One of the best exercises to do this time of year is the Word of The Year Exercise. So, grab a pen and paper or download my free workbook and let’s get started!
Your life happens by design or by default, those are the only two options. When you decide to stop thinking self-limiting thoughts, then you’ll stop doubting yourself and you’re going to focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been – everything changes.
We just had a month in my social selling business that has blown my mind and we’re not stopping. I had set a vision for myself to start a podcast and do an online course. So far I’ve done two online courses, and the podcast is up and running. Yay! So many things are happening because I set the stage for myself and I refused to allow doubt to run havoc on my life. This Word of the Year exercise sets the foundation for everything. So, let’s get into it!
Clarifying Questions
The very first thing is to do some self-discovery and for this, we use four clarifying questions. Fill them out to the best of your ability, take your time, and don’t use any shortcuts in this process because this will help your subconscious brain figure out what it is that you really want.
1. What do I want more of in my life?
Go as broad or as specific as you’d like here. Do you want more travel? More fun, more sleep, more time, more money? Do you want more opportunities? Do you want more teammates? Do you want more customers?
2. How do I want to feel each day when I wake up?
Be really honest with yourself about how you feel each day when you wake up and if that’s how you want to feel. If it is, great! Write that down. But, if you want to feel differently when you wake up in the morning, go ahead and write it down. From a brain-rewiring perspective, the two most valuable times to really be able to mold your brain are right before you go to bed and right when you wake up in the morning, so morning habits are everything.
3. What do I want less of in my life?
We often overlook what we need to eliminate from our life. I personally believe in making the most of our days and I don’t believe that the busiest person wins. If we want to make an impact, if we want to be high-impact individuals, we have to do less things. This might mean less drama, it might mean less news, it might mean less work. So, get really specific here.
4. How do I want to show up?
This is a really powerful question and this is about deep inside you. Who do you want to be? How do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be? How do you want to show up? Get specific and write it down.
Imagining your future
Now, if you haven’t listened to Dr Joe Dispenza, I highly recommend that you do. Some of his work has been a real epiphany for me over the past year.
Our memories are just imprints in our brains. They do not exist in any other place except in our brain because the only time that ever exists is now and the only thing that’s ever real is what’s in front of us at this moment in time. Not only can we decide to let go of old memories and forgive ourselves and forgive other people, but we can also create new memories. We can imagine a future that becomes a memory in our brain, and then our brain goes to work to create a reality based on that memory. If you imagine your future, if you create those memories, then all that needs to happen is for your brain to catch up and make that a reality. The only thing that gets in the way of that is you not believing that that can happen!
Here are some questions to help you imagine. Write them down as if they are happening right now or have already happened:
- Imagine yourself one year from now, where do you want to be? This can be geographical, it can be in your business, it can be in your relationships, it can be in your health, etc.
- A year from now, what do you want to be doing? What do you want to be doing with your time, how do you want to be spending your day, what activities will you be doing?
- A year from now, who do you want to be with? There’s a quote that says: show me your friends and I’ll show you your future, and it’s one of the things that I found to be most true in my life. When you surround yourself with people who have a growth mindset and want to move forward, everything changes.
Our subconscious can’t tell the difference between what actually happened in the past and what you’re telling it happened in the past. Our subconscious listens to what we tell it to do. This is why magnetic mindset matters so much. What you say, what you think, how you act – all of that is telling your brain how to behave. We will never outpace what we believe we are capable of. Go ahead and imagine big!!
Your Word of The Year
Now that you’ve written down all these answers, you have a lot of content. Sit back, take a moment and see what kind of themes emerge. Some words will start popping up in your head. Write them down and don’t hold back. Write as many as you want.
A bunch of words will start to group into themes and you’ll just have to start consciously grouping them and go through that process. Don’t rush, take your time. Make it a full brainstorming process, let your brain really expand.
You will notice that some words start to pop out to you. This is where you create your top 10 list and ultimately choose your word of the year. If you end up with two words and you can’t decide, that’s okay. I think I’m going to have two words this year because they’re both important to me for different reasons and I feel like they’re both going to really inform where I need to grow this year.
Now that you have your word(s) of the year, there are so many fun things you can do with it, but the number one way that you can use your words is in a vision board. You can create your vision board in Canva. Take your word(s) for the year and make it your primary word(s) on your vision board and then sprinkle all of your other words and goals into the vision board.
My word for last year was authenticity and I have stepped into the most authentic version of myself this year and grown in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined. I hope that’s inspiring to you because I am 51 years old, and I’ve had the best year of my business career. I am growing in ways that I couldn’t have even envisioned a year ago and the opportunities and possibilities are absolutely endless. So, dream big.
P.S. If you’re reading this and it’s not January, it’s a Wednesday in the middle of March, just remember – the year starts whenever you say it starts. Every day is a great day to create a new future for yourself.
Hopefully, this has sparked some curiosity in you and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.
In the meantime, remember, you are magnetic and people are waiting to hear what you have to say.
Love,
Tracey.
