What if a single word could transform your entire year? In this episode I promise to guide you on this journey to discover your perfect anchor for the year. Drawing from my own experience, I reveal how choosing the word “foundation” in 2024 grounded my life and business, providing clarity and simplifying decision-making. Tune in to explore how picking a meaningful word can prime your mind to notice opportunities and align actions with your intrinsic values. I invite you to reflect on your word for 2025 and how it could offer the same clarity and flexibility throughout the coming year.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by New Year’s resolutions and the pressure to set rigid goals? If so, you’re not alone. That’s why I love choosing a word for the year instead. It’s a simple yet powerful tool that keeps you anchored, focused, and motivated without the stress of long lists and unattainable targets.
Rather than setting yourself up for disappointment with resolutions that might fade by February, picking one word gives you a guiding focus—a North Star—to keep you aligned with your intentions throughout the year.
This approach ties into two key psychological principles:
Priming: When you focus on a word, your brain naturally starts noticing opportunities, habits, and decisions that align with it. Ever decided to buy a red car and suddenly seen red cars everywhere? That’s priming at work.
Self-Concordance Theory: If your goals align with your intrinsic values, you’re far more likely to stay motivated and achieve them.
For 2024, my word was Foundation.
I chose it because I tend to move fast—always onto the next thing, always pushing forward. But I knew I needed to slow down and build solid foundations in my business and personal life. This word helped me prioritise long-term stability over quick wins. It encouraged me to take care of my health, invest in sustainable business practices, and focus on what truly matters.
Has it been frustrating at times? Yes! But it has also been an anchor, helping me stay true to my intentions instead of rushing ahead aimlessly. For 2025, I’m considering a word that builds on this—perhaps something that represents constructing the next level of my work and life. I’ll let you know when I decide!
Ready to pick your word? Here’s how:
Imagine it’s December next year. How do you want to feel? What do you want to have achieved? Let this guide your word choice.
Write down any words that come to mind. Use a thesaurus or even ChatGPT to find similar words that might resonate.
Does your word inspire you? Does it feel right? Say it out loud. Write it down. Imagine seeing it daily. If it feels like a good fit, that’s your word!
Write it somewhere visible—on your desk, in your planner, or as your phone background.
Reflect on it regularly—when making decisions, ask yourself, Does this align with my word?
Be flexible—if it stops resonating, you can change it! It’s your word, your year, your rules.
Here are some words you might consider:
Balance – if you want to juggle work and life with more ease
Courage – if you need to push through fear and take bold steps
Growth – if personal or professional development is a focus
Joy – if you want to be more present and find happiness in the everyday
Focus – if you want to stop being distracted and make real progress
Now it’s over to you! What word resonates with you for the year ahead? Take time to explore this until you find the one. When you do, let it be your anchor for the year ahead and guide you towards meaningful, long-term productivity.
I’d love to hear what you choose! Share your word with me on Instagram or Facebook @JasmineClarkeCoach or email me at [email protected]. You might just inspire me!
Speaker 1: 0:01
Hey there and welcome to Productivity Hacks, your go-to podcast for quick hacks to help you to get things done and to do them well. I’m Jasmine, your host, productivity coach and consultant, and my mission is to help people increase their productivity so that they have time for what really matters. Each week, I’ll bring you a short episode packed with tips that you can implement right away to boost your output. So let’s dive in. Welcome back to Productivity Hacks. Today, I wanted to highlight a really simple yet powerful practice that I like to do, which is choosing a word for the year. It’s not just a trendy idea. It’s a tool grounded in psychology that can anchor you to your goals and boost your productivity for the long haul. I like to do this at the end of the year, or even in January to set my intentions for the year ahead, but you can do it any time you want, and can even set a word for the quarter or change it whenever it no longer fits. You are in charge and you make the rules about your word. So choosing one word as your theme for the year gives you a guiding focus, a bit like a north star, something to follow instead of being overwhelmed by new year’s resolutions and all the things that you are demanding that you do and don’t do. Your word acts as a compass. It helps you decisions. It helps you stay aligned with your values. A well-thought-out word should inspire you about the potential you have in the year ahead and help you journey well throughout.
Speaker 1: 1:34
I’ve been working with several of my coaching clients in helping them define their word for 2025, and it has been such a privilege to be a part of it. Helping them pick a word that feels right. Exploring how they want to feel at the end of 2025 and finding a word that aligns with this has been inspiring for me as well. I’m yet to choose my word, but it is on the to-do list. So this idea ties into the psychological principle of priming. When you choose a meaningful word, your brain naturally starts noticing opportunities, habits and decisions that align with it. It’s a bit like making the decision to buy a red car, for instance. You suddenly see red cars everywhere and your focus shapes your awareness. There’s not more red cars on the road, you just see them more because your brain filters them out. So choosing a word for the year helps your brain notice things that are linked to that word. Another thing it’s linked to is the self-concordance theory, which means if your goals are connected to your intrinsic values, then you are more likely to stay motivated. The theory suggests that people who pursue self-concordant goals are more likely to stay motivated. The theory suggests that people who pursue self-concordant goals are more likely to achieve them and experience greater satisfaction. So a well-chosen word that reflects what truly matters to you makes it easier to sustain effort throughout the year.
Speaker 1: 3:00
So I wanted to take you on a little bit of a journey that I went on in this last year, in 2024. I chose the word foundation as my word for the year, and one thing I wanted to share with you here is that knowing your own personality is key to knowing what kind of word you need and not need. I know that I am already very, very driven. I am proactive, I am self-motivated, often to the point of it being unhelpful, to be honest. So I knew I didn’t need a word to drive me more, to push me more. This would just be making a rod for my own back. I wanted a word that would ground me a bit, to help me prioritise and help me not succumbing to my own internal drivers that demand that I keep going, keep going, keep doing, keep doing. When I work with organisations, I often describe myself as a narrow I’m off like a shot and I drive forwards, always working with incredible speed. So I know that it is super important to ensure that I’m pointing in the right direction. So I ensure I take my time before I start to check that I fully know the direction they need me to go and I regularly check in with them to ensure that my course is correct. Because I know this about myself, I wanted to make sure my word for the year ensured I could check in on myself and keep checking that my course was correct as to where I wanted to go.
Speaker 1: 4:30
This last year, so in January 2024, I was part way through my coaching qualification and I knew that this year I wanted to work on building a solid foundation, not just for my business but for my life. The word foundation was perfect. It’s helped me. When I’ve got too carried away moving forwards, I’ve been able to stop to focus on the word and assess if the thing that I’m hurtling towards is truly building a solid foundation. It has helped me work on my own personal health foundations. I joined a great gym program in May which helped me feel comfortable and confident in a gym environment which I never have before, and I built those foundations to serve me as I head into my 40s in a couple of years. The word has really been an anchor for me this year. I’m not going to lie at times it’s been a bit of a frustration because I just want to run off and build something quickly, but I know I want to build my business and my life to last on solid foundations, not shaky ground. Having this as my word has helped me feel calmer because I set this as my intention. It has helped me make decisions with more ease. All in all, it was the perfect word for me in 2024. For 2025, I am thinking about carrying on that analogy of building Now I’ve got the foundations and looking at what constructing the first floor might look like. When I choose my word, I will let you know.
Speaker 1: 6:03
There are so many practical benefits of choosing a word, including clarity, because that single word simplifies your decision making. You can ask yourself does this action, does this project, does this align with my word for the year? It can give you flexibility, unlike rigid new year’s resolutions. A word adapts to life’s ups and downs while keeping you anchored to what truly matters to you and focus. It reduces the mental clutter of competing goals by creating that central theme. Here are some examples of words that may resonate with you. You could choose balance if you want to juggle work and personal life with ease. You could choose courage if you know you need to push through fear and take bold steps. You could choose growth for personal or professional development. You could choose growth for personal or professional development.
Speaker 1: 6:56
To help decide your word, I want you to take a moment and think about how you want to feel at the end of the year. Imagine December next year, or, if you’re listening to this, at another point of the year. Imagine how you want to feel at the end of the year that you’re in. What do you want to have accomplished? Write down any words that come to mind and see which stands out. Use AI like ChatGPT or even a thesaurus to find words that are linked to your favourite words, the ones that stand out and see which sit well with you. Try them on for size like a coat. Put it on. Does it fit? Does it feel good? Do you look good in it? Will it motivate you? Will it inspire you? Are you excited by it. You can even do what one lovely client did with me recently, where she chose one key word. We explored it and then she picked four more that aligned with this.
Speaker 1: 7:53
And once you’ve chosen your word, don’t forget it, don’t ignore it, don’t just leave it in a drawer. Embed it into your daily life. So write it somewhere visible, reflect on it during your planning whether that’s quarterly, weekly, daily and use it as a filter for your priorities. Don’t be afraid to change your word if it no longer fits, if it no longer feels right, if it no longer looks good on you. Got to September this year and the word foundations no longer felt like it was the right one, or I felt like it was holding me back. I would, 100%, after careful consideration, change it. Remember you are the boss of this and there are no rules. It’s your word and it’s your life, so just change it. So, over to you.
Speaker 1: 8:45
What word resonates with you for your year ahead? Do you have anything that is coming to mind? Can I encourage you to spend some time exploring this? Until a word feels right, until you try it on and it fits, until it settles on you, until you know, yeah, that’s the one. When you get that sense, let that word be your anchor for the year ahead. Let it guide you towards that long-term, meaningful productivity. Don’t be tempted to choose several resolutions. Instead, you are more likely to have the success you crave with a well chosen word anchor. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: 9:29
I am thrilled that you’ve been with me here today. Please share your word of the year with me on Instagram or Facebook. Tag me jasmineclackcoach or email me at jasmine at zestproductivitycom. I cannot wait to hear your words. You might inspire me. So see you next time when I’ll be sharing about reviewing the year and how to self-coach. So have a great week. See you then. That’s it for today. Thank you for tuning into the Productivity Hacks podcast with me, jasmine. What is your action point today? Write it down and make time to do it. If you like what you’ve heard, follow this podcast to get notifications of the weekly episodes and please, please, share it with your friends.
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