It must be the start of a new year.  How do I know?  All those interminable posts from people about their New Year resolutions.  That’s how!

Lets get this clear right from the start shall we.  I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.  Nuff said.

As well as the annoying posts about resolutions there’s also been quite a number about people setting goals for the whole year.  That idea doesn’t bug me nearly as much.  But to be honest, I set goals on a regular basis.  My goals more often than not don’t have a time span of one year.  Often less, sometimes much longer.

But recently I came across something by Chris Brogan that piqued my interest.  Chris doesn’t set goals each New Year but he does come up with three or four words that he will use for the year.  In his words…

Setting goals is what January 1st is all about. Over the last few years, I’ve practiced something I call “my 3 words,” where I come up with three words that I use as guidance for how I should conduct my efforts in the year to come. I set goals around these three words. I build deadlines and projects around these words.

I don’t want to 3 words that I can set goals around or build deadlines and projects around.  But what I did think I could do would be to come up with three words for 2010 to help me become better at what I do.  I need to keep these in front of mind so the first thing I did was rename this blog “Loop, Listen, Focus”.

Loop

The word loop will remind me to make sure I don’t leave any loose ends.  I’m great at starting things but because I’m very much a big picture person I need to put a special emphasis on finishing things or handing them off to make sure they’re finished.

Loop also reminds me that I need to keep everyone in the loop with communications.  Sometimes I have a tendency to think that people know what I am doing or have done.  The word loop will remind me that every time I do something I need to think about who needs to know about this.

Listen

I’m an overly strong leader sometimes and this word is to remind me to listen before I put my point of view across.

I also catch on quickly to ideas and end up cutting people off before they’re finished telling me the whole story.

Focus

This is a really personal one to remind me to focus on the piece of work I am doing at the time.

But, and it’s a big but, if I’m interrupted in my work by someone who needs to talk to me I need to move my focus 100% to that person.  This is something I struggle with so having this word foremost in my mind will be very helpful.

Questions:  What do you think of this idea?  Could you use to benefit you for 2010?  If so, what words would you choose?

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