The Power of Naming Your Years in Advance

For a while now I've treated each year like a chapter in a book. Not naming it at the end, looking back at what happened, but naming it at the start, looking forward. I try to find a single word that captures the year I'm about to have, and then I go live my way into it.

It's the closest thing to time travel

The way I described it in the talk still holds up: “It was the closest thing to actual time travel. Going into the future, finding a word or name that captures the year I'd had, and bringing it back to this moment.”

This isn't a goal, a theme, or a resolution. Those are about aspiration, things you hope to do. Naming your year is about capturing an experience before you've had it, then letting that name quietly pull you toward it.

Start with an “It would be cool to” list

To find the right name, I keep a running list of things that would make me happy. Not a bucket list, with all its pressure and finality, but an “It would be cool to” list. Something loose and alive that I add to and cross off all the time, no stakes attached. The names tend to fall out of the list once you can see it all in one place.

Then name the year

I named 2023 “Ukiyo,” a Japanese phrase that means “the floating world.” I wrote the first version of this while literally floating through Japan on a boat. When the name you picked in advance and the year you're actually living line up like that, it stops feeling like a coincidence and starts feeling like a decision you made months ago.

Why it works: clarity

Naming your year in advance gives you a filter. When a choice shows up, you can hold it against the name you gave the year and ask whether it fits or not. It keeps your attention on the things that actually make you happy, and it gives you a simple way to check in through the year on whether you're living the one you said you would.

That's the whole practice. Look ahead, find the word, bring it back, and let it steer.