My wonderful niece Megan recently blogged about choosing her three words for 2015. This is an activity she’s done the last few years: picked three words to inspire and motivate her throughout the year. They reflect the main themes she is working on in her life.

I really like this idea. I have been creating my 2015 Annual Plan and several words have popped up during the process. My annual plan has categories such as Health, Friends and Family, and Writing. Each category has measurable goals (aka “desired outcomes”) with tasks and deadlines. The format is just like one I used during my years in corporate life, but it’s a lot more fun using it to focus and create my own life rather than to build a marketing communications plan for Teradyne!

They say that plagiarism is the ultimate form of flattery, so in that spirit, I will steal Megan’s idea (which I believe she took from someone named Chris Brogan). Here are my three words for 2015:

Prolific: This word applies to my writing. This year I want to be prolific in my writing practice. I want to generate lots of writing, with more focus on quantity than quality. My belief is that the more I write, the better I will write. With quantity will come quality. I have the skills and experience to edit anything. It’s generating material that I need to work on. Plus, by ignoring quality for now, I can ignore the evil inner critic who stops me from writing in the first place. Take that, Inner Critic!

Outsource: It’s come to my attention that I feel burdened by the minutiae of life. Running errands, grocery shopping, taking stuff to thrift shops and recycling centers, picking up and dropping off “stuff” seem to consume too much time, planning, and mental energy. I also find that I never get my digital photos organized, edited, and shared in a timely manner….if at all. So this year I am going to outsource these pesky tasks. I plan to hire a TaskRabbit or two, or maybe just a hire personal assistant. I have more time than money, so I feel this is an excellent use of disposable income.

Simplify: This is a tough one for me. I like complexity, and I tend to make things more complex than necessary. But I feel the need to simplify and streamline my life, my activities, my “stuff.” Too much complexity just makes me feel exhausted and scattered. Almost every area of my life can benefit from simplifying. For example, this month I am doing a Whole30 eating program. An unexpected and surprising bonus is that the program has simplified grocery shopping, cooking, and eating. I have a plan, I know what to eat and what not to eat. One less thing to think about.

So those are my three words for 2015. I plan to write these on my bathroom mirror with my dry erase marker and look at them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I hope you will take the time to choose three words for your own life. Maybe 2015 will be your best year if you do!