One Word

I recently sat in on a teleseminar presented by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page as they talked about their book One word that will change your life.  The following is my reflection on that teleseminar.

It is that time of the year – that time when people think about their New Year’s Resolutions – exercise more, lose weight, eat healthier, get organized …

A study from the University of Bristol found that 87% of people create resolutions for the new year.  After 30 days, 50% of those resolutions have already failed.  More surprisingly, only 12% of resolutions are successful at the end of one year.

So why are New Year’s resolutions so unsuccessful?  A large part of it has to do with our mentality with resolutions.  We often look at resolutions as something we need to conquer or beat.  Or sometimes we just forget about our resolutions or our goals.  So what can we do to make it “stick”?

The authors advocate for creating a “one word” focus.  This one word will direct your life, both personally and professionally, for the year with a laser-like focus.  Focusing on one word will allow you to focus on your hopes, dreams and aspirations through the year.

This one word is the filter for all 6 dimensions of your life - spiritual, physical, mental, relational, financial, emotional.  This word will help guide you and your decisions over the next year in all aspects of the 6 dimensions.

So how do you go about finding your one word.  In order for this to be a powerful process, you want the word to be memorable and transferable.  For some people, it will come automatically.  For others in can be a bit of a process.  Gordon, Britton and Page recommend examining three elements when trying to decide your word for the year.

·         Look in – This is a time to prepare your heart.  Spend some time getting unplugged from the distractions of life.  Get away and create space, both mentally and emotionally, and contemplate and reflect what you need for the upcoming year.

·         Look up - Discover your word.  Discover when you are open to that word so you can be your best or embrace the challenge you need to face. 

·         Look out - Live the word.  Your word now becomes a living, breathing organism that allows you to be the word.

Power of one word is in its simplicity and its depth.  You own it and personalize it - it is not about winning or conquering your "word" like a resolution.   It is about a focus for the year, those are the things you learn about your word over the course of the year.  You will journey with the word, unpack  and focus your life with the word.

Most important aspect of one word - how we live it and bring it to life.   Keep word in front of us.  One of the authors described how he and his family each paint the word on a canvas and post all their words in the kitchen, since that is where they seem to spend most of their time.  You will want to post your word and revisit it each day.  You can add your word to your screen saver, share your word with your inner circle of friends and family, periodically start conversations about our word "how is it going?  How are you living the word?"  You can even create a word document with your word "All things _____"  and when you experience something to do with your word, you add it to the document so it helps you remain true to that word all year long.

One word can change everything… so what will be your one word for the year?