How will you activate your word wheel and gain intentional influence in 2021? Here are the five steps you should take.

Each year many of us pick an annual word for the year as opposed to choosing a New Year’s resolution, which makes sense as the research shows that around 80% of new years resolutions fail to be achieved. An annual word informs decision making and defines our approach for those 365 days. Many in our Expert to Influencer community chose theirs for the year and recently many share their words for 2021.

Having worked with many on their annual word choices over the last few years, while it can be an interesting time reporting on our word choice and why we made the choice, very few of stop to think beyond the word itself. To take the next step and ask the questions, ‘what do I want that word to do? How will I know it's been effective?’ In other words, missing the activation.

Let’s say, for example, the word is "inspire".

That’s a great choice, but at the end of the year, to have intentional influence, you also want to be able to say who you inspired, how you inspired them and what impact or effect this had. If not, then I reckon it’s just a lovely word. In order to get the results out of the time and effort that you’ve put into your big word, you really need to activate it intentionally.

Download activity sheet here.

How to Activate Your Big Word and Gain Intentional Influence

Activating your big word is all about putting some steps into practice. So, I've created a word wheel for your annual word to create more Intentional Influence (download the handout above). You’ll see that it’s been divided into four quadrants which align to Programs, Performance, People and Personal. Each of these quadrants is then further divided into three additional sections where you can apply the aspects that drive that element.

STEP 1: Choose

The first thing you’ll need to do is choose the elements of your business that you want to focus on for the year, and that will be informed by your big word. For example, the upper right quadrant are your programs.

So, if you’re an expert you probably have workshops, online courses, keynotes and other similar programs. You’ll choose those elements that drive the success of your programs as a whole and that relate to your word.

Continue this process with Performance, then with People and then with Personal until you have each of the 12 sections completed.

Step 2: Improve

Once you’ve named each of the 12 sections, you then need to consider how you’re going to improve these elements and bring your big word into them. On a scale of one to 10, maybe your program is currently at a three. Ask yourself, ‘where do I want that to be?’ And, ‘what do I need to do to get it there?’

Maybe it’s better onboarding. Or perhaps it’s better communication. Use your word to identify the action that will increase your success.

Step 3: Take Action

Now that you’ve figured out what you need to do to improve that element of your business, you need to put it into action. Perhaps you do decide that you need to improve your onboarding process. And that you’ll do this by implementing a new CRM. The question now becomes, ‘do I have to do this myself?’

You don’t have to do everything yourself. Remember that you have people around you who can help you implement actions. Or it might be better to recruit a VA or a freelancer to help get the job done. So, while you do need to take action, you can get someone to help you.

Step 4: Consider Your Language

Dr Wayne Dyer, author the of The Power of Intention, said ‘If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change’. Ensuring that you’re looking at your obstacles and your opportunities with intention and using ‘matching language’ will help you get the outcomes you desire. Implement your word into your thought process. So, if your word is "elevate", as mine is this year, you won’t want to say, ‘I want to increase sales’. Instead, you might want to say, ‘I intend to elevate my actions to attract abundance’.

How you think about and look at your business, changes the way you activate the business elements throughout the year. And that's how you can work towards intentional influence.

Step 5: Implement

On the Word Wheel, you’ll notice that there are 12 spaces. If you choose one business (or personal) aspect for each month and each space and then activate it with intention, imagine the impact it will have over the year. By the end of the 12 months, you’ll have implemented 12 key activities that align with your annual word and created amazing, intentional impact along the way.

Go and put each element, and the actions that need to be taken, in your calendar, and focus on achieving that element each month. Then at the end of the year, you can tell me exactly what the impact of your big word was.

From here....

My hope for you is by the end of the year, your annual word will be more than just a word. That it will be a compass with specific actions to guide your business intentionally to get the strategic results that you want and deserve.

I’d love to send me your word wheel and/or hear how you go!