It's That Time Of Year Again
Focus | Flexible | Fabulous
Back in 2018 I read a post by Chris Brogan who introduced me to the idea of ‘three words’. The idea is to come up with three words that provide your ‘compass’ for the coming year. Once again I have taken an alliterative approach … but that’s just my variation - not the rules.
Focus
However you look at it, the past three years totally derailed me. Not just COVID … although that certainly didn’t help, but a few ‘other things’ as well. Even now, some minor issues still linger … BUT … time to get life back on the tracks. To be fair, I started the process 4 months ago … it’s hard, but ‘FOCUS’ is my route through the minefield (and that is a carefully chosen word) of opportunities and related decisions.
With that in mind, we also know that …
BUT to be specific he really meant …
… which is all well and good - but what IS IT you are actually doing that guides you to what to say ‘No’ to? And at some point you also have to say yes to something. Don’t you?
So yes - I am going to be saying ‘no’ a whole lot more and say ‘yes’ to everything that I deem to make a significant contribution to regaining control of direction in my life.
Flexible
I was originally going with free … but it’s an odd word … and are we really ever ‘free’? (See ‘The Pathetic Dot Theory’ ) and when I really started to think about it, I realized that I meant ‘flexible’.
Opportunities abound, but they aren’t always obvious. Sometimes the opportunity requires taking the road less travelled.
I should know this and yet still it isn’t an automatic response for me. (Is it for anybody?) For me, flexibility is to be more open to the less obvious and part of that is a daily reflection that I have started based on Ryan Holiday’s book ‘The Daily Stoic’. The first entry of the year says it all.
By the way, if you want to follow along … I have an RSS feed for you, or just drop by the site.
Fabulous
How I want to be. How I want to feel. How I hope to infect others. Which, funny as the show Absolutely Fabulous was I mean to be more ‘celebrated in fable’ as the dictionaries have it …
This is my 5th ‘3 words’ year
2022 : Clear | Closer | Choice
2021 : Transform | Transition | Transcend
2020 : Believe | Move | Ascend
2019 : Uncertain | Less | Different
The 2021 Story
I offer this as a case study of the power of three words …
My three words for 2021 were chosen about two weeks before I was diagnosed with cancer. They served me well that year, even becoming an integral part of my book that I published later in the year.
The 3T method guides you through three steps to
Transform yourself to
Transition your business to
Transcend your market
by unpacking and unleashing your goals, ambitions, objectives and barriers to your success.
Turns out that the thinking highlighted an approach to fighting cancer to such a degree that I have explored producing a version 2 of the book focussed entirely on cancer (though not yet taken the idea further).
All good. So, how can YOU prepare for 2023? The ‘three words’ provide your north star for the year - but …
“If you don’t know where you are going - any road will do.”
Lewis Caroll
So before those three words emerge you do have to have a good idea as to where you are headed.
More revenue? More profit? More time? Less hassle? Only you can answer the question.
To Get Started
If you are reading this, my guess is that you want 2023 to be an improvement on 2022.
Step 1: Write down;
what went right? what went wrong?
what could I have done differently? What was beyond my control?
where you want to be on December 31st, 2023
Step 2: Draw a roadmap of how to get there.
break it down into 4 macro steps that if taken would allow you to achieve your goal
break each macro step into 10 micro steps
There’s your plan
Each step has to be ‘SMART’. (Not an original thought but it works. Click through for ideas as to how this might work for you.)
Specific - No waffle allowed.
Measurable - If it isn’t how do you know you achieved it.
Attainable - Realistic.
Relevant - How does it contribute to the overall goal?
Time Bound - Each step maps to one week, what can you do in one week that will move the ball down the filed?
If you miss a week - it’s ok - that’s why each step of 4 is broken into 10 steps - NOT 13 … we are all human.
And finally, to channel Eisenhower ..
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
In other words, your plan is not absolute, it can change. It likely will change. And that is OK.
If you need more help … you know where to find me - and have no hesitation in reaching out.
