The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 329 - 2025

Transcript:

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: Hello, Jen.

Jen: And happy new year!

Pete: Oh, happy new year! I saw a meme this morning or a gif this morning or a thing this morning that said, "You're not allowed to say happy new year past January 7th," and it's currently January 7th for you. So, I think we just snuck in the deadline.

Jen: Yes, we are recording this on January 7th. And the reason we're recording it on January 7th, and why we couldn't have recorded it earlier, is that you and I both have done a review of our 2024 and made some choices about things we want to focus on in 2025. So, this is our annual episode where we talk about where we are going to be putting our focus, our energy, our priorities in the coming year.

Pete: Damn straight. And as always, I can't wait to hear the catchy catchphrase that you've come up with, as you tend to every time we do this episode. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Pete: Catchy catchphrase...feels like too many catches. Catchy, the catchphrase.

Jen: I like it. Catchy catchphrase.

Pete: So, where do we begin? Have you...okay, if I recall correctly, part of your process is almost public, in that you do it with others while running a workshop on setting your year up for success. Is this right?

Jen: It is public. That is exactly right.

Pete: This is great. This is so Jen Waldman.

Jen: Every year now, and I've been doing this...I don't even remember how many years now. But it's become this annual tradition, and there are some people who come every single year, like this is a very important way that they start their year. So, I run this workshop. It's called Name It To Claim It. And the purpose of the workshop is to exit with a shitty first draft of a values-driven action statement, that can guide you in the new year to make decisions, set goals, etc., but it has meaning and allows you to live in integrity with your values.

Pete: Nice. So good. Like a compass, or a filter, or a catchy catchphrase, as it were.

Jen: Or a catchy catchphrase. And I do this every year, and I always use basically the same process, which I'm happy to do just like a quick overview of. But what was really fascinating, Pete, is that this year, I exited with my catchy catchphrase being very different from previous years' phrases.

Pete: Oh my gosh.

Jen: So, maybe I should...it's not going to be like the heavens part and the angels sing, it's like not that big a revelation. But maybe I will hold off on sharing what it is until I've shared a bit about the process. How's that sound?

Pete: Totally fair.

Jen: So basically, I break the workshop down into reflecting on 2024…

Pete: Mmm-hmm.

Jen: ...projecting to 2025…

Pete: Nice.

Jen: ...and then taking what you learn about yourself, your challenges, your aims, etc., and activating that knowledge as a single values-based action statement.

Pete: That's so good. Because I have a tendency (I know others that also have this tendency) to come up with this exhaustive list of things to do.

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: Which, I maybe did some version of that again this year. And to have it distilled into a catchphrase...I don't know why I keep saying "catchphrase"...a statement.

Jen: I love it.

Pete: I find like, you know, you could put it on a sticky note and have that on your laptop for the year. You could be recounting it every time an opportunity pops up and you're like, "Hmm, is this in alignment with ...?" Like I just, it feels practical and easily actionable, rather than vague. You know? "Go to the gym more," or, "Get fit," you know, like those kinds of stereotypical resolutions. This feels more like a, like you said, values-driven way to align yourself to where you want to go. I love it.

Jen: Well, and what's great about it is I also run a goal-setting workshop, which I ran yesterday. But we do the Name It To Claim It first, to establish the values and the priorities. And then, we name goals that we can fact check, whether or not our goals are in alignment with the things we said we wanted to prioritize.

Pete: Yeah, nice. Nice. Love it.

Jen: Also, what's really fun is after we have like gotten all this data and we're ready to now start pulling the thematic content that is true across all the different data points and try to distill it into a single sentence, because most of the people in the room are artists, we get a little artsy-fartsy, and I get them up on their feet, and they're like basically doing interpretive dances and making these abstract sounds in an effort to try to get the feeling of what will eventually become the sentence out. And it's so fun from where I sit because, you know, artists typically work camera on in Zoom.

Pete: Right.

Jen: So if anyone listening is in a corporate environment, you're like used to people working camera off. No, these people are camera on. So I'm watching them like dance around their apartments, like do all these like crazy things with their bodies, but trying to embody and physicalize and vocalize the thought that they're having really helps them get to what they're trying to eventually put into words. It's so cool.

Pete: That is so cool. Yeah, I feel like this is the exact opposite of most Zooms that I get to facilitate, where everyone is very still and cerebral. I love it.

Jen: No, these people are going for it. So I'm happy to answer any questions about the actual process, but I'll tell you that what was new for me this year is upon doing my reflection and projection, I realized I had lots of things but they could all basically like be boiled down in to three major life areas.

Pete: Okay.

Jen: And so, when I started building the catchphrase, the catchy catchphrase for the year...

Pete: Catchy catchphrase.

Jen: ...this image kept coming to my mind, of like the roots of a tree or like the architectural structure of a building, like things that represent support systems.

Pete: Hmm, like foundations.

Jen: Yeah, like foundations. But they're like, the word "system" kept coming up for me. The word "support" kept coming up for me. And when I was dancing around my own room and making strange sounds, I found myself like raising my arms up with lots of tension and like having a sound that was really guttural, like it was just like from the earth it rises.

Pete: Yes.

Jen: And when I was trying to put words to it, I just kept coming back to "build" because this construction site kept coming to mind, and "support". So I went, "Build the support. Build the support system. Build the...I don't know." And then, I started cycling through these thematic words, and I realized that I wanted to leave a fill-in-the-blank in my catchy catchphrase.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: So this year's catchy catchphrase is so simple, it's, "Build the support," but it is, "Build the ___ support."

Pete: Okay.

Jen: So with each of the decisions that I'm making, I am rotating my thematic words in there to make sure that I'm accounting for the priorities I have set for myself this year. For example, one of the things that kept coming up is being able to support my family, whether that means emotionally, financially, from a life and adventure perspective. So as I'm making decisions, I'm thinking, "Build the ___ support," but I'm inserting the word "family" or "familial". "Build the family support." So does this decision that I'm weighing, if I decide in that direction, does it build the family support? If I decide in the other direction, does it build the family support? And so, there are a couple other words that are cycling through there, but it's the first time I've landed intentionally on a sentence that has a fill-in-the-blank.

Pete: Ooh, I like this. A fill-in-the-blank, yeah. I could imagine, you know, when you're thinking about your business, like what does the business support look like? What is the...yeah, okay. That's good. The podcast support. What does support look like for these various contexts? I love this. This is good. Leveraging the blank, the ol' fill-in-the-blank.

Jen: Yeah, I've really enjoyed it. And you know I'm a sucker for words, so going down the rabbit hole of what are all of the definitions of the word "support", there are so many. So, I love it. Even though it's so simple and the words aren't necessarily sexy, it has already helped me, just in the last couple days since I landed on this, make some very specific decisions for my family and for my business, to your point, that could potentially have quite a positive long-term impact. So, yay for that.

Pete: Love this. One of the things I like most about your process, and your approach, and the way that you step it through with others is it's so contextual to the individual, not just compared to other individuals but also compared to where you're at this time in your life, compared to maybe last year or the year before, or whatever. And so, like you said, it doesn't seem sexy, which I think is a really great reflection. Because I think sometimes there's this temptation with the new years resolution or with a review of the past year to be like, "I have to have this groundbreaking, super sexy insight that is just going to inspire me from the second I get my eyes open in the morning." And what I actually think is more true is, "What's the real, tangible, contextual thing that you need based on where you're at in the moment?" Which, I think is what you've come up with and what your process is so good at describing.

Jen: Mmm. Thanks.

Pete: It's so individual. Because I could have the same words or the same catchy catchphrase, and it would mean a totally different thing to me.

Jen: That is right. And listeners, I run this thing every year, so set a reminder in your calendar now to check in with Jen in December for what the date is going to be for the 2026 Name It To Claim It.

Pete: Yeah, do it. I have been lobbying for Jen to make it not at 2am Australian time, so if anyone out there wants to help me...

Jen: But I record it, and there are a lot of people who watch it after the fact.

Pete: It's true. And I have threatened to watch the recording, which I will do.

Jen: What about you, Pete? How was your process the same or different this year?

Pete: I mean, I feel like I've been laughing and smiling to myself as you're sharing because I've just, I know you and I've met so many of your incredible community, and I can just picture you all on Zoom, doing this beautiful, artistic, interpretive, emotionally available process. And then, I just picture me and my little notepad, just with like a little spreadsheet. It's so rational and boring and not artistic. And so, I'm just like laughing about that, yeah. So my process, I guess...it's so funny to call it that. My process is the same, with some new tools that I leveraged, so long-time listeners would probably be sick of me saying because they probably listen to this episode every year. But my process is the same, in the sense that I do like you do. I look back on the year. I look through my photos, my calendar, and my gratitude journal, and go, "What were the things that stood out, that sort of had disproportionate positive impact on my year, i.e., why is there seventeen thousand photos of Ollie and Tracey in my camera?" Okay, that was pretty obvious. And then, the flip side, "What are the experiences, the events, the things that I remember that had a disproportionately negative impact on my year?" So, kind of like a highlights, lowlights thing. And then, I essentially, based on that, I just kind of go, "How would I do more of the good stuff? And how do I do less of the less good stuff?" And then, "Are there any new rules that I want to incorporate?" And then, "What's a catchy catchphrase that maybe could articulate all of that?" So, that's the high-level process. The thing I did this year which was really cool, it sped it up so much, was I did my initial like brain dump of what went well and what went less well last year, I put it into ChatGPT and I said, "What are some trends that you notice in this list?" And rather than me doing this manually, within three seconds, it had a list of the trends that it spotted.

Jen: Ooh.

Pete: And none of them were surprising. But it was really cool to see a machine come up with the things that I value in a second.

Jen: Mmm.

Pete: Which was actually just affirming for what I want to do next year, rather than, "Oh, there's a big blind spot that I had. I didn't realize I enjoyed spending so much time with Ollie." Like, obviously that wasn't a blind spot. But it was cool to see it reflected back. So the things that stood out were, you know, time in nature, doing great work, getting to travel, having experiences with Tracey and Ollie, going to the beach. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but fun to see it reflected back. And then, I thought, "Well, usually based on this, I say, 'What do I want to do more of and less of next year? How do I put that in the calendar?'" I just said to ChatGPT, "If you had to make a list of things to do more of and things to do less of next year, based on that reflection, what would it be?" And it came up with some pretty good ideas. Now, I didn't use them verbatim. But again, it was reassuring to go, "This unemotional machine processed the data that I gave it and came up with conclusions that I, as the person who has a vested interest in this analysis, would also be comfortable with." So I have, you know, a great list of things to spend more time on and a great list of things to spend less time on. They are unsurprising, I think, for most people that would know me. And then, I was like, "Okay, so what's new? What's coming in?" Because having done this process so many years in a row, what I begin to realize is it's kind of like, "Yes, and...," every year. It's not, "Throw everything out that you've ever done and build a new system." It's actually, "Yes, all of that good stuff that you did, and here's a couple of new things you could do."

Jen: Mmm-hmm.

Pete: So my new rules are things like, I'm going to complete a triathlon this year. I'm doing a triathlon this year, Jen, because fitness and sport and being outside and swimming and all these things always come up in my reviews, and I'm like, "Well, what's a version of that that could be fun? To train for a triathlon." So, I'm doing a triathlon with a friend.

Jen: That's amazing.

Pete: That's a fun one. There are some specific work projects and revenue targets that I'm seeking to strive for, because that will enable, hopefully, to your point around familial support, the support that I want to give my family and our life. So, that's always a fun one to come up with. I am trying to set a goal on how many days that I'm taking off, because that's important to me, to have time off. So all these like mores and lesses sort of laddered into, "Here are a couple new rules." That's my focus. Based on, remember Shane Parrish's book, Clear Thinking, that we referenced? And he talks about having rules. So I'm kind of like, "What are the rules?"

Jen: Mmm.

Pete: Now, my catchy catchphrase...I realize I'm talking a lot, and I'm open to any questions. But my catchy catchphrase that I came up with is, again, not groundbreaking, but so specific to me and where I'm at, and it is, "Always add value." That's it. A.A.V - Always Add Value. Things I realized, in looking at negative experiences and positive experiences, was when they were negative, it was usually because, for whatever reason, I didn't feel like I was adding value or value wasn't being created, and so it just felt like a bit of a meh or a bleh. And the times where I really felt inspired and excited, and where work projects went really well, or conversations were really inspiring, was like, "Oh, like, there was mutual exchange of value." So, I don't want to show up in a way that isn't adding any value to anyone's life. This year, I want to show up and always add value.

Jen: Mmm. Oh my gosh. And you know, as a sucker for words, I'm going to tell you, go to that visualthesaurus.com and type in the word "value", Pete. There are going to be so many great ways to play that word.

Pete: Yeah. Because even, I mean, to your point around changing the context, of like, "How do you add value in the training that you're doing for this triathlon that I'm seeking to do?" It's not just, "Add value with your clients." It's like, I'm trying to think about it when I'm having a conversation with Tracey at the end of the busy work week, and we're like lamenting how we did and didn't do things. Well, "How do I add value to that conversation, rather than just being like, 'Well, that was a crap week.'" You know?

Jen: Mmm-hmm.

Pete: So, I'm thinking about that a lot. I guess it's trying to maintain some sort of positive frame of mind.

Jen: I love that. I have a total nitpicky detail question.

Pete: Please.

Jen: When you prompted ChatGPT (maybe you were quoting yourself directly, maybe you weren't), you used the phrase, "If you had to." "If you had to create a list, what would be on it?" Is there a reason you used that phrase in the prompt? Like, does it work better if you allow it to be conditional like that?

Pete: That's such a great question. I don't actually know if it was intentional, but I'm reflecting that I do it a lot. Like, "What might it look like if you came up with a list of ten ideas?" I do that a lot. I often give it a non-definitive task. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm scared for it to commit, or I'm scared to commit, or maybe it's because I want it to think about possibilities that we don't have to commit to just yet. And maybe, for some reason, I tell myself that's going to produce interesting results. I don't know. It's definitely not deliberate.

Jen: Okay. Because I also do things like that, where I will use "might". I'll add "might" to a prompt, to attempt to prompt more possibility thinking.

Pete: I feel like it's the coach in us. I feel like it's because that's what we do with humans.

Jen: Yeah. Oh, okay. Interesting.

Pete: That's what we do with humans. We don't want to tell them what to do. And so, we're like, "What might you do?"

Jen: Yeah. Okay, that is funny. Anyway, that was a sidetrack, but I was just very curious.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: So Pete, in the year 2025, you are going to A.A.V (always add value), and I'm going to build the fill-in-the-blank support. And I will really look forward to hearing, at the end of the year, how we did.

Pete: Me too. And listeners, if you want to keep us accountable, send us an email at any point this year: hello@thelongandtheshortpodcast.com. We love hearing from you. Maybe you could send us what your words and catchy catchphrases are.For now, happy new year and happy 2025.

Jen: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.