My Three Words 2026

I've been using the Three Words planning & focus approach for about 6 or 7 years and I still can't help but hear the My Three Sons theme song every time I say it out loud. That's probably a terrible hook for a blog post, but if you've been here a minute you know that free association, random digressions, and obscure reminiscences are to be expected. (My Three Sons was a TV sitcom that ran from 1960-1972, about a widower (Fred MacMurray) raising his three sons, in case you're not familiar with it. The opening credits/theme are particularly recognizable and memorable. For people of a certain generation, perhaps.)

ANYWAY . . . to the point . . . I first came across Chris Brogan's concept of Three Words about six or seven years ago and I've found it to be one of the most helpful ways to create focus, intention, and coherence for a year. In a nutshell, the idea is simple: you choose three words that will guide your focus, intentions, and attention for the year. They become touchpoints for decision-making—anchors you can return to when things get noisy, complicated, or unexpectedly sideways (which, let’s be honest, is most years).

These words don’t necessarily replace resolutions or goals. Instead, they sit above them. When the New Year / New Me energy fades, or when carefully laid plans change because life happens (and life always has a way of happening), these words provide continuity. They keep you oriented even when the path shifts.

Words and Values

One of the reasons I keep coming back to this practice is that the process of identifying the three words is just as valuable as the words themselves.

This isn’t about picking three words that sound good or feel aspirational. It’s about slowing down long enough to ask:

• What does this year actually need from me?

• What have the last year, or several years, been teaching me?

Which is why I always start with values.

What are the immutable, non-negotiable values that shape how you live, work, and relate to the world?

Naming and clarifying personal values is an intense process in its own right, and if it’s not something you’ve done intentionally, I can’t recommend it enough.

A few years ago, I was introduced (thank you Marc and Emily Pitman the Quadrant 3 Leadership Coaching program) to the work of Brant Menswar and the Black Sheep Foundry values process. It was a game changer. It's something I go back to regularly to ask a simple but sometimes uncomfortable question:

Am I actually living the values I say I believe?

As I go through the process of identifying my three words (which I usually begin sometime in mid-December), I keep those values front and center and ask:

• Are these focal points in line with my values?

• Do they conflict with values anywhere?

• How do they support and reinforce my values?

• Which of my "flock of five" values is this word coming from?

My Three Words 2026

So, with all that said, here are my three words for 2026 and why they matter to me:

INTENTIONALITY:

1. The act or quality of being done with purpose or intent

2. An attitude of purposefulness, with a commitment to deliberate action.

   (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/intentionality)

Intentionality, for me, is about not letting life just happen to me.

I tend to be a reactor rather than in instigator. Saying yes because something showed up. Accumulating things, commitments, plans, and obligations without really stopping to ask whether I actually meant to do any of it. None of it's bad, it's just not a lot of it was chosen. Which means you wind up with a lot of stuff going "what is this and why do I have it?!?" (And by 'stuff' I don't mean just things, I mean situations, obligations, to-do lists . . . all of it.)

Intentionality is the correction to that.

It’s the practice of stopping long enough to ask:

• Do I actually want (to do) this?

• Does it serve the larger goals or purpose or is it a bright shiny object?

• Is this a choice, or just momentum?

• If I say yes here, what am I saying no to somewhere else?

Intentionality doesn’t mean everything has to be optimized or overthought. It just means I’m making decisions on purpose instead of by default, about how I spend my time, where my energy goes, and what I allow into my life.

CURATE:

1. Organize and oversee items in a collection or exhibit

2. Select and present content or information

(https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/curate)

If Intentionality is about choosing on purpose, Curate is about asking: Does this belong in the collection I’m building?

And I really, really debated this one because it's so close to intentionality. Intentionality is a noun, a state of being, an attitude and approach. This is how I am and the lens through which I act. Curate is a verb - this is what I DO.

That collection isn’t just stuff. It’s experiences, relationships, routines, ideas, environments—everything that makes up daily life.

Curate helps me separate:

• Things I chose deliberately from

• Things that just sort of showed up

If something wasn’t chosen with intent, it probably doesn’t belong. Not because it’s bad, but because it doesn’t fit. Curate is how I make sure what I keep actually goes together—emotionally, practically, aesthetically, energetically.

This word gives me permission to edit. To keep what makes sense together. To let go of what doesn’t. And to stop feeling obligated to carry things forward just because they already exist.

Honestly, this one came from some purging we're doing in the house. Like many GenXers our age, our parents have all passed on and through that we've inherited a lot of stuff. While it has family history, it just doesn't belong with the life we live now. Curate also implies NOT choosing other things.

INVITE

1. To act in a way that causes or encourages something to happen or someone to believe or feel something

2. To do something that could cause something else to happen

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/invite)

Solicitation, persuasion, ask, compel, propose . . . I work in fundraising and these are the words we hear to describe our work. So many of them minimize or erase autonomy and agency. They become transactional and compulsory.

But we also talk about belonging and I've begun to wonder if you can ASK or SOLICIT someone into belonging. Including yourself.

Invite, to me, brings choice - agency - back into the equation, because you can always say no to an invitation. An invitation also implies that you're welcome here, this is for you, and you (could) belong here. I also look at an invitation as external - the kinds of invitations we're used to like to an event or party, into a group, to participate in something - and internal - the things we determine are 'for us' and where we belong.

Invite applies not just to events or situations, but to openness - to ideas, people, opportunities, and directions I didn’t map out in advance. It’s the difference between forcing outcomes and creating space for something to take shape.

I'm inviting myself into a more intentional approach to live.

Why Publish These In A Blog?

First, it's because I really find this approach helpful and inspiring and I hope others do, too. When I first came across Chris' approach it was a light bulb moment for me.

Secondly - accountability.

Putting them out there makes them harder to ignore when I’m tired, overwhelmed, or tempted to slip back into old habits. They become a simple check-in point throughout the year:

• Am I choosing this on purpose?

• Does this actually belong?

• Am I forcing—or inviting?

  
  

That’s the framework. Three words. No perfection required. Just a way to stay awake and honest as the year unfolds.