At the start of each year, I follow Chris Brogan’s My 3 Words exercise.
Instead of making New Year’s resolutions that are doomed to fail, you pick three words to define what you want to do and be in the upcoming year.
The goal is to choose themes that cover every aspect of your personal and professional life. These words are filters for every choice you’ll have to make throughout the year.
I’ve found that the concept of three words allows me to think in more dimensions about what I want to do with my life and it lets me apply lots of tangible goals instead of what most people do when they focus on just a finite task.
Chris Brogan
If you want to give this a shot yourself, define what success means to you for the upcoming year, then pick three words to guide how you’ll respond to every challenge and opportunity.
When you need to decide, stop and ask “How does this fit in my 3 words for the year?”
I’ve been doing this as an exercise for a while now. Here are some of the words I’ve picked over the years:
2013: Growth, Responsive, Create
2014: Flourish, Traction, Metrics
2015: Voice, Starter, Journeyman
2016: Producer, Cultivate, Flow
2017: Ask, Rhythm, Breath
2018: Push, Elevate, Distill
2019: Vanward, Machine, Creative
2020: Elder, Range, Drive
2021: Stack, Value, Dare
2022: Flex, Soar, Stream
My 3 Words for 2023
Fuel
A few years ago I made my health and fitness a priority in my life. I decided to adopt the Ketogenic Diet as my way of eating. Over a year I lost 40 pounds, found myself able to focus more, and didn’t have the afternoon funk anymore.
A big part of this was looking at the food I put into my body as fuel by making smart, well-thought-out choices.
I chose the word Fuel because I want everything I put effort into to act as fuel to reach my goals. I’ll avoid “junk effort” and busy work, focusing on activities that will push me forward through the year and closer to meeting my goals.
Research
With 25+ years working in tech in one form or another, I’ve learned a lot of things along the way. One weakness of mine has been learning what I need to know in a “just enough” fashion.
This year I selected Research to remind me to do a deep-dive into anything new I learn. It’s important to have a thorough knowledge of a topic, and not just a surface-level understanding.
Reach
Establishing my personal brand is a high priority for me this year. I’ve been slowly shifting away from the majority of my work being WordPress based, and more into Web3 development, branding, and digital marketing.
Part of this goal means establishing myself as an expert in this field and growing a new audience outside of all my friends and followers from the WordPress community.
I chose the word Reach to reflect the need to reach a new audience, and to reach lofty goals this year.