Episode 38: Word of the Year Workshop

In this engaging episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast, join Greg, Alessandra, Devin, Dr. Melonie, Nate, Shadows Pub, and guest speaker Kara as they delve into the concept of the Word of the Year. Discover how this guiding theme can shape your year through Kara's insightful workshop. The episode is filled with creative exercises, thoughtful discussions, and tips on turning your chosen word into actionable outcomes.

Greg
00:03 - 00:44
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast. Can you believe episode 38 today? It is January the 25th, 2025. And this month we've been working on this thing we've been calling the Word of the Year, where you pick a word of the year or a word of the month. And we're very fortunate today that one of our members, Kara, is here and she's gonna teach a workshop. So we're gonna switch gears. This is going to be a little bit different format in that you will listen to some of the workshop and there'll be places where you'll pause, go away, do some homework, and then press the play button again.

Greg
00:45 - 00:50
So, Alessandra, the word of the year in Kara's workshop. This is exciting, right?

Alessandra
00:51 - 01:42
It is really exciting, and there is a word for our creative work hour and all the creatives that come through. I mean, we are a combination of handfuls at a time, so it always feels small and intimate and warm, but really we've had over 250 creatives come and stay for a season or just come and stay. And one of those people that have been here from the very first session as a founding member is Kara And Kara is, she's a PhD. She works in all kinds of creative stuff and in the academic world as well.

Alessandra
01:44 - 02:28
Kara and I have known each other for four plus years. We've done some training together and that's how we met. And she's always been around. And anytime that I needed something creative or a founder's bit of listening or advice, she has always been there. Now, as far as creative work hour goes, we tend to run things, we're more alike and more different than we realize. And this is one of those times we've been devoting all of January to word of the year, like a guiding theme that you can identify. Like, hours for creative work hour was rebellion years before last.

Alessandra
02:30 - 03:22
It worked out so well for us because as a result, we're not like anybody else. We do our own thing. We may have things in common with some other groups here and there, but there ain't nobody like the Creative Work Hour crew. We're independent, we're rebellious, but we love each other fiercely and we will defend each other's creative work, even if it comes to blows. Yeah, so. The word that I'm going to workshop today, I want to share it because I don't know if it's going to survive the tests of the workshop with Kara, but I will go ahead and tell you so that if it does change by the end of the work that we do together in this podcast, we'll just see how it morphs.

Alessandra
03:23 - 03:58
So the word is synchronous. because we all are doing things at the same time, but sinking pops up and hits me in the face because we were working on Word of the Year at the very same time that Kara was devising and giving workshops on Word of the Year. I mean, mind blown. So Kara, welcome back to your honored seat, Creative Work Hour. And the floor is yours.

Kara
03:59 - 04:38
Thank you,  Alessandra, and thank you, Greg, for having me. It's always wonderful to be with my CWH crew. So I have been picking a word, or it doesn't have to be a word. I wanna make sure that part of the message  I give today is that this is not about you have to follow some cookie cutter pattern that somebody else lays out for you. It can be a word, it can be a phrase, it can be a theme, but it's something that you use to sort of guide your year. And for those who are on the screen with me today while we're recording, I'm gonna share a visual with you if I, oh, nope, I can't do that.

Kara
04:39 - 05:15
So I'm just gonna describe a visual to you. So if you've got a piece of paper and a pen there or some other writing utensil, a crayon or a tablet device with a magic pencil, whatever that is, put a word or phrase that you're thinking about. So for Alessandra, it would be synchronous. I'm using the word simplify this year. And just stick it in the middle of that piece of paper. And we're gonna make a mind map of our word today. So you're gonna, what that means, if you've not made a mind map, you're gonna draw some arrows out from your word.

Kara
05:15 - 06:23
And I'm gonna guide you through those arrows. So this is that homework that Greg mentioned. So the first arrow that you're going to pop out is questions. And I want you to take just a minute or two, and I want you to list any questions that your word brings to mind. All right, so ask, anybody have one they want to share? Something that came to mind you want to share? 

Alessandra
06:23 - 06:49
I can go. So my working word is synchronous. And the question to ask about that is, because this is a word for the Creative Work Hour crew, who's doing what at the same time? 

Kara
06:50 - 08:16
Good. Perfect. Perfect. Anybody else? I'll share one for mine. Um, my word is simple or simplify. And, um, one of my questions is what if it was fun? Um, that's been a guiding theme for me this year as we've come into the year. All right, we're going to continue our mind map. So if you'll draw another arrow out, from your word or phrase. And this one is about people and relationships. Or community could also be the phrase here. But getting outside of yourself and interacting with others, what does that make you think about with your word? Obviously you can keep working if you want to, but we'll come back to that.

Kara
08:17 - 08:27
Anybody have something they want to share, an observation or anything to share? Go for it, Devin.

Devin
08:29 - 09:26
So mine's a little weird because it's sort of a reverse word. My word is suffering. And it's because I want my concept to be relief of suffering for 2025. And when I go to people in relationships, from that word, I immediately think of our  girls' school that we support in India. because that's a community that we've never met in person yet, but it's a group that we're a part of and that we support, and it's so different. I mean, we're from a completely different perspective. that community has on the world and suffering and what's going on than what we have here in our US or UK view of what is going on in the world.

Devin
09:26 - 09:33
So that's what I think of when I draw an arrow that says people in relationships out from suffering, that's where I arrive. 100%.

Kara
09:34 - 09:39
And I'll add our Canadian  friends to your perspectives as

Devin
09:39 - 09:44
well. No, no, I intentionally excluded them. So just to be clear.

Kara
09:46 - 09:49
And Nate, you were going to offer something as well.

Nate
09:50 - 10:21
Yeah, my word is absolutely for the year, but it's one of these words that is perennially true for me, which is the word play. And so for people in relationships, I like the different areas of my life. So I have work play and parenting play and how to play and how to create play in places where it may not be the first thing that you think of, but it can be as important.

Kara
10:22 - 10:53
Absolutely. I love that. All right, let's draw another arrow out from our word or phrase. And this one is actions. So what actions does your word make you think of? What does it make you want to do? You could also use the word outcomes here. What does this word make you want to make happen?

Kara
11:49 - 11:53
All right. Anyone want to share on this one? Actions or outcomes?

Greg
11:54 - 11:55
Yeah, I can share.

Kara
11:55 - 11:56
Awesome, Greg. Thank you.

Greg
11:57 - 12:17
So my word originally was searching. And so for this, I've got maybe try something new or revisit something old. Maybe do something that I'm unsure of or that may be uncomfortable or I think might be uncomfortable.

Kara
12:18 - 12:22
I love that. Anybody else?

Kara
12:30 - 14:14
All right. Last arrow we're going to draw out from our word or phrase is supporting words. What are the other phrases or concepts that your word makes you think of? Great, anyone have a supporting word or a supporting phrase or idea they want to share?

Kara
14:14 - 14:24
Alessandra, go for it.

Alessandra
14:28 - 14:56
So my supporting words were borrowed energy, that pair. So synchronous, everything is going on at the same time. People are working on the same things or similar things at the same time. But my sticking point is having the energy to do my own work,

Greg
14:57 - 14:57
right?

Alessandra
14:57 - 15:00
I'm really good at helping other people get unstuck.

Alessandra
15:01 - 15:19
I have a hard time doing that for myself. So I'm like, well, borrowed energy could be helpful. And then the picture that came into my mind was the engineering works of Wallace and Gromit. 

Kara
15:19 - 15:20
I don't know them. 

Alessandra
15:20 - 16:07
Wallace and Gromit is a claymation series out of the UK. And their theme song is, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. So there's borrowed energy right there. Right. Yeah, it's an English thing, which made me think of, well, instead of designing, I have a tendency to design for the perfect, right? As a designer, it's just a bad habit. I design for the perfect, when actually I need to design for the bare minimum. And here's what I mean by that is, like the success of creative work hour, why it's still living and breathing and growing and being fun and playful is that I designed it for not my best day, but for my worst.

Alessandra
16:08 - 16:41
What is something that I can bring to the world or offer to the world that I can do on my worst freaking day? I love that. And so with synchronous, and borrowed energy, I wanna keep that at the core of design drivers is how can I design for my worst day or borrow someone else's energy?

Kara
16:42 - 16:47
The word rejuvenation keeps playing in my head as you were describing that.

Alessandra
16:47 - 16:47
I like

Kara
16:47 - 16:51
it. I don't know why, but I'll offer that to you in case it's a value to you.

Alessandra
16:52 - 16:54
I like it. It's not juvie, it's rejuvie.

Kara
16:55 - 17:01
Yeah, yeah. Anybody else? That was awesome, Alessandra. Thank you.

Devin
17:06 - 17:27
It sounds cliche, but I picked, is one of my words, community. And because I think that in terms of relieving suffering, that's one of the greatest resources if you can find a like-minded community. I can't think of one offhand, but if you were able to find such a thing, it really could help relieve your suffering than others.

Kara
17:29 - 17:32
I love that. Devin, I think you said the word was community. Is that right?

Devin
17:34 - 17:35
Yes.

Kara
17:35 - 18:19
Okay. All right. Your audio was a little challenging there for a minute. All right, so you've got your mind map, and you can certainly keep working on that on your own as you wish. That can never be done, or it can be done. It's up to you. You get to decide. It's completely yours. But now I wanna talk to you for a little while and guide you through an exercise to think about how you take this word, and what it represents and turn it into action of some sort. Um, so if, if Nate, if we're talking about Nate's word of play, how do we actually make sure that play happens or, uh, Devin's word of suffering and relieving suffering?

Kara
18:19 - 19:05
How do we make sure that actually happens? Um, I've tried a few things over the years. Um, I like to do something. I got it from a podcast called the happier podcast, happier with Gretchen Rubin. And that is to choose, um, the, a number of things based on the year. So this year it's a 25 and 2025 list. Last year was a 24 and 2024 list. Um, and, and that is to, um, think about that list in terms of my word. And when I choose my list, there are things that are, some of them are, I'm gonna use definitely, I'm using air quotes around that though, because life happens and nothing is definite, but there are things that are definitely going to happen.

Kara
19:05 - 19:51
So for this year, I'm headed to Amsterdam later this year, and I'm going to take a picture in a tulip field. That is one of the things that is on my 25 and 2025 list. And that has to do with my word of simple or simplify, because I think tulips are just, there's just a simple beauty in tulips in a field. Like that is just one of the most incredible, simple beauties that there is. So you could think about something like that. You could also think about a themed list. This year with my word of simple, I've been making a simple pleasures list and things that I, I find just joyful.

Kara
19:51 - 20:36
Creative work hour is actually on that list. Spending an hour in CWH is one of my simple pleasures. You could make your word a focus area, or you could take up a habit or two, or give up a habit or two. I have done that in previous years. That would play into your areas there. So does any of that spark an interest or an action there that might be of interest to you? Alessandra, you're smiling into the camera. I'm gonna guess maybe you have something to talk about.

Alessandra
20:38 - 21:29
Well, okay. So you were talking about your 2025 list. So I've spent most of the day yesterday that I wasn't napping, working on my 2025, getting the major things for the year that have dates to get them on the big year list. And I think it's part of mental health recovery for me. Like I always had a hate, hate relationship with calendars because I didn't feel, I didn't feel like I think that faith is a feeling, faith is not a feeling, but I was under, I was, I was mistaken that you could feel faith for the longest time.

Alessandra
21:29 - 22:22
And so calendars were just like something that I hated because I didn't have faith that I would ever be well enough to do something worth planning. And so I spent all day yesterday mapping out on a beautiful, beautiful calendar. Like, okay, I get to go play classical music with an orchestra in the South of France this summer. That's worth planning. Holy cow. I get to go and speak at the International Clarinet Festival. Okay. That's worth planning. And so I love what you said as get a photo of yourself in the field of tulips when you're in Holland.

Alessandra
22:22 - 22:56
Because it gives a visual. It's not just letters or dates on a calendar. It's a visual driver. And so I'm going to take that suggestion or that example of yours and design what I want to capture visually and what sounds I want to capture from those experiences. So thank you so much for that because it's helping me shake hands with calendar.

Kara
22:58 - 22:59
I love that. And there's,

Kara
22:59 - 23:32
I love that you brought in the senses. Um, I'm a big Gretchen Rubin a file. She's the one who has the happier podcast and her most, I think it's still her most recent book. I don't think she's published anything since that is called life in five senses. And, um, one of the things that she talks about in that book is making a five senses portrait of a person or an experience or a place or something like that, and I love that idea. Dr. Melanie, I see your hand up. Do you wanna jump in?

Kara
23:33 - 23:34
Yeah, I think

Dr Melonie
23:34 - 24:17
you can even, before you get to France, do some visual et cetera things, like a picture of the invite. Yeah. You know, a little stupid thing that pops up every so often with a funny. You take a photo of the picture of the invite and draw around it or, you know, anyway, or days until it happens or like a vision board kind of thing. Yeah, but simple, simple, you know. OK, so it's in the summer. Now we're in January. So right now it's an invite in February. You look at it again. You say, OK, what am I thinking about?

Dr Melonie
24:18 - 24:29
You know, here's a picture of my new clarinet reeds. I don't know. Who the hell knows? But something that just sort of, you know, goes zonk and says, oh yeah, this summer.

Alessandra
24:29 - 24:34
Oh yeah, cool. It's happening. I like it. Thank you, Dr. Melanie.

Kara
24:35 - 25:20
I love that. And I think it goes along with, you know, creative work hour and Alessandra, I'm not going to do this, the justice it deserves. So please correct me, but creative work hour is a collection of events and practice, not perfect as one of them where each day you and others show up to practice your craft. And I think that is such a wonderful way of embodying sound and spirit in our time that we spend together. So I love this whole family of activities we have around creative work hour. All right. So as you are thinking about the things that you might add, as Alessandra mentioned, I am a bit of a research nerd.

Kara
25:21 - 25:29
So I am going to add from a Harvard business study. And Greg, do we have show notes that go along with these? I could send you the visual of this if that would be helpful.

Greg
25:31 - 25:36
Yeah, okay. I do have show notes, yeah, and I can make any visuals, any links or anything like that available.

Kara
25:36 - 26:25
Perfect. So I'll send this out to you. So if you're listening, you don't have to try to copy these down. You can just grab them from the show notes. But a Harvard study a few years ago identified sort of the key areas of our lives that we are trying to make changes in. And they identified six strategic life areas And from those, they got 16 strategic life units. So the six strategic life areas are relationships, body, mind, and spirituality, community and society, job learning and finances, interests and entertainment, and personal care. And I think from those, most people could probably figure out their own strategic life units.

Kara
26:25 - 27:03
We don't all have them, but I think those are the 16 most important, but I will make sure I share with Greg what those 16 units are so that you can see those if you want. So as you're thinking about things that you might want to change, a really good activity that I love is called the Wheel of Life. And it's where you make a circle on a piece of paper, and you divide it up into quadrants based on the different domains of your life or the different domains that you're measuring at that point. And I'll include a template in the information that I sent to Greg so that you can do that Wheel of Life assessment at some point if you'd like to do that.

Kara
27:03 - 27:37
But it's a good tool and I use it just not in life, I've used it in business as well to think about are there different areas of my work that I'm not giving the kind of attention to that I need to or something like that. So I'll share some other templates and things with Greg in the notes that might be useful. They're better in a visual standpoint, so I won't try to describe all of them, but I hope this was helpful to help you tune into your word or your theme this year and think about how you might take it from just an idea or an intention to actions that you might do.

Kara
27:39 - 27:51
What was the name of that five senses woman book? Gretchen Rubin's Life in Five Senses. Ruben, Ian, or Ian? Ian. Thank you. You are welcome.

Greg
27:54 - 28:16
That was great, Cara. Thank you. I didn't know before we come to you, Alessandra, I don't know if we wanted to just to go around and everyone say What they thought of that in the room today at the moment is Dr. Melanie, myself, Alessandra, of course, Nate, we have Devin, Kara, and Shadows. What do you guys think of that? Just, yeah.

Nate
28:18 - 28:26
That's great. A really nice sort of straightforward exercise, but lots of stuff can come out of it. Really good.

Greg
28:27 - 28:28
Absolutely. Dr. Melanie.

Dr Melonie
28:29 - 28:44
I like doing this stuff here because I refuse to do it on my own. So it's really very, very interesting. I like this one more in some ways than many. I don't know why, maybe the mind map.

Greg
28:45 - 28:45
And

Dr Melonie
28:45 - 29:02
I like doing this with other people. Doing it on my own just seems like some kind of homework. And kudos to Harvard for scientifically calculating the six areas of our lives. I think we'll kill them.

Greg
29:03 - 29:04
Devon, what do you think?

Dr Melonie
29:04 - 29:10
But I was curious. Body, mind, spirituality, and self-care were separate in Harvard's thing. They were.

Kara
29:11 - 29:40
So personal care, they call physiological needs and activities of daily living. Body, mind, and spirituality is all around health. And body and daily living aren't? I, I know I, I, I, yeah. And that's why I think, you know, Dr. Melanie, I think you bring up a good point. I think we all have to sort of figure out what those are for us. I like that Harvard graphic is okay. Well, that's, you know, I need to make sure I've got these covered somewhere in the way I think about them, but there are things we all have to think about.

Kara
29:40 - 29:48
It's like brushing your teeth. We all have to do it if you want to keep clean teeth. So, uh, these are the areas we all have to think about.

Greg
29:49 - 29:50
Devin, how about you?

Devin
29:54 - 30:19
I'm with Dr. Melanie. I haven't made a mind map in years, but it was helpful and I wouldn't have stopped and thought about my word and built it out like that. So yeah, this was a great opportunity to just sit still and pick up a pen and paper and think about something that's important to me for a few

Greg
30:20 - 30:24
minutes. Absolutely. The pen and the paper really helped me. Shadows?

Shadows Pub
30:26 - 30:46
Well, ironically enough, I don't do a word of the year or phrase of the year, but it was interesting listening and I did try to apply it to a word like, you know, echo and played with that a little bit. So it was interesting. And I've got to check out that book of Gretchen's.

Greg
30:48 - 30:53
Right. And it's really cool. These are going to be in the show notes. Alessandra. Wow. Just, just wow. Right.

Alessandra
30:54 - 31:44
When I've done, I do like using mind maps when I'm, when I'm stuck and I'm feeling so unidirectional, like I keep diverging and diverging and diverging. Sometimes the thing to do is just think back to the core and a mind map can be really useful for my brain, um, in, in processing something. But what I, found in doing this along with Kara's beautiful velvety radio voice is that instead of having like a word in the middle and all the legs off of it, I started doodling over it and the doodle looks like a cloud and then another baby cloud and another baby cloud and another baby cloud going all around it.

Alessandra
31:44 - 32:04
So instead of a circle with sticks, like I've always done, it's like, I've got this like very curvilinear, softer, more ethereal image to work with that structurally is the same, but it's not so hard.

Shadows Pub
32:05 - 32:07
Sounds like you're cushioning yourself into your year.

Dr Melonie
32:08 - 32:18
You know what it sounds like? It's going along with your synchronicity word. Oh, yeah. You know, the synchronicity isn't quite so linear that way.

Alessandra
32:20 - 33:05
Yeah, just a little softer, a little lighter, right? And it was lost on me until Dr. Melanie said that just then that, oh, synchronous. Well, that has a hell of a lot to do with music, doesn't it? Oh, that's so good. Yeah. So Kara, we love you for bringing us this really wonderful gift and mostly to spend time with you. And we appreciate your bringing us together to do something fun together that, you know, we don't have family or friends that would sit down and do this, even if we paid them but that's why we have each other.

Alessandra
33:05 - 33:06
So thank you for bringing

Kara
33:07 - 33:11
us together to do this. My pleasure. Thank you. I love doing stuff like this.

Greg
33:14 - 33:36
Well it's happened again you've wasted another few perfectly good minutes listening to the creative work hour podcast when you could have been doing something else. Actually today wasn't a waste, it was absolutely wonderful. So remember to listen through check the show notes and let us know how you're working on your word, how that's coming along and what you thought of the show today. Come back next week as we'll be here.