My three Words For 2014

Chris Brogan has a 'thing' that he does every year involving three words.  The basic idea is to pick three words to help focus your goals and efforts for a year. I saw his post a few years ago but I have yet to try it. Mostly because I use my own system I call "The F Words".  Partly because I'm hard headed.
"The F Words" system works for me. I've been using it for about 8 years now. So I didn't want to mess up my system by adding anything to it.
But I've been thinking about it and have decided to try it. I'll explain below:

Everything Is In It's Place

The F Words allow me to organize activities, projects, and things. David Allen calls it "Stuff".  The F Word system has made it very easy for me to know where to put stuff.  For example, the categories of Family, Faith, Finance, Fitness, and Fun are self explanatory. Whether I'm storing a picture, creating a document, or putting an event in my calendar for my wife's birthday...it goes under Family. If I'm working on my business, it goes under Finance. The result is that if you look under Fitness, you can find my latest exercise routine. Because there are so many F Words, it's also scalable, or in F Word terminology 'Flexible".  It contains all the lists of stuff and actions I want.  But therein lies the problem!

There's A Difference Between Stuff And Actions

Stuff is usually tangible. You can see, smell, hear, touch, and taste stuff.  But actions are different. Actions are more about 'doing' something to 'stuff'.  That usually involves a plan.  Plans always start with "Why?" Why can't be filed under any one category. It fits in all of them. So my plan is to use the three words as guidelines for my actions.   That's how I came up with the following three words.

Unencumber

By definition to 'encumber' means to restrict or burden something in a way that makes movement difficult.  So I want to do just the opposite. Especially when it comes to people. I want to help others gain the freedom they love. I want to help them lighen their load. Since I really do love to help people, the result is I will be less restricted by my own concepts about my goals. I'll lessen my own self imposed burdens. That's a good thing. 

Follow

I'm going to do a whole lot more following than I did before. I don't need to lead all the time. I'm a great follower. In fact, if you give me a list of things you want done, you can count on me following your instructions 'to the letter'.  I'm also going to follow my intuition, vision, and good judgement. That's a form of following as well.  Sometimes you lead by following. Sometimes you follow by leading. Think about it. 

Lean

I chose this word because of how much ground it covers. In the physical sense, I need to get 'lean' - as in lose some weight.  I've already started that by adding T25 to my day. I picked T25 because it's short, and doesn't require a gym.  I'm also going to make my 'work day' much leaner, and cut some of the fat out of it. I'm going to get much leaner in the services I provide, and whom I provide them for. That will make my company much leaner as well!

But "to lean" also means 'to be in a sloping position'. It's used to describe 'leaning into' the work. It's also used to describe 'leaning back' to relax.  I intend on doing the right amount of leaning. I'm going to relax a lot more. 

There You Have It

That's my three words. Those are the words that I will use to guide my goals and actions this year.  I'd love to hear what you think about them.  It will help me 'lean' into becoming more 'unencumbered', if you follow my drift. :-)

ps... You could also visit Chris Brogan's site, read about his three words...and engage him in conversation about his three words as well. Tell him Stan sent you. Tell him hello for me!  'Follow my drift?" :-)