Word of the Year! Do you have one?
#CatalystBusinessNewsletter
As of 2 years ago, myself, personally…and my company did not have a word of the year.
A word of the year simply was never on my radar.
Then, 2 years ago, while scouring around on the internet, I ran across a school principal who starts her school year…every year…with a Word of the Year. According to her…for her, her faculty and kids…it was a game changer. For culture, surpassing goals, enrichment, success, etc…
Word of the Year? I thought: Why Not!
But what would I choose? I work with kids. After school programs are a center point of our operation. Our year begins in September.
I thought. Dug around. Noodled. Cogitated.
Then it came to me. Our 1st ever Word of the Year had to be big. It needed to be special. In 2021, I chose THRIVE as our 1st Word of the Year in our company history.
How can we as a company THRIVE? How can we as coaches THRIVE? How can the kids in our charge THRIVE?
If our kids were thriving…if our coaches were thriving…if our company was thriving…then we were impacting, improving and changing lives…which is our mission. Once we thought about how all of us could THRIVE…it made it easier to look at changes that need to be made, procedures that needed to be tweaked, behaviors that needed to be altered, etc…
Year 2 Word of the Year: 2022 brought us the word: YET!
With YET…the goal was and is to finish sentences with it.
- We’re not there…YET!
- We have not met our goals…YET!
- We’re not operating at enough schools…YET!
And with kids’ statements…we answered with many YET’s:
- I’m not good enough! YET!
- I’m not fast! YET!
- I don’t know the rules. YET!
- I’m not strong enough. YET!
- I’m not as good as those other kids! YET!
- And so on!
As of the writing of this article…we’re still working on our 2023-24 Word of The Year.
We have it down to 2-3 choices, and by the time you’re reading this, we’ll have it chosen.
3 years ago, we never conceived of a Word of the Year. Then inspiration arrived and now we will not enter a year without one.
Do you have a word of the year?
Make it easy for people to do and keep doing business with you!
Look up…and surprise someone!
Spencer Rubin is a sales/marketing expert and a passionate advocate for the success of small, local business owners. To sign up for Spencer’s weekly Catalyst Newsletter, contact 971-732-4745.
