Written by: Patience Ogunbona, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Perhaps you are one of those people who don’t like December and January because Goal setting anxiety and fatigue sets in. Many know everywhere on the online space there will be reminders to set goals and follow through with them. You can’t escape it.
In the corporate space, annual end of year performance reviews kicks in and staff are required to work with their managers to come up with goals for the year and ensure that they are aligned to the overall company goals.
As a strategist and visionary, I love goal setting. I don't need to be reminded to write down my goals and make them SMART.
However, over the years I found out that being a great goal-setter never translated to being a great goal getter or achiever.
That was how I adopted the Keyword Method which then gave me a way to create tactics and actions where I could see the change and growth in me and increase my capacity to be, do and have more.
The keyword method is adapted and used by my clients as part of my Aligned Business Blueprint™ Coaching Programme
What is Keyword Method
Keyword method is a memory technique or mnemonic which generally uses visualisation. For instance, a student has to memorise the vocabulary “jaundice” which is mainly characterised by “yellowish skin”. He realizes that "Jaundice" sounds like “juice” which he closely associated with “orange or mango juice” (Source: www.alleydog.com)
8 years ago, I hit a wall. I was feeling low and desperate about my life. I was turning 40, despite setting goals every year I had no life plan. Things didn’t seem to be going in the right direction, for me that direction was upwards, but I had no clue how upwards would look.
During this time my mum who I considered to be my superhero was gravely ill and I saw her struggle to keep going and being the high achiever that she was, with a lot to show for her hard work, life, and career, she created a legacy. I took one good look at my own life and felt like I had very few personal achievements that lit me up. I needed fulfillment in life, the clock was ticking, and it was time to start making my life count.
They say prayer is you talking to God and Intuition is God talking back to you, so I stepped up and prayed my heart out and answers came.
“I needed to stop looking back in regret and start looking forward”. Whatever I was in the past did not matter, I could rewrite my own story and I could make myself what I wanted to be.
The idea came to me that if I found a keyword or phrase to anchor my life and actions on, it would drive me forward.
Whilst all this while, goal setting had given me some good results, I wanted great results. SMART goals required me to be realistic, this seemed to be keeping me at a certain comfort level even though I thought I was stretching myself enough.
As a child I had what you call “photographic memory”. This means when I read books, I imagine the context of the writing and memorise it. This technique got me out of tight corners when I struggled with writing exams. I would memorise my study book and go into the exams and reproduce it. This worked well for me to get some great A and B scores.
This makes the Keyword Method very appealing. You can anchor what you want to create in your life or the person you want to become on a keyword that you have chosen and you can visualise the end results of your actions. You are also able to find tools that will help you progress towards the reality of your chosen keyword.
How The Keyword Method Works
Each year-end, you evaluate what you have achieved, how far you have grown and the desires and vision you have for the next level of growth. This review gives you an idea of what direction you want to go next, that would stretch you. Through visualisation and review, you are then able to come up with a word or phrase for the new year. From this space, you can then set goals to align to your keyword in all areas of your life.
As an introvert who works with other introverts, I know for certain that introspection is a great introvert superpower that can be used effectively with a keyword method to discover how to grow yourself and accomplish goals.
Here are some of the Keywords and phrases I came up with over the years -
Moving forward
Transformation
Focus
Connection
Trust
Courage.
Advantages of the Keyword Method
It is about who you become: Traditional Goals Setting tends to have a performance focus rather than a change focus. With the Keyword Method, you can build a desired change, behavior, mindset shift into your goals. Although we don’t always know it, our dreams are more about who we become, not just what we have. Goals are set on what you can do, keywords focus you on who you can be.
Daily growth rather than destination measurement: This allows you to stay present and in each moment. You can build desired growth and capability measures into your goals so that whether or not you get to your desired goal destination, it will still be worth celebrating how far you have grown.
Ability to Hold Onto The Image Of Your Higher Self: Words have power to evoke emotions and can create a spiritual awakening. According to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. Keywords can be used within affirmations which are repeated daily to awaken within you the fire to succeed and help rewire the brain. If you can continue to visualise who you want to be, “who you see you can become”. For example, in 2021, my Keyword was TRUST. I wanted to become a more trusting and trustworthy person, and I believe I am more and more each day, seeing evidence of integrity and authenticity in my life. These are by products that can even become keywords someday too or be a sub-keyword of the month to focus on.
You can build challenges around a Keyword: Challenges help you focus and accomplish goals. I have formed the habit of building challenges or creating journeys and experiences based on my keywords. From a business point of view, it provides focus, it builds traction, it allows you to create themed marketing content, engage and involve your audience and build stories of your experiences which can be used in writing books and signature talks.
Organisations Can Use It to Get Employees to Understand their Values: Company values can be turned into annual keywords and activities built around it through roundtable conversations. As a Roundtable Facilitator, I help groups and organisations find common ground by exploring their values together and devising individual action plans to embody it. Ultimately this bounding exercise creates great team dynamics too.
Closing (Conclusion or Last thoughts)
In my experience, the keywords method is very potent in bringing about focus and change and can be used to create connection and common goals.
Call-to-Action
Why not try doing my Keyword Challenge for the Year - Titled: 8 Day Courage Journey. To Find out more or to take the challenge and do it in your own time, see the video with details Here
Patience Ogunbona, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Patience Ogunbona (aka The Visionary Introverted Woman) is a Business Strategist and Transformational Coach. Patience believes that Introversion gives her purpose. Alongside her passion for leadership, corporate training and speaking, she has leveraged her introverted strengths to thrive and stand out in an extroverted world. Her signature programme, The Aligned Business Blueprint (ABB) is designed to help Ambitious, Highly Skilled, Driven and Empathic Introverted Female Entrepreneurs to create an aligned and authentic business that achieves Presence and Positions them as an authority in their marketplace so they can generate consistent leads, clients and Profit.
