Backstory: What is Choose One Word?

• Choose One Word is a self-guided annual ritual taught by the Dr. Jason Fox. Dr. Fox is a metamodern wizard on a quest to create a world more curious and kind (with a PhD in motivational sciences.) The premise of the program is simple--choose one word that will guide behaviors, decisions, and goals for the year (or however long you wish.)
• Unlike most goal-setting programs, the witty Dr. Fox recommends against choosing certain types of words like happiness! Success! Etc., This is because it frees oneself from judging against what seems to be an objective metric at first glance, but is more-often-than-not an arbitrary one. (What is happiness? Success?) My word in 2019, which I had chosen before learning about the program, was "mastery." It served its purpose in that I spent the year honing 5 areas of my life (for which I will provide a retrospective) but there was a Sisyphean facet to the word that made it less useful.
• Instead, active, aspect, or archetypal words are preferred because they carry less of an inherent measuring-stick quality. In short, the chosen word is a beacon of light that guides along pathways to future relevance.

Why does Dr. Fox recommend heralding one's word on a page like this?

In his words,

"In a nutshell: cultivated dissonance.

The Ritual of Becoming is an act of manifesting*—of ‘telling the truth in advance’, so that you might live into it, make believe, and become it.

Rational friends: don’t be dissuaded by my employment of magical realism. I have not descended into irrationality—merely sidestepped into para-rationality. Join in the programme and you’ll see. Sound reasonableness cloaked in glamour, ‘pon my Word.

Thus, after deep work in Reflecting, Introspecting and Projecting (RIP)* upon ‘who you are’ and ‘who you might be’—and after finding the most exquisite and apt Word to serve you in the next chapter of your unfurling story—you then must pave the way for Actualisation. This is the phase in which you begin to adopt and an integrate new Principles, Patterns and Projects in actuality.

Yes, this is like an elegy for your past self—so that parts of you might die and rest in peace, so that new elements of ‘selfness’ might emerge.

Your ‘/word page’ helps you do this. It’s a living space for you to enshrine the insights from your Quest to find a Word for the year."

So without further ado...

2024 is The Year of the CozyGoober for me. 🥜

For me, the word “cozy” evokes:

• making room to sense the soma and feel discomfort to its fullest extent, and comfort to its fullest extent
• intimacy with the home and its associated duties—taking care of loved ones’ well-being in all dimensions
• not over-extending myself and getting into a grindset mindset (beautifully expounded by my friend zencephalon here)

As Dogen, the patriarch of Soto Zen Buddhism says, zazen is the comfortable way, but it’s not comfortable in the usual way. When you can actually accept yourself completely in all situations, then you’re comfortable.

And why append the word “goober?”

• To me, goober is a silly word for a fool. It reminds me to take things lightly, and to enjoy the practice of cosmic or mundane humor.
• I like how a goober means a peanut 🥜 and there’s nothing more cozy than peeling some warm boiled peanuts in a paper bag. I also like how the nuts of the peanut are cozily encased in its shell.

Principles and Patterns

If the chosen word is the North Star, then principles are the surrounding constellations. Dr. Fox also recommended that behavioral patterns should be doable when motivation is waning.

1. Silly: discard the need for everything I put out to be wrought with meaning. Maybe something more meaningful would emerge, if I don’t force it to happen.
2. Small: avoid grindset mindset by setting up even smaller goals, and maybe don’t even meet them all the way.
3. Still: coziness comes from not needing to be everything, everywhere, all at once. Treat every moment as “good enough.”

Projects

Although I’m heralding the Word now, I’ve been chipping away at projects that represent the CozyGoober:

• Stand up comedy at a local open mic, supported by the Gift Your Gift community

https://warpcast.com/christin/0x3a648a81 - bit about the Bay Area Virus

https://warpcast.com/christin/0x21e5c602 - an homage to George Carlin’s Stuff

• The BeavChris and BArt-Head Show (http://bcbhshow.com/) a video podcast about the Farcaster middle class
• Both of these projects above have been supported by the Farcaster community, a social platform where I have been the most active: https://warpcast.com/christin (it’s like early Twitter / Reddit, with lots of cool people open to new ideas!)

Enclothed Cognition

Dr. Fox encouraged giving ourselves symbolic reminders of our chosen word.

• Website: with Nate Kadlac’s guidance I’ve updated my website: https://christinchong.com to be the cozy destination that showcases different facets of my preoccupation. More to come on this one!
• Emoji: the 🥜 shall serve well for this year.
• Sigil: my friend Anansi drew a sigil that represented the “wiggly goober” on the inside of me. I am keeping this image private for now, as it feels deeply intimate to my being and was probably the most significant spiritual work of this year for me. Please reach out to him if you’d like an incredible trip into your true state and purpose though!

How you can help

• Enjoy the silliness from me this year 😊 perhaps this is my new way of sharing the dharma…

What is your chosen word?

• I hope this page led to inquisitiveness about a word of your own. (Or bafflement--a pre-requisite to investigation!)
• If you are interested, here is an affiliate link to the Choose One Word program.
• The program is flexible and self-directed, and can take anywhere from 3 mins/3 hours/3 weeks/3 months/as long as you want. Just the chapter on "hidden commitments" is well worth the price alone. If concepts such as "infinite games," "seminal invocations," and "why personal branding can be yucky" are intriguing, then Dr. Fox is a fine companion for exploring a ritual of becoming.

Previous Words of the Year: