The ‘C’ word

Can you imagine one word changing the entire trajectory of your life? As hard as it may seem to believe, it’s possible. One word can radically change your story. I know this because one word, five years ago, began a snowball of change and growth in my life.

Which brings me to the ‘C’ word. The word no one likes…everyone bucks at.

Change.

We are wired to hate change. Change is no fun. Change is work. Change is uncomfortable.

There are also levels of change – levels of uncomfortable, hard work. The hardest level of change is that which is forced on us by someone else. Next hardest is change forced on us by some other outside force. The easiest type of change is that which we determine to do ourselves.

This is why I love the Word of the Year project.

Done right, your Word of the Year will help you make change from within. It won’t be another person or another outside force. It will be you discovering what you need to change.

Better yet, you will want to change.

Are you ready?

So are you ready? Are you ready to change? My last couple of posts have shared with you:

1. The value (even more than change) of focusing on ONE word the entire year.
2. What you can expect to learn, based on my example of my word ATTACK from 2015.

Now let me share with you my 2016 Word of the Year:

2011 – FREEDOM
2012 – RISK
2013 – TRANSFORM
2014 – VISION
2015 – ATTACK
2016 – BOLD

BOLD: Goals, Dreams, Prayers

One thing I’ve learned about the Word of the Year project is your word continues to build in and through you throughout the year and beyond. I gained a clearer vision for my life, my job and my family, but it continues to become more clear. I attacked that vision in 2015, but I continue to see more areas to attack.

This is one reason I chose BOLD. I need to be more BOLD in living the life God has for me. Practically speaking, I want bigger and bolder dreams, goals and prayers.

Substantially Better

To help kicks start this process, I’m reading the book, BOLD: How to go big, create wealth and impact the world. In it, the author studies several highly successful entrepreneurs. One entrepreneur is Elon Musk, most famous for founding Paypal (more recently Tesla Motors).

This is how the book wraps the section on Musk –

So what’s his secret? Musk has a few, but none are more important to him than passion and purpose. “I didn’t go into the rocket business, the car business, or the solar business thinking this is a great opportunity. I just thought, in order to make a difference, something needed to be done. I wanted to have an impact. I wanted to create something substantially better than what came before.”

What is BOLD? Making a difference, having an impact and creating something substantially better is BOLD. This year I want to walk down the path of BOLD dreams, BOLD goals and BOLD prayers.

I’m working on what this means specifically for me in 2016. Right now I have 2 specific applications of BOLD for my life, and I can’t wait to share it with you later this week.

Until then…what is your Word of the Year?