Why Your Word of the Year Fails Under Pressure

So how has that decision to be or do something new or different worked out so far? If you are in the midst of struggling to hold to a resolution, theme, or new strategy, then this one's for you. I'm Tamsen Webster, and I study how people think about new ideas so that you can make sure people can't stop thinking about your new ideas. I'm also the founder of the Message Design Institute, where we're putting into practice all the things that actually work to get people not only to take action but to create durable, sustained change. Which brings me back to New Year's resolutions, and specifically the idea of setting a word or words as your theme. This is one of my least favorite situations where I have to take something where I love the intent of setting a theme or picking words or making a resolution and put it up against what the science actually says about how people think about new ideas, think about changes, and how they stick to them. Okay, so let me start with the words of the year. Now typically people use one word for the year like focus or joy, just a couple that I've seen or maybe have even tried myself at certain times. The big pro of a single word is that it is cognitively easy, and the pro is it's cognitively easy to make almost anything fit that word. My friend and thinking leader, the incomparable and wise Denise Hamilton, posted, "If you want to be a new person, you better have a plan to defend against the old one." Mwah! Oh, such a good quote. This is the issue, right? If we can rationalize any behavior to fit in with the theme, how likely is it that we're really going to change the behavior? Because in that moment where you have a choice between something you used to do and something that you could do that would represent something new, the years of muscle memory for the old thing is really strong. And therefore, also very strong would be the temptation to justify, to rationalize even an old behavior as somehow fitting the new theme. This is also part of the issue with a 3-word theme or more. I've seen those too. Number 1, those words often fall prey to the same thing. And if you've you got 3, then it's much more likely that the old behavior is going to fit into one of the 3 categories. And there you go. So pro: 3 words or more allow you to cover more bases. Con: 3 words or more split your attention across 3 or more bases. So again, the likelihood in that moment of stress and decision for you to go, wait, what are my 3 words? Cognitively hard. Second, All right, is it this? Is it that? Is it that? Despite your best intent, you are much more likely to do the old thing in that moment than the new one. So how do we solve this? Number 1, we need something that is cognitively easy to remember. 2, applies across situations to achieve whatever it is the outcome is that we're trying to get to. 3, doesn't split our attention so that we don't get confused in the moment. And 4, actually will work as something we can remember and test any behavior against. Tall order. Good news, all you need is 2 words. Now you might be saying, Tamsen, I already picked 2 words, and I'm gonna say if there's an 'and' in between those 2 words, no good. What we're looking for is a modified noun. We're gonna call this modified noun your prime strategy, meaning it is the first thing that you will test new behaviors, new initiatives, new activities against. And when you've got it, it's gonna sound something like curated elevation, which is the prime strategy for my friend and author Neen James, or my own, involved integrity. Now, these may not mean a lot to you, but the important thing is that they do mean a lot to Neen and me. And what's really important to understand is what function those two words serve. One of the words is going to set the direction. In this case, for me, that's involvement. I wanna make sure that I'm actively engaging with other people and involved in the things and the movements and the ideas that I care about. For Neen, for instance, elevation really described the direction she wanted to move in order to reach her goals and vision for the year. One word sets the direction, the other sets the standard. So this prime strategy, by putting two words together, not with an and, but as a noun with a modifier. So you've got something like, Integrity, that's the noun, and involved, that's the modifier, an adjective, puts it together and turns it into one thing. That preserves the cognitive ease. The fact that there's two concepts joined in that one thing gives us guardrails. It tells us that not everything counts as the noun. Not everything counts as integrity or involvement. Not everything counts as curation or elevation. One of the words, the noun, names what matters most for you. For me, integrity. For Neen, elevation. The other word keeps you honest about how it shows up. For me, by being involved. For Neen, through curation, careful selection. When we put those two words together, we take a theme or themes or an intention and turn it into a usable filter for those decisions we're making every day. And critically, something that's easy enough quick enough and memorable enough for us to apply in the moment. For something to pass that mental test, it has to pass both aspects of that PRIME strategy. So, for instance, any activity, initiative, choice needs to focus first on, am I involving others? Am I involving myself in a way that actually has impact? Isn't just showing up, isn't just, hey, I engaged, but actually getting involved but actually getting into interaction with other people. Because after all, that's a really good test of integrity. Am I involved with others? Am I actually involved or just participating or showing up? Any choice that I'm making, whether that's what I'm publishing or where or what events I'm attending or even what clients I say yes to, need to come down to those two questions. Number one, am I actually getting involved? Am I involving other people or am I just withdrawing and protecting? And it also needs to pass the test of integrity. Is it coherent? Is it aligned with what I want and believe? Are my words aligned with my actions? Is it representing that higher standard that I want to hold myself and others to? Or am I doing this because it's convenient or it's something I should do? The good news is if you only set one word for this year, easy fix. Modify it. And if you pick 3 words or more, pick the one that's most important, that it will make the most difference for you getting to whatever your overall intention is for the year, and then use one of the other ones to modify it. Ultimately, as my friend Denise said, you gotta have a plan for defending against the old you. And yes, all of this applies to organizations as well. It's why the PRIME Strategy is part of the core work that we do at MDI. Hopefully though, now you see why this works. Works, where a simple theme or something else doesn't. It gives you the actual approach to follow and the mental test to make sure that you aren't giving yourself an out, but also a viable, justifiable reason for why you do choose the things that you do. So if you happen to be struggling with your PRIME strategy, your theme, or resolutions for the year, or just at work or whatever, pop into our message design office hours. They're free, and I'm happy to give you any tune-ups that might be useful to you. Found this useful? And don't forget to subscribe and if you want, sign up for the Message Design newsletter.