2023 Phrase of the Year: Maximum Joy

My phrase of the year – or word of the  year, depending on the year – tends to come about organically. Some years it’s crystal clear. Other years it takes its sweet time. I’ve had it come to me while doing laundry, while praying, while journaling. I’ve had a friend say something that resonated. I’ve heard it in a song or while half-watching a TV show. My phrase of the year this year came from Jana Kramer in a lifetime movie. 

Before I share this year’s phrase of the year, let’s briefly revisit 2022’s word of the year. 

It started off as ‘Release.’ I knew I wanted to take my hands off the wheel in 2022 and let God work. As the calendar changed from 2021 to 2022, I was searching for the right word to describe that. I was toying with “surrender,” but it didn’t feel quite right. A friend suggested “release” and it was exactly right for the time. Mid-year though, “release” wasn’t quite right any longer. I shifted my word for the remainder of the year to “surrender.” 

Surrender I did. 2022 was a year of growth and change and God made sure I took my hands off the wheel. It was the epitome of that whole “Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans” quote. I had to let go of a lot of my own plans and follow where I was being led (back to Nashville). As someone who loves a good plan, all the unknown was rough, but I was called to exercise my faith, and so exercise it we did – by moving across the country and taking a job that put me in a leadership position for the first time in my career. 

After a year of surrender – a practice I think I’ll always need to, well, practice – I want 2023 to be a year of building. Building a foundation. Community. Businesses (yes, plural…). Relationships. Health. Self. Things I’ve done before, but this time, without the overscheduled chaos or the created stress trying to do all the things that I *think* I’m supposed to meet some made up expectation from “them,” the outside parties that don’t actually get a say. 

With that in mind, my phrase of the year for 2023 is: 

Maximum Joy. 

I heard the phrase while watching Jana Kramer and Mario Lopez’s Lifetime Christmas movie Steppin’ Into the Holiday which, for the record, was probably my favorite of the network holiday movies I watched this year. Jana plays a former professional dancer who now lives in her hometown and has taken over her mother’s dance studio. Mario is the local boy who made it big in Hollywood and returns to his hometown after losing his cushy dance reality show hosting gig. They of course meet, bond over their love of dance, and fall in love. Throughout the movie, Jana’s character talks about choosing “maximum joy” – making choices in life that are going to bring her the most joy, even if they don’t line up with what makes the most sense. For example, she left a gig as lead dancer for Katy Perry’s world tour to come back home and teach dance – the thing that, for her, brought her maximum joy, despite the opportunity she gave up. 

That’s what I want to do in 2023 – choose the things that are going to bring me maximum joy. The things that may not always be the most logical or orderly or make the most sense from the outside looking in, but that for me, as Sarah, the person who has to live my day-to-day life, needs. That might look like turning down opportunities or taking other opportunities. It might look like staying in instead of going out – or going out instead of staying in. It might mean going to a concert solo or putting up a strong boundary or protecting my time. It might mean declining a meeting, taking a random day off, working from a coffee shop, or – gasp – climbing into bed at eight o’clock with a book. 

Maximum joy. 

I’m choosing maximum joy in 2023. It will be a daily choice and sometimes I’ll have to remind myself to choose it. That’s why I used a dry erase marker to write ‘Maximum Joy’ on my bathroom mirror and put post-it notes up around the house with ‘Maximum Joy’ written on them. It’s in my daily planner and on the lockscreen of my phone – places I will see it throughout the day, every day. 

Here’s to 2023’s phrase of the year. 

Here’s to choosing maximum joy. 

What’s your phrase (or word!) of the year?