I don’t choose a ‘word’ for the year.

But if I did, I know what this year’s word WOULDN’T be.

Potential.

Were you expecting something else?

There’s nothing wrong with the word. It’s just a little…. Abstract?

“Limitless potential”

A big pie in the sky idea that can’t be defined. Impossible to chase or achieve or even know if you’re getting any closer. So how could we ever actually succeed at tapping into this so-called grand potential?

Future Hall of Fame football coach, Nick Saban, decided that he couldn’t afford to have a room full of the top athletes in country shooting blindly towards the stars.

I dry heave on a fast walk to the mailbox but I also cannot afford that.

So he introduced his locker room (and us, thankfully) to the concept of the Capability Gap.

"We oftentimes talk about what someone's potential is, but I think to put it in better terms...the Capability Gap is what you're capable of relative to what you're doing...if you understand the truth about that, you can actually take information that can help you close that gap."

He took a complex and abstract idea and made it simple and attainable.

Not a shapeless star out in space, but two points and a gap that you can actively close.

But before you can start closing it, you have to know where you’re starting and where you’re headed. We need Point A and Point B to be accurate.

One thing about the girls, is that we’re gonna over or under estimate. Either what we are doing, or what we could be doing. Maybe both. I love us for it. It requires us to depend on other people.

Just as Nick Saban intended… Mentors, coaches, friends, and family members who help you see the truth about your full capability and keep you honest on your current level of delivery are everything.

Do you have people in your life who help you think bigger about what you're capable of?

Would you listen if a trusted source (not your mother in law) told you that your current level of delivery is LACKING?

If not, I hope you’ll consider it. It’s the only way to truly get better.

So, no, we don’t have a word for 2024, but what we do have is an action plan.

Let this be the year that we make connections with trusted mentors and peers. Let’s start asking to be lovingly roasted by the people that we trust so we can close our own Capability Gap.

Out: Potential

In: The Capability Gap

Xo, The Salesgirls