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Are you curious about why we use the word YIPPEE? Do you want to know about the YIPPEE Index ®?

There is a story.

Many years ago, I was working with a lawyer who specialized in intellectual property protection.  Laurie worked for one of the big music performing rights organizations here in Nashville.  She had been successful, but the internal politics were challenging and frankly she wanted to move on in her career.  But what to do?

She went through an early version of what has become Think Bigger. Act Smarter. Live Richer.  I just called it personal strategic planning.  As we mapped out options for her next steps, she looked at the risks and benefits of each option and how well they fit the criteria she had established.  After all, she was a lawyer and was accustomed to doing rational analyses of situations.  And there is nothing wrong with that!

Still she hesitated, not certain which way to go.  I asked, “Which one makes you want to jump up and shout YIPPEE!?  If you were giving a ranking of one to ten, what would the score be?  That would be the YIPPEE Index ® or YI.”  And so the YIPPEE Index ® was born.

We both smiled as we rated her choices and she was able to choose the best option for her.  As she left my office that day, she said, “You should let me file trademark registration on that name YIPPEE Index ®.”  We laughed and I never did until many years later.

Now when I work with people the YIPPEE Index ® just gives us a shorthand way of saying –  Will this situation make you smile more than frown? Will you feel excited and energized more times than not?  Will it feed you in many ways?  So you can think of it as a tool to rate different situations.

It’s all well and good to say I like this better than that.  It’s valuable to say these are the pro’s and con’s of this situation or opportunity.  But the final test should be ‘How do I (you) FEEL about it?  What does it score on the YIPPEE Index ®?’

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