One Word. Encapsulate the year in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2017 for you?

From years past: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010

The one word that captures this year:

Unexpected

Last year, the word was Goal and I hoped that 2016 would be about Confidence. Interestingly, it wasn’t. I published my book, but didn’t expect that the marketing would be difficult. I applied to jobs, but didn’t expect that the job I wanted would turn out the way it did. I achieved the goal of giving talks at conferences, but didn’t expect that the intended goals from giving those talks would be less than I wanted. And most of all, I certainly didn’t expect the election to end up the way it resulted.

Everything is not what I expected.

I was able to achieve my short-term goals, but the long-term goal wasn’t achieved. So what’s left is disappointing. Or in a different perspective, it’s simply unexpected. There’s an opportunity for change and improvement, so it’s not wholly negative.

Next year, the word should be Improvement. I want things to change. So this time, instead of looking for a goal that I hope would lead into my goal, let’s make sure that both of those goals are actually aligned. The first step should always lead to the second step that I actually want.

It wasn’t supposed to be this hard, but it was.

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A video posted by Jenn Ng (@jennism) on Jun 4, 2016 at 10:29am PDT