The Extraordinary Everyday
The Extraordinary Everyday
Embracing Your Word of the Year: Guiding Your Transformational Journey
As the confetti settles, we find ourselves at the beginning of a New Year, our hearts brimming with the promise of transformation. My journey with 'self-confidence' last year was a testament to growth, leading to bold steps like this podcast's inception and a triumphant recovery from knee surgery. But beyond personal anecdotes, this episode is a call for embracing a single, powerful word that will become our north star, guiding us through the year's successes and obstacles.
We begin by shedding the weight of the past liberating ourselves from the shackles of the 'how' to bask in the potential of 'what can be.' Through stories and reflections, I guide you in finding that one word that resonates deeply with your soul's desires, and we uncover the profound 'why' behind our choices. This year, I've chosen 'worthy,' a word that echoes my dedication to valuing what matters most. Embark on this journey with me, and let's chart a course toward a year of intentional, meaningful transformation.
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About Wendy Johnson:
I'm a certified life coach for women who want to take their 'good' lives and make them extraordinary with personal development and life coaching tools. If you are going to find your passion, increase your self-confidence, make more money, strengthen your relationships, build your business, and do it with less struggle and frustration then you're in the right place. My programs are for busy women who want to feel better and live well in their everyday lives.
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You're listening to the Extraordinary Every Day Podcast with Wendy Johnson, episode number 39.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Extraordinary Every Day Podcast, where women come to be inspired and motivated to become the best version of themselves and elevate the quality of their everyday. Now here's your host, certified life coach, wendy Johnson.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year everyone. How are you? Welcome to the Extraordinary Every Day Podcast. This is my first episode in 2024. I'm so thrilled that you're here. I hope you had wonderful holidays and time to relax. If you're new with me, I'm excited to have connected with you.
Speaker 1:I decided to start this podcast a year ago because I have so much to teach and share and I want to give you the opportunity to get to know me before you sign up for trainings I offer. I love this time of year. It's a fresh start and you can create a new slate. There's space to create anything we dream up. That's why I wanted to share with you one of my favorite New Year's exercises today Choosing your theme word of the year. In this episode, I'll tell you why I love choosing a word of the year and why I think it's a fun, creative process to attract the energy you want to reach your goals, and you'll learn what it means to embody your word of the year and how your word of the year will give you momentum and attraction of what you want. So first of all, let's talk about why I love to choose a word of the year.
Speaker 1:My word, self confident, became who I was being for this past year and when I circled back to a year ago January 2023, and I gave myself, confident self, the green light to do the thing I was most scared of and that was creating and posting a personal development podcast. When planning my calendar to write podcast scripts, I gave myself confident self access to schedule the time blocks. When hitting record, I let myself confident self, feel the fear around myself, take up space and speak confidently. When facing some tough decisions, I accessed myself, confident self, to find the answers. When I felt self doubt, I had a chat with myself, confident self, and she reminded me who I am and what I'm capable of. When scheduling time for a knee surgery and six months of physical therapy three times a week and initially for the first month, I was on crutches and doing PT three times a day. I was icing my knee five to six times a day for six months To do this, I accessed myself, confident self, because she took the lead and she carried me through this past year. And when I look back over the time commitment for hosting the podcast, having the knee surgery and putting in the time for the physical therapy, I am so proud of myself. I took on a self confident self.
Speaker 1:I've always had confidence, but not in everything. There are things that I'm still afraid of and they're the things that I've never tried before. That was why I chose self confidence last year. But here's the problem. I remember the years when I look back and I had not reached my goals and typically I have the same goal every year and not much was changing.
Speaker 1:At the end of the year, I was going after my goal in an ineffective and frustrating way, often giving up and forgetting about what goal I had started. I wanted to have a thinner body, so I would do yo yo diets and exercise intensely to be thin, and my thought process was this I'm going to go on a diet, do and lose the weight have so that I can be self-competent. But the problem is I didn't approach my diet with confidence. I approached it by being restrictive, harsh and fearful. I was losing weight by being in the mindset of a person who was still overweight and eventually my actions would match my energy, which was fear and restriction, and I'd end up self-sabotaging. I was reaffirming that I was an overweight person and can't keep the weight off With this model.
Speaker 1:This do have be model. I was continuously self-sabotaging and wondering and questioning what is wrong with me. If you've done the same thing, I want to tell you nothing is wrong with you, however. Your approach is just ineffective. I know this from a lot of experience over the years, trying to reach my goals, but always going back into old patterns within weeks or months.
Speaker 1:I learned early on in life to take action. I was a doer and I had to do something in order to have something. And then, when I did it and I had it, then I became the person that I thought I wanted to be. And I'm not saying that doing isn't important, but when you have to take action and you're fueled by the energy of fear, stress, desperation, overwhelm, hating on yourself, the results you create are only temporary. And I kept telling myself that when I reached a certain level by doing certain things, then I could be a certain way. And many people lived their lives this way, believing when I get what I want, then I'll be a certain way. This approach is backwards, friends. The do have be model is destined for failure, because you'll always create results to confirm who you're being.
Speaker 1:This is time when you ask the question do you like what you've created?
Speaker 1:Do you like falling back into old patterns.
Speaker 1:I hope there are many parts of you that you love and appreciate about yourself, but what about the parts that are holding you back? Who you are today is shaped by the thoughts and beliefs from your past. After years of practicing a certain way of being, you start to believe it's just who you are. It's fix. You can't change it, so why even try? If you wanna give up that energy of who you have been being, then I have a solution for you. If you want to elevate into the next version of yourself, stay tuned. You get to create your life on purpose, the way you want it. You get to decide who you are and who you're being. You get to choose the energy you want to take on and you get to self create yourself on purpose. If you embody a certain energy for an entire year, it will shape you and it will help you to live on purpose rather than reacting to life and staying fixed and being the same self every year, when you learn to expand yourself and think bigger, ask bigger questions.
Speaker 1:You'll also expand what's possible for you. The secret is the Be Do have model. Who do you need to be in order to take inspired action to create your desired results? Now let's take a look at my weight loss example. I need to be confident so that I can continue to take the necessary action in order to lose weight for good, permanently. Having the theme word of the year is your opportunity to practice being the woman you need to be to reach your goals, whatever goal you dream up.
Speaker 1:When you work on the B level, you're changing your identity to be aligned with what you desire. The B level is where the magic happens. You focus on the energy, the feeling, tone. If you're being confident, you'll release the weight and keep it off. If you're being organized, you'll take organized action and have an organized life. If you're being worthy, you'll show up in people's inboxes and belong in any room. If you're being wealthy, you'll make wealthy decisions and achieve wealthy results. When you focus on changing your identity, you'll naturally take action to prove yourself true. You are that person who is doing something and having something because you're being that person. So your theme word of the year is a chance to work from the B level. This is from the inside out rather than the outside in. The energy is giving you the fuel to do the right actions to have the right results.
Speaker 1:So here's why I love the word of the year. It's the beginning of the year and I love for us as a community to start with intention, to have clarity and to live on purpose, and for that reason I want to give you life changing tools to grow and evolve and live a more purposeful life. I've been doing the word of the year for several years now and the words I've chosen have helped me to grow. They've inspired me and they've given me momentum and direction, which is the entire purpose of this theme word. Another reason why I love the theme word at the year is that you get good at what you practice.
Speaker 1:Imagine practicing a quality or feeling that you want to embody. It's the law of attraction, and the law of attraction states that you attract into your life whatever you focus on and feel strongly about. So as you practice embodying your word of the year, you're going to attract the people, places and experiences that match that quality. Another reason why I love the theme word of the year is it attracts momentum. When you have clarity on your goal and on the energy of who you're being, you begin to move your life forward. You're not stuck, you're not confused. Another reason is it focuses on your being versus your doing and having. When you're not being the person who is a match for what you want, it makes it so much harder for things to come to you. The theme words I've used over the past few years have been bold, strong, calm, self-disciplined, love, joy, connection, peace, balanced and self-confident. Having that focus and clarity has helped me to make better decisions and to decide how I'm going to spend my time for the year, what really matters to me.
Speaker 1:And I want to point out and let you know that there's some common obstacles to choosing your theme word of the year. Maybe you don't know who you want to be. You're confused. Maybe you don't know what you want. Brian's confusion is the thief of dreams. Know that. You're not confused. You're only afraid. You're afraid of picking the wrong word. You're afraid of failure. You're afraid of what you'll have to give up because you have to let things go in order to add things. So you choose to be confused because it feels safer. Refuse to be confused.
Speaker 1:The future. You is decisive and knows who she wants to be and what she wants. The second obstacle is you're looking to your past for what you think you can create this year. You remember all the mistakes you've made, your failures, your reasons why you haven't been able to succeed at what you want. You look to your past to get permission for your future. We have to let go of this old version of you with love, the old version of you. She got you here, but she won't get you into the future. Allow yourself to imagine your biggest, boldest self, choosing dreams you desire and achieving those dreams. And the only way to do that is to look into your future. Let go of the past.
Speaker 1:And the third obstacle to choosing your theme word of the year is that your brain wants to know the how to do something. How are you going to do that? Let me tell you you're not going to know the how. It's none of your business. You'll know the how when you've done it. Your only clarity is on the what and the who. What you want, who you need to become. That's all you need. The what and the who. When you take a baby step towards your vision, the next step appears Trust the process, take inspired action and serve your future, self and the how will unfold before your eyes and then, when you've accomplished it, you can tell us all how you did it, one step at a time.
Speaker 1:The fourth obstacle to choosing a theme word is the fear of missing out. One word is not enough. I need lots of words. I've heard that many times. One goal is not enough. I need lots of goals. Why? Because you want to do it all, have it all, be it all all at once. You're afraid of missing out, so you pick ten goals and ten words. And what does that get you? It doesn't get you anything, but it gives you overwhelm and stress. You have split energy Because the universe doesn't know what you truly want, because there's too many things to focus on and you're spinning in circles. Here's what we need to do need to learn how to dial it down and have clarity and peace of mind with that one word. Pick one. There's no wrong answer. If it's a positive energy you're choosing, it will propel you forward. It will open up doors You've never been through.
Speaker 1:Now it's time to reflect and I invite you to Journal for the next part of this episode and ask yourself Some questions to help you choose a theme word based on what you want to experience or create this year. Begin with the end in mind. Let's say it's December 31st 2024. What have you accomplished and what actions do you need to accomplish this goal? What is that one goal you want to work on this year? And now think about the energy you need To fuel your desired accomplishments.
Speaker 1:An Extraordinary goal. This is where we get our creative juices flowing. What do I want to become more of this year? What energy would help me? Would it be consistent, disciplined, loving, confident, joyful, peaceful, wealthy? How do you want to feel this year? And what quality? If you chose this one quality, what would drastically change your life to create that one goal? Who do you need to be in order to achieve it? Brainstorm all these questions. Write everything down that comes to you.
Speaker 1:Maybe you have a long list of emotions. Narrow it down to three emotions that excite you and inspire you the most. And Of those three emotions, what would have the biggest impact on your life? You've already achieved your goal. It's December 31st 2024. Which energy is going to get you there? What will grow you the most?
Speaker 1:This is where it gets so hard for most people is making choices and choosing just one word. And if you're afraid to choose, you'll end up delaying and procrastinating and not choosing anything. But if you're gonna live this one life, let's live it on purpose and let's just make this a fun process and choose just one. And then, once you choose that one word, you can get your thoughts, feelings and actions around that word to give you that momentum and clarity and you know what direction you're going. You'll get good at going all in and focusing on one thing, and there's a big difference between wanting a quality and committing your time and energy towards the goal with your one word. This is where you need to make a commitment with yourself and write down the date, today's date. If you do this today, maybe you've already done it, but you need to commit. I, wendy Johnson, commit two for the next 365 days. This is who I'm being and this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm gonna have at the end of the year Next.
Speaker 1:You need to fuel your theme word with your why. Your why will support you in embodying this word of the year. Why is this so important to you? This one word. How would your days be different if you embody this one word and what would you be able to achieve if you embody this word for the next year? Your? Why is your fuel? Why are you doing this? Why is this your word? Why is this your goal? Is it gonna grow you the most? Is it something you're afraid to do? You're ready to leave the comfort zone and try something scary?
Speaker 1:When I went through this process this year, I gave myself space and relaxation For the first two weeks of the year. I contemplated and reflected on my previous year and what I wanted this year to be and what I wanted to create this year. I wasn't in a hurry and I thought I could do this during the holidays and it was not happening. So I waited until I got to the end of the year, until I didn't have family around and my Christmas decor was down and I had time to reflect. And my theme word of the year is drum roll, please.
Speaker 1:Worthy. The definition of worthy is commendable, excellence or merit, deserving one's time, attention, interest, work and trouble. To be worthy is good and deserving respect, praise or attention, and the synonyms are admiral, decent, deserving, desirable, excellent, honest, laudable, noble, reliable, satisfying, true, trustworthy, value and worthwhile. I chose this word because I want to be worthy, to show up into people's space. I'm worthy of their time. I'm worthy of being listened to. I'm not troubling people by creating a podcast or a video or showing up in their inbox. This is going to help me to do some activities that are challenging for me. Yes, worthy is my word of the year and I'm committing to it for 2024. So, what word of the year is your theme? I would love for you to share it with me. You can go to my Instagram at wendyperiodjohnsonundersplash or go to my YouTube channel, listen to my podcast there or on Apple, but please share.
Speaker 1:What is your one word when you envision reaching one extraordinary goal, what one word describes who you need to become or you have become as a result of achieving that goal? Let's decide today, right now, that you're gonna embody this word for one full year. You're not gonna change your mind or give up or forget about it when you encounter obstacles and, believe me, as soon as you choose, obstacles will appear. The obstacles are the way, but your word is gonna guide you forward. Instead of feeling disappointed, frustrated and overwhelmed, you're gonna have clarity and you'll be able to consistently create incredible results by committing to yourself, and that's why I'm talking to you, about embodying this one feeling that will propel you into the next version of you, in your creation and your becoming. Happy New Year, everyone. This is going to be an amazing year. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you and I look forward to being with you next week. Take care, friends. Bye-bye.