This Year's Word with Courtney Symes

Courtney Symes

Imagine if a single word could change your life. This was a theory Courtney wanted to test a few years ago when, instead of setting New Year’s resolutions, she selected a Word of the Year to live her life by. Join Courtney as she shares her Word of the Year experiences with you in this podcast series.

  1. 6 DAYS AGO

    Inner flow vs outer flow — when life has rhythm but you feel stuck

    Over the last episode, we began exploring the idea of flow — not as something we chase or manufacture, but as something we learn to listen to and cooperate with. We spoke about February as a return to the current. A settling back into real life. A season where the excitement of new beginnings softens, and we’re invited to meet ourselves where we actually are. Today, I want to take that conversation a little deeper. Because there’s a very common experience many of us have at this time of year — and often we don’t have language for it. On the outside, life looks like it’s working. The routines are in place. The calendar is full. The goals are still written down somewhere. And yet, internally, something feels… stuck. Heavy. Resistant. Disconnected. Today’s episode is about that experience — the difference between outer flow and inner flow, and what happens when those two rhythms fall out of conversation with each other.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on flow – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    15 min

  2. 2 FEB

    Return to routine – how to settle back into life after the holidays

    Although I’ve been back at work for a few weeks, this week my kiddos have gone back to school and resumed their extracurricular activities. It feels like we have resumed our regular routine, which for me, brings mixed emotions. The bliss of slower mornings not rushing to get out of the house and scrambling to make school lunches has melted away. Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations feel like a distant memory. As we step into February, I want to begin by gently naming something many of us feel — but don’t always talk about. That subtle emotional shift. The quiet drop in energy. The sense that the spark of January has softened. The holidays are over. The kids are back at school. Work routines have resumed. Life has returned to something that looks a lot more like “normal”. And if you’re feeling less motivated, less inspired, or less certain than you did a few weeks ago — I want you to know this right away: Nothing has gone wrong. This episode is an invitation to see February not as a failure of January, but as a return to the current. A re-entry into the rhythm of real life. A moment where intentions stop living in our imagination — and begin learning how to live inside our days. This month, our word is Flow. And today, we’re exploring flow not as momentum — but as re-entry.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on flow – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    14 min

  3. 26 JAN

    Living with vision — letting the future guide the present

    Over the last few episodes, we’ve been exploring the theme of vision — not as something rigid or prescriptive, but as something alive. A way of seeing clearly. A quiet orientation toward what matters most. We’ve spoken about defining vision from truth rather than pressure. About holding vision lightly, without force or attachment. About becoming the person who can carry the vision with steadiness and care. And today, I’d like to bring this conversation into the everyday. Because vision isn’t meant to live only in the future. It isn’t something we visit occasionally in moments of dreaming or goal-setting. Vision is meant to be lived. Today’s episode is about living with vision — letting the future gently guide the present. Not through urgency. Not through striving. But through alignment, presence, and trust.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on vision – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    13 min

  4. 19 JAN

    Becoming the person who can hold the vision

    Over the past few episodes, we’ve been exploring the theme of vision — not as something rigid or prescriptive, but as something alive. A way of seeing clearly. A gentle orientation toward what matters most. We’ve talked about defining vision from truth rather than pressure. We’ve explored holding vision lightly — without attachment or force. And today, I’d like to take us into the next layer of this conversation. Because once you have a sense of vision — once you begin to feel the direction your life is wanting to move — another question naturally arises. Not What do I want? But Who do I need to become in order to live this? Today’s episode is about becoming the person who can hold the vision. Because vision isn’t sustained by wishing or striving alone. It’s sustained by identity. By growth. By inner alignment. And often, the work isn’t about making the vision happen faster — It’s about becoming steady enough, grounded enough, and spacious enough to carry it well.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on vision – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    15 min

  5. 11 JAN

    Dreams without attachment – how to hold your vision lightly

    Over the last episode, we explored the idea of vision — not as something rigid or prescriptive, but as a way of seeing clearly. A gentle orientation toward what matters, rather than a fixed destination we must reach. Today, I’d like to take that idea one step further. Because once we begin to clarify our vision, another question naturally arises — how do we hold it? Do we grip tightly, determined to make it happen exactly as imagined? Or do we allow ourselves to hold our vision lightly — with trust, openness, and room for life to unfold? Today’s episode is an invitation into that softer space. A space where dreams are held with intention, but not control. Where vision guides us, but doesn’t trap us. Where we learn to trust timing, detours, and the unseen unfolding of our lives. This is about dreaming without attachment. If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on vision – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    15 min

  6. 4 JAN

    Seeing clearly — how to define your personal vision

    When you hear the word vision, what comes to mind? For some of us, it brings up images of big goals, five-year plans, vision boards filled with perfectly curated dreams. For others, it can feel overwhelming — like pressure to have everything figured out, to know exactly where you’re headed and how you’ll get there. But as we step into this series on the theme of “vision” together, I want to offer a softer, more spacious way of thinking about vision. Vision isn’t about certainty. It isn’t about locking yourself into a future you have to perform or achieve. Vision is about seeing clearly. It’s about gently lifting your head from the noise of daily life and asking yourself: What truly matters to me now? What direction feels honest, nourishing, and aligned — even if I don’t know all the details yet? As we settle into the new year, let’s explore what it really means to define your personal vision — not from pressure or expectation, but from truth.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on vision – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    16 min

  7. 30/12/2025

    Celebrate change — finding joy in life’s seasons

    As we come to the final weeks of the year, there’s a particular kind of quiet that settles in. It’s not just the slowing of the calendar or the closing of long-held commitments. It’s something deeper — a kind of inward turning. A natural pause. A gentle, almost instinctive moment of reflection where we look back at the year that has been and consider everything that has shifted, stretched, challenged, unsettled, strengthened, or softened us. And in that pause, we often notice something we didn’t realise in the middle of our busy days: This year changed us. Not always dramatically. Not always in loud, life-altering ways. But in subtle ones — the kind you only see when you slow down long enough to really look. Today’s episode is the final part of our “Celebrate” series — a journey through small joys, self-celebration, shared connection, and now, the element that ties them all together: change.    If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on celebration – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    18 min

  8. 17/12/2025

    Celebrate together: The joy of shared moments

    When you think about the happiest moments of your life, how many of them were spent alone? Chances are, the memories that stand out most — a birthday, a new job, a milestone, a beautiful day in the sunshine — were shared with someone else. Maybe it was family gathered around a table, a group of friends cheering you on, or even a stranger who smiled and joined in your excitement. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring what it means to celebrate — not just in the traditional sense, with balloons and confetti, but as a way of living. We’ve talked about celebrating the small things — those quiet, everyday moments that often slip by unnoticed. We’ve also talked about celebrating yourself — honouring your growth, your progress, and the quiet strength it takes to simply keep showing up. In this episode, we’ll explore why celebration feels richer when it’s shared, how gathering — even in the smallest ways — strengthens our sense of belonging, and how to create more moments of connection and shared joy in our lives.   If the content of today’s episode has piqued your interest, I have something very special for you. I have created 30 Journal Prompts, similar to the ones mentioned throughout this episode on celebration – that’s one life-changing prompt for you to work on every day over the next month! Just imagine how much growth you can unlock over the next 30 days if you keep the momentum going and commit to answering one prompt a day. All you need to do to get these thought-provoking prompts is leave a positive rating and review for this podcast, take a screenshot of your review and email it to: courtney@alittlepinkbook.com and I’ll email you the prompts! Check out my courses: Magical Mornings and Joyful Journaling Journey, as well as my book, A Year of Love: Finding peace one day at a time.  Grab your FREE How to Ask Someone if They're Ok Conversation Starters and FREE Journaling Guide with 100+ prompts here.  Read more on my blog, or connect with me on Facebook.

    15 min
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About

Imagine if a single word could change your life. This was a theory Courtney wanted to test a few years ago when, instead of setting New Year’s resolutions, she selected a Word of the Year to live her life by. Join Courtney as she shares her Word of the Year experiences with you in this podcast series.

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