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Day two of the new year and an amazing thing happened today.
I decided to bravely share my three words for the new year. That wasn’t the amazing part.
What was amazing was the synergy and trust that sharing created with my staff. I’ll explain in a moment.
But what am I talking about?
If you are familiar with Chris Brogan’s annual 3 words you’ll get this idea quickly. If not, simply visit his post about this and head on back.
The Struggle
If you’ve ever made a promise that you thought was easy but later found out it wasn’t, I feel your pain.
The promise I made was to provide my three words by January 1st to the Brave New Year (affiliate link) group.
Then I did what I normally do.
First, I cleaned the house all day saturday before New Year’s Day. Then on Sunday I gutted my office, moved furniture, reorganized books and purged old documents.
I was a mess. And tired. And in a downward spiral.
I procrastinated long enough.
2013 had to be better than 2012. I’m betting you had moments of this as the New Year approached, too.
The Epiphany
Then I realized my perfectionism was taking over. It was there all weekend, but I only realized it late Sunday night.
Here’s the juicy little secret I thought I’d never share: Being perfect in everything is ruining my life.
Sure there are some payoffs, but it’s killing opportunities, possibilities and keeping me safe.
How? First, when I’m faced with a difficult or complex task – like figuring out my goals for the next year – I go into my head and the whirlwind of options attack.
Next, I organize when I’m confronted. I’ve been known to clean entire homes in order to deal with difficult things.
Disclosure & Breakthrough
I came clean to Brave New Year participants, and it was freeing. Could this have happened outside of the support of the group? Maybe, but I doubt it.
But what couldn’t happen was the tremendous coaching and focus I received from Chris Brogan, and the support of the group. Almost instantly through our interactions I realized the focus of my three words!
The three words weren’t about being who I normally am – but they are there to stretch me out of my comfort zone and build Chris Montoya 2.0 – an enhanced me. Eureka!
My 3 Words for 2013
My first word is Details (as in Details Magazine). I love this magazine because it’s vivid, chocked full of interesting information and has interviews, ideas and style.
The deeper reason I chose this word is to help me overcome my social paralysis when I meet “cool kids” that leave me aware of my geeky longing for only deeper meaningful explorations.
So to enhance my social connections between people, Details means to stay connected to currents so I can brave the conversational rapids anywhere. It also means I should put myself in more social situations, and open myself up to life.
The second word is Guru. This isn’t your standard American thought leader I’m talking about, but rather the yogi with discipline, balance, and respect for herself and her environment.
It has more to do with the guru who through discipline and rigor experiences insights and transformations that may be given to others. It also means to have balance and harmony in my personal wellbeing.
The third word is Suze (as in Orman). I find her information crystal clear, her focus is compelling and she can really write in a style that’s very engaging, useful and practical.
Suze is my focus to drive my ability to be clear, compelling and effective in helping other people. It’s my focus for public speaking, facilitation, training, copywriting, and instructional design.
The Amazing Part
If you are still reading, here’s the amazing part. At lunch today with my staff, I bravely shared my three words, unaware how it might sound. I explained why I was using three words to focus this next year, and what they were.
The amazing part was that they naturally wanted to participate and share theirs too, which only added to the unity of the team. It was a rare glimpse into the more personal natures of who they were. I was humbled at what came out of their mouths.
What About Your 3 Words?
Finally, the simplicity of defining your goals around three words is easy to remember, remind yourself of them daily, and build them into reminders. I have a post it note with them on my computer and a photo of them on my cellphone. Easy peasy.
What three words will define a new you this year? What three words will get you closer to pursuing your goals instead of just talking about them? How do you want to transform your world?
If you want to be Brave and define your New Year now, or any time of year in a new and compelling way, join me on the journey. I’ll help however I can.
Chris Montoya is a Blog Topics Master Class Graduate and hosts his own blog.
