“Three words to guide your actions to match your goals for the coming year.” ~ Chris Brogan
¡Feliz año nuevo!
I hope you’ve emerged from the holiday season healthy, refreshed, and excited about new opportunities ahead.
While I hope you had a successful 2023, and we know that dramatic change doesn’t happen on January 1st, I think most of us are glad to metaphorically turn the page to a fresh year; focus on the future; and plan new accomplishments.
Three Words
For the last ten years, one way I’ve looked forward is to choose three words to guide me through the coming year. I started this after reading Chris Brogan’s blog. Since 2006, Chris has encouraged people to choose three words to frame their goals and intentions for the year.
In 2023, my three words were: inspire, integrate, and transform. They influenced questions that drove my thinking and work throughout the year.
Inspire was about providing an alternative vision of the future that is meaningful and attainable; one not previously considered.
Integrate was about bringing parts into a whole. How do the chapters of a career/life mesh into a story reflecting leadership and wisdom, that creates higher strategic value?
Transform was about how clients’ visions inform their Leadership Narratives and get them to where they want to be? What specific actions need to be taken to get there?
Three Words of Years Past
Here are some of the words I’ve used in the past few years:
2016: Focus, Connect, Launch
2017: Serve, Engage, Partner
2018: Listen, Inspire, Actualize
2019: Stewardship, Pivot, Community
2020: Vision, Clarity, Empower
2021: Trust, Local, CTA
2022: Reframe, Algorithms, Wayfinding
And for 2024…
Choosing my three words for 2024 was interesting. They emerged later in the year than usual. This year’s new three words surfaced just in the past couple of weeks. Interestingly, once the first one popped into mind, the others were right behind.
And again this year, the three words will frame my thinking and my work in 2024 as I plot the course for the coming year.
The theme, for me, this year is the Contrarian Mindset, which is an evolution from the Career Contrarian idea that I’ve been working on in the last quarter of 2023. As I learned more, my thinking has expanded beyond careers into more of a mindset to be different, to seperate from the herd; to focus on individual strengths.
My three words for 2024 reflect how I intend to work within this theme. So, without further ado…
Conversations: I want to have interviews and discussions with people who reflect a Contrarian Mindset — people who are exploring different approaches in their fields; who are defying conventional wisdom.
The other aspect of conversations is to be a better listener; to be more fully present in the conversations I have with everyone I interact with.
Re-purpose: I’ve written A LOT of stuff over the past few years — newsletter content, workbooks, blogs; and there’s some pretty good stuff there, if I say so myself. This content has just been lying fallow and deserves broader exposure. I intend to re-purpose the content that’s relevant to the Contrarian Mindset theme. After all, this theme didn’t just spring from whole cloth. It’s been the evolution of thinking and work with clients and colleagues over the past few years. (Hat tip to Kate C. for planting this seed for me.)
Finish: OK, I’ll admit it: I tend to have “completion issues.” This, most likely, stems from a bit of imposter syndrome. I’ve had a lot of plans to move projects forward that just haven’t materialized. Finish is a reminder to follow through; to get sh*t done.
Whether you’re a client or a collaborator, I look forward to continuing to do great work together. If you’re a friend, thanks for your support, it means a lot to me. I hope to continue to build on our relationship in 2024.
And You?
Can you see the value of using three words to frame your goals and actions for 2024? If so, what three words can you come up with?
Send me an email at scott@scottwoodardcoaching.com; I want to hear what you’ve got to say.
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If you’re struggling with how to achieve your career goals let’s chat about how I can help. You can use this link to my calendar to schedule the best time to talk.
Image copyright: arfo