This is our last new post of 2014. Starting tomorrow, we’re continuing a tradition that we started a few years back – replaying the most popular blog posts of the past year. Thanks to all of you who read our blog, make it a part of your conversations, comment on our posts, and provide me with ideas, feedback, and stimuli to keep it fresh and vital.
So I want to leave you with something to think about as this year winds down. It’s an exercise called “My 3 Words,” and it’s a fascinating way to goal set for the coming year.
I’m not sure who started it, but I believe I first heard about it from social media consultant, author, and speaker C.C. Chapman in his book Amazing Things Will Happen. He has a very simple, yet elegant way of getting us to think about and prioritize what’s important to us in our professional and personal lives.
In this fast-paced, truncated, multi-tasking, 140 characters or less world in which we’re trying to navigate, the idea of boiling down a year’s goals in three words seems daunting. But in many ways, it’s actually pretty simple. The words, after all, are themes. They represent big ideas, and by identifying your three words, you can embellish as you see fit.
But the key to this being a successful exercise is to think of your three words as umbrella concepts that can hopefully guide and focus you through the coming year. By keeping them prominently displayed, you can always return to them over the next 12 months. They aren’t resolutions, but they are goals that should ideally come up again and again in the new year, giving you a chance to make good on them.
By the way, this is also a great exercise if you manage and are responsible for other people. It is amazing to me that there are so many corporate evaluation tools and forms that often need to be filled out. No knock on these processes, but you may find that “My 3 Words” actually gets that job done more effectively and in less time.
The “My 3 Words” process will tell you a great deal about your staffers and how they’re thinking. The end of this year or the beginning of the next one could be an apropos time to exercise a little course correction, especially if your direct reports use words like “revenge” or “slacking” to describe their goals for 2015.
That said, mine are below:
And here’s why I chose them and here’s what they mean to me:
Focus. Many of you know that Jacobs Media (and now jācapps) has been around for a long time now. Over the years, we have been involved in many things, from format consulting to research to conferences to mobile apps to this blog. Sometimes I get so many “great ideas” that they don’t all get finished…or even started. (Just ask my staff.) So for the new year, I’m going to work hard to focus my efforts, say “no” more often to things that will “defocus” me, and really attack some of the big initiatives that matter to me and our companies.
Innovate. This could have been a holdover from 2014 (or any year, for that matter). But as we have all learned – sometimes the hard way – if we stand still, we will go backwards. I am pleased with some of what we were able to accomplish and continue this past year, from the second DASH conference to our “Radio’s Most Innovative” initiative. But for us to continue to have an impact in the automotive space, for example, it is going to require that we go way past what we’ve done before, and continue to take risks and try new things. Hey, that’s also the fun part of owning your own company. It is still not in stone there will be a DASH conference in 2015, but there will be something that is automotive and radio connected. Clearly, however, we need to innovate our own concept.
Learn. It all starts here, but this is often the hardest part. There’s so much input, so many websites and apps, so many new platforms, so many smart people, and so much stimuli, that it is sometimes overwhelming to think about all the new things that are out there that we need to know about. But these are the times in which we live. New innovations, technologies, and ideas are flowing like out of control fire hydrants. We can’t possibly keep up with them all, but I need to make an ongoing commitment to try. For Paul and me, this starts the first week in January as we make our annual trek to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. As always, we will bring back some of this learning right here to this space. We have a responsibility to our clients to stay ahead of the game, look around the corner, always be learning, and then pass those observations and that knowledge onto the people who rely on us for the perspective. Our track record has been pretty good, but we’re not going to continue to excel if we don’t continue an emphasis on learning and discovery.
Thanks again for what you do, for reading the blog, offering comments, sharing the posts, and talking about ways in which we can all do better and grow. I hope that in some small way it helps you make some sense out of the media and technology world around us.
If you care to share “Your 3 Words,” do so in the comments space.
Thanks again.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Wise advice from Radio’s wisest consultant.
A great way for anyone to approach the New Year.
The time has come, Fred when we are no longer the guys “on the way up”.
We are the generation that is now in control of our art, our science, our industry.
We are “The Watchers on The Wall”.
With men like you at that helm, I’m confident Radio will find a way.
All the Best for The Holidays.
Jim Harper-Detroit
(ret.)
Jim, I truly appreciate those kind remarks. And I feel the weight of the moment as traditional media finds itself at those all-important crossroads. All the best to you for a happy, healthy, safe holiday season.
Explore. Rejuvenate. Balance.
Good ones. I especially like “balance,” one I considered, too. Have a great holiday season, Dave, and thanks.
My three words for 2015….
S T R E T C H
ANTICIPATE
UPLIFT
All good ones, Biv. But I especially love “stretch” because it suggests using some of that muscle memory from back in the day. Thanks for taking the time and happy holidays.