Leadership Tea
The Leadership Tea podcast is where powerful leaders share their journeys, insights, and triumphs through informal conversations about what it takes to reach the executive level. Join us every other Wednesday to be inspired by the unvarnished stories of amazing executives who know what it's like to be "the only" at the table and who have succeeded regardless. They have proven leadership experience in their respective fields, from international affairs to the private sector to academia, and want to help others create their own success stories.
Leadership Tea
2025 in Focus: Three Words, One Goal
In this episode, we explore the concept of selecting three words rather than just one to guide our intentions for 2025. We share personal insights into our chosen words and discuss strategies for embodying and implementing them throughout the year.
• Discussing the trend of choosing a word for the year
• Sharing personal words for 2025
• Importance of visual reminders to keep words top of mind
• Emphasizing the need for dynamic planning and adjusting goals
• Sharing accountability mechanisms to stay on track
Let us know what words you choose for the year ahead! Leave it in the comments!
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Hey everyone, happy 2025, happy new year.
Speaker 1:We at the Leadership Tea are excited to bring you this episode to do something a little different.
Speaker 1:Belinda and I have been listening to a lot of podcasts, as we usually do, and we've been hearing other hosts talk about what's your word for the year, what's your theme for the year, and this is something Belinda and I have done for a long time.
Speaker 1:We often exchange notes about the words that we've selected for years in the past, but this year we're doing something a little different and we decided that, since we consider ourselves to be multidimensional, we have various pieces of ourselves that we bring to everything that we do every day we thought one word wasn't enough. Because we are multi-dimensional, because we have various responsibilities, various interests, we thought maybe we would come up with three words, three words that really fit the different aspects and perspectives that we have when it comes to our goals, when it comes to what we're trying to accomplish, and so we want to dedicate this episode to talking about the three words that we've selected for ourselves, what it means, and we want to offer you some advice on how you should approach the year, and we'll get into that in just a moment, but first I want to kick it off by turning it over to Belinda, because I'm really curious to hear what are the words that you came up with for 2025?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thank you, shelby, and Happy New Year to everyone. So last year I'll just start there with my word was manifest, right, that I was building and creating a new reality for myself and a new life, and I think I did that. I built, and so the words that I've chosen are meant to continue that growth and to expand. So the first is embrace this idea of that. I've created the framework of the life that I want, and so it's time to enjoy that a little bit, embrace the idea of it and feel really confident about it. So I plan on just embracing that reality and just looking forward and not telling myself like maybe I should have a safety net, maybe I should go back to the past, maybe I should. No, I'm embracing this and I'm moving on.
Speaker 2:The next is elevate. So I manifested, manifested, manifested, built. Next is elevate. So I manifested, manifested, manifested, built, built, built, cobbled together some stuff. But I'm better than cobbling together, and what I want to deliver is better than cobbling together. I want to take the experiences, the products, the services that I've created and help elevate them and help elevate the people that I'm seeking to serve. Right, and help elevate them and help elevate the people that I'm seeking to serve right, and then, finally, it is activate right. I've got the building blocks there, and if I were to be really honest with myself, the only hurdle between me and greatness between me and my dreams, between me and what I want is me Like I just need to make the plan, not get distracted and do it, and so activation is key. Those are my words.
Speaker 1:What are yours? I love it. That was like super concise and to the point, like elevate, embrace, activate, boom, boom. I love it. It's funny because, since we talked the other day, when we were preparing for this episode, I thought a lot about the E words that you chose, yeah, and not to get too philosophical or too deep, but I really did think about the letters of the alphabet in relation to this being my 50th year God willing, you know, I'll turn 50 in April and I thought about the letter E being the fifth letter of the alphabet. I like it, I like it. And so I was like, okay, well, what kind of E words can I come up with that signify what this year means for me as I turn 50?
Speaker 1:So, one of my words is extraordinary. This is the year of the extraordinary. It's an extraordinary year for multiple reasons. One, as I mentioned I'm turning 50. My son is turning 16. My daughter is turning 18 and graduating from high school and hopefully going to college, and my husband and I will be married for 25 years and my dad is turning 80. So any one of those things would be unique. The fact that they're all happening in the same year is extraordinary.
Speaker 1:And when you think about extraordinary, extraordinary means unusually great, and so this will be an unusually great year for me, as I think about the people who mean the most to me and how I want to show up for them and how I want those relationships to be even stronger than they already are. So that's my first word. The second word is expanded, and this is something I think it relates to your word of activate. You know, I think about the business, I think about the podcast and the goals that I have to expand, what we're doing to expand my coaching business, which I just launched officially in terms of doing all of the legal things, now that I've done the paperwork and have gone through the bureaucratic steps of establishing a business. What does that mean? How do I want to realize that vision for 2025? How many clients do I want to have by the end of the year? How much money do I want to make by the end of the year? So this theory of expanding is important to me from a business perspective, in terms of how far can I take this business, how far can I really stretch myself into realizing my full potential.
Speaker 1:And then the last word is expectation. I have great expectations. I have great expectations for you. I have great expectations for you. I have great expectations for me. The sky's the limit. As you said, the only thing that's getting in the way of you or me is us, and we know that we have the tools, we know that we have the talent, we know that we have just the God-given abilities and skills to do things that are extraordinary and that have an impact on the lives of other people, and so I just have great expectations for what we are going to accomplish individually and together.
Speaker 2:I agree A hundred percent Individually and together I agree A hundred percent On a. From a personal and a business standpoint, I feel really optimistic about 2025. Me too, you know, although Olivia is going to turn 13 this year. But I know, right, time flies the milestones. I am thankful that when I look around my family, everyone's at peak happiness, right. And so it's like how do we continue that? How do we leverage that? How do we just enjoy it in the moment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I feel like these words work right now for both my personal and professional goals, for myself. So the art of thinking about how I want to implement them feels like a very joyful experience right now. Yeah, very exciting experience. It doesn't feel like, well, I've got to go into figuring out how I'm going to do it. I'm like, no, I can't wait to do this. I can't wait to see what, like quarter two, quarter three, quarter four, this sounds fun right now, exactly, and how do I build a life that continues to make me excited about each quarter? That's, you know, I hope to do with these words. Yeah, so, with that said, perhaps we can talk a little bit about how we think about implementing our words or, you know, this year, and not just words. So I'm happy to kick it off yeah.
Speaker 2:I think it's really important to keep these words where I can see them, for, for me, where I can interact with them, touch them, be them. So I often do things like take my word of the year, in this case the three words, and I will write it on a piece of paper and like keep it in my wallet. Yeah, and there's gonna be there's moments where you're just like out somewhere, something, something I'm reaching in my wallet, grabbing something, and I'll touch that piece of paper and remember what's on it and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta stay focused, right, like and, and, of course, right, I'll do things like have sticky notes around and things like that, but for me, carrying it with me, carrying things that symbolize them, uh, and you know I like bags. I change bags often. That's why it's got to be in the wallet, right? Um, I need that tangible reminder on a regular basis. What about you?
Speaker 1:I hear you. For me, I mentioned sticky notes all the time, but it's true, like if you were to go to my office, my my actual place of employment and see, like, the bulletin board that I have adjacent to my desk. It's full of inspirational quotes or things that resonate with me, and usually I have my word posted at my desk so that I can see it every day. But I also post things on my mirror I'm like you my mirror at home in my bedroom so that I can see it every day when I wake up in the morning Again as a visual reminder. Okay, this is what I said meant something to me at the beginning of the year. How is that going to play out on a day-to-day basis? And just seeing it it helps me to really internalize. You know, what does this word mean for my life and what I want to carry out, you know, over the course of the next 12 months. And how do I define it Like, what's my personal definition for that word and why did I choose it in the first place?
Speaker 2:place, I think, really sitting with that idea of definition, being clear about what that definition looks like for you and reminding yourself of it. I agree with you, those are really important parts of that. It's not just the words, it's what the words mean to you and this year, right, yeah. So the next step that I think we'd want to share, then, is this idea of planning and adjusting. That planning looks different for different people. We all our brains work differently. For me, I get very excited about a beginning of the year sprint, like. I view the first quarter as an opportunity to set really ambitious goals that I would hit usually on or about like. For me, easter, which is also usually coincides with my birthday, is a good time to say, like, by my birthday or by Easter, I want to kind of be doing X and to set goals that are really difficult to attain, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then developing my plan backwards from there. How am I going to get to this really? You know this place of audacity, right, Right, and and how am I going to really push myself so I can be proud, even if I don't hit that goal exactly, just proud of where I've come? But I think I like to hit the end of the first quarter proud and excited so that I have the momentum to go through the rest of the year.
Speaker 2:And I also accept that plans have to be evergreen, that, whether it's monthly, quarterly, something I need to be kind of readjusting to meet the realities of whatever the conditions are, you know, maybe a door opens that presents an opportunity that takes up more time than I expected but is an amazing opportunity. Well, that doesn't mean that I've failed in other respects. It means I've adjusted Right. So that's kind of the way that I look at it and certainly the way that I plan on at least taking this quarter one. Quarter two is setting these really aggressive goals for myself, thinking about how I'm going to sprint towards those and then, once I reach my end date, using the data I have at that point, to think about how I'm going to approach the rest of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And, as you said, the plan should be evergreen. Plans are meant to be broken. You don't intend to break plans when you set them. And at the same time, it's important not to be so rigid that you can't, you know, make tweaks as you need to.
Speaker 1:And when I think about planning, you know, in relation to the goals and the words that I've set to define the year, I usually start with like blue sky thinking, like at the end of the year. And this relates to a leadership principle that I learned I think it was a course that I took through the State Department. Seven habits of highly effective people begin with the end in mind, and so my blue sky thinking, at least for this year, is you know, one of my goals is to have, you know, five clients, five regular coaching clients, by the end of the year and to hopefully make five figures in income in relation to the coaching business. And so that's kind of like my blue sky thinking. I haven't plotted out okay, by March I'm going to do this and by June I'm going to do that, but at the end of the year, this is where I want to be and then I, kind of similar to you. Work backwards from that. I know that in a couple of weeks we're going to start. I think you're doing this too.
Speaker 1:start with with our church on January 20th, and so for me, that is a marker for when I want to at least have okay, what? What is my first 90 days going to look like? What are the goals that I have set for myself in relation to my three words that I want to achieve during the fast? And I feel like during the fast, it will be a pivotal moment in time for me to really get centered on what it is that I've said that I want to accomplish, because I will be sacrificing and letting go of other things that can distract me, and I think it'll just be a time of heightened attention on whatever it is that I've decided that I'm going to do. But, as you said, everyone has to figure out what works for you. Perhaps you need a monthly check-in or a quarterly check-in or a biannual check-in. You have to decide what works best for you, based on you know, the words that you choose and the goals that you've set and what you think might be a realistic timeline within which to achieve those goals. And so, after that second step, after you plan and you adjust, the final step that we want to share with you all is coming up with your accountability mechanism. How are you going to hold yourself accountable? How are you going to make sure that you are on track For me?
Speaker 1:I live by my calendar on my phone. If I have a reminder set on my phone, I'm going to do something, as opposed to me just jotting down, you know, a note in my journal or something I don't know. There are any other, any number of other mechanisms that people may use to remind themselves of something that they're going to do For me. I sit down with my calendar pretty much on a weekly basis and kind of outlined what do I need to do on Monday, what do I need to do on Tuesday, et cetera, and that's what I intend to do with my words and my goals for the year. What about you? What's your accountability mechanism?
Speaker 2:So on an individual level, I love a good old fashioned tangible notebook or calendar. Right that I use organizer. I guess that's what I'm looking for okay and I, like you know, like Sunday afternoons or Sunday nights to sit down with my organizer and my colored pencils and like, really think through down to, like the week level, like how am I going to approach this week? Let me look back at the pages with my goals. Let me you know I used to use the Franklin Covey. You know systems, that's what I used growing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah that I really like. That forces you each month to think about different, to think about your goals in 12 different dimensions of yourself. Right Like believing in yourself, investing in yourself. Right Like this and that. So I like to spend time with that organizer and really think about the questions that it's putting forth. So that's how I think about it individually, but for me, it's really sharing my goals with my community, with my village, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I will tell, like my family and I will. You know, I've got a business coach like goodness knows. He keeps me accountable Right Like goodness knows, he keeps me accountable Right.
Speaker 2:You know, like you know, my family will occasionally I'll say like oh, I think I'm gonna, you know, approach this like this Does that align with blah blah blah? Or how are you doing with blah blah, blah, blah blah? To just help me stay focused? To just help me stay focused. I think that that's especially important as I make this transition, continue to make this transition from being a really good employee to being a really good founder.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is understanding the best ways in which I can help people Right. Understanding the best ways in which I can help people right. I run across a lot of people who could, I think, benefit from my coaching, or who want it but need it pro bono.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I cannot both. That's going to be for 2025, something I really struggle with in that embracing space of embracing that it's okay, that, like I too must like eat Absolutely. And making sure that I understand, right, the best ways in which I can help people, meaning that not taking on too many clients right, and understanding like and that and who know that I am open to constructive feedback and open and honest conversations is important. And then for things like this, where you know you're both my friend, but in this business partner, right, yeah, and you know I have a couple of other ventures that I have with other folks, other partners we're holding each other accountable.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right and again being open to that and having. I'm really thankful that the partnerships that I have. We can be honest with each other, we can agree to disagree, we can change course together, we can like. It works because we're holding each other accountable and we're communicating well. So it's just. Accountability for me is knowing what I want to do as an individual, but also knowing how to ask for help and rely on my village.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, the village is clutch in everything and, as you said, it's a blessing to be able to have a village that you can lean on, and and a spouse and, in both of our cases, a supportive husband at home makes all the difference. And yes, I also, you know, share my personal goals with. With Vincent, we have a couple's goals as well. You know that that can be another podcast episode, but we also we've actually already put up our some of our financial goals, you know, as a family, like what are we hoping to to, to see, and do and and manifest um in 2025? That's already up on the wall in the bedroom and now I need to just add the individual piece to that. But, as you say, it's important to have people around you that will hold the mirror up to you and be like yo, belinda. Does that make sense? Are you sure about that? Is this an alignment? You know, as you said, is this realistic? Is this speaking to who you are and the essence of your being? Yeah, yeah, that's important definitely um.
Speaker 2:So I think that that really makes a difference. So everybody needs to define that for themselves. But having that accountability piece, I think is critical to actually the follow-through, because I, I, I have to say that I the follow through, because I have to say that I, particularly when I look at Manifest last year, it never fell off right. I didn't get to like May or June and I'd forgotten about what goals were for the year, like it remained present every day and everybody around me knew it. Probably ask my child what my word was last year and she would tell you Manifest, you know it. Probably ask my child what my word was last year and she would tell you manifest, wow, you know.
Speaker 2:So I think that having that accountability factor in there is an important part of ensuring that you are going to see this through for the whole year. You know it won't be like my gym membership that seems to fall off.
Speaker 1:It's not just you trust.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put this here, I'm going to embrace it. It's all good, sure. So look, I think we've covered it. We've got our words. We've got why we needed multiple words, not just one.
Speaker 2:I think we've given our listeners kind of a framework to think about how this best fits in their life. I would offer that in our last episode we talked about a strategic change workbook about a strategic change workbook, and although that workbook is written with the idea that you are thinking about how you're leading your team and your organization, I think that there are some questions in there and that lend themselves this kind of thinking as well on the individual level. So I think it's still worth taking a look at.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, but in keeping with the theme that we started this conversation about, when it comes to thinking of yourself as multidimensional, I mean, that's essentially what we are when we think about ourselves leading others. But another dimension is focusing on you and how do you want to show up for yourself and how do you want to evolve and grow over the course of the year, and that is what we are hoping to convey in this episode more focused on the individual, whereas, as you said, belinda, the last episode was more focused on how do you want to lead your team strategically in the new year was more focused on how do you want to lead your team strategically in the new year?
Speaker 2:Agreed? Well, I just want to thank everybody for joining us for this episode. We've got more coming this month, and you know. Always check out our YouTube channel or find us on Apple or Spotify. We're also on social media. On Instagram, leadership, underscore T, you can check out our latest blog posts or our workbooks on our website at stirringsuccesscom.
Speaker 1:And let us hear from you. We're curious to know what are the words that you're picking for this year and why. What does your journey look like?
Speaker 2:Leave it in the comments. Yes, we look forward to sipping wisdom and stirring success with you again soon.
Speaker 1:All right, take care.
