00:00:00 Welcome to tonight's Saturday night special where we're going to talk about having a word of the year. Yeah, I'm Robert Farrington from the college investor dot com. I encourage you to be inspired to become a better Steward through financial wisdom by listening to this show the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer. Look at those goals, and I'm looking for themes. I'm looking for characteristics. I'm looking for things that I are indicated in there. Do the goals indicate an area that's missing in my life? Do they indicate an area where I'm trying to grow or expand something in my life?
00:00:51 Do they indicate an area where I'm trying to inject sort of a new emotion or a new feeling? Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in. The inspired Stewardship podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you impact in tonight's Saturday night special. I talk with you about why having a word of the year is a great practice to have.
00:01:34 How doing this can help you filter your goals, your opportunities and your activities for the year and why choosing that word is important and how you can do it. And I'll also share with you my word for 2020. Now One area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity, getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really, really tough.
00:02:06 I've got a course called Productivity for your passion that's designed to help you do this. And then they hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity not just to be getting more done but actually getting the right things done.
00:02:24 What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and Taylor the productivity system to your personality.
00:02:35 Because the truth is, a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.
00:02:42 But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work But there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone,
00:02:52 and we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over on inspired stewardship dot com slash launch.
00:03:02 So you've probably seen a few posts this week about people announcing their word of the year for 2020. Or maybe they reflected on how 2019 connected to the word they chose last year.
00:03:17 There's, Ah, book about choosing a word of the year, and at first glance it seems kind of intimidating to try to think about picking a single word That's gonna be your focus for the entire year.
00:03:31 But I've been doing this for the last four or five years now, and I've found great power in it.
00:03:38 But I will also tell you that there are some things that you need to know and understand to make this effective.
00:03:46 You know what a lot of people will do is they kind of choose their word of the year because everyone else is doing it and so they'll have a word and they announce it.
00:03:55 But they don't actually do anything with that word. The word doesn't affect their life. The word doesn't affect them in terms of what they're doing in that year or not doing in that year.
00:04:08 Instead, they just kind of pick it and then forget it and they move on and it becomes just like setting an ineffective New Year's resolution or any of the other things we've been talking about this week.
00:04:19 It just becomes another little activity that you do and you share because everyone else does it, and that isn't the way to use it.
00:04:30 Instead, if you are doing this, if you are trying to come up with a theme for your year that you can sum up in one single word,
00:04:40 you need to go about it and be more effective in both choosing it. And then what you do with it after you choose it.
00:04:50 See the power of having your entire focus for the year summed up in one word is that you can keep that word in front of you all year long.
00:05:02 You can put that word on your lock screen on your phone. You can put that word on a big poster in front of you wherever you work.
00:05:10 You can post it in front of you, you know, on your car dashboard. You can put it as your screen saver on your computer,
00:05:18 and maybe is the desktop image on your computer. You can put the word in front of you all year long,
00:05:27 and then you can use that theme to filter the goals that you set for this year. Look and see if the goals that you've said have an alignment with that word.
00:05:40 Look for the opportunities that come up when a new opportunity comes in front of you. We often get distracted and go towards the shiny object because something comes along and it sounds cool.
00:05:50 It sounds neat. It sounds fun, but isn't in alignment with your theme with your focus for this year.
00:05:58 If you've chosen a word, then very quickly you can bounce that opportunity against that word and say, Does it move me in that direction?
00:06:07 The activities that you're doing What are you adding to your calendar? What are you adding to your to do list?
00:06:13 Are those activities in alignment with growing in the direction that that word indicates? The truth is, if you're not using the word as a filter for everything else,
00:06:32 then it just becomes a cute activity that you do. It can be very important and very effective. Or it could just be one more cute little thing that you do this year.
00:06:47 So for me, I use that word. I trying to look back. I actually do the the review of last year,
00:06:53 which we've talked about over the last few weeks and then I do a planning session where I set goals for the year.
00:07:01 Then I look at those goals and I'm looking for themes. I'm looking for characteristics. I'm looking for things that I are indicated in there.
00:07:13 Do the goals indicate an area that's missing in my life? Do they indicate an area where I'm trying to grow or expand something in my life?
00:07:21 Do they indicate an area where I'm trying to inject sort of a new emotion or a new feeling? I tried to reflect on the pattern that is present in those goals and then I pray and I reflect and I spend some time on it and I I often will generate list after list of words and I will even look up.
00:07:45 Sometimes you confined list of you know, 100 or more words if you just search for him. Suggestions for your word of the year and what not and you'll find list that have emotional words,
00:07:58 things like bravery and courage and generosity. And you'll find things that have adventuresome words. Explorer, Fearless.
00:08:12 And you'll find things that talk about characteristics. Integrity hopeful. You'll find things that are focused on more tangible goals,
00:08:22 like learn or grow for me as I've done that last year. In fact, my word of the year for 2019 was grow because I was focused on growing my business,
00:08:34 and I was focused on growing what I was doing around myself. I wasn't focused on learning that was my word for 2018.
00:08:43 Instead, I was focused on taking what I already knew and growing it, making it Maur that it was before and this year for me,
00:08:54 2020. This year's focus for me is execute. You know, there's actually AH, long list of things that I've had floating around for several months that I know I need to do.
00:09:07 I know they would help my business. I know they would help me personally. I know they would help my family relationships,
00:09:14 and they came back this year and made it into my goals for 2020. And as I reflect on that theme,
00:09:22 the theme this year is about following through the theme. This year for me is about executing on these goals that I've had for a while and known I needed to do,
00:09:32 but I've just been letting them go. I'm not focused on them because things are working really well. It's the exact same stuff that I talk to you about on this podcast.
00:09:43 How sometimes the good can be the enemy of the great, because when things were going well, it's often the hardest time to do the changes that you really need to do.
00:09:55 And so for me, this year is all about execution. I'm looking for opportunities that allow me to execute.
00:10:01 I'm looking for things within my business that allow me to execute. I'm looking for things of my relationships that allows me toe execute,
00:10:10 not as in tow, to kill the people that I'm in a relationship with, but actually execute is in to take those relationships deeper and further than they went before and in all ways that becomes the theme.
00:10:23 If an opportunity comes along and it's not moving towards execution of one of these big goals that are set,
00:10:29 then it's not really an opportunity that I need to focus on for 2020. And that's why the word becomes important.
00:10:35 It's what you do after you pick the word how you use that word to filter and to drive what you do all year long to drive.
00:10:45 What you say yes to, but even Maur to drive what you say no to cause more often than not,
00:10:52 what really keeps you back isn't what you're saying yes to. It's what you fail to say no to.
00:11:01 So that's what we need to do this year. If you're picking a word, make sure you don't just pick it and set it up on a shelf.
00:11:07 But make sure you keep it front and so center all year long. And use that as a filter for your goals,
00:11:14 your opportunities and your activities and how you're doing them all year long and make 2020 the best year ever.
00:11:23 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener. We challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen.
00:11:40 But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode,
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