What if one word could transform your year? Unlock your potential in 2025 with the power of a single word! This week on the Performance Intelligence Podcast, Kamal Sarma, a monk turned venture capitalist and 20-year Word of the Year veteran, shares his profound experience with this transformative practice.
"One year my word was FUN and I actually got a Fun Coach who was my son at the time...he showed me that anything can be fun..." In this episode, Andrew and Kamal discuss:
2:45 Where the idea of a word for the year came from, the difference between a virtue and a value and Kamal’s backstory.
7:20 When Kamal started doing the word of the year, how Kamal researched his word for the year and how he gets into a state to choose his word.
12:20 Kamal’s word of the year for 2025, dealing with some of the heavy topics Kamal has involved himself in and using the word bliscipline in a previous year.
16:15 Finding your breakpoint when working too hard, finding the true meaning of the word "joy" and we get indoctrinated into seeing separateness.
21:20 Finding a theme song for each year, Andrew’s lawn mower story and the pendulum between focus and awareness.
26:05 Andrew’s 2 words of the year, the virtue Andrew wants to build in himself and giving your best to the people who will be at your funeral.
30:30 Andrew’s 3 key questions for pre-performance routines, how Kamal learned acceptance after his daughter passed away and society's obsession with distracting you.
35:20 How Kamal uses his word of the year as a mantra, the importance of finding a quote that encapsulates the word and how Kamal measures (or doesn’t) the success of the word of the year.
39:55 How Kamal found the meaning of the word “enough” one year, being grateful for everything he has, and having success on your own terms, not on others.
44:55 Kamal’s truthtellers and mentors that make up his personal board, using your word of the year as a mantra and Kamal’s advice on how to create your own word of the year.
Looking to streamline your financial goals? Connect with Zack Raad at Fruition Financial.
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What is Performance Intelligence Podcast?
A podcast about all things human performance.
Listen in as Andrew May explores the latest in human performance with an all-star cast of subject matter experts covering physical and psychological wellbeing, performance psychology, sport, business, entertainment, the performing arts, leadership, and science.
Learn valuable lessons that can be applied to optimising performance in your personal and professional life. Performance Intelligence applies to the way we turn up in relationships and the way we turn up at work, it applies to the way we perform in front of 10,000 people and the way we perform in front of one.
Episodes include 3 main categories:
1. High Performer Series - exploring the habits, tactics and strategies that have led to success for some of the world’s leading performers…
2. The Science Of - drilling down deep into the science of a specific performance-related construct, with leading domain experts…
3. Performer Spotlight – an interview with a coaching client, an athlete, or a leader of a large team Andrew has worked with and how they have applied Performance Intelligence…