Choosing a Word

Transcript

Jim 0:01

Hello and welcome to decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Koval and my name is Reverend Dr. PJ Stanley. Thank you so much for being here today. And today we're talking about continuing on that theme of, of starting a new year. And we are recording this in January, whenever you may hear it. And, we're talking about choosing a word for the year. Yes. Yeah. I know several people who do this. Yeah. And other question is how to select a word. Yeah. That's going to be productive for you. Right. And so that's, so that's not something I've done before. I, I, I did it this year. I'm doing it this year, and it made so much sense with my sister. I was talking with her about what I wanted to do this year, so we just kind of had a conversation and so that's gonna be a part of this. How do you choose the word? I just kinda had a conversation about what do you want to accomplish this year? So I look back over the, the, the things that I'd done last year and what did or didn't get done, and I realized that I had more projects than I'd actually completed. And I, and I want to go back to those and make sure that I get those done as well as adding some new projects. So my sister said, well, it sounds like to me that completion is probably a word for you. And I just thought, you know, you're right, because I had a lot of open activities going on. You know, and so for, for me to feel better about this year and finishing up some things that I had started last year and that I will be starting this year, completion seemed to be the right word for me. Mm-hmm. So I think it begins with a conversation with yourself and with whoever you might trust. We, I, we call them pbs, which is Partners in Believing. So you have a partner. That you can speak to that knows who you are you know, kind of knows what, what you're wanting to do. And that can talk with you from the heart about, you know, where you want to go and, and without, you know, feeling guilty about it.'cause guilt doesn't do anything for you. We just wanna look at what's really happening and what do you want to do. So that's what I would begin with. And, and, and the question would be, why, why is it having a, a word something you wanna do? Mm-hmm. It, it, it's, it's about focus. Generally. I'll talk about vision, and this doesn't preclude having a vision. I, I like having a vision as well, but when you have a word, it is, it's about focus. So that is, that word helps me with the vision. If, if completion. Is my word. What all in the areas of your vision, which we talked about before. I dunno if we've talked about it on this podcast or not. So if we did or didn't, let me say it again. When I'm looking at vision, we're talking about four areas of your life, and the first one is health and wellness. Because, you know, if you're not feeling well and you don't have good health, you're not going to be able to or feel like getting anything done. So that's one of the first quadrants that we look at. Then there's, love and relationships we're all in relationships and for us I think at Harmony is certainly my big focus is loving people, loving yourself, and loving others. That's a big deal. So that's the second quadrant. The third quadrant is your vocation or vocation. You may be retired and you might be doing something else besides an actual vocation. Either way. That would be your third, third quadrant, and then your fourth quadrant would be time. And money freedom.'cause if you have all these things that you're creating that you want to do, but you don't have time or money to get them done. Then none of that's gonna work. So we're looking at our vision in those four quadrants. And then the word helps you focus in the quadrant. What do I want to get in this quadrant done? Because you have a say, a health and wellness could be a number of things. Like, I want to get off these, this med that I'm taking or have less, take med, less meds or lose weight or feel better about my, feel better about what I can physically do. There's a number of things you might wanna. Do in each of the quadrants. So so then focus the, the word would help you focus on what it is you want to accomplish first in each quadrant. So you might have more than one word. It doesn't, and I, again this is something that I just begun doing. And so for me, that word is working in all quadrants. Okay. It's working in all quadrants. The one word. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And certainly I, I know someone who is doing that. This. I don't think she's done it before, but like you said, she conferred with a friend. Yes, and And she had a word in mind, but the friend said, you know, I think this is Yes. What you actually need. Yes. And so she went with that. Yeah, it's, it's good to have someone outside of yourself looking at that caring for you and looking at what they've seen you do and what they've heard you say. So kind of know what your heart is wanting and can say, yes, we're saying this, but here's what I've, what I've noticed in terms of what you say is important to you. What might be a better way for you to get there. And that's a loving thing to do with someone. And, and it's very I think you're very blessed to use that word to have someone that can say that to you that knows you well enough or that loves you enough to say that to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah. So how does choosing this word differ from a, a vision or a a, the resolution. Yeah. That so many people do. Right. So let's start with the resolution,'cause that's the easiest for me to discuss. Resolutions are, you know, are, to me it's like a wishlist. You have a resolution I resolve to, you know, be better at eating. I resolve to lose all the resolutions. Come in January, January the first, but by about February or even March as far as March the first, most of those resolutions are out the door because there's nothing behind it, meaning there's no emotional power, there's no spiritual power, there's no real desire. You haven't actually thought about why that resolution is important to you. Mm-hmm. When you're looking at your, your, your, your focused word, the word for you, you have talk with your friend. S you, you've talked about the things that have happened for you in the past year. You're talking about some things that you want to have accomplished, and you're looking at one thing that, just one thing. It's about, it's again, about focus. Just one thing you could do that would help you move forward in all the areas that you just talked about. So for me, completion, because I have a habit of looking at things, I think we all do that. Ooh, that looks, Ooh, ooh. That's interesting. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Right. And then we, you wouldn't know anything about that. And so then you lose focus. So the, the, the one word thing is, is, is to help you with your focus. Then on the other things that you want to do is part of your vision resolutions. I. I just, they're like a party game. They don't really do anything for you. They make you feel good'cause you talked about'em, but then they ultimately make you feel bad'cause you haven't actually done anything with them. Right. Yeah. And so they're not that useful in, in my opinion. Yeah. I, I think it could, you can tend to feel, I, I don't usually do those, but I have occasionally and I think it, it tends to feel like making the resolution has accomplished it. You know? Right, right. I said it. So there you go. Yeah, yeah. This is my resolution and I'm, and that's it. There's nothing behind it. So, so now we, so we know and all of us can look back and know all, all the resolutions we've kind of let go of, and maybe you've, you're a person that does do a resolution and, and is able to make it happen. But I think it'd be unusual. Yeah. I think you'd be, those people must exist. They must, they must exist, but I don't know any of them. I don't know any of them. It's certainly not me. Oh yeah. So I, you know, we talked, you asked about the vision and, and the resolution. The vision is, again, I talked about the four quadrants. Lemme just say it again. Health and wellness. Loving relationships, vocation or avocation and time, money, freedom. Those are the four quadrants of a vision. And the vision comes about because as you sit down and you take some time to think about, let's just say the first one, which was health and wellness. Just sit down and think about it. What is it? That she want. What does, what does health and wellness look like to you? So you can sit down and you can be thinking about it, you can start writing some thoughts about it. What, as I look over the last year, what did I want to have happen? For me, I, from my perspective for what's happening for me, I get tired more easily than I used to. And yes, some of that's age, but some of it's because I'm not actually moving and being as physical as I had done before. So part of it is. Okay. Saying, what kind of physical re regimen would you actually do? Would you actually keep up with Yeah, I, you know, I, I have a, my dental hygienist, she does marathons. Yes. And she does marathons around the world, her and her husband. So there's a whole website about traveling marathons. Okay. And so she's, and I thought, oh my gosh, that'd be great. You can go to Italy and ha you know, Haiti, blah, blah, blah. All the places she's going. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna run a marathon. Yeah. So that's a, that's not gonna be, yeah. A good vision for me. On the other hand, traveling is one, so you just start to think about what. You think you'd like. And then what is the reality of that for you? Is that really, and so you just, you have to begin to know yourself more and, and own who you actually are and be good with it. I'm not gonna run a marathon. I'm barely gonna walk around the park for a couple of miles, all right? And so, you know, know thyself and so that can let that go. But I do travel. I've traveled my whole life and I love it. So that is actually something I've seen myself do and know that I will do so I can believe myself when I say that. When I say marathons, I'm already not believing myself. Yeah. I'm already knowing that's not gonna happen. Right. And then you can perhaps you can apply that word. Yes, exactly. Completion. Yes. Are you going to travel? If you are, what's that gonna look like? What's, where are you? How many? Places are you gonna go and which ones are you gonna go a couple out of, out of the country and a couple in the country? What are you going to do? So you start putting a plan together that resonates with you. That's all. It's your life. Didn't have to resonate with anybody but you. If you say, I'm gonna travel, and all you do is take one trip, you've traveled. Yeah. Okay. You've traveled. Yeah. So yeah. Okay. We can, we can end there for this episode. Thanks for being with us. Yes. See you next time and have a great new year.