Guiding Word — Intention Setting / Reflection Activity

This reflection exercise guides you in discovering a guiding word that will support your personal growth journey. You’ll start by checking in with your emotions and needs, then explore your recent experiences through journaling prompts to uncover themes and values. By visualizing your ideal year ahead, you’ll identify a word that feels like an invitation, one that resonates deeply and can guide your decisions, especially on challenging days. The session blends self-reflection with actionable insights, leaving you with clarity and a meaningful word to carry forward.

Transcript

Hi and welcome. Today we are going to be using our journals to do a little bit of a reflection activity. This is something I do in my coaching and that is called finding our guiding word. The point of finding our guiding word is just to be mindful of how we are living our life. It helps us set intentions as we deal with hard things that pop up, As obstacles of life show up, We have kind of a route to pull us back to. So today we are going to do some reflecting. We are going to think about what we want for our future. We're going to notice if there's any patterns that are showing up. And then hopefully by the end of the call, We are able to choose our guiding word. But if you don't get to that point, That is totally okay. This might be just kind of the launching off point and you might do some of your own reflecting and thinking after this call. And that's totally fine. So without further ado, Go ahead and grab the materials you need. I, For one, Like having a notebook and a pen in front of me. Of me just so I can see my thoughts. But if you want to do this on your phone, If you want to do this just in your mind and shut your eyes and just think, That is totally fine. Do what's going to be the best for you and what is going to make you feel the most successful. All right, If you have what you need, Go ahead and we're going to start with some reflection. So a guiding word might be a word that we choose for a day, A week, A month. Personally, I really like choosing a guiding word that sticks with me for the whole year. But however we're going to do it, The process is going to be the same. So the first thing we're going to do is do some reflection prompts. I should tell you at the beginning, Pause this video as often as you need to. If I go too fast, Please just take a moment to pause, Rewind. If you think of an answer later and you want to come back to it, That's totally fine. But I'm going to go ahead and keep the speed up a little bit more than I typically would just so that people can kind of take it at their own pace and pause when needed. OK, So our first question to think about today is what moments from this past month gave me the most energy? So you can write it down. I'm going to do my own little journaling here. But what moments from this past month gave me the most energy? These might be people. Thanks! Moments that really stood out. And again, We're going to go by these pretty fast, So pause as often as you need to. The next question I have for you is what drained me the most? What drained that energy in you? If you're ready for it, The next one is, When do I feel most like myself? The question is, When do I feel most like myself? Thinking back to this last month or so, When did I feel most like myself? Maybe there's a certain moment that really stood out or day that really stood out, An activity. Our next question is, What am I ready to release or do less of? And the last question for this section is what did I need to learn, I'm sorry, What did I learn about my needs boundaries or values. So, Was there anything in this last month that really stood out about your needs. Boundaries. Or values. Again, We're going through these questions fairly quickly. So please, Please, Please pause, Go back, Rewind, Do what you need to in order to get the most out of this reflection. I'm going to go ahead and read through those questions one more time in case you missed any. But you can always go back. So the questions were, What moments from this past month gave me the most energy? Then you have the flip side, What drained me the most. When did I feel most like myself? What am I ready to release or do less of? And what did I learn about my needs, Boundaries, Or values? So that is our first part of this, Which is that reflection time. You shouldn't be at this point feeling like a word needs to come out yet. You might have noticed some patterns or words that are repeated in there. But that's kind of our next stage is where we start to explore what was showing up in some of those prompts and what we want to notice moving forward. So the next things we're going to talk about is our values and themes. So you might have noticed, Like I said, Some repeated words, Maybe there were emotions that showed up for you a few times, Or there were really meaningful moments from this last month that really stood out. And I want us just to observe those, And I want us starting to think, What is this telling me about what I need more of? So in this coming month or in this coming year, Were there trends that I saw in my reflection that made me think, I need more of this moving forward. So my first thing I want to do is just start to get you thinking about what a word possibly might look like. So here are some examples. It might not be the word you choose, Or you might hear it and be like, Yes, I want that. I need more of that in my life. So just listen to some of these words. If any stand out to you, You're welcome to write them down. But some example words are growth, Calm, Courage, Consistency, Joy. Oh, I love the word joy. Presence, Alignment, Trust, Creativity. That word popped up a lot for me. Balance, Compassion. So again, These are just example words. You might have some of your own starting to float around. If you do, Jot them down. It doesn't mean you have to decide on the word yet, But just start thinking about what could this word possibly mean for me? And the next thing I want to think about is what of these values or which of these words words feel important for how I want to live life, Not just today, But moving forward. What do I want more of? What do I want to live by and not just achieve by? Remember, This word is not meant to feel like a goal or something that is confiding. Instead, It is supposed to be kind of like a companion, A friend, A support on those harder days. So noticing what is coming up naturally, I want us just to observe it. We're not forcing our word, But we are starting to think, What could our word possibly be? Okay, The next step I have for you guys is to start inviting this word in. Remember that it is okay if the word doesn't stand out to you yet. It might be worth it to, Again, Go back to some of those reflection prompts and start thinking through them a little bit deeper or just kind of keep your mind floating around these next few days, These next few hours about what really is standing out. So if you're ready, Something I would love for you to try is to close your eyes And I want you to, Instead of writing this time, Just think through some of these questions for me. So the first question I have for you is, If this year was a headline, What would the title be? Just thinking, If this year ahead of me, Or headline, What would that title be for me? Another question to think about is what quality do I need more of in my life? Maybe you're thinking back to your reflection prompts and there were some trends popping up and you're noticing I need more of this quality in my life. Which word feels like an invitation rather than a demand, Right? This is our companion. It should never feel like a demand. And then which word would you want to return to on the hard days, Right? When you're having to make some hard decisions, Hard choices are popping up, What would feel like a comforting word to return to? Okay, Take a moment now after you if you want to rewind again, Think through some of those prompts a little deeper. But when you're ready, I would love for you to just write down maybe about like five words that are really starting to stand out to you. Now, When we're doing this we're noticing what feels calming, What feels anchoring, What feels like an invitation. Okay, If you are ready, And again, There is no rush to choose your word today, But if you are ready, When you are looking through that list of the few words that you wrote down, Which one calls to you the most? Which one really helps you think about this is the future I wanna live, This is the word that calls out to me. And then I would challenge you to fill in this blank once you choose it. So my guiding word for the year is blank because of blank. So for example, I told you at the beginning that I like to choose a guiding word not just for a week or a month. Instead, I choose a guiding word for a year. And my guiding word this year has been the word play. So if I were to fill in that prompt, My guiding word this year is play. And that is because I noticed when doing this exercise for myself that I feel most alive when I am creative, When I am around people who bring me joy and playfulness fun. I think I put a lot of structure and I like to achieve goals. I like to get things done and feel that sense of accomplishment but in that I don't always get to just be in the moment and appreciate what is right ahead of me and trying new things and so in that the guiding word for me that stood out was the word play. So now I invite you to try the same thing. So my guiding word for this year is blank. And it's that word because of plants. All right, I hope that a word has started to emerge for you or maybe there's a few that you're still juggling around and thinking about. Remember at any point if you want to re-watch this video, If you have some more reflection prompts that are really standing out to you that you want to dig a little deeper, You're more than welcome to do that. But I invite you to just kind of keep an open mind in the next couple of days as the word does hopefully come out to you and chooses you. To feel like a demand. It is supposed to be your companion, A support. So I hope that this exercise was helpful for you today. Again, We use it in coaching just to help us ground ourselves, To help us make sure that we are following our values, Our beliefs, Our ideals, And that we're staying in a line what feels right with us, Especially on the days where we are faced with some decisions and we have to make choices that can be a little bit hard. It's nice to have that word to come back to. Thank you so much. For spending the time with me today. I really appreciate getting to do this reflection prompt, Even though it's virtual and I don't get to see all your wonderful faces, But I appreciate you being here and making the time and just choosing to make each day a little bit better for yourself. I hope you guys all have a wonderful rest of your day and I look forward to hopefully seeing you again soon in more of my videos. All right, Talk soon, Bye.