Original photo by: Elena Martinello

The turn of the year is a paradoxical time, filled to varying degrees with the relaxation of a quiet week packed with holidays, alongside the feverish preparation for a running start to the New Year.

We excitedly plan out resolutions for everything from better health to increased productivity. Yet often our own enthusiasm proves to be our downfall, so heavily do we pile on the new practices in what amounts to a few days of preparation.

In short, our intentions are well placed, but our application is often found wanting.

Words Influence Ways

One practice that I’ve found useful in recent years is to focus more on new guide markers rather than wholesale direction changes. To that end, adopting Chris Brogan’s ‘Three Words’ concept has been helpful.

As with most things, its power lies in its simplicity: just pick three words that you’ll use as an overriding guide for your decision making and actions in the year to come. You can take this to a deeper level by loading the words with varied synonyms and imagery. The main goal though is to choose meaningful words that have the power to inspire you to think and act.

My Words For 2012

In addition to guiding my actions this year, I hope my words provide you insight into the direction I intend to take with both this site and my extended work through Above The Static.

My three words for 2012 are:

• Serve: At the forefront of everything I do here, I’ll question whether it adds value to you, the reader. My aim is to help creators develop a stronger web presence and get noticed. My articles, posts, videos, and e-mails should each deliver that in some way.

• Tackle: Multi-tasking is overrated. The more we focus on the million and one potential things we could be doing and divide that time down, the less anything truly significant can be achieved on any one activity. This year I’ll get to grips with individual tasks that are high priority and put everything into the tackle.

• Dispatch: I spent plenty of time on brainstorming, conceptualizing, and all kinds of other ‘ideas work’ in 2011. No bad thing, unless it dominates the landscape to the detriment of actually moving on those ideas. This year I’ll focus on balancing this out, moving ideas through more quickly and dispatching results for those that have legs.

From this base of three, I feel confidently rooted to guide my decisions for this site (and more…I need to be organized for a new arrival this Spring!). I’ll build these out into concrete advice and actions, in a coherent manner that moves everything towards my end objective.

And You?

Are you on board with this style of moving into a New Year?

Or do the old resolutions work just fine for you, thanks very much?

Either way, I’d love to hear how you’re sizing up 2012 and what your hopes are for the coming year. Spill the beans in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else you’d like to connect with me.

It’s going to be an outstanding year for you, just wait and see