It’s that time again – the time of choosing three words that direct where you want to go in the following year.
Last year I chose Explore, Become, Serve. In 2013 I took a new job and moved to a new town. Lots of exploration there. I filed for divorce in order to let go of the past and move towards becoming who I know I can be. My goals of increasing my speaking gigs require that I serve my clients – by providing information they don’t even know they want. I have traveled to Illinois and SE Iowa and gave presentations about using social media for small towns. I’ve also begun the process of working on some projects that will better serve my community in the near future. These were good words for me.
At the time I wrote them I had no clue I’d be changing jobs and moving to a new town. This job is all I could dream of doing – and I love it. I’m the Director of the Chamber of Commerce and am ideally suited for the position. I’m learning to better serve my community as well. Becoming – I think we are always becoming. This year I’ve started working with a personal trainer too, towards my goal of better health.
So … now what? What is next? What is in store for 2014? I love using Chris Brogan’s three words concept and will continue to explore what that will be for 2014. 9 Clouds’ Scott Meyer works with one word, and he suggests to build that word into an action plan for the year. It’s a bit of incorporating Chris’ three words into actionable steps. I’m a fan of a good action plan and creating action plans for each quarter of work, and for each half of my personal life. You can sign up and receive the email from 9 Clouds at http://9clouds.com/blog/
Start with categories important to your life. Create specific goals in each category. Map a plan for implementation. Summarize the year based on the sum of these specific goals. Scott says “You take a look at all those specific goals in all of the categories of your life that matter, and you summarize a purpose, outcome and theme for your year.”
Srinivas Rao wrote this post about creating a compass for your 2014 Prophecy. [BlogcastFM] A Compass for Your 2014 Prophecy:
In a nutshell he says to take these steps:
- Write on a post it note: What’s the most important thing you could be doing right now? – and put it where you can see it all the time!
- Write down your ideal life in detail
- Pick one word
- Make of list of everything you are grateful for that has not happened yet
- Do something every day – exercise, write, etc.
- Take a notebook and hand write these questions and then answer them:
- Why don’t I have everything I want?
- What behaviors need to change?
- What’s really meaningful to me?
Srini’s action list will help me to create an overarching theme for 2014. Big picture kind of things. Scott’s action plan takes it another step further, actually taking the big picture and breaking it down into bitesize pieces that I can achieve.
It’s a lot to consider and ponder, what Scott and Srini say to do. But then, isn’t my future worth my time and effort to make it the best possible future it can be?
The most exciting part is the things that happen because I take the time to paint the big picture and take the action steps. Some of these things I can foresee. But the ones you don’t see coming are pretty exciting too!
(Just a hint, I know one of my words is compassion ….. and I’ll have the rest of the 3 words and action plan ready for January 1)
Three words from 2013:
https://needalittleadvice.com/3-words-explore-become-serve/