Justin Whitaker

If you follow Chris Brogan, you know that each year he chooses three words to focus on each year, rather than making resolutions. 

It’s a really nice tradition, and a great way to focus your mind on what you really want to achieve in the coming year, rather than making a resolution that you have little intention of keeping.

So, here are my three words for 2012!

Focus

In 2011, I really lost focus. 

I was trying to do too many things, and didn’t really accomplish all that much. 

Much of 2011 was spent splitting my time between looking for a job, starting my own business, and meeting my obligations as a father and husband. I think I really only succeeded at the latter, and neither of the former.

Then again, you’d have to ask my wife and daughter for the metrics on that. 

Ain’t self assessments a bitch?

I lost the plot.

There were too many conflicting roles, too many conflicting voices in my head telling me what I should and should not do…that I lost the clarity of my goals for the first time in my life.

For 2012, instead of sending out resumes noone will read, I’m going to focus on Whitaker Media, get my business empire rolling.

That’s going to be my resume, my work, my art, my focus.

Forgive

The second word for 2012 is Forgive.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am most critical of myself. There is not a better self-saboteur, a better self censor, a better self-critic than I.

Most of 2011 was spent trying to be too many things, and the fact that so few of them succeeded nearly drove me into a self-induced paralysis. 

I questioned everything: my role as father/husband/provider, my identity, my business plans…you name it, it all became grist for the critical mill. All of these competing interests, these expectations, started rolling around in my head, and the failure to achieve became deafening.

The weight of expectations can crush you. 

If you let it.

For 2012, I want to just forgive all of that, and move on.

Forgive the past.

Forgive the present.

Forgive the future.

Move on.

Forge

The third word for 2012 is forge. In some ways, this is the most powerful of the three words I have chosen for 2012.

A forge is not just the place a blacksmith works…it is also the hearth where the metal is shaped. It’s a crucible, a testing, a proving.

To forge also means to move ahead. 

Taken together, 2012 is about creating something new, proving and improving what I already have, and moving inexorably forward.

I do not think it is enough to just forge a business, but I also want to forge better relationships, better friendships, and a better tomorrow for my daughter. 

To not just forge ahead, but bring everyone else along with me.

So, there they are: my three words for 2012.

I have no idea how I am going to achieve all that I have set out before me, but that’s not the point of the exercise.

Once you have the theme, then you can start the outline, and fill in the details, right?

So what are your three words for 2012? 

Share them below!

Related articles

• My 3 Words for 2012 (chrisbrogan.com)
• 3 Words for 2012 (cc-chapman.com)
• My 3 Words for 2012 (offonatangent.blogspot.com)
• My 3 Words - 2012 (courtneyengle.com)