Happy New Year. It’s time for my 3 words for 2016.

I used three “happy’s” for a couple of reasons. I like more happy, and it’s a great day in more ways than one. It’s the first time I went a full year following 3 words instead of resolutions.. and I know 3 words 2016 is going to work out as well as the last.

How I Got To 3 Words 2016

My friend, blogging superstar Chris Brogan, has been telling us how choosing 3 words can be so much better than resolutions for 10 years now. Watching him over the years, I could see how focused he gets and the advantage of staying on course. Times change, but Chris grows through the ups and downs of life. He’s a class act that I look to for inspiration. Like so many people, he saw resolutions being dropped.. So why not try it?

Chris Brogan explains 3 words 2016 here

For 2015, I set down on January 1st and mapped out some ideas. Then I remembered the phrase that had so much meaning to me.. 3 words from “Joe versus the Volcano”, The under appreciated philosophical story that has little to do with the volcano. In this clip, Joe has waken up and get feedback on what happens when you do.

My Year of Constant Total Amazement

Chris counseled us on choose a phrase. Often you wast a word like “the” or “and” and there’s no reason for the 3 words to work together in a phrase. In my case, “total” would be a risky choice. I really didn’t need to say I wanted to be totally anything. Rather than justify it, I decide I need that amazement in my life more than anything. The word “constant” has meaning to me too. I was totally into the constant amazement.

After some struggle, I stopped worrying about the grammar (how “total constant amazement” sounded better to me) and started looking for the things I see every day that are amazing and overlooked.

I had many chances to be amazed in 2015. Met some sharks, went to TED, visited cites I hadn’t been to before, attended so many great events that wowed me in scope. Shared time with amazing people.

But what really amazed me were little things. Once, I was standing in line at the Costco pharmacy. Normally a sure fire way to get me feeling anxious and annoyed. Instead, I realized how the HIPPA requirements to add hassle to procedures were something new that I had learned and got pretty good at.. and how amazing it was that I was learning this little thing despite kicking and fighting the whole way. Suddenly, I felt better about it, the day, and life in general. I took a moment to examine how many times this happens and how easy it is to change the framing and change my mood.

Next thing I knew, I was at the front of the line and called up. I was nicer to the clerk, and left with a smile from her and a better feeling all day.

My 3 Words 2016

I started think in about my 3 words 2016 back in November. I didn’t want to let go of watching Joe once a month and feeling amazing through seeing amazing. Just two days back, I realized it’s part of me and now I’m ready to move on.

Nothing really in mind as I went to bed at precisely 12:01 AM early this morning. About 3 AM I woke up and knew I needed to be more consistent for 2016. Consistence was my first word.

I’m working on putting all my business into a framework of my new dba “Vegas Influence” .. I love living in Vegas and using the word, so it’s in our new company name, so “Influence” is the word. I sat down and started journaling. I do a page a day, missing some days (inconsistent) and thought scribble some word and decide.

I ended up with 12 pages without stopping.

When I questioned using the business word as my life goal word, I listed Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Influence that have been in most of my speeches and seminars for some time. A couple seemed like good candidates for my 3 words 2016 and I looked at dictionary definitions to see what that would spark. Wound up see the word “ship” and read all 20 or so definitions for that word.

After enough material for 16 future posts, I settled on keeping influence first for 2016. More on the learning from this morning in future posts. I wrote down the 3 words, played with the order until I realized I was trying to hard to make a phrase and how I don’t need to write them out everywhere like I did “constant total amazement”.. or have an acronym that easy to teach. The words are for me.. I share them here for a suggestion that you try it too.

Influence. Life is connection and sharing stories. We influence each other in every conversation.

Ship. It’s not the ideas you have or work  you do. Focus on shipping (completing)

Consistency. I’m happy being oblique, change my schedule daily. I need to show up with more consistency so the world will be able to learn from what I offer.

Today I’m putting the words on a sign in my office and detailing the plans I made in my mega writing session this morning. I expect to ship more consistently and teach influence principles to my clients who have messages their audience needs to hear, using digital marketing and influence their own and those in networks of influencers build for clients.

That last sentence included all my 3 words 2016. I didn’t plan it, they just came out. The process is working already.

I hope you read Chris’s article, choose 3 words and share this idea with those you care about.

What are your 3 words 2016?