How and why should you be picking your focus word of the year

Over the Christmas holidays (2022) my friend Mike bought me the book 4000 weeks by Oliver Berkman as a gift. I subsequently bought the audio version and listened as I did chores around the house. This book was a great reminder that I do take time for granted and that I do proceed in my daily activities as if I have forever to do a million things I have on my to-do list. 

Of course, I have the intention to do everything without being very mindful of the limited time that I have that continues to diminish with every breath I take. 

The book reminded me that I have limited time to do tasks to achieve limited goals and build relationships. Therefore I have to be more intentional about what those goals are, what their purpose is, who those people are and what my days should look like.

As I embarked on the new year, I took a more intentional approach and I want to invite you to do the same. 

A new year presents a new opportunity. It is a time for a new start –  a move in a new direction, a return to a proven pathway or system. It’s a time to pivot for some of us or a time to double down on exactly what you are doing. 

It’s a time to revisit, revise, reflect and reimagine. For some, it’s business as usual.

Whatever that is for you, I want to invite you to pause and imagine that you are embarking on a new journey, whether this is just another leg of that journey, this is a pit stop on that journey, you’re approaching the destination or embarking on a brand new leg of your journey. 

I want you to take some time to reflect on last year. Think about the things that worked really well for you. The things that did not work as well as the things that you did not consider that ought to have been included this year. That’s a great starting point for us as we look toward the next year. 

I want to invite you to think about this phase of your journey as a new event that you’re about to plan – very intentionally. 

At UpSkill Community, we have been exploring our theme for the year and we’ve been selecting a single word or phrase that will define how we go about business this year. I want to invite you to come on that journey with us. Pick a single word or phrase that will define how you approach this year. 

I chose the word clarity. Clarity is really important for me this year because I am very busy and I want to make sure that I am busy doing the right things. Peter Drucker says there is nothing so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all. Given the reminder of how limited our time is, I want to use mine to do a few amazing things.

Sometimes we are so busy in the busyness business that we are not really clear on which of the things that keep us busy are really, truly worthy of our time. And that’s what I want to get clear on this year. I want to get clear on which of the very important things that I’m doing really need to rise to the top and which need to get deleted from my list.

Who are the people that I’m doing it with that need to rise to the top? What are the projects? What are the causes? What are the things that I’m doing that really need to be front and center? Because I can’t bring everything with me on this journey. 

I want to invite you to think about your own journey and what you can reasonably take with you and what you need to leave behind.

This is tough! Here are 4 steps to get started:

1. Choose a theme. What word or phrase will define your year?

When I started asking this question of leaders with whom I work or partner, I got a number of interesting words: Impact. Execute. Plan. Confidence. Self-care. Self-assurance. and Emotional control. 

I heard phrases like: Just do it. Get up and get out, Go after it. Let’s go.

What’s your word or phrase going to be for this year? That could be a verb, that’s going to tell you the action that you need to do; an adjective that describes how you go about it, an outcome or a result that you’re looking for in your life, or a way that you want to show up. 

That’s the first thing that I like to invite you to do this year. Once you have chosen your word. I want to invite you to take another step. I want to invite you to take the second step with us. 

2. Find an activity to support your “word”

Think about one activity that you can do for 15-30 mins every day to support or honor your word or phrase. For instance, if you chose self-care, what’s that one thing you’ll do every day, as part of that self-care routine? That could be meditating for 15 mins daily, walking during lunch break, reflecting nightly or doing yoga at night. If you chose to execute, what is that going to look like? Does that look like waking up half an hour earlier to plan the action items for your day to ensure that you get things done? Does that look like reflecting at the end of every day to see what you’ve executed? 

Really think about one single activity that you can work on day by day, that will help you to honor the word or the phrase that you’ve chosen for yourself. So for instance, when I chose clarity, one of the things that I have to do is a 15-minute daily reflection. 

3. Find resources to help you succeed

Think about resources, whether human resources or other physical resources that you will need to support you with this. One resource that can help me with my daily reflection is a journal.

I ask myself questions like what I’m doing, who I’m doing it with, why I’m doing it, and where am I going. How meaningful is this to me? Is my work impacting the people that I want to impact in the way that I want to impact them? 

What do you need to support you? If this is the first time you’re doing this, and you’re not really clear on how to break down the big things that you need to do into very, very small action bites, get someone like a colleague, supervisor or coach to help you break it down. 

4. Find Time

Block off time in your calendar to do this daily activity. A lot of times we have something that we want to do, but getting it done is a real challenge. So block off time in your calendar, whether that’s at the beginning of your day, in the middle of your day or the end of your day – you have to know what works for you based on your situation.

No matter where you are in your year, you can benefit. Have two months gone by? Better 10 than none at all. Only 50 days left? Let’s GO!

30 days of focus could beat 365 without a focus.

Share your word, resource, activity and results with us at UpSkill Community do we can all UpSkill together. After all, we are all a work in progress!