My 3 Words – Three words to guide your actions
Just One Blog Post in the past year.
Over the years, I've been writing and publishing less online, and I've shifted that energy to keep my business running and spending quality time with my family. But yet, I see the value of sharing my 3 words with you here. So I made sure I create at least one blog post in a year.
When I first started blogging, I would create anywhere from 5-15 poorly written blog posts a week. As I understood SEO and the value of informing your audience while not saturating them, I only post when I have something beneficial to share.
Right now, I am looking forward to new projects that were not started in the past year and am optimistic that I can get them going next year.
Three Reasons why I choose Three Words Every Year
Therefore, I wanted to share the three main reasons why I do the 3 Words Exercise every year.
The Importance and how practical it is Choosing 3 Words for the New Year
As I have explained, I started doing this exercise when my good friend Chris Brogan shared how he prepares for the new year.
3 Words to Serve You and Guide You Throughout the Year
There is so much uncertainty in our daily lives that I want to ensure I have some tools to guide my life toward short-term and long-term goals.
I enjoy doing this exercise every year because of how practical the activity is and the results I get by focusing throughout the year on this beneficial exercise.
As I have shared in previous years, I hope that the three words will help us all do the following:
- Guide us throughout the new year.
- Create Simple Habits that Help us do more of what we like and remove what we don't want to do or dislike.
Getting Ready for the New Year 2023
Once again, to prepare for 2023, I choose three words to guide me throughout the new year.
My 3 Words for The New Year 2023
Wander
This year I want to travel and wander a bit more. I usually plan all my trips, and I tend to visit and repeat places my family, and I enjoy.
But I want to wander and visit Europe or another continent for the first time.
I am very proud of how I traveled in 2022. Until April 2022, I had only visited four countries outside the U.S. and 29 states in the U.S.
I went to the Dominican Republic with my parents in 1995. I was sent to Honduras and El Salvador while in the U.S. Army. My fourth country was the Bahamas when I went to Disney’s Private Island, Castaway Cay, with Disney Cruise Line.
In April 2022, I celebrated my 42nd birthday by embarking on a seven-day cruise that allowed me to visit a few places I had always wanted to see. I visited a part of Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and the Bahamas again.
I ended the year by making a few more trips and being able to visit the following islands and countries:
- St. Lucia (has to be my favorite island in the Caribbean)
- Antigua
- Tortola
- St. Thomas
- Aruba
- Bonaire
I have to be proud of making progress regarding seeing a bit more of Mother Earth.
The other wandering I have to do is business related.
Although I get hired to do I.T. Security by clients that have worked with me for over the past 18 years, This past year, I've been focusing on working in these three areas business process improvements, SEO advisory, and developing websites.
One skill I am pretty good at that comes from always wanting the most precise data to make decisions. That is managing and tailoring data to fit the needs of any business.
I want to do more consulting work with more prominent clients who wish to improve what they have by using their data and turning it into useful information.
I want to wander into new projects to diversify my income, opening the doors to more opportunities to travel for pleasure or even business.
As I write this, I see my mind wandering into new possibilities and opportunities. When we walk to the right places, we find hope and turn that hope into actions that will help us become happier and always end up in a better place.
Compartmentalize
One of my most obvious flaws is that every project I work on has to have meaning to me.
I care a lot about the projects I engage in; I want to make sure they are successful, and I want to make sure I am giving others what is best for them.
But one thing I've learned in my 20+ years of working as a consultant in IT, Business, and Digital Marketing is that what most people want is not what they need or what even benefits them.
This past year I fired a client that was an alcoholic and disrespectful to me many times early in the start of the year. This individual would never arrive at meetings, but once he had a few drinks on the weekends, he would start picking at things he had not reviewed in months and were not urgent. If I had kept him, my year would have been more stressful, but I would have had more cash flow to work on other projects. I could have kept working with other talented people that worked for him; in reality, the drunk client was never present; he just appeared out of the blue every once in a while.
Looking back, I believe I did the right thing when I fired the client. Still, I also see opportunities to compartmentalize someone else's actions vs. the actions you have to take to keep a business relationship going.
I think I've done better for the year's second half. I need to improve at leaving my feelings to the side and looking at how my decisions will impact my team and my long-term business.
It might be distancing myself early on from a situation and making sure I give myself some time to analyze it. In that distancing, I want to ensure that, like many other successful people, we sometimes have to do things we don't like to get to the next step.
I will never sacrifice my value, and I will stick to the recipes and processes I know work well for those I serve, but I have to filter and separate what has nothing to do with me and continue pushing forward for progress.
Expedite
I like to plan and make sure to review everything. From my personal life to my business projects, I am always looking at the overall architecture of everything and how that works inside the ecosystem that might exist.
But occasionally, that causes me to be super wordy, and what I am explaining might overwhelm the receiver.
Although well-intentioned, on my part, it usually works against me and those who might benefit from my personal and business projects.
So I am working on being a briefer and learning to expedite what is critical for those around me without overwhelming them.
I am good at looking at a project and realizing what needs to be prioritized to reach the goal and objective.
I need to improve on doing this for myself and my business. When I prioritize and expedite things while keeping everything practical and brief, it makes everyone's life easier.
I aim to simplify my communications and ensure everything I communicate is clear.
Another aspect is expediting what is essential to my clients and leaving the rest to the side until there is time to complete it.
My 3 Words Over The Years
I am grateful for having the health and the energy to continue working on projects that I see as great opportunities.
I hope we all have the energy to improve our health and well-being.
Thank you for taking the time to read my only blog post written in 2022 and sending good tropical vibes to whatever part of the world you are reading this from.
Happy New Year!
Share Your Three Words
Feel free to share your three words and your approach to starting a new year in the comments area or contact me directly or comment below.
