How One Word Can Transform Your Entire Year (And Your Art)

The most important question to answer this year is how you want to feel, captured in one single word. This word changes how everything unfolds because it influences how you approach every decision and challenge. Nicholas’s word “adventure” pushed him to complete an unplanned 16-hour run through the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. His current word is “ease.” Plus, a cautionary tale about painting thick over thin and why what collectors see as defects might actually be beautiful.

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The Most Important Question

What’s the one word that describes how you want this year to feel?

It’s pretty simple, but it’s really important. Because it will change how everything unfolds, how the year will feel.

If you have an amazing experience this year, all the things you do, everything is impacted by it. How you’re going about doing it, it changes everything.

So just get ahead of that and put some thinking behind it. That one single word.

 

 

How One Word Can Push You Further Than You’d Normally Go

Let me give you an example of how this word can empower you to go further than you normally would.

A few years ago, my word for the year was adventure.

 A running buddy of mine, Scott, and I went out to the Grand Canyon. We had this idea that we could stay out there and we could run from the South Rim to the North Rim.

And it’s kind of a big day and it’s a whole thing. You bring food and you know, you climb out the other side. It’s about, I don’t know if it’s 12 or 15 miles, but it’s a huge descent. And then you run across the Colorado, then you run up the other side and it’s this amazing thing.

But we got out there, we did this whole trip, and the weather had closed the North Rim. You couldn’t get a car there, so we couldn’t go all the way across.

So we’re on the South Rim, and we’re like, well, we’re going to go and do the run anyway. We’ll do some of it, right? We’ll just go halfway.

The Decision Point

So we ran down this trail and it was amazing. We started super early and we brought all this food. The weather was kind of weird, so we had lights and all kinds of stuff. We didn’t know how long it would take.

We had gone more than halfway to the North Rim. Like, we’d already crossed the river and we were going up the side and it was like, wow. We need to turn back because now we’ve already gone half the distance and we have a long way to go back.

But there was the top of the North Rim just up there. You could see it. It was a couple thousand feet, maybe two hours away, right?

And I felt pretty good. And you know, what could happen?

And so we decided to do this thing and we ran to the North Rim and we got up there and it was incredible. And but it was kind of scary.

And I remember thinking, I’m running, it’s going to take so much longer to get back. We were, we are going to basically do double this run.

But I remember thinking, well, this is like, I feel good. My friend’s here, we have all this extra food, what could happen? This, and this is the year of adventure.

And so we did it and we ran to the North Rim and then we ran back and it was 16 hours.

It was one of the most extraordinary days of my life.

I’ll never forget it. I never could, I couldn’t do it now. Like we talk about it now, like, oh my God, remember that we, you know, we didn’t plan it. But it was the word of the year that got me to the finish line. That pushed us to do this epic, unbelievable running down the north side of the Grand Canyon on these trails with thousand-foot cliffs.

I mean, it was so cool. I’ll never forget it.

That word made it possible.

There’s no way that was like out of the ordinary.

How Your Word Influences Everything

So this word, my word for this year is ease. I think I’ve shared this with you, you know, and it impacts how I do things, right? So it’s different every year.

The point is, and the important thing to remember is that you have all these things you want to do in your life. And this one word, it’s not so much just like, okay, I want to feel this way.

But it’s how you’re going to do those things, right? Like it’s how you do them.

Are you going to do it in a wild way? Are you going to do it in an easeful way? And this is really important and it changes the complexion of the whole year.

Because the way you are makes the art that you want to make possible.

It starts upstream. It’s you, how you feel is everything. And if you’re congruent with that, and that’s how it feels most alive to feel that way, and you can stay in that and remember that, it makes everything else possible. Makes better art, better life, better everything.

A Cautionary Tale About Painting Materials

So I got this painting back. This is sort of a cautionary tale, right? Like, you know, the whole thing of painting thick over thin.

Well, I never really paid attention to that, but that is a thing, right? If you paint thin over thick. Like thick paint, especially with oil paint, oily thick paint, and then you put thin paint on top of that, it tends to, it can kind of flake off, right?

Well, I got this painting. I did this a long time ago. This is the painting in someone’s house and they’re seeing this paint flaking off. Like, it’s just like a little bit of paint chipping.

It’s so funny because that’s a huge part of my work.

The Interesting Perspective

So part of me, I didn’t think it was going to be so insignificant. I thought, you know, they were like, send it back and repair it.

You know, the chip makes it look way better. Like, I don’t want to repair. I think it looks great. I love chippy paint, you know.

But I’m going to repair it. And I just think it’s so interesting, right? Like, look at this painting to get this thing sent all over and all the time, like it’s so costly and this is the problem.

And you know, we totally understand someone who buys art and they see it chipping, they think something is off.

But aesthetically, it’s just part of the work, you know?

The Technical Lesson

Anyway, I’m going to fix it. But I share this with you because that, you know, painting thick over thin and paying attention to like putting oil paint, putting acrylic on top of oil paint, maybe that was in here. I never really paid attention to that.

And so I’m getting some of these paintings coming back and they’re doing little things like this, you know.

But I think it’s interesting that all of this is accepted. You know, like all of this crazy stuff and somehow this is a defect. How do you, you know, it’s so great.

I love artists. I love the whole process of making art and the people who collect it. I’m so grateful for them, right? And of course we’re going to take care of it and we’re going to patch it up, make it good as new.

Finding Your Word

So here’s my question for you.

What’s your one word for 2026?

Take some time with this. Think about how you want to feel this year. Not what you want to accomplish, but how you want to be while you’re doing all the things you’ll do.

Your word might be:

• Adventure
• Ease
• Joy
• Courage
• Flow
• Bold
• Grounded
• Wild
• Peace
• Present

Or something completely different that resonates with you.

The key is that it should feel alive when you say it. It should be something that gets your energy going, something you can return to when making decisions throughout the year.

And remember, this word isn’t just about feeling good. It’s about how you’re going to approach everything you do. It’s the lens through which you’ll make your art, live your life, and show up in the world.

Share your one word in the comments below.

I hope you get out and make some art today.