CTRL-ALT-AND: Reboot Your 2025 with One Word

Discover how choosing a single word can transform your mindset, boost productivity, and inspire abundance in your 2025 resolutions. Pick your word now and make 2025 your best year yet!

One word to launch your future — AI generated image

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In my article “One Word to Rule Them All,” I discussed the concept of choosing a word for the year — a word that encapsulates your vision and goals for 2025.

This word will help you focus and remind you of your purpose throughout the year. It should be aspirational, stretching you and pulling you magnetically towards where you want to be.

Ideally, this word will also serve as an INTERRUPT. When your laptop hangs, you hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE to stop the endless loops and start over. As humans, our OS doesn’t have a handy key combo to interrupt a spiral of mental chaos — we don’t have a convenient keyboard attached to our heads.

However, as a human being, you have an amazing machine between your ears. You can pick a word and assign it the role of CTRL-ALT-DELETE. Go ahead — it’s your head, you make the rules.

My 2025 Word

Now for my 2025 word — Tahdaaaaah:

My word for 2025 is AND.

“And” is short but oh so powerful. It’s a conjunction, a joiner, an extender. It asks for more. And more. And more. And…well, you get the idea.

It is the limitless conjunction. I need to guard against a scarcity mindset — one of my weaknesses. “And” is the word of abundance, the scarcity antidote. Whenever I feel the scarcity virus trying to poison my system, I will take a big slug from my “and” flask.

I am going to lean into “and” this year. I will treat “and” like the “5 Whys,” a troubleshooting and problem-solving technique that helps you dig deep into underlying reasons and find true causes instead of superficial ones.

5 Ands

I’m going with 5 Ands. As I eavesdrop on my inner conversations, I will start to ask the “Ands.” Here’s an example:

“Again? Seriously. This issue keeps reoccurring. I need to sort this out properly. I’ll need to set up a meeting with Roger Dodger to sort out the problem.” Sighs.

“And?” Other Me.

“Well, I could try and see if there is a better way to solve this problem than trying to pin Dodger down.”

“And?” Other Me.

“Maybe I should come to the meeting with some solutions instead of confronting and trying to pin the blame on Dodger.”

“And?” Other Me.

“Now that I think about it, this might be a good opportunity to build some rapport with Roger. The issue is not entirely his; I do have a part to play in this. We have been dancing this routine over and over, and it does take two to tango.”

“And?” Other Me — again.

“I’ll scrap the meeting. I’ll set up a coffee catch-up. I’ll start off with where I made mistakes and suggest that we own the problem jointly and sort it out together.”

“And?” Still Other Me.

“What else? OK, how about I Ben Franklin it? I’ll reach out to him and ask him for help. I will genuinely see what he has to say. Maybe he has some insights he can share. I suspect this issue bugs him as much as it bugs me. I’ll do that proper active listening thing.

Happy now?”

That could work.

Brain-Hurricane

I had a brainstorm earlier this afternoon. I had a facilitated business brainstorm earlier this year with a business mentor. She did a world-class session with me, going for the foundations and asking about my passions and ultimate goal.

I stuck these notes up on the wall, grabbed some fresh sheets of flip chart paper, cranked up an adrenaline-fueled Spotify playlist, brewed some high-octane coffee I picked up during my recent trip to Cape Town, and Brain-Hurricaned it. It was a level 8 Brain-Hurricane!

I read the notes from the earlier session and just kept “anding.” I “anded” and “anded.” I got 18 to-dos on my checklist, added 10 blog post ideas to my journal, and about 15 songs to my playlist — Spotify has a recommendation mode, and I was feeling the recommendations.

That’s my word for 2025.

Instead of a huge list of New Year’s resolutions, try picking a word for 2025. Choose a word that will inspire, challenge, and guide you throughout the year. Embrace its power and let it transform your mindset and actions. Your word has the potential to shape your year in ways you never imagined.

So, what’s your word for 2025?