Inspired by the inimitable Christopher S. Penn (who, in turn, learned it from the very erudite Chris Brogan), and with the new year only three days away, I felt it appropriate that the first true post on this blog would be to assemble my three words for 2012. This isn’t about setting SMART goals, or creating a performance plan, but rather establishing guidelines – precepts or ground rules, if you will – to keep my life, both personally and professionally, moving forward in an orderly fashion for the coming year. While I was in the process of putting together these three words, I tried to keep in mind the old adage that anything worth attaining doesn’t come easily, and while, as I said, these words are not goals, per se, they are protocols for my life in the next 366 days, and so I did my best to make sure that it would take consistent, everyday effort to implement these concepts into my thoughts, words and actions.

And so, my three words for 2012.

Serenity

“Grant me the Serenity: To accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

While commonly associated with twelve-step and other self-help groups, the so-called Serenity Prayer contains ideas which can be applied to everyone’s daily life. Let’s break it down:

• Accept: It is an inescapable facet of human nature – we like to be in control of our environments and the events happening around us. But there are many more things in life besides death and taxes that we absolutely cannot change, and an essential part of moving forward is to come to terms with the fact that there are forces far more powerful than ourselves.
• Courage: Be it a lifestyle change, a switch of careers, cutting out a negative presence in your life, what have you, there are, in fact, things we can change, and having the courage to do so is an important skill to have.
• Wisdom: This could be an entire word for 2012 unto itself. Knowing how to realize the difference between the changeable and the immutable, that quality of discernment, is the ultimate key to serenity. This requires patience and humility.

The part of this I have the most difficulty with is, and has been for quite some time, acceptance. I will freely admit that I have a very hard time coming to terms with the idea that there are, in fact, elements of life and the world around me that I am not – and, in some cases, will never be – able to change. Applying this humility, this sense of acceptance, will be an endeavor, but a worthwhile one, for through it, as well as the principles of courage and wisdom — discernment, even – I can have serenity as a guiding tenet of my daily life in 2012.

Initiative

“For whatever reasons, Ray, call it … fate, call it luck, call it karma … I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe that we were destined to get thrown out of this dump. … To go into business for ourselves.” – Ghostbusters (1984)

I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Penn at the WhatCounts Email Marketing Summit in Las Vegas in October 2011. We discussed several topics over the course of the two-day event, but one idea kept coming up on a fairly regular basis: “If you want it, go get it.”

With very few exceptions, the things we desire in life don’t just happen to us: They must be found, pursued, vied for and ultimately attained. A promotion, a more productive garden, to clean the attic that’s been dogging you for years, a new home, earning more money, weight loss, learning a musical instrument, improved email marketing and Web metrics, silencing the neighbor’s dog that barks all night long (I kid, I kid), so on and so forth – all of these and more don’t simply pop out of thin air.

While in the digital marketing world I am quite fond of saying that complacency kills (and it does), and that nothing is too sacred to be changed (or, as my friend Sean McGarry says, “Just get weird with it”), through reflection I have come to realize that despite advocating for initiative in marketing, I have done a poor, even unacceptable, job in taking initiative in my own life, personally and professionally. While I enjoy and love what I do – email marketing, social media and Web development – and I have a very nice apartment, why haven’t I done more? Why haven’t I further refined my skills as a photographer, even though I’ve been shooting for more than a decade? Why haven’t I learned new software and techniques in video editing? Why haven’t I picked up a guitar, despite talking about it for the last several years? Why haven’t I re-alphabetized my DVDs in nearly two years? Why the hell haven’t I learned how to write PHP or other code beyond HTML and CSS?

Simple: Because I have gotten comfortable with the status quo, and as a result I have not implemented initiative into my everyday life. Change doesn’t come to us – we make it happen.

Perspective

“It’s just a ride.” ­– Bill Hicks

(Yes, I do recognize the irony of quoting someone who once said that anyone in marketing or advertising should kill themselves.)

One of the most important skills in life is to know when to step back for a moment. Whether walking away from your computer to clear one’s mind from a coding problem, or needing to calm down during an argument with a friend or significant other, or even (metaphorically) slapping oneself in the face to remind yourself that no, you are not, in fact, the most important person on Earth, we must always endeavor to keep a sense of perspective.

A good friend likes to remind me, “Deal with today on today’s terms, and let tomorrow come on its own.” This isn’t a principle I’ve ever been terribly good at practicing in my daily life. Inevitably, inexorably, I begin sweating the small stuff, and before long, I’ve stopped worrying about today and instead spun myself into a hundred different directions, which then renders my productivity and my efficiency nil.

This isn’t to say one shouldn’t have goals and be focused upon those goals, far from it. Without goals, you’re simply spinning your wheels, accomplishing tasks without any real sense of project- or end-oriented purpose. But the key is to get out of our own way, and we do so by keeping perspective, by evaluating everything on its own merits and not blowing things out of proportion — nor, for that matter, minimizing them. As Hicks said, “Hey. Don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.”

That’s how 2012 is looking for me.

What are your three words for 2012? Leave a comment below!

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