Improve your Personal Leadership with 3 Words

If you are like me there are things about yourself that are overdue to change. Things that are holding you back in your personal leadership and growth.

And if you are anything like me, New Years resolutions....don't....work!

I hate New Years Resolutions.

This may be self-evident by virtue that this post appeared at the end of January instead of December. 

I hate them for all the reasons that immediately come to mind: short-lived, vague, lacking accountability.....

Yet there are things in my life that need to change.

I know I'm not alone.

I'm not the only one wanting to skip this annual ritual of resolutions. Chris Brogan, publisher of Owner Magazine, writes about his approach for the past several years:


Every year, I go through an exercise where we take three words and use them as the central focus of your goals and efforts for the year to come.

Instead of saying “I want to lose 30 pounds” and then forgetting about the goal a day later, I might have something like “green” that reminds me to eat more plant-based foods at every meal, or similar.

The idea is that the words you choose will go past being a simple goal and will become part of the way you identify yourself....(My Three Words for 2014)



My brain lit up reading that. Self-improvement and personal leadership neatly distilled into three words that will become a cornerstone for all decisions in the next year. 

 

It took me two weeks. A bunch of words were discarded along the way. But here are my three words for 2014:

Start.

For the first time in two decades I enter a new year with options about how I spend my time and energy. Whatever happens this year will happen because I started it....or allowed it to start.

I am enjoying the ultimate luxury: choice.

This word reminds me to choose wisely.

Stop.

Many know there was a time of intense difficulty for me last year, perpetual crises. What was surprising was how difficult it was for me to stop responding with crisis management techniques, even long after the crises had stopped.

This word reminds me there are things in my life I don't need anymore.

And I am both able - and responsible - to discard them.

Change.

As with most people, there are constants in my life. Constants I want to keep.

Constants I want to honor.

Constants that deserve my best.

• My family
• My community
• My faith
• My body

But while they have been constant for me, they have not always received my best. In fact, because I knew them to be constants they were often subjected to my very worst.

The very things that deserve my best got my worst! That needs to change.

I need to change any circumstances preventing me from giving them my best.

So far.

I have titled my 2014 journal Start.Stop.Change. Now every time I open it up to sketch out an idea or take notes, I am reminded of the three lenses through which I will view all decisions this year.


And it works....at least so far.


I haven't made any important decisions without first seeing if they align with my words.

Your turn.

If you have given up on your resolutions already then I have to ask: does this idea resonate with you?


Are you ready to see if three little words can affect your willingness to change?


If so, what are your words.
Let's hold each other accountable. 


I'm game if you are.

I'll Start.