My Three Words for 2026
Dec 30, 2025
• • •
What Will 2026 Bring?
• • •
Resolutions are so out of vogue these days.
Goals are too dull to dictate your entire life.
So what’s one to do as the New Year approaches?
An entire year that can pass in a flash and be gone before you know it. A year that is open to a myriad of possibilities. It’s time to set the guardrails for your year, otherwise known around here as your three words for the year!
One isn’t enough; it's too limiting, and unlimited is too much; it's unmanageable!
Three is a perfect number. It’s triangulation.
This exercise originated with Chris Brogan, and I’ve used it for several years running now. I explain it more here, and here, and here. These are words to give you perspective on choices, and when presented with forks in the road.
Words are tools. They’re only powerful if they have meaning to you, and if you commit to them daily and weekly. Aim for action verbs, but of course, it’s not set in stone. You want the words to be simple and easy to remember. If you write them each day, then just by having the thought of them, you start to generate the act of them. Bringing them into your consciousness makes it easier for you to embody the actions these words convey.
Now, if you’ll give me a drum roll, please, I will share my three guiding words for 2026. Here we go:
Time. Strengthen. Simplify.
Let me elaborate.
Time: as in, maker/manager/down(time). As in, make the most of it. It is limited, a constraint, and valuable. As in it something to enjoy, protect, and it’s urgent to respect.
As in… what will you do with it?
Literal definition: (trimmed for clarity)
time | tīm |
noun1 the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole: travel through space and time | our conception of time | one of the greatest wits of all time.
• the progress of time as affecting people and things: things were getting better as time passed.
• time or an amount of time as reckoned by a conventional standard: it's eight o'clock Eastern Standard Time.(Time or Father Time) the personification of time, typically as an old man with a scythe and an hourglass.
Strengthen: to become stronger. To make myself, my mind, and my body stronger. Make my connections stronger. Make my business stronger. Work to make those I serve…stronger.
• • •
What Will 2026 Bring?
• • •
Resolutions are so out of vogue these days.
Goals are too dull to dictate your entire life.
So what’s one to do as the New Year approaches?
An entire year that can pass in a flash and be gone before you know it. A year that is open to a myriad of possibilities. It’s time to set the guardrails for your year, otherwise known around here as your three words for the year!
One isn’t enough; it's too limiting, and unlimited is too much; it's unmanageable!
Three is a perfect number. It’s triangulation.
This exercise originated with Chris Brogan, and I’ve used it for several years running now. I explain it more here, and here, and here. These are words to give you perspective on choices, and when presented with forks in the road.
Words are tools. They’re only powerful if they have meaning to you, and if you commit to them daily and weekly. Aim for action verbs, but of course, it’s not set in stone. You want the words to be simple and easy to remember. If you write them each day, then just by having the thought of them, you start to generate the act of them. Bringing them into your consciousness makes it easier for you to embody the actions these words convey.
Now, if you’ll give me a drum roll, please, I will share my three guiding words for 2026. Here we go:
Time. Strengthen. Simplify.
Let me elaborate.
Time: as in, maker/manager/down(time). As in, make the most of it. It is limited, a constraint, and valuable. As in it something to enjoy, protect, and it’s urgent to respect.
As in… what will you do with it?
Literal definition: (trimmed for clarity)
time | tīm |
noun1 the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole: travel through space and time | our conception of time | one of the greatest wits of all time.
• the progress of time as affecting people and things: things were getting better as time passed.
• time or an amount of time as reckoned by a conventional standard: it's eight o'clock Eastern Standard Time.(Time or Father Time) the personification of time, typically as an old man with a scythe and an hourglass.
Strengthen: to become stronger. To make myself, my mind, and my body stronger. Make my connections stronger. Make my business stronger. Work to make those I serve…stronger.
Literal definition:
strengthen | ËstreNG(k)TH(É)n |
verbmake or become stronger: [with object] : he advises an application of fluoride to strengthen the teeth | [no object] : the wind won't strengthen until after dark.
Simplify: make my daily life easier. I tend to complicate things and am actively seeking to change that. I want to simplify across the board. How I live, work, create, teach, write…how I show up in this world.
Literal definition:
simplify | ËsimplÉËfÄ« |
verb (simplifies, simplifying, simplified) [with object]make (something) simpler or easier to do or understand.
Now that I've shared my words for 2026, I hope you’ll take time to do this exercise. Then go and have your best year yet.
• • •
My 3 words:
2026: Time. Strengthen. Simplify
2025: Story, Moxie, Cultivate
2024: Mend, Specificity, Write
2023: Move, Practice, Create
2022: Balance, Breathe, Develop
2021: Intentional, presence, nurture
