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I’ve been selecting a word of the year for the past 20 years, so I know a thing or two about not just how to select a word but how to make it an effective practice. In today’s podcast I’m sharing with you why the word-of-the-year practice is important if you want to create an ambitious and balanced life this year, I’ll give you my quick 3-step process on how to select a word, and most importantly I will share exactly what you need to do in order to keep it top of mind, so it can fuel you all year long.
Topics in this episode:
Why select a word of the year?
What is important when selecting a word?
My, personal, 2024 word of the year and manifestation statements
How to create a roadmap to manifesting your word
What you need in order to give yourself the best chance at manifesting your word this year
Show Notes & References:
Give yourself a 9/10 chance of making your goals happen in 2024 by working with me you, a specialized working mom coach. Click here to schedule a free call to learn more: www.rebeccaolsoncoaching.com
Send me your word of the year and manifestation statements via email and I promise to respond personally! Email me at: rebecca@rebeccaolsoncoaching.com
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Transcript
Intro
Hey, working moms. I've been selecting a word-of-the-year for the past 20 years, so I know a thing or two about not just how to select a word, but how to really make it useful and effective for the entire 365 days.
In today's podcast, I'm sharing with you why this practice of selecting a word-of-the-year is so important, if you want to create an ambitious and balanced life this year. I'll give you my quick three step process on how to select a word. And most importantly, I will share with you exactly what you need to do in order to keep your word top of mind and to let it fuel you all year long.
I've only ever shared this process with my one on one clients, so I'm excited to pull back the curtain and share it with you here today. Are you ready? Let's get to it.
Welcome to the Ambitious and Balanced Working Moms podcast, the place for women who want to balance their ambitious career goals with their life as a mom. If you're looking to feel more confident, decisive and productive at both work and home, then this is the place for you. I'm your host, Rebecca Olson. Let's get to it.
Hello, working moms. I am so excited to be sharing with you one of my absolute favorite New Year's practices: selecting a word-of-the-year. We're going to talk all about it. I'm an expert at it and I'll tell you why in just a little bit. But I have to share this really quick story, because it was so impactful for me and I just have to share it with you.
Sharing a moment of connection…
So you know that this podcast is in the top 2% of the world. It has over 150,000 downloads. It's listened to in dozens and dozens of countries. The success of this podcast has been wide over the last three years, and I'm really, really proud of the impact this podcast has had, and I love being a part of the impact this podcast is having in the working mom community. And the community that has formed around this podcast just fuels my heart now.
I definitely hear from my listeners from time to time. I get emails. I also hear from women as they book breakthrough calls and we talk about the podcast. I hear about the impact that this podcast is having as people leave reviews. That's another big way that I hear from people around the impact of this podcast. But something happened yesterday that has never happened before.
I was at Six Flags theme park. That's just about 15 minutes away from my house. We have season passes and we were taking some friends there as they were celebrating their birthday. So it was me, a dad friend of mine, and four kids. And we're standing around watching all these kids on rides and this woman gets off of the ride with her two kiddos and she comes up to me. She taps me on the shoulder and she's like, “Excuse me, are you Rebecca Olsen?”
I mean, I'm in like two layers of sweatshirts because it's super frigid and cold outside. My hair is an absolute mess because I'm wearing a hoodie. I'm wearing sunglasses. I have four kids that are running around me. How she ever recognized me, I have no idea, but I said “Yes.” And she said, “Oh my gosh, I listen to your podcast and it has made such an impact on me in my life and in our family life. I cannot believe that I am seeing you and talking to you right now. Thank you. Thank you so much for what you do. It has made such an impact.”
Can you believe that this has never happened before? We talked for several minutes. We actually ran into each other again at a different part of the park. We took a selfie together. It was like such a magical, impactful moment for me and for her, where I got to actually meet a listener in person like this.
And it reminded me that as we go into 2024, the work that I'm doing, that we're doing collectively as a community, it matters. You living the working mom life that you want matters. You experiencing joy and success and fulfillment, it matters. You are deserving of the ambitious and balanced life that you want.
And this woman, her name was Crystal, she had so many amazing things to say about how this podcast and the work that I'm doing has impacted her. And while I feel really honored to be a part of that journey and to be a part of her journey and your journey, the real work is within you.
It's you believing in you. It's you having the courage to go after the life that you want. It's you believing that the life that you want is even possible for you. It's you doing the uncomfortable work of prioritizing differently than the rest of your colleagues and making difficult choices. Sometimes to maybe change jobs, to quit jobs, to follow a dream, to do whatever it is that you want to do.
I can't do that for you.
I love that I'm an inspiration for you and that I am providing tools and guidance. That's exactly what I want to be doing as your coach in this podcast. But the real work is with you.
So I was inspired by this little moment, this conversation, this gift of a moment I had with Crystal. And every time I hear from one of you about the impact this podcast is making, it fuels me to help you create for yourself the life that you want. So please keep it coming. I hope I run into hundreds of you this week, but I also love receiving emails from listeners. I promise I respond to each and every one of them.
Or even better yet, make your email a review so everybody can read the impact that this podcast is making.
I am fueled more than ever to do this work, and I love testimonies for how the work that we're doing right here in the Ambitious and Balanced Working Mom community, how it is affecting you. So please share it. Share it with others. Share it with me. So good.
Choosing a word-of-the-year is the new New Year’s resolution.
All right, let's jump in today, talking about our word-of-the-year.
Selecting a word-of-the-year has been a more recent trend, and more and more people are selecting words-of-the-year instead of even doing New Year's resolutions.
But just so we're all clear, I was one of those trend starters, okay? I have been selecting a word-of-the-year since I was 21, and I'm 41 now. So for the last 20 years.
So you are hearing from an expert here. I got even my husband to start picking a word-of-the-year. That's probably been maybe around a decade ago or so, maybe a little bit longer.
And we actually now have signs made for each of our words-of-the-year. We have a wall in our house that all of our words go onto and they get placed there. They inspire us. It's kind of this collage wall. I love it.
So good. So I am well versed and I'm excited to share with you my process, in hopes that it becomes a practice that is really useful for you as well.
Why should you choose a word-of-the-year?
So before I even start talking about how to go about picking a word-of-the-year, I want to start with why you should be selecting a word of the year in the first place.
Selecting a word-of-the-year for me is essentially putting an intention into the year. It brings focus. It grounds you.
And living with intention is such a big part of creating an ambitious and balanced life. Living with intention means you're not living on default. You're not just accepting things as is or as status quo, right?
There are so many things that are competing for your attention and your time and your energy that unless you have clear focus and intentionality, you will either burn yourself out trying to do everything, or you will focus on all of the easy and comfortable things and likely have some regrets.
So selecting a word-of-the-year is simply a practice of bringing intention into your year, focusing your mind on how you want this year to go, which creates a bit of a roadmap so that decisions become easier and the life that you want to create for yourself is manifested faster.
Now, I'm not saying that this practice is a “have to”, right? There's a lot of ways to bring intention into your life and into your year. This is just the one that has worked for me, and you likely have seen a lot of people take this on over the last couple of years. So I really want to explain it to you in this podcast.
There is no wrong way to do this.
Let's talk about how to go about selecting a word-of-the-year. Then I'm going to share with you how to use that word throughout the year, because that's actually where things go wrong for people. They're good at selecting the word and they’re just not very good at keeping up with the word.
And I think that's really where I excel. So I'm going to share some thoughts on that as well.
So let's talk about selecting a word-of-the-year. And let me just say there's no right or wrong way to do this, right?
Choosing your word…
If you're a perfectionist, I don't want you to get caught up in needing to follow a particular method. There's no right or wrong method. We're just trying to find a way that's useful for you. Because that's really what it's all about when you're selecting a word-of-the-year, it's about usefulness, right?
We don't want to care if it's right or wrong because there's probably dozens of words that would be useful to you that would be right for you this year. We're just going to select one of them.
Now, I have had some years where words come to me very easily and simply, and then I've had other years where I kind of have to put some effort into figuring out what that word is.
Now, if you're in the first boat, like you're one of those people where a word has just really come for you and come to you very easily. Something that just feels right. I want you to just simply trust your instincts. You don't need to go through this process that I'm about to explain.
I want you to just simply self-validate why the word that you have selected is right for you. Why it's the most useful for you, this year. Don't overthink it. Trust yourself. Being an ambitious and balanced person requires self trust, and this is just a time to practice that.
Now, if you fall into the second category where you don't have a word and you need to put some effort into figuring it out, let me just share with you my very simple process. I don't want this process to feel or even sound like it's going to take a bunch of time because it really doesn't have to.
Ultimately, your brain will take as much time as you give it to really do anything. So if you decide you're going to give yourself 30 minutes to sit down and figure out your word-of-the-year and decide it, then that's how long you'll take. If you decide you're going to give yourself a half day retreat to figure it out, then your brain's going to take all that time to figure it out. It won't move any faster than it has to.
Step #1: Reflect
So here's where it starts. Step one, I want you to look back at your previous year and jot down observations from the year. So for me, this just looks like bullet points.
You can go back through your journals, if you are a journaler. Your notebooks, even your work notebooks, can have some interesting information and reflection in them. You can go back to your calendar.
Start at the beginning of last year, work your way all the way to the end, and you just want to jot down things that you did, milestones that were reached, memories that seemed to stand out for you, lessons learned, maybe even hard moments that you had.
It's sort of like your year at a glance, both from an external perspective, like the experiences that you had, the things that you did, and an internal perspective, like the growth and the lessons learned.
This step is going to take most of your time because it requires you to go back and really think and to consolidate your thoughts.
Step #2: Observe
Step number two is to then take a look at that list and make some observations.
I'm going to list out a couple of questions for you. Pick a few and answer them.
Do you see any themes from your year?
Did something reoccur over and over and over again?
Was there something missing from your year?
Was there something you overemphasized this past year?
Are there any words that stand out or resonate with you that you wrote down?
These are just ways of getting going and making some observations. Just wanting to provide some questions for you to help that observation process. Again, there's no right or wrong.
Don't get stuck here. Just simply write down whatever comes to mind. Don't judge it. Don't question it. Just get writing.
Step #3: Ask yourself how you want to grow.
Step three is to answer this question: Where are these observations pointing me toward? Or what are these observations pointing me toward?
It's always going to be moving you towards more of something. More joy, more hope, more peace, more declaration, more balance, more prioritization of self. More love, more intentionality.
As you look over your list of observations, what does it seem to be saying that you need more of? It's okay to jot down a couple of ideas here, but you're going to want to narrow it down to just one.
Now, for me, my words tend to be a verb, but that verb focuses more on what I want in my heart, not what I want kind of externally in my life. Now, that doesn't mean, it won't manifest itself externally. It just means I'm focusing more on the internal.
So, essentially, I'm asking myself the question, “How do I want my heart to grow this year based on how my year went last year?”
That's kind of the overall question you're answering. Whatever your answer to that is should be a single word, and it's your word of the year.
Last year, my word was “receive.”
I wanted to be more in a posture of receiving in my heart. I wanted to receive the good things that were happening in my life. I wanted to receive gratitude. I wanted to receive the stories and the good feelings of the work I was doing, the impact that I was making. I also wanted to receive more of other people's opinions and be more receptive to other people's opinions. So that was my 2023 word.
In 2022, my word was loved. I wanted to focus on feeling loved. I wanted to focus that year on opening myself up to being more loved and remembering that being loved and loving others was more important and more impactful than any other success or any other achievement I could have that year.
Your word-of-the-year, at least in the way I'm teaching it here, is about growth in your heart, and that's really it.
This is how I get to, and how I am teaching you to select your word-of-the-year.
Don’t miss this opportunity.
Now, this is where I see people miss an opportunity to really make their word impactful for them and to guide them over the course of this year. Because a lot of people simply pick their word, and then that's it, right?
They selected the word. Maybe they tell a few people about it, but that's where it ends. And then they forget about it, and they move on with the year, until the end of the year. And then they kind of sort of remember it, maybe if they sort of told somebody about it or wrote it down somewhere, but it doesn't have an impact for them.
If you're going to go through the process of selecting a word for yourself, I want it to be impactful. I want it to be meaningful. I want it to have that intention. I want it to guide you.
Executing is where the magic happens.
So, executing on your word-of-the-year, this is where the magic happens.
So let me share some thoughts with you on how to best utilize your word-of-the-year, or essentially what to do from here after you've selected it.
Define it: What does your word mean to you?
The first thing is you need to write for yourself a very clear definition. Now, I don't care how a dictionary would define this word. I care about how you want to define this word. What does it mean to you? You want to write that down.
My word for this year, for 2024, is “declare.” My definition: to say what I think or what I believe, despite potential opposition or being wrong.
Map it: What does your word look like in action?
The second thing that's going to help you best utilize your word-of-the-year is to write manifestation statements.
Now, I know that sounds kind of like a fancy term of some kind and I just simply made it up. But I want you to write three to six statements about how you see this word manifesting itself this year.
Each manifestation probably starts with “I want to,” because this is where you're really putting intention out there.
My word-of-the-year is “declare.” And so my manifestation statements are as follows. I have six of them.
Number one, I want to say what I believe, pray for others, and be more vocal about my faith.
Two, I want to feel less confusion or stuckness by deciding the problem and selecting a solution faster.
Number three, I want to hold captive my “not enough” thoughts and be more intentional with recognizing and redirecting them.
Number four, when I feel unsure about how to respond to something or someone, I want to decide instead of push it off.
Number five, I want to slow down enough to decide and evaluate goals and progress.
And number six, I want to be clear on what I am offering my working mom community moving forward in 2024 and beyond.
I wanted to give those to you just as a way of showing you or giving you some examples of what these manifestation statements might sound like or look like.
Okay, so now you have a word. And you have a clear definition of what that word is, so your brain's not confused about what it means. You also have statements that will act as your guide for the year.
And I want you to think about these statements as being sort of your “how.” It's like your roadmap to how this word is going to manifest this year. So your brain knows exactly what it needs to be doing or focusing on in order to be honoring this word and this intention for the year.
You really don't want to miss these steps. Your brain is not like a crock pot where you simply set it and forget it, right? Your brain takes active work to create something delicious and mouthwatering on the other side.
Be accountable for it: Who is on your team?
The last point I want to make as we talk about making your word-of-the-year practice really impactful is, I want to talk about accountability. This is something we talk a lot about on the podcast, and we talk about it for a really good reason. Research does not lie.
You are 90% more likely to achieve a goal, or in this case, to live out your word-of-the-year, if you have some form of accountability.
Now, I say this all the time. You are not meant to live life alone. We are a community driven species. We depend on each other. We live better and experience more joy and more success and more goodness when we do life together.
And this is one of the reasons why coaching is so effective. You have a “one out of ten” chance of achieving your goals and your intentions this year, if you do it on your own. You have a “nine out of ten” chance of achieving your goals and your intentions, if you have active accountability.
Now, the word active is very important here. You need someone that is consistently asking you, that is holding you to your goals and the importance of your goals, and reminding you of what is possible for you in your goals.
And as a coach, that's my job, to know your goals, to believe in your goals, probably even more than you do, to make sure you are moving toward your goals and to help you troubleshoot when you feel stuck.
Accountability is going to make your goals and your word-of-the-year inevitable.
Now, what feels different, actually, about coaching is that it's not just about accountability. I'm not just simply asking you about your goals and making sure you're making progress towards those goals and helping you feel clear and celebrating all the milestones with you. I'm also acting as a guide.
That's what makes me unique as a working mom coach. I'm a working mom myself. I have experiences as a working mom. I also have had this coaching career, this coaching business, for the last seven years, I've coached thousands and thousands of hours and hundreds of women, personally helping them achieve their working mom goals.
I've learned a thing or two. There's a process to achieving your goals and becoming the ambitious and balanced working mom that you want.
But regardless of if you're looking to me as a coach or looking to hire a coach, you need some form of accountability if you really want your word-of-the-year to manifest itself this year.
There are several forms of accountability that I use for myself when it comes to my word of the year. I want to share a few of those with you. These are things outside of coaching, outside of hiring someone. These are just the things that I do that help ground me in keeping this goal, my intention, my word, top of mind all year long.
Talk about your word and why it matters.
Now, the first thing is that I tell a lot of people about my word. This forces me to share how I want my year to unfold, to test out my definition. It almost becomes this little elevator speech, like, can I describe to someone in 30 seconds or less what my word is, why it matters to me. And so I practice that. And the more I repeat it, the more I practice it, the more that goes into my subconscious, and it becomes accessible in my brain.
And one of those people I tell, very important, I tell my husband, because he picks a word-of-the-year And so there's always this moment where we share what our words are and why they are our word-of-the-year. And we talk about it. We talk about how we want it to manifest. I share my manifestation statements, and then I invite him to check in with me on it, as well.
Keep your word in sight.
The second thing I do very intentionally is I have visual reminders. Now, I already mentioned to you that I create a sign so that will go up on the wall.
I also have my word of the year and my manifestations in the front of my journal. And if I end up using up that journal and starting another one sometime in the middle of the year, I will rewrite my word of the year and the manifestations at the front of the journal. Because inevitably, at various times, I'm going to open my journal and it's going to fall to the very front, and then I'm going to see those manifestations. I'm going to see that word and it's going to, once again, bring to consciousness that word-of-the-year, which is going to help me keep it top of mind and manifest this year.
I often have other forms of visual reminders as well. Sometimes I will change the password on my computer to match my word-of-the-year, so that every single day, usually multiple times a day, I'm inputting that information. Or I might have a sticky note on my computer or around my house. But visual reminders are very important, at least for me, in helping me to keep my word of the year top of mind.
Build in reminders to bring you back to your word.
And the last thing that I'm going to suggest, I actually don't usually do this anymore because this happens so naturally for me that I don't need these types of reminders. But I would highly recommend for you monthly and quarterly reminders in your calendar or reminders, in your phone or in Alexa or whatever.
You need something that is literally going to come out of nowhere and remind you to look at your word of the year and your manifestations and to think about it at a regular interval.
Now, I don't need these types of reminders anymore. At least I'm telling you that, because I think about the word-of-the-year, quite honestly, all the time throughout the year. But I could also probably benefit from some regular interval reminder. So I'm going to commit to you on that right now.
Check in with yourself.
But the reminder is not meant for you to just think about it. I want you to actually write about it, to evaluate it. How are you doing at manifesting this word of the year? How have you been successful at it? What do you need to work at? What are some stories that show the progress made? How do you know this word of the year is still really important to you?
I want you to actually write about your word-of-the-year at a regular time throughout the year. I would say at least once a month. Keep it top of mind and be intentional and hyper focused on it. That's the point.
Remember, your brain can only keep four to six conscious things at any given time. Your word-of-the-year is probably not going to be one of those four to six things throughout the 365 days this year, unless you intentionally make it. So, unless you have something that's reminding you, that's bringing it into one of those four to six conscious things at some given time throughout this year, that's what's going to help you be successful. It's going to keep you accountable to this word.
All, right, my friends, it's going to be an amazing 2024.
If you want to make this word-of-the-year your intention this year, your goals this year. If you want to give yourself a “nine out of ten” chance of making those goals happen, please, please reach out.
This is your year to work with me. I would love to connect with you and talk to you on one of our free breakthrough calls. I will put that in the show notes, but otherwise, working moms, this is going to be an amazing year.
I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your word of the year and your manifestations. Please share those with me. Email me. You can email me at rebecca@rebeccaolsoncoaching.com and I promise I will respond to each and every one of your emails personally.
And don't forget to write a review of this podcast. Remember, those fuel me. They fuel my entire year as I see them come in. So thank you in advance for taking time to do that.
All right, working moms, this is going to be the best year ever, so let's get to it.
Do you want to take your commitment to yourself a step further?
Schedule a free breakthrough call today!
Hey, before you go, I want to take a moment and tell you about an opportunity to speak with me directly. If you've been listening to this podcast and still feel like you need help balancing a fulfilling career with motherhood, then I encourage you to schedule a free breakthrough call.
On this call, we will get crystal clear on exactly what it is you want out of your career and how you want to balance that with motherhood. And then we'll craft next steps for you to start moving toward a more calm and fulfilling working mom life.
Head over to www.rebeccaolsencoaching.com/book to apply for this free call. ‘Til next week. Working moms, let's get to it.
