My Three Words for 2018

Happy New Year! So how are you starting this bright, shiny new year? Are you making resolutions? If so, please have a plan for how you are going to follow through on them. I spend a lot of time helping people build learner engagement and one of the first steps we go through is figuring out what the goals really are. I want my learners to be more engaged. Nope. Too vague. What does that even mean? I digress a bit because this post is really about My Three Words. I have borrowed (stolen?) this practice from Chris Brogan who has been using this idea, instead of resolutions for more than a decade. I don’t like to reinvent the wheel so when I see someone with a system that is working, I am willing to check it out and see if it is a fit for me.

This year my three words became crystal clear to me weeks before the old year had ended. I’m going to take that as a good sign. A sign that I’m on a good path and if I just stick with it, things will go well. My 2017 words worked pretty well for me, but I remember struggling a bit to find them, so maybe that should have tipped me off that maybe they weren’t quite right. Since my 2018 words found me, I’ll be curious to see the results. Now, without further ado … drum roll please … this year’s words are:

Care

This one was a no-brainer on multiple levels. I truly care about helping learning professionals create better experiences for learners. I also have been trying to grow my side business to be more of my main work because I care(take) for my mother part-time. Doing what I love and helping people energizes me and makes me more available to my mother and other loved ones. And finally, care is going to remind me what happens when I neglect my self-care. For those of you who also read my newsletter (hint, there’s a link below if you want to join us), you might recall me talking a bit about how I spent most of 2017 unfreezing my left shoulder. Funny how health gets you to quickly reprioritize your life.

Drive

This one also has multiple meanings. First, I mean it in the sense of progress. As my hometown football team the Saints enter the NFL playoffs, the phrase “keep the drive alive” is in my head. I’ve gotten some traction and momentum going and I need to keep it up. On a second level, I also need to learn to actually drive … yeah, a car. It’s a long story, but I never got my license and … it’s long overdue.

Produce

I have had a bad habit over the years of getting distracted by bright, shiny ideas. I have boxes and folders (real and virtual) full of parts of projects that never quite got rolled out, pieces of ideas that got neglected like a kid’s toys hours after the thrill of opening gifts had passed. So many missed opportunities because the product just wasn’t finished. So this year, more focus on getting things out into the world. Done is better than perfect. You can’t fix what doesn’t exist.

Well, that’s wraps things up for today. If you created three words, or picked one word (I know a lot of people do that) or make resolutions, I’d love to hear about them. Of course, be aware that I do follow up with people, so long before Santa starts his next naughty and nice list, I’ll be checking in to see how you are doing with your new year plans.

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash