For over a decade I've given each new year a title before it begins. It started as an experiment, became a habit, and then a small piece of how I live.
Why it works
Name the chapter before you live it.
This isn't a word, a phrase, a theme, or a direction, the way a lot of people do it. It's not about setting an intention. I see each year as a chapter in a book, the story of my life.
So the question isn't "what do I want to get out of this year?" It's "what will happen this year, and what would I title that chapter in the book of my life?" Pick the three big things you're going to do next year. Pick them now, and name the year around finishing them.
Here's the part that makes it work: picture yourself on December 31st, looking back on the year and saying "that was a damn good year." Decide right now what will have made it so good by the time it's over. Then plan that little moment of celebration in advance, and spend the whole year earning it.
Diana Patel and I have met regularly for more than three years to compare notes on our year names and check in. Here she is on the difference between a one-word name and a title, and me on what “Ukiyo” meant before that year began.
I'd been naming my years for a while before I ever talked about it out loud. Eventually it made its way onto a TEDx stage, in a talk called "Discover Your Incredible Future." Here it is.
The current year
2026
The Renaissance.
The art is one person doing many things, well. Writing the words, designing the site, building the product, recording the song, telling the story, shipping the company. Renaissance, originally, meant rebirth. This year is mine.
Essay in progress
The archive
Every year, named.
2025
LMNOP
Learn. Make. Notice. Observe. Practice. A year of attention.
My friend Justin Breen and I go back years. When he wrote his book Epic Life, he built a whole chapter around naming your years, a practice he picked up from me.
Justin Breen and me, working it out at the whiteboard.
“One of his great ideas is he names his years,” Breen said. “So, one of the chapters in the new book, Epic Life, is ‘naming your years.’” The practice kept Breen focused while promoting his first book, Epic Business, which launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. That year was “global growth,” and Epic Business went on to become a bestseller in six countries.
Rachel K. Hindery, on Justin Breen's Epic Life
Your turn
Name your year too?
Give this year a title, then tell me what you'll have done to earn it. I read every one, and the best go up on the wall.
Read the year in review
