A colleague reached out to me to see if I wanted to do Chris Brogan’s My 3 Words for the New Year with her. I love the clarity and simplicity of the exercise (and Chris), so I immediately said yes. #My3Words

What is My 3 Words? Here’s what Brogan says:

The My Three Words idea is simple. Choose 3 words (not 1, not 4) that will help guide your choices and actions day to day. Think of them as lighthouses. “Should I say yes to this project?” “Well, does this align with my three words?”

I have a lot of plates in the air this year. My company had its best year to date last year, and going into 2022 I have clients who are committed to getting job offers in the first quarter.

I am also investing in marketing and building a bigger platform to support the launch of my upcoming book, This Isn’t Working! Evolving the Way We Work to Decrease Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, which will be released in Q2 2022. (www.thisisntworkingbook.com)

The words I chose, however, don’t obviously tie back to these two things. I know that to stay in the right mindset and commit to the long, slow slog, I need to have some good habits and practices that will keep me in the right headspace and (hopefully) a state of flow. If I feel ease and lightness, I will be able to do what I need to do. If things feel too heavy, I will procrastinate – or not do them at all.

Ease and lightness are kind of squishy metrics and hard to use for navigation, so I went with Creative, Inspired, and Focused. This is why I chose these particular words:

Creative

I will need to get creative with everything I do this year. I will need to try different things on social media. I will need to guest post on larger sites to grow my audience. I will need to do more video. I will need to start doing “lives” on Facebook. I will get better results, and actually do this stuff, if I make it fun and tap into my creative thinking.

Inspired

My marketing plan makes me dizzy looking at it, to be honest. I actually reached out for help with some visual content for social media. That’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to go down. Collaborating with someone else and getting some fresh ideas will keep me inspired, and hopefully generate some leads.

Focused

I will need to keep my eyes on the prize reaching out to thought leaders and podcast hosts for my book launch. This will be a little scary and very tedious. I don’t have a budget to hire someone to do this for me. Ditto for hiring a PR person. I will need to stay focused and not get drawn into something fun and shiny – like TikTok.

As you can see, I added some creativity into the process by drawing my words. They are in a place where I see them as I am working. I feel like I have my North Star, and I feel a little lighter when I look at them.

Do you do this? What are your three words for this year?