Do These 3 Things to Guarantee a Year of Massive Growth

Each year I choose 3 words to guide my year. A look at how my 2017 words held up, and what they gave me.

8 min readJan 1, 2018

This is Part 1 in a series sharing my lessons and reflections from 2017.

The Tradition of My Three Words

Since 2011 I have followed Chris Brogan’s tradition of choosing 3 words to guide my year. In the past, I have shared those words publicly on New Year’s Day.

I’m not quite ready to reveal my 2018 words. After leading my year-end reflection ritual twice in the last 10 days of the year, I’m just digging into my personal process. Stay tuned here for the reveal in the coming weeks.

As part of my year-end review, I like to evaluate how my words held up over the year. Some years, my words really did not really serve me, and I was eager to move on from them. Other years, the words created a strong guiding force. And some years could be defined by any of the words I chose.

2017 fits into that last category.

So before I move forward, let’s take a look back.

The Context for My 2017 Words

First, some context. My 2016 words were: Voice. Energy. Grace. I loved these words so much that engraved my iPad with them. They form part of a mantra of sorts:

Live your truth.
Voice. Energy. Grace. Trust.

Conspicuously displayed on the back of the device I use for most of my writing, they continue to serve as a guiding force for my work. I will admit that I was reluctant to move on from them.

It took me a long time to come to my 2017 words; I had never struggled in that way with my process. I reminded myself that it would defeat the purpose of the exercise to choose random words; better to be “late” with my choice than to choose words that were not aligned with my desires.