About this time each year, I pick three words to act as goals to guide me through the next twelve months – I like to wait until the NY resolution craze dies down. Now, then, I’m not usually the sort of chap that goes in for new age business thinking. It’s mostly instantly forgettable cheap talk that’s unceremoniously dumped, like an unwanted puppy, when the next ‘thing’ comes along. This exercise, however, is useful mainly because it is easy to do. It does not require a great deal of thinking. It keeps your mind on your priorities. Heck, just writing three words down is more than most of us do goal-wise, and we wonder why we list, drift, and lose focus.
But I digress, back to my three words…
Here are my picks for this year.
Plot
Storytelling, not shopping lists
A sequence of events, not a secret plan to blow up parliament. To focus on interrelated sequences, the storyline, if you will, rather than thinking in terms of shopping lists, of individual tasks. Explaining what I do, what I can do, what I will do, through storytelling, told as stories. Ultimately, that’s what people want to hear, what they can relate to and, eventually, believe in.
Rewild
Return to a natural state
When we operate in a world where conflict is seen as a bad thing, and questions are challenges to authority, we become domesticated. We think in straight lines to survive. That was my 2015. With batteries fully charged, I’m now ready to return to my natural state. The one that’s a positive force, a catalyst. And it’s time to reboot my agile state of mind – to seek the truth, accept and respect others, show humility, be patient, revel in self-discipline and sow commitment.
Write
The medium of human communication
As much as I worship at the altar of doodling, I need to write more often. When I do ideas form, float, merge, and evolve. My thoughts become tangible, they move away from the light. The pleasure I get from writing, work or otherwise, is immeasurable, so there’s every reason to put pen to paper, digit to motherboard. And as an avowed disciple of speed writing this really ought not to be a problem. This post is part of that goal.
My challenge, then, is live by these goals. I carry a note pad now so that I can write storylines, capture narratives. The pad has my seven ‘rewild’ watchwords (emboldened above) nestling inside the front cover. And, dear reader, I can jot down little pieces of fiction, or fact, as I go about my day.
And so far I am winning.
The Humble PM
Ps Isn’t it time you set a few goals?
lessons learned 