2023, I had two words grateful and growth. Grateful growth were the two words I had. And then last year, I think I’ve done episodes about this also. I for sure did one last year, so I’ll link the episode to last year’s word of the year episode, but I might’ve done one the year before as well, I can’t remember. And then last year, I had two words as well integrity and endurance. Integrity and and yeah, I was really thinking about what I always feel like your word of the year chooses you, right? When you think too hard about it, it’s like, yeah, you just think too hard about it, right? So I was kind of yeah, I had just finished up a detox and cleanse in December, I had just finished another round of combo and I just knew the word was going to come to me.
Lunden Souza:
The first one that I thought of was actually like trust, because I felt like I needed something just reminding me to pump the brakes and trust that what’s best is coming on its way to me. But then, as I started gearing up for this next part of my journey, which I just had a root canal removed I had a root canal done when I was 19 years old and I have been doing a lot of research on oral health and what was shoved up in my mouth when I had that root canal and I was doing a lot of research on Chinese medicine and meridian points and my close friend, austin, had gone through the same procedure like six or seven years before. So I was getting ready to get the root canal removed and I felt like I needed a bit more of a word with oomph. I didn’t feel like trust had enough oomph in it, just at least for my nervous system. When you know, you know when it resonates with you, it resonates with you.
Lunden Souza:
So, anyways, I was hanging out with chat, gpt and typing in different things and trying to explain what type of word I wanted. I wanted something different, right? So the word I chose for this year is valiant and I wrote here in my journal my word for 2025 is valiant and I wrote like little bullet points about what this word meant to me Valiant. And I wrote little bullet points about what this word meant to me. And, yeah, I got these bullet points just by looking at the definition, looking at all of the different root words and where they derive from. I just kind of geeked out a little bit, but what I wrote down is that Valiant means brave and trusting, and in Latin valiant means to be strong. And I also wrote boldness with a sense of purpose. And I also wrote warrior energy Facing challenges in the presence of fear, pursuing dreams, shining light and providing guidance. And so for me, valiant had oh, when I wrote here too, latin. In Latin, valens means to be strong and to be worthy, so I felt like there was warrior energy and worthiness energy to this word.
Lunden Souza:
And then I also live in Utah, so actually I got a DM from this one girl that was like hey, what does valiant mean to you? Because I grew up in the Mormon church and valiant is like a word that we use in the context of that and she’s no longer in the Mormon church. It’s a whole different story. But like, just in general, right, like I. Then I realized that a lot of what I was looking up Valiant it showed up in a lot of websites for like nuns and then monastery stuff but I was like fuck it, like I can make this word whatever it wants to me.
Lunden Souza:
Valiant is that warrior, worthy, um ripple, shining bright energy. Right, not holding back. Right, not being gung-ho let’s go look at me but like not holding back your truth, your full expression of yourself, the tenacity to get to those next points. Valiant energy in the pursuit of growth, of who you need to become in order to achieve what you want to achieve. Right? So that’s my word of the year.
Lunden Souza:
But, yeah, I really encourage you to choose a word of the year if you haven’t already. Right, right now, I can ask myself what does it mean to be valiant in the gym, in my friendships, in my romantic relationships, in my family relationships, at work, as a leader, as a podcaster, as Lunden , as a neighbor? Right, like, we get to ask ourselves how would Valiant show up in this situation? What would Valiant do here? Right, and that’s why I love words of the year so much.
Lunden Souza:
Better than the New Year’s resolutions is because you’re not pigeonholed into one area of your life for the whole year, this word can transcend and move with you and flow with you. So, yeah, I just want to encourage you to do that, to choose a word that resonates with you and become it, live it, embody it. And yeah, I want to make this episode short and sweet because I think more of the rest of this episode is your work right. It’s your ability to take this information and choose something, and I want to hear it. So send me a DM on Instagram @lifelikelunden. If you’re on my email list then you can also hit reply to any of the emails I send you and you can share your word of the year, tell me about it, what it means to you, why you chose it. I’ve posted a lot on social media last month at the end of the year of just like what’s your word of the year? And there were so many good ones right, and I’m such a fan of vocabulary and communication and words, so it’s always nice to, of course, get to know you more and know what you want to embody, but also I love learning new words and getting excited about yeah, new language. I think it’s really beautiful.
Lunden Souza:
Happy New Year. Thanks for showing up, thanks for being here. Choose your word of the year, share it with me, share it with a friend, encourage others around you to do the same, and we will see you at the next episode. And we will see you at the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Self Love and Sweat the Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or were inspired by it or something resonated with you, do me a favor and share this episode with a friend, someone that you think might enjoy this episode as well. That’s the ultimate compliment and the best way to make this podcast ripple out into the world of others. And also you can leave us a review up to five stars wherever you’re listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you at the next episode. I appreciate you.