My 3 words for 2017

It's been five years now that I'm giving a direction to the new year by using three words instead of a specific resolution. In 2013, I used kaizen, time and discovery. In 2014, my words were quality, impact and minimalism. Two years ago, I choose health, less and experience to guide me. Finally, last year was shaped by myself, why and truth. I can see a clear path through the way my life is changing, the direction I want to take it and obviously, that those words aren't only a guide through the next 365 days of my life: they are also defining who I am and who I become...

The last two years were specially hard for me mostly due to the loss of the woman of my life, my mom, and the end of my relationship with a woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Anyhow, I'm proud of where I am now and I'm truly excited about next year and even more about my three words.

Freedom

Obviously, being a North American middle-class white male, I'm free in the broad sense of the word. There is no question there and I know I'm lucky! Anyhow, I feel there are improvements to be made in my life when it comes to freedom. One big question I tried to answer in the last two years was "what is happiness for me". It's a simple but complex question, but my answers were always coming back to freedom. Freedom can mean a lot of things depending on your background, your aspiration and who you are. For me, it's about choosing what's more important in my life and let the rest go. It's about having more time for me and the people that I care about. It's about knowing how to say no and understand that there are a limited number of hours per day. It's about flexibility with my professional life and with my schedule. It's about being less dependent to others, to money, to physical things and even location. There are many ways I can continue to go toward that goal, but at the end, more freedom means being happier for me...

Focus

Intense and passionate are two words that describe me well. Being ADHD means having issues to focus, but it also means that when I enjoy or love something, I literally over focus and jump two hundred percent in whatever it is, being a contract, a hobby or even a person. I tend to like many things, wants to try new activities and tend to say yes to help people more often than I should. Being totally conscious that I have limited time in life, I need to focus on a bit more. Focus on the people I love. Focus on contracts within my expertise and things I love to do. Focus on things that matter to me. At the end, it means focusing on myself also. Furthermore, I need to learn that no is a complete answer. That also means I won't please everyone and it's OK. Last but not least, it means I will take more seriously the decision about how to manage my time and how to use it. In a certain way, it's tightly related to freedom...

Now

I'm the king of procrastination, but since I'm also professional and respect people when I give my words, you may not know about it: I always do what I said I'll do and I always deliver quality, no matter what. Still, it created situations in my life and add stress not needed. I'm not looking to be perfect here, far from it, but again, always attached to the freedom I'm looking for, being a bit more proactive may not hurt. It's also not just about achieving stuff: I see this third word as a way to focus (see what I did there) on the present, let the past go and don't worry too much about the future. Again, it's about finding the balance in my life. Now is the time to achieve my dream. Now is the time to work on my goal. Now is the time to live my life...

I'm really looking forward to 2017: I know, the new year imaginary line is psychological, but still, I know next year will be awesome. Not because of what will or won't happen. Not because of what others will do or not. Next year will be amazing because I'll take back my life in my own hands... Time for me to go back to my life manifesto: let's do epic shit my friends!