At the end of December I took a tech-free day to write, think, process how 2016 went, and explore my vision for 2017. The first part of this day was shoveling snow, truly a tech-free event, as we had about 14 inches of very wet snow. This delayed my mini-retreat by two hours but I did get my upper body workout in 🙂
As career coaches and practitioners, we can provide better services when we slow down and take time to think, prepare, create, and be mindful of each moment. We serve our clients best when we are in the moment with them. I strongly encourage you to consider a tech-free day. Mine typically starts at 8am and ends around 5pm.
The first thing I worked on was coming up with my 3 words to guide me in 2017, inspired by Chris Brogan who has done this for over 10 years. I then moved to my budget, online seminar offerings, business plan review, and finally to my short and long range “to do” list. One thing I decided on this retreat is that I want to do a tech-free day every month. Last year I had three tech-free days spread throughout the year, plus a 100 mile backpacking trip that was completely tech-free and cleansing. Each time I discovered a renewed sense of purpose. I need to do this more.
I find that life just keeps getting faster and ever more filled with technology creating a sense of being busy. You have to choose down-time daily to take control over this busyness and regain a more peaceful and thoughtful routine. I’m thinking about this a lot as I will be speaking on March 2nd in Brunswick Maine for the first “To Live For” Evening of Stories and Music where I will talk about ‘Taking 10’ minutes daily to regain our lives. I also had a conference proposal accepted by National Career Development Association on a similar topic for the June annual conference.
Last year my 3 words were Health, Mindfulness, and Focus and I printed these words off and had them posted on my refrigerator, computer, photocopier, and put it in all my presentation handouts I did this year. These were constant reminders of what I decided were important words to guide my business and personal life. Constantly reflecting on these 3 words helped me to take action that supported one or all of them. It also helped me to say “no” to things that did not fit with the issues that were important to me. I can only hope that my 3 words for this year do the same.
MY 3 WORDS FOR 2017
Wellness. “The quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of being deliberative.”
This word will guide me both personally and professionally as I am constantly working on my personal health and also focusing on the health of Peak-Careers Consulting. Although I had “health” as a word in 2016, I feel that “wellness” is broader, more holistic, and intentional. I am devoting daily time to meditation, quiet time, and recently started doing “Chi Gong” a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing, and meditation used for health, and spirituality.
Intentional. “Deliberate, carefully weighed or considered, studied.”
My philosophy of career development is based on embracing ‘intentional serendipity’ – that you must take actions and be intentional and then be ‘open to discovering something by accident’. So this word ‘intentional’ really feels right. I want to be more intentional this year on reaching out to my network, carving time out daily for journaling and meditation, and also to being deliberate about being with friends and family for social time.
Authentic. “True to one’s own personality, spirit, or character.”
If I remain true to myself, I will do the things I want, and I will have a fulfilling life. (Inspired from Richard Leider’s Life Reimagined book). Staying true to what Peak-Careers Consulting is, will help me move forward in 2017. Peak-Careers provides practical content for career practitioners with a strong dialogue being the driving force. When I write, I try to write from my heart and to give practical useful information for career practitioners.
What drives me is the fact I want to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In my personal life, being authentic means that I will continue to stay positive, maintain my sense of humor, and to continue to care for my family and loved ones.
Have you worked on your 3 words?
If so, can you share your 3 words for 2017 here?
If not…why not give it a try?
Read my 2016 blog on *My 3 Words in 2016. Health. Mindfulness. Focus.
Read Chris Brogans blog on his 3 Words for 2017.
Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.
He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association.
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Hi Jim. Thanks for sharing your three words–you’re brave! (reinforced by willingness to shovel 14 inches of snow-yow!). I read your blog and read Chris’s blog and sort of thought-I should do this and then three words came to me. No tech free retreat, long moments of reflection or anything. They just popped into my head- create, reflect, enjoy. So, my question is: can I trust this? I am not usually someone who can just ‘grab’ this sort of information but I have been doing more thinking (called reflection) esp. during the online class I took with you and these three words reflect what might be outcomes of that internal work but I still am a bit hesitant. How does one know they’ve ‘found the right words’? and how can we, as counselors help our clients to trust their words?
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
If you read my interview with Scott you can see that most years the words came to him very quickly as well. (not this year but most).
I suggest taking a few minutes and fleshing out each word into a paragraph or two that explains what that word means to you and what you might actually do around that word. That’s what I did after I defined each word. I think that will give you more substance on whether it is the right word.
I like your words, create, reflect, and enjoy. That could work for me too! 🙂
Really enjoyed this post, Jim. Giving thought to this today, and I think “authentic” may become one of my words too.
I have my words on my laptop desktop, photo copier, refrigerator, and my bathroom mirror now 🙂 which helps me to process the meaning of these words daily.
Authentic really stands out for me today as I have been thinking about “who I am” and “what I need to do” on a daily basis. Recently I decided that I need to email my Senators and Congressman on a regular basis so they know what I think about issues important to me. I feel like “who I am” needs to be shared and I need to be more action based. This is just one small way that ‘authentic’ has meaning for me.
I could see authentic being a good word for you. Can you tell me why it resonates with you?