So, this year I'm again employing the @chrisbrogan "My Three Words" process to my yearly goals. Actually, not so much goals as much as "focus points" for what I hope to accomplish in 2011. I did this last year – focusing on Read Play & Share – and as I reviewed last year, I think I did "okay."
In the continued effort of public accountability – here are my 2011 focus words – Mastery, Replication, Inheritance.
Mastery – This one is more "career" focused. 2011 is a heavy technical certification year for me. This is the first year since 2002 where I have not started the year in vocational ministry of somesort. Through Seminary, LifeChurch.tv, Fielder, Southeast, and then LifeChurch.tv again, I've been heavily focused on doing "Church IT" for much of the last decade. Now that I've moved to Mirazon, I need to spin up on many Industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware and maybe add some to my Cisco toolbelt as well. I'm not after certifications just to add letters to my email signature though. Part of our various partnerships require certain number of certified engineers. I am one of about 20 engineers and we have plenty of "letters" here. I'm looking to specifically focus on adding the most value to my employer here.
Replication – This one is more "community" focused. I am currently active in two "iron sharpening" relationships with some cool guys. We talk about life and leadership and read a few books, and generally try to build each other up as husbands, dads, employees and leaders. This is good, and I really enjoy those times. However, I am looking to further this and "replicate myself" at work as well. This is not an assignment by our partnership team – this is something I really want to do. I do not believe I am a perfect/target employee; however, I do think I possess many leadership & administrivia abilities that would be helpful. There are some engineers here where I can help grow them technically. There are other engineers much more experience and proficient than I am technically but could use some other leadership/administrivia growth. I simply want to make sure my eyes are open for opportunities here.
Inheritance – This one is more "family" focused. I am becoming more acutely aware at how much my children pay attention to what I say. They pick up not only on my words, but also my attitude and stress levels. I tried hard to learn more about "play" last year with my kids, but this year I HOPE – hope hope hope – to focus more on teaching them how to be young men. Nathan is our oldest, and very tenderhearted. I want him to to really embrace his role as "family leader" and "example" for his younger brothers. Jacob is a pest. I'll just say it. He's the middle child and stuck in the middle of Nathan and Andrew. His "whining" and "picking" is starting to affect Andrew (the youngest). I am wanting to teach Jacob how special his role his – having BOTH an older brother to learn from and a younger brother to help teach. Andrew is our youngest and he's really starting to come into his own. This year he's going to expand his vocabulary, understanding, and enter his terrible twos. I'm not going to handle that well, but I hope I can focus my "frustrations" into more teaching moments and less yelling moments.
There ya go – Three simple words. Let's see how 2011 goes!
What about you? What are YOU going to focus on this year?