Win Today

#178 | The Power Of ONE Word: [2025 Goals Series]

• Ryan A. Cass • Season 4

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What if a single word could transform your life in ways you never imagined? Join us as we explore the concept of choosing a one-word vision to steer your year with clarity and purpose, as inspired by Jon Gordon. I'll share stories from my own life and what I've learned from Gordon’s experiences to illustrate the powerful impact of this practice. By incorporating this word into your daily life, you’re reminded of your goals and driven to overcome challenges with focus and intention.

Velocity is my word for 2024 and it's far more than a concept; it's a force that can accelerate your personal and professional growth. 

As we look to 2025, the journey of mastering growth through action continues. This episode provides insights into setting concise goals and capitalizing on opportunities before they slip away. Reflecting on the meditative nature of activities such as running, we explore how they can offer clarity and inspire your next steps. Whether you're eager to refine your personal growth strategies or simply seeking new inspiration, our podcast aims to be your trusted resource. Feedback is welcomed as we strive to better serve our audience in the coming year.

Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
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Speaker 1:

I found a powerful way to keep our vision alive, and it's a one-word vision, One word that we can all use to be our driving force for the year. A one-word vision slash purpose. So three years ago I started doing this and my word was purpose. I wanted my purpose to be greater than my challenges. So I had my word for the year and it made such a difference. As I traveled all over the place, I focused on my purpose.

Speaker 1:

My wife's word was intentional. She wanted to be more intentional as a mom and stop allowing the distractions from keeping her from being her best. Let's face it, guys distractions are the enemy of greatness. Would you agree with that? Oh yeah, Reality TV exists because people watch it. When I watch the Kardashians, I feel better about my own family watching. When I watch the Kardashians, I feel better about my own family, but it's a distraction. So my wife said, okay, no more distractions. She focused on her word of intention. Even did this with my kids. My 12-year-old son came up with the word focus. He wanted to focus more on school and also on the tennis courts. And my daughter, 14 years old. She came up with her word. It was motivation. Great word for her because she needed it.

Speaker 1:

We're at Pepperdine University. I'm speaking to all the students at Pepperdine. She came with me. I'm done speaking. All the students were running up to my daughter, JJ. It's so encouraging having John Gordon as your dad Does. He just encourage you all the time. She was so serious. She looked at him. She said, yeah, he tries to encourage us but we don't listen. But you know what? It's okay because she has her own word of motivation and now that's become a driving force in her life. So my hope, my goal, is that everyone here will leave with a word that becomes your driving force for the year. What's going to drive you to be your best this year? What's going to drive you to bring out the best in your team? And then I want to encourage you to actually have every one of your associates come up with their word.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Win Today podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully crafted to equip people with tools to build and refine discipline, accomplish your goals, fortify your mindset and be of service to somebody in this world. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host, and every week you will learn from either myself or a renowned expert in their field, where we will educate and inspire you and give away pieces of our winning playbooks for you to incorporate into your life. If you love the show, please hit the subscribe button, share with somebody who you believe will benefit from it and leave a rating interview so we can continue to grow and inspire more people in this world. We believe that everybody in this world is meant to do something great with their lives and we're here to play a role in that. Thank you for tuning in and let's win today.

Speaker 2:

How could one word mean so much for your progress in one year? How could one simple word serve as a governor if you will? Behind the choices that you make in a given year? How can one word serve at the forefront before you decide to engage in a certain activity, join a new group of people, join a different mastermind, engage in a community activity? How can one word serve you so much deeper than what it sounds like. One word. One word can ultimately be a key driver in your progress that you make over the course of an entire year. One word I love the opening from John Gordon. That's who was speaking there at the beginning. He is a well-known speaker and productivity and performance coach that is sought after by millions all over the world, and he has written several books, one of them being guess what? How one word can change your life, and I love this concept. It was first introduced to me several years ago when I was in college, by one of my mentors, scott Cornwell, and he told me about his one word for the year, and this is when I was very new into the personal development world. This may have even been right after my freshman year, so 2011-2012 timeframe I can't recall the word, but I do recall the principle selecting one word that serves as your governor, it serves as your theme for the year. I remember putting it in the back of my mind and it's interesting with things that we put in our mind or, if you have a certain thought, it activates our reticular activating system. Therefore, if you are thinking about purchasing a red car your dream red car.

Speaker 2:

You're probably back to that initial conversation with Scott, and John Gordon is a friend of another mentor of mine, max Rook, who has been on the podcast, and Max knowing John and John speaking at Pepperdine University, where Max is the associate head coach of women's soccer, a top 10 ranked program, has gotten a lot of exposure to John. A couple years ago, when Max and I first got in touch, he was on the podcast. He asked me what's your one word? And then that conversation with Scott came back and I was like, well, I don't know, max, I've never done it, but I'm going to make that a thing in 2023 and test it out and see what this does, how this shapes my thought process, how this shapes my decision making. Will it add more promptedness, meaning, will it add more action taking on my behalf as it relates to my goals? And so I selected the word deliver and Max, being the amazing guy that he is, sent me a package in the mail with a bracelet that has deliver engraved into it and I put it on my shifter in my car. So every time I go, pop it into reverse or drive, I look and I see that word deliver. So it's a constant reminder 2023,.

Speaker 2:

I'm here to deliver, and the reason why that was my word in 2023 is because last year I was intending to launch quite a few new things, that being the Breaking Ribbons Foundation and my running fundraiser, which has now been alive for two years. It was to continue the streak, the consistency on the podcast and not miss a single Monday. We haven't missed a single Monday on the podcast since September of 2022. To continue delivering on the podcast week in, week out. To continue producing amazing content and growing, bringing on high quality guests and making this the best experience that it can be for listeners, every Monday, week in, week out. It was to build a stronger relationship with my sister and deliver on my promise that, when I go back to Charlotte to visit from time to time, that I'm not focused on business and I'm focused on spending time with her.

Speaker 2:

Feedback I got from her a few years ago, going into 2023, was that, even though family's always been a high priority, that whenever I came home to visit, there was always business mixed in, so I'd see my sister spend time with her and then I'd go have a meeting with a mentor, go record a podcast, thinking that this is no big deal. This is me chasing my dream and she understands that too, but at times to her it felt like it was more of a priority to focus on business and then spend time. So that was amazing feedback. And that word deliver really was that reminder that? And that word deliver really was that reminder that hey, make sure that you are delivering quality time to your family, specifically your sister, as you make your home visits, and continue making the family a priority. Maybe not every trip needs to have business mixed into it. Maybe it's every other trip. Maybe you can find other ways to make this happen and continue building on the stream.

Speaker 2:

Deliver was also related to launching or growing, continuing to grow our Champion Tribe Mastermind Group, which has now evolved into the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind Group, which just got launched. So what I'm getting at here is the word deliver was intentionally picked because I knew in that year I was launching a lot of new things and things that I hadn't done in previous years and that kept me focused to get those things done, to make a lot of forward progress on things that had not been created yet. I love the one word concept now and it's something that I'm already thinking about for 2025. And my intention with this episode is to introduce the one word concept and, in the following episodes, as we go into 2025, start dropping shorter episodes. That will give you all a tool that you can put into your playbook for the new year, this being one of them, this being very simple and something that I believe, by looking at one word every day, whatever the word may be, that it will help serve as your almost quasi right-hand man or woman that will help guide you into getting involved in the right things. So, for instance, going back to 2023, if something didn't align to the word deliver, meaning that let's just say I had this wild hair or got asked to launch an environmental group, help launch a new group to plant more trees in Charleston, south Carolina.

Speaker 2:

I love trees, I respect environmentalists that does not align to me delivering on the goals that I'd set out for myself. Therefore, you know that word keeping that present would have helped me make that decision. Nope, I'm not going to get involved with when, in previous years, I may have said oh, yeah, heck, yeah, I want to help out as much as I can. And, yeah, go trees, let's get some more palm trees up here, let's get some shade on this ridiculous heat and humidity that we have here in the low country. But that's an example of how the word serves as your guide as I look at 2024 and how you can think about what your word may be in 2025, which I'll float some of my ideas right now, just what's on my heart, a few things that you can do when thinking about your word for the upcoming year and I'll share my word for this year, which is velocity Velocity really being the time spent between an idea or a thought and taking action on it, or on something that I've been working on for a really long time that hasn't quite got there yet, that just needs to get across the finish line.

Speaker 2:

Velocity got introduced to me by another mentor of mine, jamie Damsker, got introduced to me by another mentor of mine, jamie Damsker, who was on the podcast in February Amazing performance coach and thought leader and his advice is extremely useful and he introduced this concept of velocity to me. What I appreciate most about Jamie is and one thing I noticed early on is he would introduce a concept to me or he would share something with me and mention that he was going to follow up, and almost immediately Jamie would follow back up on that item or follow back up on the concept that he introduced to me. There was very little lag time in between the conversation that we had whether it was related to something he had brought up or that I had brought up and him providing some sort of resource or additional follow-up to it, and that's where he introduced the term velocity. So this was in 2023.

Speaker 2:

And as I'm thinking about my life, where do I have opportunities to grow? You know, 2023 helped out a lot with deliver and getting new things out there. What's the opportunity for 2024? Where do I feel like I am leaving something on the table? Leaving something on the table and what's something I'd like to get better at? And over the years, I have historically taken on too much, too much on my plate. I've gotten a lot better at that and saying no to more things and continuing to say no to a lot of things that don't align and continuing to say no to a lot of things that don't align. But what I've noticed is that at times, I can allow really big things to take longer than they should because when I zoom out and really audit it, it's taking too long because I may be scared or have been scared of the what-ifs or perfecting the craft versus taking messy action and just getting it out there. Or when I'm in conversation with people and they have something that I know I can help them with, taking too long to follow up with them and provide the resource that I mentioned. So velocity became my word for 2024.

Speaker 2:

And I'm constantly thinking about, or the constant reminder I have in my mind, is reduce the amount of time between a thought and an action, or reduce the amount of time between following up with somebody on something that they may need help with. And what I've found is that when I'm telling someone, okay, yep, I'll put you in contact with this person, sometimes that would go on for weeks and I'd have the reminder and then you'd see, you know, you run into the person. You're like oh crap, I haven't gotten you that thing yet. It drives me absolutely nuts and it makes me feel bad. It makes me feel bad about myself and hey, I could have avoided that. So oftentimes, what I find myself doing now in that particular example is, let's say that I'm going to provide someone a resource. I say you know what I'm going to do it right now I'm going to send an email to this person, or I'm going to send a text message and get you connected. Or hey, this book, this podcast, I'm going to go look it up and I'm going to give it to you. Right now, that's that velocity reminder coming into the forefront of my mind and, boom, I'm going to reduce that time between thought and action, or conversation and action, conversation and deliverable, and it's helped out a lot. Now there are still instances where there have been deliverables that have lingered on, and I keep people's text messages pinned for that reason. So it's my reminder hey, this shouldn't be sitting here. You need to follow up with this person. This is what you said you're going to do. So I've got a system for not forgetting, but again, velocity isn't perfected yet. But again, velocity isn't perfected yet.

Speaker 2:

Velocity also applied to launching the Unshakable Discipline course in Mastermind. This is something that I've been working on for years, years. I've been dreaming of creating a course and making progress little by little, really at inches, moving at inchworm pace. Now, that is better than taking no action and not moving at all. But I knew, hey, this is the time to actually make this happen. Put fears aside and put this out there, and we're going to launch it in 2024. And velocity is kind of that. It's been that boost. When I think about the mastermind I've been telling people about this forever. Now what pops in my mind is is this velocity, is this velocity or not? So, and also, max made me another, another bracelet. So when I am now shifting into reverse or into drive, I see both deliver and velocity on the shift pad and it's again my reminder. Just like with goals, I tell people your goals should be visible, so they're constantly in your mind. Your one word should also be visible and I've also put that on my goals board as well that my word for the year is velocity and my theme for the year is double down, because 2024 has been an incredible year and velocity again has really helped with that, reducing thought and action. Most recently, here's something I'm excited about with Velocity and into 2025. So this is going to be a huge guest on the podcast and a huge guest for the Unshakeable community Sahil Bloom.

Speaker 2:

Many of you may know or follow Sahil. He has emerged as one of the top personal development experts and content creators. His book, the Five Types of Wealth, is coming out in February. Just yesterday, he posted a story on Instagram that he is looking to speak to anybody that has a book club of 10 plus people about his book, the Five Types of Wealth, and that velocity came into mind. Okay, we need to jump on this right now, even though I know that Sawhill is likely being contacted by book clubs and groups that have hundreds of members. I'm why not take a shot and see what happens and let's reduce the amount of time that we have between this thought and action. Let's push fear aside and go ahead.

Speaker 2:

And I reached out to him Sahil, we've got the Unshakable Discipline, community and Mastermind that I just launched. We are going to be starting a book club in 2025 and I would love for you to come speak to us Club in 2025, and I would love for you to come speak to us. Within minutes, he gets back and says I would love to. Sends me his email. And then I'm thinking oh, you know what? Well, while I've got him on the hook, let me shoot one more shot and ask him if he would love to be on the podcast so we can talk about the book and help him, because he's got one of his goals to be on the New York Times bestseller list. That's absolutely going to happen. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, helped endorse his book and write a foreword for it, so no doubt that he's going to be on that list.

Speaker 2:

I'm thrilled to talk about the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind Group. This has been my baby that I've been working on for the last couple years, and it is now out and available and perfectly timed as we enter the new year. If you are looking to level up in 2025 and be surrounded with more like-minded and ambitious individuals and grow in multiple areas of your life that you deem is most important to you, then this is exactly who we want to have in the Unshakable Discipline Mastermind. This mastermind is all about surrounding yourself with driven individuals who are committed to personal and professional growth, success and excellence, and every week, we have a mastermind session where we learn from some of the best thought leaders, authors and CEOs in the world many who have been on this podcast before. They're going to provide actionable and invaluable insights and strategies and tools to help you achieve your biggest goals, refine your mindset, be more present with your family, excel personally and professionally, and everything in between. Also, on a monthly basis, we host challenges designed to push you out of your comfort zone, help you grow and ultimately give back more in the community and be a vessel of service. You also get the Unshakable Discipline course, which is something that I've created over 13 years of practice and research in the domain of personal development and goals and discipline, pushing your body and mind to greater heights than you believed possible. This is my exact playbook that I've been working on since 2011 that you get in a self-paced course.

Speaker 2:

Right now, we're offering membership at 30% off for the first 20 founding members. Go to unshakabledisciplinecom that is unshake, as in milksciplinecom and you can experience the course, be around amazing people, all for a very small investment $67 a month right now and you'll get that locked in for life and have access to the course and any future courses that are developed Unshakabledisciplinecom. I wish to have the opportunity to work with you in the new year. Let's go. But I sent him a message and said hey, I would love to have you on the podcast and I know that you're good friends with Brad Stahlberg, who is another New York Times bestseller. I interviewed him at the very beginning of 2024 about his book Master of Change, so it would be awesome if we could talk about the five types of wealth. Again, sahil is getting featured on the biggest podcast in the world.

Speaker 2:

Velocity means that I'm going to go and reduce that time between the thought and the action. How cool would it be, how cool of a thought is it to have him on the podcast and he got back. Oh, I know Brad very well. Make sure you include that in your email to me and we'll find a time to have a podcast. So, just like that, that is velocity in its finest, in my view, in its finest form, in its finest example, and I wish that this provides some useful thought leadership for you as you're thinking about 2025.

Speaker 2:

And when I think about the word, or what I encourage you as you're thinking about, your word is again where do you have, where do you believe you have, the most opportunities to grow in your life, or what's something that you want to get better at? What is something that you see yourself doing now that you want to stop doing or get better at? I mentioned that again. I noticed there was too much time. I felt as if there was too much time between having a thought on something, having a thought on something noble, and actually taking action on it and getting it done. Velocity has helped.

Speaker 2:

Now, as I'm thinking about 2025, a couple things. One thing I know I'm going to do is make my goals list even shorter, because getting the unshakable community to where I want it to be, to where I dream it to be, to where I know it's going to be it's going to be, is going to require a lot more of my time and I'm still in the corporate world, but I know this is going to require a lot more of my time and effort. So I know that my goals list is going to be far more condensed, and the word that's starting to jump in my mind right now is capitalize, like all in but capitalize. So I'm I'm wrestling with that one right now and how these words come to me. Again, I asked myself the same questions I posed to you guys, but sometimes I know that when the big man is speaking to me or is, is when I feel something on my heart. It's almost like this magnetic pull, gravitational pull to something, and usually when I'm running is when these thoughts become most clear to me. And, as I've been running, which is really also my meditation and mind clearing activity that capitalized just has come up a couple of times now. So I'm thinking. It's going to be something along those lines, and maybe it is that exact word.

Speaker 2:

I don't know yet, but I'm sharing this to encourage you or to provide some thought leadership for you as you think about your one word.

Speaker 2:

We're going to continue sharing these tips, tools and frameworks as we go into the new year. So be aware, be mindful of that as we go into these next few weeks of 2025. And if there's somebody that you believe will benefit from this and these tips, please send them the podcast. Please send them the podcast, encourage them to subscribe. This is another opportunity we're absolutely going to capitalize on.

Speaker 2:

There it goes again is I believe this podcast is one of the best resources out there from the personal development world and I don't see any reason why it can't or won't become one of the more recognizable ones when we think about personal development and growth, because a lot goes into this and I'm pouring my heart out to y'all. Let me know if there's anything that you would love to see or hear or that I can do for you to serve you more, better or less as we're in to 2025. Think about your one word, let your one word serve you, your goals and your heart, and allow your one word to move you and win today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Thank you.

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Ryan Cass

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