Would you like to begin the new year with a vision that's clear and focused? Believe it or not, there is power in a single word.
Following the simple and powerful concept outlined in the book, One Word That Will Change Your Life, you can ditch the new year's resolution list and narrow your intentions with one word for the whole year that can drive success in your life.
Join me today as I interview Jimmy Page, co-author of One Word That Will Change Your Life, and my husband. Jimmy will share personal stories of how one single word, when chosen with intent, can make all the difference in the new year ahead and his experience with this process from the past 23 years!
Connect with Jimmy at Unstoppable Freedom Alliance:
https://https://beunstoppable.live
Suggested Resources:
Your donations power our podcast's mission to support cancer patients with hope, insights, and resources. Every contribution fuels our ability to uplift and empower. Join us in making a lasting impact. Donate now! 🌟
Would you like to begin the new year with a vision that's clear and focused? Believe it or not, there is power in a single word.
Following the simple and powerful concept outlined in the book, One Word That Will Change Your Life, you can ditch the new year's resolution list and narrow your intentions with one word for the whole year that can drive success in your life.
Join me today as I interview Jimmy Page, co-author of One Word That Will Change Your Life, and my husband. Jimmy will share personal stories of how one single word, when chosen with intent, can make all the difference in the new year ahead and his experience with this process from the past 23 years!
Connect with Jimmy at Unstoppable Freedom Alliance:
https://https://beunstoppable.live
Suggested Resources:
Your donations power our podcast's mission to support cancer patients with hope, insights, and resources. Every contribution fuels our ability to uplift and empower. Join us in making a lasting impact. Donate now! 🌟
Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page, and it's an honor to spend this time with you. Do you feel like you need clarity in your life? What if one word could mean the difference between repeated failure and new found success? you are listening to the perfect episode today as my husband Jimmy is joining us to talk about one of the books he co-authored called One Word That Will Change Your Life. A process and practice that our family has done for the last 23 years. We have found that the simple power of one word impacts all six dimensions of life: mental, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, and financial. A few things you may not know about my husband Jimmy, besides being a author of eight books and being one of the co-founders of Believe Big. Jimmy is the founder and president of the Unstoppable Freedom Alliance, the Be Unstoppable Life and Leadership System, and the Joseph Project. He is also a health and wellness expert, a Spartan athlete, podcaster, and a frequent speaker at conferences. I have to add that he is the best dad to our four grown kids, and there would definitely be a gaping hole in my life without him. Welcome Jimmy, to the show.
Jimmy Page:Hey, it's great to be here. That's quite an intro. I feel like I got something to live up to now.
Ivelisse Page:Aw Before we dive into the book, we always like to learn from our guests what their favorite health tip is, and I know you have many, so can you just share one with us?
Jimmy Page:had predicted that I was gonna share about athletic greens because I take athletic greens every single day. It's my green drink. And, you were so confident that I almost had to give something different. So my health tip for the week is this: do it even when you don't feel like it. Do it when you don't feel like it. Most every aspect of your personal health, most every aspect of your life is gonna be determined by whether or not you can overcome the excuses that are rattling around in your brain. Whether or not you can overcome the way you're feeling and continue to do the things that you know to do to produce great health, regardless of how you feel. Cause I gotta tell you, and you know this, there's plenty of days where you don't feel like exercising, plenty of days, there's plenty of days where you don't feel like eating the right foods or you feel like compromising in some way. And the real truth is that everyone feels that way, and the best way to overcome it is to do it when you don't feel like it.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah. I love that you also always tell our kids always show up. So that's another way of showing up, whether it's exercise or with your friends or in every way that you can. So I really love that tip thank you. One Word has been such an impactful tool for our family and so many others. Can you share with those listening how One Word came to be?
Jimmy Page:Gosh, it's been 23 years of doing this, both personally as a family, you got introduced to it right away because I thought it was a great idea. but I remember Dan Britton and I and two other guys were meeting together every Friday morning for accountability. This is years and years ago. We had a desire to live our best life. God has created us. He's given us purpose and some things that we're passionate about. He put us in marriages and in families where we really wanted to be our best and we wanted to be our best with respect to our careers too, with the things that we would do. So we had, every year we had done these New Year's resolutions, and we had these huge long lists of things that we were gonna get done, things that we were gonna do that year. And we weren't having a lot of success, to be honest. I remember early on, losing track of the things that we had committed to, even though we were intentional about it. And we discovered that we had a lot of failure, a lot of false starts. And a friend of ours, Steve Fitzhugh, former NFL player, told Dan, he said, hey, have you ever considered just filtering your year through one single word, narrowing the focus to a one word theme, and Dan jumped on it. He shared it with me, and then it spread like wildfire to just scrap the to do list and to create a one word theme for the year that would help us become the people that we are made to be. Instead of always being, always doing things. Instead, we wanted to become better in many different areas, and the one word became that focal point that gave us the ability to get real life change.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah, it's amazing how you're right, it has spread like wildfire. I see so many posts about it. I see it on Christmas cards. I know we put that in ours, how God used our one words every year. see it on Etsy for people making one word bracelets and key chains, you name it. So it's been exciting to see it spread because that concept, it really is so powerful and simple. For those who, maybe been hiding under a rock and may not have heard of One Word yet, can you explain to them the process? I know that you go into great detail into the book, but maybe you can give them a sneak peek as to how they could discover their one word as we head into the new year.
Jimmy Page:When Dan Britton, Jon Gordon and I wrote the book, we came together and we wanted to make sure that we kept a simple, powerful concept, simple and powerful. We have the tendency to drive towards this complexity, to add too much stuff. So we really stuck to a very simple process. It is the simplest process, in my opinion, that you can follow to discover your word, and it's this, three easy steps: look in, look up and look out. So those three steps, when combined and done in an introspective way, can help you discover your word and then live it out. So the first step is to look within, right? And this look in step is really important that you unplug from the noise and the busyness of life. Because those are all distractions that prevent you really from hearing that inner voice. As a man of God, as someone who believes in God, I believe it's the voice of God within me, you know, that God speaks in us. When you quiet the noise, when you get away from the distractions and you ask questions like, what do I need most? What's in the way? What are the things that are preventing me from becoming the person I'm made to be? And then you ask the question, if I were to focus on one single word for the year, that would have the greatest positive effect on who I am as a person, what would that word be? And you just journal some thoughts, what's in the way, what's gotta go? and then that's the first step of introspectively saying, if I were to make the most improvement this year possible, I need to look in and discover what I need most.
Ivelisse Page:That's great, and then what do you do from there?
Jimmy Page:The second step for me is fun because it's looking up. As a believer, as someone who believes that we've been created for purpose, with purpose, it's important that we ask the one that has made us to reveal to us what needs to change. And so we go into this looking up phase, which for us is prayer. It might be some contemplative time. It might be asking God, if there was one single word this year that could have the greatest positive effect, not only on me, but on others. You don't want this to become a selfish pursuit. You really want this to become something where you are becoming the person you're made to be, to the benefit of others, the blessing of others, and to really make a difference in the world around you, especially for those that you love the most. So this is that time when you say, where's my purpose? Where's my passion? What do I need to become the person that I'm made to be? And we look up and we ask God to reveal that to us. I think this is an important step to contemplate your purpose and your passion and to say, if you were gonna make the greatest positive impact on others, what word would capture that this year? I think that it's not exclusive, but I do believe it's more powerful, of course, when you really do believe that God has a plan for your life and you are trying to discover that.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah, I completely agree. And it's, this part of the process is always so exciting for me because sometimes I have all these words when I'm looking in and I write them down and I think it's one word, and then all of a sudden as I look up, God really shows that it's actually this word, or he actually confirms it. And, one of the coolest stories I think two years ago, my word was Shalom and I was in November and I was had a few words written down and I decided, I said, okay, I think God's telling me that this is the word, and I never will forget that I went walking with a friend locally in the neighborhood and all of a sudden we're walking and my eyes could not believe in the lawn of one of my friend's neighbor's yard, they had cut out with their lawnmower and left the word shalom on the grass. I could not believe it. It wasn't peace, like a common word, but it was shalom. And I'm like, okay, God, you're truly making sure that this is the word I pick so that it's of fun sometimes when God speaks to you in that way too.
Jimmy Page:And he always does that with you. And I'm always jealous. I'm always jealous about this. And you know so not everyone is gonna have the shalom moment in the lawn, but it is an impressive, amazing story, actually. I think part of this too, just to take the pressure off people is you do not have to get the perfect. Sometimes we think, oh man, if I don't get the perfect word, then the year's gonna be a failure. I can tell you there have been years when I've made my best determination for the word for that year, and I wasn't necessarily certain, but I had general idea. And what always amazes me is no matter what that word is, if you're picking between two or three different ones, just be decisive. Pick one. God is going to use that word in your life. So don't get stuck looking for the perfect word, right? Perfection is often the enemy of progress. So I just wanna encourage our listeners, hey, if you get to the place where you just don't know and you can't choose, flip a coin, pick a word, I guarantee you it's still gonna have a positive effect.
Ivelisse Page:That's great advice. Yes. Don't put pressure, extreme pressure on yourselves, and so look out what does that mean?
Jimmy Page:Looking out is the fun part because it's where you start to live out your word. We talk about keeping it front and center. Telling other people that you've selected a word for the year where you're expecting to see positive life change. And by the way, one of the things I love about one word is it does create this positive expectation for life change. If you're discouraged or if you're feeling worn out, or if you're tired and you want a little bit of a jolt of positive expectation for the new year, this is a great way to do it because no matter what word you choose, there's a reason that you've chosen that word. There's a why behind the word, and it always sets itself on a positive expectation for the word. Whether your word is trust or peace or brave or lead or like yours have been, believe and harvest it automatically orients your mind towards a positive outcome, toward positive life change. So that's what looking out is all about. It's about living out your word and putting it front and center, telling people in your life what your word is and why you chose it. And then keeping it front and center. And we created a one word journal to help keep people on track, that just came out because we had so much feedback that people wanted a place to capture their progress. So we just created that as a resource as well.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah, I'm really excited about starting to use that this coming year. We'll make sure to put a link in the show notes so that if people are interested in the book or even the journal itself and even the kids' book. Can you share about the kids' book that they're welcome to click on and purchase it.
Jimmy Page:Okay, so I have a copy, right? So if this is on video, you'll see it. If it's not, you won't, so you have to go see the video. But it actually is one of my favorite books that we've had the opportunity to write because it's fully illustrated, it's made for kids eight and under-ish. So if you've got a kid that's eight or nine and under, or if you've got grandkids that you wanna bless, this is a way our subtitle on One Word for Kids is a great way to have your best year ever. So again, kids are tired too. If you look at some of the statistics and if you look at your own kids, they're worn out. We've come through a little bit of a tough stretch and this gives them an opportunity to create a positive expectation for their year and they're looking for it, believe me. When I launched this with school districts, for example, some of the ones in Texas are the most fun cuz man, they're all in. They will let their kids take the ceiling tiles out of the roof, paint their word on there and put'em back in their hallway so that every day these kids are reminded of their words. It's a beautiful way to engage kids with a positive expectation for how that year's gonna go.
Ivelisse Page:I love that. It's so powerful. Can you imagine walking down those halls and you're having a hard day and you look up and there's your word. So I think that's really powerful that they do that. What are some other ways that families have incorporated the"Look Out" portion? Like I know Christmas Eve, we gather and get canvases and we paint our words and you don't have to be an artist in order to do it, but we just have fun doing that. It's become a tradition in our house. But what are some other ways that you've heard from people who've reached out to you on how they keep their word in front of them?
Jimmy Page:Yeah, I think you can be as creative as you wanna be with this, right? I mean, me, I'll put my word on a t-shirt, I'll put it on a wrist band. Those are fun and they're really inexpensive to get. But whatever it is, we'll put those canvases that we paint, and you said it we'll paint those and put'em up on the wall in our kitchen. Because it becomes a natural conversation point. It's something that's in your natural routine of life. So we like to make sure that those words are visible. A lot of families especially when they're incorporating it with their kids, will have conversations over the dinner table. So once a week or once a month, they might have an opportunity to say to one of their kids, hey, are you seeing your word have a positive effect in your life? What's it doing? What are you learning? How are you growing? And just keeping it in your regular conversation is a really big way to keep it front and center.
Ivelisse Page:And you know something, even as simple as you can take a picture of your canvas and keep it on your phone. We all have our phones with us, and so having it as a screenshot, as your saved home screen is a great way to have it in front of you as well. And we've had some individuals who have even done a tattoo of their word that really spoke to them. I don't recommend that, but.
Jimmy Page:We have an opportunity at 23 years, we've got 23 words. I could literally get a sleeve tattoo at this point with all the words. That might be an option.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah. I prefer to put'em on your cycling jerseys.
Jimmy Page:Oh yeah, that's right.
Ivelisse Page:So you get asked this a lot and I always chuckle because people feel like, okay, I didn't quite finish all that I wanted to do with my word. And they'll say to you, can I repeat a word? And what do you say?
Jimmy Page:If you do, you're a rule breaker. And I'm not opposed to rule breakers to be honest, cuz I am a bit of a rule breaker myself. But the idea with the one word is it's supposed to form a chapter. It's a chapter of your life, in the broader story. So let's say you live 80 years and you've got 80 chapters in that life. Each one word should form a chapter in your life. So you shouldn't feel pressure to perfect the word. My mom's first word, I believe was patience. And I warned her not to do it because when you pick a word like patience, it doesn't mean you're gonna be made more patient. It means you're gonna be given opportunities to become more patient. But she decided she was gonna do it anyway, and she had a great year. But the idea is that word would form a chapter in your story, That you would have memories and milestones along the way that you would remember about that word, and that word would become part of your dna, part of who you are, regardless of whether you think you mastered the word or not, which is not the goal. The real goal is to make sure that you are experiencing positive life change, that you remember things for that year, and that it forms that chapter.
Ivelisse Page:Can you share one or two of your words that have had impact in your life over the years?
Jimmy Page:I'll tell you a personal story and then I'll tell you one maybe of one of our sons, which I know you're really thankful for. I'll tell you my story first. My word in 2019 was unstoppable. And it's a powerful word, but it also is a challenging word, because now you have to confront your excuses. You're gonna be confronted with your own negativity. You're gonna be confronted from the mental side. You talked a little bit about having six dimensions of life change. The six dimensions are mental, emotional, relational, physical, spiritual, and even financial. What I discovered was I was confronted with a lot of things in my life that were stopping me from becoming everything I was made to be. And so the first stopping point on that is, is the mental side of the game, right? And I had to confront limiting beliefs. I had to confront excuses that were preventing me from making the progress I wanted to. I remember just having to weed out all this maybe negativity and excuses and then feed it with this unstoppable mindset that nothing is impossible, especially for those who believe. That year really was a profound year of change for me. And then a second story and I really wanna maybe end on the story of your one right after you received your cancer diagnosis might be a great tie in, want to say a little something about that. But another word was was Jimmy, our son Jimmy, when he went off to college at Liberty University. He had a great high school career in lacrosse, and he was contemplating whether or not he should go out for the lacrosse team at Liberty. And we had these conversations with him and I said, hey, what's your word for the year? And he said, oh, my word is boom. And I said, what do you mean by boom. And he said, it's like a breakthrough. It's like a breakout year. I'm not going to shrink back because I'm afraid of things, but instead I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for it. And we all smiled on the call like, you might just have your answer whether or not you should try out for that team. And of course we all kinda laughed about it. And then he tried out, had great tryouts with the Liberty University lacrosse team, ends up making the team. And has two really great years with that team, that really in some ways changed his college experience, at least for the front end of it for sure. So it's a demonstration of the power of how one word can be used in your decision making throughout the year as well.
Ivelisse Page:I remember those moments, how amazing that time period was of his boldness to just go for it, walk on for the tryouts and the team pretty much had already been set. So for him to make the team was such a huge accomplishment. And God really had his hand on that whole situation. I also love that you know, you share that the one words are like chapters in our life. Because if I look at the 23 years, I write down my one word every year, it becomes what God has done in and through us throughout all these years. And it's just amazing because as we age, our memory may not be what it used to be, but we remember what God did through those words. So it's super powerful. So that leads me into what you guys wrote. And I know we aren't really focused on this book, but can you share a little bit about Life Word?
Jimmy Page:Sure. Life Word is the title of the story, so if you think of your one word chapters. And then you think of the life word, it's the title of the story. And we always talk about beginning with the end in mind, right? Trying to design your life, not drift into your life, but instead design it intentionally. And it's like anything else when you have a very clear vision for something for the way you want it to be, for the way it should be, and you're compelled to create that, then you take action consistent with what you want your life to be. So Life Word gives the reader an opportunity to look at what they're passionate about, look at their power source, what are they gifted at? What are their strengths? Then talk about what their purpose is, their calling and their cause. And so when you combine those three things, they're kind of of overlapping circles. You combine those three things and it helps you discover your life word, which really gives you purpose and almost a plumbline to keep you from deviating too far from the things you're most passionate about and designed to do. Life Word is a great companion. Begin with the end in mind. put a word over your life that you believe will give you direction and purpose, and then those chapters start to fill in all of the details of the story. So that's a little bit about Life Word. It's a great book.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah. And what's your life word and why did you pick it?
Jimmy Page:People are afraid of picking a life word because they think that, what if I get the wrong word? Am I stuck with it for the rest of my life? So we caution people and we say, hey listen, go through the process. Select that life word, and then try it on for a few years. Try it on for a year, try it on for 2, 3, 4 years, and then reevaluate about every five years, to make sure that life word still represents that bigger picture purpose for your life. And so when I went through the process, originally, my word became inspire. I had a desire. I think much of my early life was lived as an underdog of sorts and I had to work hard. I was undersized. I grew late. It's the worst nightmare for a boy, to be small and to have to wait to grow. I can still remember asking my mom, am I ever going to grow? I remember actually crying about it. So if you wanna know how deep that runs. And my mom would say, worry about things that you can control. Out of that, I had to work super hard and then I discovered that I wanted to inspire other people that may have long odds, that may be an underdog, that may not be the one that people think is going to achieve great success. I wanted to inspire them to maximize their life. It's like the parable of the seeds, it's the parable of the talent. Where some are given five, some are given two, some are given one. The question isn't how much have you been given? The question is, what will you do with what you've been given? So for me, my life word is inspire. I wanna inspire people, one person at a time to fulfill their absolute best God-given potential and purpose. So that's my life word.
Ivelisse Page:I remember going through that process too, and my life word is actually life, and I went through that process and it was just amazing to me because, It really is what I do every day at Believe Big. I feel like I need to speak life to those who are feeling hopeless, I feel like you know the life he's given me a second chance at life. And what am I gonna do to maximize it for our family, for those in our community, our neighbors, for my friends. And interestingly enough, years later after I picked it, I realized that my name Ivelisse also means life. So it's pretty cool that you go through that process and you do find that word. And for me the word has stuck. You did hint also into the fact that you wanted to share the story of my one word, the year that I had gotten cancer. And so you can tee it up and I can insert a few things if if you'd like.
Jimmy Page:if I miss something, right? That's what you meant?
Ivelisse Page:No. No
Jimmy Page:I'm kidding. For me, the reason I wanted to bring this up was because back in 2008 you were obviously diagnosed with cancer, and anyone on this call probably knows a bit about your story. And they obviously know it's been many years now that you've been cancer free. It really is truly a miracle. But that first year, 2009, your word became believe. Because we had a lot of bad news, and I remember every time we went to the hospital, it seemed like the bad news from the last time we came in seemed better than the bad news we're getting today. It was just one of those days, but I remember you picking that word, believe because the scripture says nothing is impossible for those who believe. And this idea of believing that God was capable of bringing you back to good health, God was capable of healing you. And we were gonna trust that and we were actually gonna trust the outcome regardless of how it went. Because we know that unfortunately, the journey doesn't always end the way you want it to. We all have an appointed time to die, so we knew that was a very real possibility, but at the same time, we did not wanna dampen the reality that God could do anything. But the reason that this matters most for me is because of the next piece of one word, why one word is so powerful is because out of that experience, out of that healing, out of believing, and really deepening our faith came Believe Big. It wasn't that you wanted your healing for you alone, but once you received that healing, you wanted to bless other people and help them find their pathway to healing. And that was the birth of the idea of Believe Big was that, let's take the adversity let's turn that adversity into an advantage. Let's take the focus of believe and turn it into believing big for others. And that's the beauty of the one word process. It's not a selfish endeavor about me just being my best. It's me being my best for others to be a blessing. And also for us people of faith is to build a kingdom of God. It's to bring other people into a relationship with God. It's to bring other people along to benefit and be blessed by what we've experienced.
Ivelisse Page:Yeah, you said it perfectly. And I still remember at that time we weren't doing canvases, but we did like a scrapbook page of things that with our word in the middle that I would cut out and paste on there. And I remember that God gave me the verse in the Psalms that said, I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. And I wrote that on my believe board because, like the verse in Matthew, the father says, Lord, I believe, help me with my unbelief. And like you said, with the odds so stacked against us with bad news after bad news and a less than 8% chance of survival, you had to really believe big that God could step in and do the impossible. But like you said, we also had to trust him to know that my story could have ended differently. And thankfully as believers we know, that wasn't the end. So we knew we would win either way. But the power of one word, you're so right. It's not a selfish thing. It's something that also gets us through difficult times that God emboldened us, encourages us to look beyond what we think is possible. So I love that. And interestingly enough, I also love that he used your unstoppable word to start your be-unstoppable-life that you stepped out of your comfort zone and started an organization to help other people as well, to live a life of purpose and passion and clarity. And it, it really is powerful what can happen through a word in one simple year. Jimmy, our time is already at the 30 minute mark, and so I just wanted to let you end it with anything that I may not have asked you that you feel our listeners would be encouraged to hear.
Jimmy Page:I would just fully engage in this process. If this is your first time at it, grab the book. Look at the process. The book is meant to be written in. Dig in, write down your thoughts. Write down the things that are getting in your way and fully engage. Don't just pick a word out of the air. You can do that. But I would encourage you to follow the process. And if you're a veteran, if you said, oh, I've been doing this for 10 years. In fact, I had the idea before Jimmy. I would encourage you as I did a few years ago, I felt like I was intuitively picking my word for the year, and I finally said, wait a minute. I need to go back and go through the process for real again. And when I did, it became a much richer process and I felt more convinced the word that I selected was the right word for that year, and I believe in the end I probably got more out of those words just because I went through the process. So whether you're a rookie at this or whether you're a 20 year veteran, go through the process fully. It doesn't take much time, but you'll be happy that you did because the word that will be revealed, I believe will be a transformational word this
Ivelisse Page:year. I love it. Thank you, Jimmy. And for those who are listening and you select your word coming up for 2023, send us an email and let us know what your word is. We'd love to hear it. You can just email that to info@believebig.org. Thank you so much, Jimmy, for joining us, taking time out of your very busy day. And we're so grateful for all that you've shown and spoken to us about today.
Jimmy Page:You bet. My pleasure. Thanks for having me on. God bless you.
Ivelisse Page:If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support our podcast, please subscribe and share it with others. Be sure to visit believebig.org to access to show notes and discover our bonus content. Thanks again and keep believing big!