Choose A Word, Change Your Trajectory, Lead With Intention

A new year often feels like a clean slate, yet most resolutions fade because they add complexity instead of clarity. In this episode, Chris Comeaux makes the case for a simpler, more enduring tool: choosing One Word as your theme for the year. A single word sharpens focus, clarifies priorities, and guides daily decisions without a bloated checklist. Leadership is about changing trajectories—not reacting to noise—and a clear theme helps leaders stop drifting and lead with intention.

The process begins with reflection, not prediction. Look back before you look forward. Review the past year for lessons and patterns, revisit your mission, and clarify your role—not as a job description, but as the part you are meant to play in the story. Deeper questions like Why am I alive? and What am I willing to die for? cut through distraction and reveal what truly matters. From that clarity, a word emerges that helps you say yes faster and no sooner.

Once chosen, the word becomes a companion for the year. Document it, return to it, and allow its meaning to deepen as circumstances change. Pair it with rhythms of rest and intentional time, because sustainable leadership requires margin. When your word and your time align, leadership shifts from reaction to design. Choose the word. Live the word. Let it change your trajectory.

https://www.teleioscn.org/tcntalkspodcast/choose-a-word-change-your-trajectory-lead-with-intention

Teleios Collaborative Network / https://www.teleioscn.org/tcntalkspodcast

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And New Year Kickoff
• 0:39 Podcast Format And Schedule Changes
• 3:00 The One Word Practice Explained
• 5:15 Year-End Reflection And Mission Review
• 7:00 Role Description Versus Job Description
• 8:25 Hard Questions To Find Purpose
• 10:05 One Word Deepens Intentional Leadership
• 12:10 Confirmation Stories And Last Year’s Word
• 14:10 Team Ideas For One Word Rituals
• 15:45 Work Life Harmony Habits

Transcript

Welcome And New Year Kickoff

Melody King 0:00

Everything rises and falls on leadership. The ability to lead well is fueled by living your cause and purpose. This podcast will equip you with the tools to do just that. Live and lead with cause and purpose. And now, author of the book The Anatomy of Leadership and our host, Chris Como.

Podcast Format And Schedule Changes

The One Word Practice Explained

Year-End Reflection And Mission Review

Role Description Versus Job Description

Hard Questions To Find Purpose

One Word Deepens Intentional Leadership

Confirmation Stories And Last Year’s Word

Team Ideas For One Word Rituals

Work Life Harmony Habits

Chris Comeaux 0:21

Hello and welcome to TCN Talks. I'm excited today and welcome to New Year. Happy 2026. I hope that you and your family had a blessed Christmas, a wonderful holiday season, happy Hanukkah. Just a wonderful month of December. It is crazy to think now we're in 2026. In fact, we're going to do a show today that's kind of become a tradition, but this is the first time we're doing it to kick off the year. Traditionally, we've done this as our last show of the year, but it's basically to talk about one word. And so before I get into that, um, I want to talk about our plan for our podcast this year. Thank you for all your amazing feedback this past year. Um, you have made the TCN Talks and Anatomy of Leadership the top rated podcasts in the hospice and powdered care field. We had over 45,000 downloads last year. And so we're humbled by that. We continue to listen to your feedback. Many of our um listeners filled out a survey that we sent out towards the end of the year, and we've taken that feedback to heart. And so we're taking that and we're crafting um the show going into 2026. And so one change is well, let's start with what doesn't change. What will not change is us bringing relevant, timely things that you as hospice and powered care leaders need to know, but also on the anatomy of leadership, bringing just top-rated people in the field of leadership because everything rises and falls on leadership. So your job as a hospice and powered care leader, and of course, we have listeners now in the anatomy of leadership that are outside the hospice and power to care field, but leadership applies to everything. So we're gonna keep bringing great content, is the bottom line on that. But as adults, our attention spans are getting worse and worse because of social media. So what we're gonna do next year on Monday when we drop the show, we're gonna have the highlight reel. So it's a quick way of like, here's gonna be the highlights. That's gonna be coming out then on Wednesday. So that's traditionally when we've always dropped our show. But Wednesday, we're gonna break the show into two parts. So part one will always be on Wednesday, about 20, 25 minutes, and then Friday will be the part two of also 20, 25 minutes. Why are we doing that? Break it into bite-sized pieces. Um, I'm a bit of a geek. I listen to podcasts in my one-hour workout time, but some of you have just a little bit of windows. Maybe you'll go for a walk or maybe during your drive time. So we want to honor all those different folks that have the full hour and the folks that have the small amount of time. So we're just gonna change that going into next year just to be, again, better service to you. Break it into more bite-sized pieces. You can listen to the whole thing all the way through if you want to, or you can listen to those bite-sized pieces. So just thank you again for that feedback. And so we're gonna look forward to your feedback as we start to make the shows in that format. Um, in fact, we'll probably transition into that just a little bit later in this month of January. So, today's show, we really started this practice back in about 2018. I personally started one word back in 2016. In fact, it just hit me that this year, my 2026 word is now 10 years worth of doing this. We utilize this practice of choosing one word. It's a theme for the year. We do this on our TCN team. My family and I do it as well. It's a great practice. And my goal today is just to remind you of it, those of your longtime listeners or those of you that are new, hopefully a practice that you start. And the idea is it helps you prepare for the year ahead. Again, my family and I do this every year. And the idea is choosing a word that creates a theme for the new year. It helps you be more focused throughout the year. Now, it could be more than one word, actually. So I even had one year that uh actually it was five words. It was almost a phrase basically. In fact, this year is my first year in several years that it truly is just one word that is gonna be my theme going into this year. So if it's one, two, three, five, whatever, the idea is creating a theme that matters to you. And I'm gonna talk a little bit more in just a little bit about how to come up with it. I am gonna ask uh Jeffrey Executive Producer to put a visual for those of you watching, and then we'll also include it in the show notes. It's a visual that actually I used recently with our Tele Ash University one-year leadership certification course, and I'm gonna include it here again in the show notes. This visual is really gonna help what I'm gonna talk about and as we go forward here. You know, coming off the holidays, I have a tradition that I do each year where I spend time reviewing my year, looking back. You know, there's nothing worse than live this life. You know, the unexamined life is not a good life. So taking the time, I started this practice probably, I don't know, probably 10 years ago. And what I do is I typically do it um first, second, or third of January this year. I did it before New Year's Eve just because we had a family member that actually got married after actually on January 3rd. So I look for key learning lessons for the past year. So I don't forget them. How do I do that? I look in my journal. And so that is a practice that I started many years ago. I have a little mole skin. Every year I start with a fresh moleskin. There's something about like new year, uh a whole blank mole skin. But during that time of reflection, I look back in my journal for the whole year. And as I relook, one of the things that I wrestle with is what is my mission in life? In fact, I have a stated mission statement. Sometimes I just reaffirm it. Sometimes I actually will mess with a couple of words, kind of edit it, update some of the words. Also, so the mission statement is one of the first things I do after I'm kind of reflecting on my learning lessons for the year. And by the way, cool practice last year is a lot of those key learning lessons I'll put in the very beginning of my journal for the new year. So I kind of scaffold my new year based upon the learning lessons of the last year, and I have my updated mission statement. Also, look at my role description in every facet of my life, but especially my work role description. And by the way, a role description is not a job description. In fact, at Tilly Us Collaborative Network, every year as we start a new physical year, we have our team members update their role description, their performance goals, and their learning plan. And of course, I practice that as well. And a role description, by the way, is the role that you're performing in the story. Because the story will not come out as it was intended to if you're not performing your role in the story. And this applies to an organization, a family, church group, a little league team, whatever. A role description is a great way to say this is the role that needs to be played. So I look at my mission statement, and then I actually look at my role description. Now, this year I actually wrestled with two questions that are really heavy questions, and we're actually going to leave these in the show notes as well. Why am I alive? So, in the question in your case is why are you alive? And what am I willing to die for? What are you willing to die for? Now I know that may feel dramatic, but I turned 55 this year, in fact, just a couple days before Christmas. So life is short. And for my case, the majority of my years are now in the rearview mirror. The years ahead of me are less than probably the years that I've lived so far. So what if this was our last year on the face of this earth? You know, those questions would bring a focus, an energy, a passion, and a creative tension to daily life, not to squander the time that I have. And so what I'm trying to do with wrestling with that question is really focus my cause and purpose. So having wrestled with those questions, lastly, I look at the journey of my one word for this past year. So I had a one word for 2026. Invariably, and I've seen this now since I've been doing it for 10 years, what I thought that word, that theme for the year would mean compared to the journey of understanding, it is so awesome. It's like kind of thought this is what the word was going to mean, but then I look through the rearview mirror of the year, and it means so much more to me, so much more profound. And it is interesting because I've done this now for 10 years. I even start to see how the one words of each year are almost categoring or cataloging is a better word. The journey of my learning journey, becoming a better version of myself. And the cool thing is the past two years, as I started a new journal each year, I've actually started a fresh sheet just for my one word. And what I've started to do the past couple years as I unpack and I mind map my journey of discovery around that one word in this past year for 2026 is the row most robust is to look back and go, well, here was that word, but here's all the learning lessons around what it came to me mean to me throughout the year. Now, let me back up because there may be some new listeners and you're wondering, what is this one word that he's actually talking about? You know, we believe this is much better than a New Year's resolution because it contains power to carry us forward through the entire year and it guides our annual journey. You know, there's so much stuff coming at us. We know we live at a time where you literally could just react to stuff and probably work 80 hours a week doing it. And that by definition is a lot not leadership. If you ever read my book, The Anatomy of Leadership, I have a definition in the very beginning of the book that my mentor, Dr. Lee Thayer, gave me. And the punchline in this long paragraph is his explanation of leadership, is this leadership by definition changes the trajectory of things. So think about that. We live at a time when you could just react to stuff. That by nature is not leadership. Leadership is changing the trajectory of things. Stuff is coming at you and you change the trajectory. Reacting is the world is acting upon you and it's pushing you in a different direction as opposed to the intention of where you want to go. So back to the one word, the one word is a great tool to help you live a more intentional year, a more intentional life. Now we're going to include a three-minute video. There's a great video, it's three minutes tops. It's a great illustration of the power of one word in a community, in a school, in an organization, and in a family. Usually each year I start praying about my one word, usually about November. Doesn't if you're like, hey, I hadn't even thought about it yet, no problem. You could start right now today. This year, it really came to me in about the month of November. And then after that, I got so many confirmations. And the reason why I'm sharing that with you is once you feel like you get a sense of it, maybe even prayerfully meditate, think on, I'd really like to get a confirmation. In fact, we have a blog on our TCM website. I had the most dramatic uh confirmation my word several years back was solitude. And I kept thinking, how on earth is that going to be confirmed? And we were actually driving to Louisiana to be with my family for the New Year's. And I literally looked up, and as big as you please, on the back of this RV was solitude. And I thought I took a picture of it. We even included in the uh blog because it probably is to date is the most dramatic confirmation that I've ever actually received before. Now, my one word for 2026 was whole, W-H-O-L-E and Holy. And my learning and understanding and its impact on my life, my journey, my growth journey, has really been enriched in learning about what those words really mean. In fact, the word whole is a Jewish word, a shalom, which a lot of you think, oh, that's peace. It is. But it also has means about wholeness, like being more of what you're supposed to be, more whole. And so again, that those words were just profound to me. Uh now, obviously, that was not one word, that's a three words last year. So again, don't feel confined that yours has to be one word. Also, I found that my understanding around my cause and purpose, and therefore my mission and my role description have all been made richer by utilizing one word as a theme at a personal level. Now you may go, Chris, I don't have a mission statement, I have a role description. Just start with the one word. And interestingly, I think if you did that and you do wrestle with your personal mission and your cause and purpose, and if you ever want an education on what role description is, just reach out to us at TCM. We have our leadership immersion course. It's one of many things that we teach in that immersion course. But you will come to find your cause and purpose by utilizing one word. Or if you have a sense of your cause and purpose, I believe it's deeper, richer, and more clear by utilizing one word. So, what is your one word for this new year for 2026? Now, this year, mine is very personal. So I'm not even going to share it with you. It's actually very personal to me this year. Last year, interestingly, our team shared our one words on a word cloud. And we actually kept that in our SharePoint site, which is kind of our version of our corporate office within TCM. Also, really cool. One of our members last year, they actually had a box and they took stickies and all their one words were on top of the box. And one really cool thing they did that was an addition is they took a negative word, something that they wanted to get out of their life, and they put it inside the box. And I think at some point in time during the year, they took their one word stickies off of the box and they burned the box that had the words they wanted to get out of their life, and they burnt that as some kind of staff event. I love that. There's so many cool things that you could do with the one word, not only at an individual level, but at a team level as well. So, what might be your one word for this coming year? I leave you with that question. Now, one final tip as we begin a new year. Last year we released a blog titled Work Life Harmony. In fact, it's a required reading for all of our staff at TCN, and this is wisdom that I gleaned from three people. Mother Teresa, Dr. John Morris, who is the chief medical officer for our clinical integrate network, does a lot of great work with us in Powder Care, and I had the privilege of much of my career working with Dr. Morris at Four Seasons Hospice, just an amazing human being. And then the third person was Stephen Smith, who used to have a mega church in Charlotte, and he wrote a book called Soul Custody, S-O-U-L Custody, Choosing to Care for the One and Only You. So here are the things that I I gleaned from Mother Teresa, Dr. Morris, and Stephen Smith. First off, Sabbath on a weekly basis. That's not a religious form of Sabbath, but something that feeds your soul, like a 24-hour period where you turn off the crazy of life, the email, the social media, just do something that feeds your soul, sharpen your saw. Next, a vacation or a mini vacation every seventh week. Even Mother Teresa had the nuns that she worked with in Calcutta to do that. Every seventh week they take some time off. Now you may go, I can't take a full week every seventh week. Totally get it. Maybe it's just a three-day, maybe you take an extra Friday every seventh week. Just something that's a little bit more of a break. And then I learned this from Dr. Morris. And I remember he used to come to me and I'm like, You're scheduling all your vacations for the next year? That seems crazy, but I've now adopted that into my life. So exactly that. Book all your vacations over the next year, right now. Because if you don't get them on the calendar, it's like a budget for your time or like a personal financial budget. Um, why do you do that? Because you only have limited financial resources? Well, you only have a limited amount of time on this earth. Again, I learned this from Dr. Morris many years ago, scheduling all those vacations and getting them on your calendar. So, what is my hope for this next year? My hope for all of us is that we'll become more purposeful, contemplate a people, and through all that, we'll come to know ourselves better, define our purposes, and most importantly, to live it each day, each minute more fully. So, here are some questions that I'm gonna leave you with. Why are you alive? What are you willing to die for? And what are you needing to and willing to be relentless about to further your cause and purpose in this next year? And as we do, the end of each episode, always want to thank you, our listeners. Please hit the subscribe button if you've not already. We don't ever want you to miss an episode in this coming year and pay it forward to a lot of your coworkers, a lot of your fellow leaders in your organization, or maybe just network uh folks that you have throughout your network throughout the country. We do this in service of you, and that puts good pressure on us to keep upping our game to make sure we're serving you well. And as we do, the end of each episode, we always leave you with a quote, a visual. The idea is to create a brain bookmark, a thought prouder about our podcast subject, the further your learning and your growth, and thereby it sticks, almost like a brain tattoo. So, again, make sure you hit subscribe if you're interested in my book, The Anatomy of Leadership. It's on Amazon. Tell your friends, coworkers about it. You know, it's easy for us to rail against the world and be frustrated by things. Let's be the change we wish to see in this world. So thanks for listening, and here's our brain bookmark to close today's show.

Jeff Haffner 16:48

What you think your one word means at the start of the year is never what it means by the end. And that's the beginning by crazy coming.