You are a gift. Every day people have the power to touch lives of those around them. Whether it is in a hug between parent and child, the smile from the barista at the coffee shop, volunteers giving out food to the needy, or someone holding the elevator door - we all form parts of this tapestry of life, we all hold gifts in our every day presence.

I've never been much for New Year's resolutions, but a recent newsletter from Chris Brogan inspired me to pick and write about 3 words that will define my 2012. For more information, check out Chris's post here. These are my words: Serve - I will share my learned knowledge with anyone I can.

Every year since around 2006, I've been challenging people to forego the idea of a resolution, and instead, to come up with 3 words that will help you define your goals and experiences for the coming year. Resolutions are often too vague, or too directed towards one goal.

Last year, I read a blog post by Chris Brogan about selecting three words with which to theme the year. Instead of a list of resolutions that will surely be broken by January 15, finding three words or themes for the year provide a fluidity to life with a some basis for grounded decision making.

A little over a year ago I finally got off my ass and started a blog. This blog. In January last year, I stumbled across a post from my dear friend Margie Clayman where she set forth her focus areas for 2011. Apparently, Chris Brogan began this trend a few years ago, and it resonated with me.

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.

Continuing with a tradition that is now several years old, in 2012 I'll again focus on my three words. The value of mindful focus into a narrow niche has been powerful, more so than any goal setting theory I've tried throughout my life.

For 2012, I've decided that I don't need to reinvent the wheel. Last year, I picked out 3 little words-crayons, velcro, and abandon-to guide my business. The whole point was to keep me focused on moving forward, while giving myself permission to take risks again. And to have fun and be creative.

The first week of every month during 2012 will feature a post about Connecting with Self. This first week of the first month of the year is the perfect time to be more introspective than usual. I am not at all inclined to introspection, but as I grow older, I am realizing how important it is.

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.

Last year I used the three words strategy (Breathe. Balance. Grow.) and did great focusing on it until we moved half way through the year and I forgot to put the words back up on my bulletin board. But when I looked back over the year, I realized I did continue to create around those three words, which is pretty cool.
2011 was a big “personal growth” year for me in many ways. I feel like I’m coming out of a tunnel and blinking my eyes in a bright light that’s been waiting for me to step forward and find it… beginning to see what I need to be doing and how to make it happen. Many moments this past year I had to remind myself to just breathe and embrace growth. So the words really worked well as a focal point.

Propel, Reduce, Accept | My 3 words for 2012 - Lily Zajc @DixieLil

My words denote acceptance of oneself and others...Reducing, in stuff, both physical and mental, i.e. baggage, and lastly, moving forward...ending stagnation and procrastination!

Resolutions are pointless. You set them and never achieve them. You have the best intentions, but that is not enough. Goals and rituals have a higher chance of success both in the short and the long term. That is where I like to focus my energy.

New Year's resolutions are not something I've looked upon fondly. Usually shallow and almost always short-lived, I'm typically of the mindset that progress and change shouldn't come a set point in the calendar, and certainly not only once a year. However, I'm intrigued by Chris Brogan's "my 3 words" approach and decided to jump on that bandwagon.

Simplify. Strive. Sustain. Taking + Chris Brogan 's advice, I've identified three words to define my goals and direction for 2012: Simplify - I've realized I can make things more complicated than they have to. Back to basics in all aspects, professionally and personally. Strive - Complacency kills me.

I want to thank Chris Brogan for inspiring me to write this. It was his blog "My 3 Words for 2012" that energized me to think and reflect about what my three words would be.

For me, 2011 was a good year. I was able to start a business doing something I love. I'm ready for 2012 to be bad-ass. Yesterday I came across Chris Brogan's recent post: My 3 Words for 2012. In his post, he invites his readers to choose 3 words to help define their goals and experiences for the new year.

In honor of the annual Chris Brogan tradition of giving 3 words that he wants to focus his life on in the new year, below is my take on his tradition with my own explanation.  My 3 Word For 2012 Are: Comeback:  I have had a tough couple of years, taken a beating and try to keep pushing forward.  This year, I am feeling a comeback coming on.

Every year since 2006, friends of Chris Brogan put together our three words for the coming year that define what we're focusing on in the coming year. They're not goals, but more like rails or guides that help keep us moving in the general correct direction. Here are mine for 2012.

What do I mean by my three words for 2012?  Chris Brogan of Human Business Works  suggests that business owners use this method to model and improve themselves and/or their business in the coming year. The idea is to choose three words that will help guide you throughout the year.  The three words that I have chosen are marketing, learning, and discipline.

The arrival of a new year always brings with it great promise and the potential of something truly spectacular and wonderful. The stumbles and wrong turns of 2011 are behind us, and there's untraveled paths directly before our eyes on this second day of 2012. And you know what?

UPDATE: Here are the three words chosen by others for 2012. I'll keep this updated as I come across them on the blogosphere: Seems like I copy everyone else, but it's for a good reason-why reinvent the wheel? The turn of the year is almost always a time of reflection, and almost always a time of resolutions.

I don't know. I keep hearing about this three-word thing, so maybe it's time to take a crack at it. The first was in an interview with AT&T's chief technology officer, John Donovan in yesterday's New York Times. His take on it was the tombstone approach, as in the interview question, What three words would you want on your tombstone?

I do this because it works. Following the lead of Chris Brogan, a business leader who continually gives to others, I set three words in 2011 and used them as a lighthouse to guide me to where I knew I wanted to be. For 2012, I choose to use AHA!

I want to thank Chris Brogan for inspiring me to write this. It was his blog "My 3 Words for 2012" that energized me to think and reflect about what my three words would be. In essence, if you have not read it, every year since 2006 Brogan challenges his readers to forgo the idea of a resolution, and instead, to come up with 3 words that will help you define your goals and experiences for the coming year. The reason being that resolutions are often too vague, or too directed towards one goal such as “quit smoking”. Brogan suggests to "dig deeper, to find three words that could be used as lighthouses to guide you through stormy seas, that can be used as flags on the battlefield of your challenges, words that will bolster you and give you a direction that goes beyond the goals you might attach as a result of these words."

It's a New Year and it's that time again to tackle the New Year's Resolution question. As is now becoming The Chris Brogan Tradition, it's time to pick three words that will represent your goals in the New Year.

This is something that has been inspired by Chris Brogan
I've been challenging people to forego the idea of a resolution, and instead, to come up with 3 words that will help you define your goals and experiences for the coming year.
This year I thought that I should give it a try, well I'm trying everything else why not this wisdom as well :-)

So my 3 words are Do. Share. Inspire. - shouldn't really be that surprising.

Answering the challenge or perhaps better put the suggestion from +Chris Brogan have I finally settled for my three words for 2012: - Emphasize - Focus -…

On this first day of 2012, I am following Chris Brogan's suggestion to pick three words to guide me in the coming year. Because, as Chris says: Resolutions are often too vague, or too directed towards one goal. It might be "quit smoking" or "lose 20 pounds" or "get hired."

My friend, Chris Brogan, has a tradition to start each New Year with 3 words to guide his work and life. He encourages the rest of us to consider our 3 words and share them with our communities. Last year the words, Focus, Grow and Connect were my 3 words and they did serve as important touch points in 2011.

Every year since around 2006, Chris Brogan has challenged others to abandon the idea of making Ne year's Resolutions. Instead, he asks us to come up with 3 words that will help us define our goals and experiences for the coming year. Chris : "Resolutions are often too vague, or too directed towards one goal.

I have been reading Chris Brogan’s annual ‘3 words for the new year’ blog for several years now and never really adopted the concept. Like a lot of people, I resort to the usual resolutions (some I have had on repeat for several years) like ‘stop smoking’ or ‘exercise more’ or ‘start volunteering’ or ‘learn sign language’. So I thought I would at least try Chris Brogan’s concept for 2012 and see what happens.

I absolutely love Chris Brogan's idea of using three words annually that help define your goals and experiences over the course of the year.

Photo: MS Office Just prior to Christmas, Chris Brogan challenged his followers to “come up with three words that will help you define your goals and experiences for the coming year.” This is in place of resolutions, which I’ve never quite understood, but that’s a topic for another blog posting.

2012, annual, connect, family, generosity, Growth, inspire, lead, learn, New Year, New Year Resolutions, promote, real, relevant, Resolutions, teach, three words Last year, it seemed like "three words" was all the rage. I haven't seen the same frequency of posts this year, but wanted to choose another set for myself in 2012.

So, for the third year in a row - I'm going to attempt to focus my year on three words. I got this idea from many of my friends who got it from @chrisbrogan. In 2010 I focused on "Read, Play, & Share" In 2011 I focused on "Master, Replication...

For the past six years, Chris Brogan has listed three words that have encompassed the foundation of all activity for the upcoming year. While they don't have the definition of your yearly goals, they do serve as a foundation to keep you on course, as well as build upon.

Over the past week I've been thinking about the idea of resolutions. Frankly, I hate them. They rarely make it past the first couple of days. It's as if we do it just to do it. Why? Instead of making a resolve, what if we set a tone for the year with one, two or even three words.

It's that time of the year again where we look at the new year full of vigor and motivation, ready to take on everything that the upcoming year has to offer. However, it's so easy to get bogged down and sidetracked from accomplishing our goals that by the time we look up again, the year has already escaped us.

Every year Chris Brogan posts his three words to live by for the upcoming new year, and every year for the past three or four years I, and many others, have followed his lead. (And for the second year, the BlogWorld team is doing the same, so stay tuned for that.)

On 1st January my partner PJ and I made our way to the Sydney Botanic Gardens, iPads in hand, to spend some time doing our new year ritual of setting goals. On 1 January US time, Chris Brogan (co-author of bestseller Trust Agents and author of new book Google+ for Business) posted this post on his blog: My 3 Words for 2012.

Every year (since around 2006), Chris Brogan comes up with 3 words that will help define his goals and experiences for the coming year. Last year, my 3 words were: Create, Manage, Focus. I think I managed pretty well, though looking back I now see areas for improvement as well.

Last year I came up with three words to help me define and progress through my year (you can read about them here, and about the idea itself from the man who came up with it, Chris Brogan, here.)

Last year I decided to follow in the footsteps of Chris Brogan and choose three main words to live by throughout 2011. I published my three words on the 1st January 2011 and reviewed them in July.

Each year, Chris Brogan publishes his three words for the year. His reasoning is that resolutions do not work. The better idea is to focus on three words that you want to pay attention to in your life. My three words this year are: Abundance, Love, Generosity.

2011 was a big year for me - I started a business, began (officially) consulting in social media, ran a social media conference (put together in a matter of months), all while working around my family. Chris Brogan chooses three words every year to guide him for the year.

This year it has actually been really hard to settle on my three words to guide and inspire me in the coming year. To be fair, I knew it would be difficult because I have liked my previous choices so much.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Last year I started a fun exercise for myself that was picked up with my members at my Mortgage Professionals Academy that I learned from Chris Brogan at Human Business Works. By the way I also recommend reading his blog here.

New Year's resolutions are easy to create; I could write a list as long as my arm without really trying. The problem is keeping them, because there's a big difference between a resolution and action. In fact, resolutions are often just wishes without any real resolve behind them at all.

I've never been one for new year's resolutions. The most effective changes I've made in my life often start on a random Tuesday in the middle of a month and quietly fall in to a rhythm with very little pomp and circumstance.

So I figured I should probably add some context to yesterday's post, which laid out my three words for this year. The concept comes from a recent post on Chris Brogan's blog, which is a regular read for me.

I've been following Chris Brogan's work for over a year now. I enjoy reading everything he writes, but one of his recurring pieces inspired me to write this post today. He calls the recurring articles "three words" for the upcoming year, and he challenges all of his readers to create their own three words, too.

So here's my three words for 2012. I LOVE YOU. 2011 was year wrapped in change, changes that have left scars, caused a few tears while those same changes moved me to grow and evolve to be ready for the New Year I learned a lot about myself in 2011 - friends and life took me to some dark places.

A few years ago, my friend Chris Brogan inspired me for the first time to create three words at the beginning of a new year. I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but “three words” is a practice that has developed into somewhat of a tradition for me.

My three words get posted in a prominent place in my office (usually my whiteboard) and stay there for the year. They are words I use to guide my work, life and spirit, and they serve as simple reminders, especially on those days when I am struggling and questioning my ways (and sometimes my sanity).

Can three words really make a difference? I think they can. Last December around this time, instead of making a New Year's resolution, I created three words. The idea is Chris Brogan's. The three words were to summarize my focus and efforts in the coming year, and encompass my personal and professional goals.

I was given a book called 365 Days of Insights by Peter Legge and the very first entry spoke about picking 3 words that basically act as a theme for what you want to accomplish during the new year.

What a year. Went by in a blink didn't it? I do hope it was good for you. I have no personal complaints about 2011, other than it did seem to go by faster than 2010 (which in turn went by faster than 2009, and so on…).

One of my favorite bloggers is Chris Brogan. I subscribe to his e-newsletter and try to keep up with his blog posts. He also wrote one of my favorite social media books Trust Agents, with Julien Smith. Today, I received an email from Chris that I found inspiring at this time of year and it simply planted three little words in my subconscious.

by barefootlisa in Women Tags: community, connections, feminine, forgiveness, new years resolutions, sensual, silly, soften, strengthen I loved having a "word" for the year. For 2011, I had three! Soften, strengthen, and forgive changed me. They took up residence in me, stretched me, and shifted things within me and in my life.

Chris Brogan is at it again. Chris Brogan, who I really have no idea of, is apparently a very famous person on the Internet and the social media scene. Dude apparently is an inspiration to many, esp. with his annual New Year post "My 3 Words for 20XX".

Last year, rather than making a New Year's resolution, I tried something different. I chose 3 words to guide me through the year 2011: I wanted the words to reflect what was most important to me and might help me make the right decision in a difficult situation.

I used to be a goal-setter extremist. I had one huge major goal for years, and then the usual losing weight/health goals, plus I had measurable ways to be a better wife, mom, daughter, friend. I knew once I realized the huge major goal, it would lead to things like a new car, bigger house, more fun, etc.

As I've mentioned in the past, instead of New Year's Resolutions I do Three Words. These three words will act as both a sort of mission statement and a set of guiding principles that will focus my efforts and goals for the year. (See my words for 2011 and 2010.)

By Courtney Engle on Jan 1, 2012 in Blog For several years, Chris Brogan has led the way in setting the tone for the year ahead by picking 3 words that are the focus of the year.

Just before the end of 2011 Chris Brogan sent a message to readers of his blog (and I'm one of them :-) to ask about our three words for 2012. Three words that will guide us this year. Later  he posted his words  on his blog.

For three years now I've used an approach I first read about by Chris Brogan that said to choose three words for the coming year that will guide you in what you do, personally and professionally instead of making a New Year's resolution.

It's become an annual tradition to partake in Chris Brogan's concept of choosing three words as a guidepost for the coming year. Last year, I went with Focus, Target and Real. While they may not have been perfect, they were surprisingly useful.

Ta-da! Here are my 3 Words for 2012: Focus: I want to focus on meeting and working with my most ideal clients. These are the people who really get so much from what I can do and I get really pumped working with them.

The idea is Chris Brogan's. Instead of a resolution to come up with 3 words that will help you define your goals and experiences for the coming year. The following are the three words that I have chosen to summarize my focus and efforts in the coming year, they encompass both my personal and professional goals.

I've been working with Chris Brogan‘s idea about three words that define what I want my upcoming year to be about (you can see his for 2011, 2010, and if you follow the links in those pages, back much further than that.)

I like Chris Brogan's idea of defining the coming year in three words. My three words for 2011 are [...]

For each of the past several years, I've prayerfully uncovered three words to use as guides for my life. I'm not alone in this process; my friend Cheryl Smith, star blogger Chris Brogan and many others do this too. In 2010 the words were focus, organize, and manage and in 2011, discipline, strength and ship-it.

Over the last few years I've watched as bloggers (notably Chris Brogan) have pushed the new-year technique of selecting three words that will drive you for the year to come, rather than making resolutions. Resolutions tend to be limiting and a bit rushed in the making, which is why they have such a reputation for fast failure.

Inspired by the inimitable Christopher S. Penn (who, in turn, learned it from the very erudite Chris Brogan), and with the new year only three days away, I felt it appropriate that the first true post on this blog would be to assemble my three words for 2012.

Following on the tradition I've started over the past couple of years (2011, 2010) after enjoying Chris Brogan's take on this, here are my three words for 2012. They aren't goals, per se, or resolutions, but more just three words to guide my actions through the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lg2lI8LqW0

Starting this year, I'm joining Chris Brogan's tradition of creating THREE WORDS that sum up all that I would like to focus on for the coming year. Instead of resolutions, which I always end up not doing, I'll try to work on using these 3 words and use it as my guide for my actions and efforts.

Maybe you've heard of this exercise, maybe you haven't. It's something that my friend Chris Brogan started several years ago as a way of replacing New Years Resolutions with words that would serve as guideposts to the various goals that he wanted to accomplish that year.

One of my first posts as I launched JTC roughly a year ago was about Chris Brogan's recommendation to choose three words as guideposts for the upcoming year instead of the standard New Years resolutions. The idea of guideposts instead of hardfast resolutions resonated well with me and how I looked to structure my journey.

This morning I came across a post by Chris Brogan about his three words for 2012, and for once, I was pleased with what the blogosphere had to say during this new year time period. Usually we're all inundated with articles about "the top 10 whatevers of 2011″ or "the 7 things to do in 2012″, or posts with predictions for the new year.

Last year, I didn't make a new years resolution. Due to having years of failed resolutions behind me, I don't like making them because they are generally too specific, or too easy to throw out the window when something goes awry.

Chris Brogan has an interesting take on focus for the year ahead. Not goals, but words. Three of them ( see here > ). Not goals because, as he says things like

As I’ve mentioned in the past, New Year’s resolutions don’t work for me. They are a set-up for big time failure and I don’t handle failure very well.  For all of us, January resolutions roll in just as the holiday season rolls out.  I’m just returning from a wonderful week of family vacation.

Since 2006, Chris Brogan has invited his community to come up with three words for the coming year that define what we are focusing on in the coming year. Here are mine for 2012. Recently, Jeff and I went to a restaurant in an unbelievably beautiful casino on the Mohegan Indian reservation in Connecticut.

Chris Brogan suggests that it's easier to think of three words you want to describe your year instead of making "resolutions." I like the idea because it helps me focus more on general things I want to focus on instead of specific single goals.

Last January 2011 we were asked to think of our '3 words for 2011′ to serve as our guide throughout the year. I find having those three words helpful especially during the tough times… So now, I want to continue thinking about my very own golden 3-words for 2012.My 3 words for my 2012:Courage - it's on the top of my list coz I will definitely need a lot of courage to be more daring this 2012!

Some of us make ‘em. Some of us don't. But either way, it's a good idea to give yourself a clean slate for 2012. I really love January 1st. I get a chance to renew myself, to use this body and this mind to set new challenges.

Blog post at BobandRosemary.com | Part Time Network Marketing Success Tips : It's that time of year again... New Year's Resolutions. Some love 'em and some hate 'em... but that's all you hear about in the news,[..]

I've never been a big fan of New Year resolutions. I've made some in the past and I've broken most. Last year was pretty good. I've been following Chris Brogan's blog.

First of all may I wish you all the best for the new year. As I have been doing for a couple of years now the new year for me means getting some perspective on the year before and identifying the things I want to focus on in the upcoming year.

Following Chris Brogan's strategy for using 3 words to guide his efforts for the following year, I'm going to go "all in" and give it a shot this year. Chris has done a fantastic job outlining his strategy and how to define your three words in multiple posts on his blog, but I would suggest reading what his chosen three words were.

Fear is something that often holds writers back. And pretty much all human beings experience fear at varying degrees at all times. You are either a person who has learned to tell your fears to shush up or, to one degree or another, you are a person who allows your fears to run your life.

With only a few days left in the year, I'm thinking about my 3 words for 2012. The 2011 exercise produced good results, which you can read about here, so I'm committed to continuing the project into 2012. I want three new words but one word, integrate, seems hard to shake.

This year is a new start. I have been thinking about my three words. Now last year in 2011, I wanted to work on my health and weight. These areas are still priorities. My three words for 2012 came to my mind and I am trusting with these three words everything else falls into place in my life.

I just finished reading about Ricardo Bueno's 3 Words for 2012, the three words that will define his goals for the coming year (based on something Chris Brogan does each year), and it made me think a little harder about my own goals for 2012.

I received an email last week from Chris Brogan where he challenged me (and everyone else who received the email) to come up with three words (just three!) to sum up what I want to focus on in 2012. Now, being a rather wordy word person, coming up with only three words is somewhat of a challenge.

This year, I've decided not to make a list of New Year's resolutions. Why? Because I never keep them. In the past, I've set my mind to eat better, travel more and exercise regularly. And though I make a conscious effort to accomplish these goals, life happens and I find it harder to hit the gym or plan a European getaway.

Chris Brogan, web entrepreneur, and also a depression survivor himself, has a blog topic/exercise called "My Three Words." He uses this exercise the New Year as a way to create what he calls his "guiding pillars" to focus his business on the new year.

When it comes to New Year's reflections, I am a fan of Chris Brogan's "My 3 Words" approach. He discourages his readers from making resolutions, reminding us that we often break our promises to ourselves. Instead, he encourages us to identify three words that will serve as personal themes for 2012.

At the first of the year, for a few years now, Chris Brogan has inspired me to think of and post three words that I want to strive to define the new year by.

Last year I wrote my "3 Words for 2011″ that was inspired by Chris Brogan as something he's been talking about since 2006. These 3 words act as a lighthouse for our actions & efforts. Here's mine for 2012 & I want to hear yours below.

Following the footsteps of Chris Brogan, I've come up with 3 words instead of resolutions for the new year. Rather than resolutions which tend to focus on a specific areas, these words represent broader themes that will help me define my goals and experiences for 2012. Here are my three words for the year.

Chris Brogan has a project that I've duplicated for the last three years or so. It's 3 words that help guide you towards your goals for the upcoming year. It's different than resolutions, since those get shattered by about the tenth of the month. Here are my three words…and what they mean.

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, in fact I don't do New Year Celebrations! At least not in the traditional way that I see others celebrating. And I am not going to give you a long list of ‘tips' or ‘advice' - you are a grownup and have done every New Year in your life time too!

Our choices for a brillant 2012 would be: Passion Confidence Curiosity - very nice list! #mythreewords #2012 via @NickKellet