Here We Are Again, BUT
Are we ‘Happy As Can Be’?
It’s the 1st of February - and I am here to welcome you to the new year. Heh - I’m only a month late. Give me a break! 
I started writing this newsletter from ‘Inconsistent.Fishy.Result’ - which is a What3Words address that turns out was remarkably accurate, since it is clear even to the causal observer that my 2023 contribution to the world of newsletters was - to say the least;
always inconsistent
so rare that whatever did emerge you might have thought ;’fishy’
but I did get some results.
Apologies to all. It’s 2024 - I will get better. Read on to see why.
What Three Words
.. is an annual tradition for my first newsletter of the year. This year is no exception. Essentially, I choose three words that serve as my guiding ‘Northstar’ for the coming 12 months, 52 weeks and 365 or 6 days.
Spoiler alert - John Lennon once said “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Not just plans it would seem. Just three simple words can be totally upended, sometimes in days.Back to the plot. My three words for 2024 … Transform | Transition | Transcend
This is my 6th ‘3 words’ year, previously using …
2023 : Focus | Flexible Fabulous
2022 : Clear | Closer | Choice
2021 : Transform | Transition | Transcend
2020 : Believe | Move | Ascend
2019 : Uncertain | Less | Different
… and the more observant amongst you will recognize that this years words aren’t exactly new. Let me explain.
TL;DR
What follows is that explanation. It’s a little more personal than my usual fayre - which might inspire some of you to read on, whilst others not. Just wanted to warn you.The logic behind my choices over the years - and what happened.
2019 : Uncertain | Less | Different
Uncertain, as I tried to break loose of predictability, seeking to use less and live different. My year ended with a big ‘different’ … a ‘once in a life time trip for 100 days to New Zealand. A country I had never visited.
2020 : Believe | Move | Ascend
I liked that ‘end of year experience’. I wanted more. I wanted to believe that anything was possible, I wanted to move - not necessarily to new places - just change the lenses and filters of how I viewed progress.
And then .. 10 days after that newsletter came out - the word COVID started to be seen in the news. We were still in New Zealand, still on our 100 day exploration. Life went on, but as we were nearing the end of ‘our time’ it became clear that COVID was a problem. We decided to wait it out - whatever ‘it’ was - in New Zealand.
2021 : Transform | Transition | Transcend
2020 in New Zealand had been good. We spent the year in relative normality and networked our way around the country, meeting new people, making new friends and beginning to connect to the world of business, wondering if this could be a place to stay long term.
In short, we liked it. So, with the dawn of 2021 my three words emerged from a book I had published. In my mind - this turning point in life was a perfect time to apply the medicine I prescribe to others … to myself.
Transform, Transition, Transcend was a perfect ‘suite’ for the year.
Shortly after sending that newsletter I was diagnosed with cancer.
2022 : Clear | Closer | Choice
2021 turned out to not be a good year! I have written about it in other places, but thanks to an army of people I got through to the end of the year in a better place than where I had started.
At the beginning of the year, I felt that my 3 words were a call to building a positive new life. In some ways quite prescient, just not in the way expected.
In fact, I found that the book could have been written as a ‘guide to how to get through cancer’. I thought about a rewrite. It’s still on the todo list.
2023 : Focus | Flexible | Fabulous
At the beginning of 2023, I finally felt I was winning the battle. We returned to the US at the beginning of the year (LA, San Francisco and Palm Springs) and then a side trip to Europe … UK, Poland, France and Portugal. Returning back to New Zealand at the end of the year.
2024 : Transform | Transition | Transcend
Which brings us right up to the present.
Over the holidays I came up with the words and January has been a combination of moving - again and planning - more. I knew I had been lax with my newsletter and wanted it to be part of the ‘new me’.
I also felt .. feel in fact … that my story was a lot longer than I had been thinking back in 2022/2023. Even last year I was still not in a good place. ‘Cured’ for sure - but the side effects were taking their toll. They still are in all honesty - but in the big scheme? Really - what do I have to complain about?
That realization came to me as I started to write the newsletter last month and I realized the repetiton of the words and just how ill I had been.
I am better now. A lot better - and understand that 2021’s words were a little early. I was pushing myself too far. Too hard.
Welcome to 2024. Transform | Transition | Transcend - REDUX.
Well there are a few possibilities! Do as many as you feel like. 😎
See you soon. Very soon.
Lovely read and pleased you are writing again