#My3Words for 2026
In which the Universe gifts three words to guide my heart and work for the next four seasons...
Happy 2026, Gregorian calendar lovers and planners!
I’m coming out of a favorite annual ritual I get to do with Ixchel — 13 Mystical/Magical Nights. I’m planning a separate reflection piece about that, but in a nutshell, I wrote down 13 intentions/wishes for 2026 — in a journal and on slips of paper. Since Winter Solstice, I’ve been burning one of those slips of paper to release the intention to the Universe. 12 Magical Nights, 12 intentions cast into smoke for the Universe to carry. Tomorrow, Jan 2, I’ll get to look at the 13th wish, which is mine to work on and manifest.
That’s one ritual I look forward to every year, with so much reverence.
The second one is Chris Brogan’s #My3Words challenge, which he’s been doing since 2006 — in which we pick three words to be lodestars for our creative, professional, and community work in the new year.
Reflecting on my 3 Words for 2025 and how they showed up for me this year…
Gallup: As in Simon, badass bass player for The Cure (vs. the polling company of the same name 😉). Simon has such a deep, signature tone and style that I fucking love. Gallup, as a lodestar for me, was about stepping more into my me-ness this year. Being more visible.
I think I did a decent job of that, algorithms be damned. I even convinced myself to fire up my dormant TikTok account and get on video here at the close of the year. It was probably the word that I met with the most resistance, but I’m introverted and skew toward being more socially awkward than not. I’ll take the showing up Wins.
Aperture: This was about widening perspectives in 2025, my own and for others, directly or indirectly. New ways of seeing and being. More than a dozen tech events produced this year contributed to that. But I also published more and tried to be useful and novel. But also writing and publishing more. Showing up, supporting, and sharing across LinkedIn, Bluesky (for photography), and Threads.
Aperture was also a commitment to a photography habit and practice, purely for cup-filling joy. A thing I practiced, with some fallow periods of retrograde. But I’ve renewed my devotion for 2026 by setting a Big Hairy Goal to become a serious practicing photographer.
Mycelial: Being a resource, a bridge, a connector. Bringing people together is the work and reward of event production, so check, check, and check in many ways. As 2025 got more and more dysfunctional, as I witnessed more small business owners, creators, and freelancers in states of stress from having to do everything alone, my curiosity toward collective work has really grown. The Mycelial for the new year that’s showing up in my 3 Words for 2026
I felt way more connected to these all year. I was more intentional about weaving them into my seasonal/lunar and weekly planning sessions, and these lodestar words felt purposeful and connected.
I like my word choices to be novel enough to keep me interested enough to use them as anchor points throughout the year. They’re personal to me, and I honestly don’t spend a lot of time sharing them with others (other than here as part of the ritual). So it’s OK if they feel a little esoteric to the outside observer.
These are mine for 2026 (for the Winter Solstice-to-Winter Solstice period) that I’m pretty stoked have surfaced for me as lodestar words for next year:
Quest
2026 is my Year of Yes. More surrender, curiosity, adventure, learning, and collaboration. More Flow. More deepening into our Mexico life and relationships with our neighbors and the greater community. Striving to treat every day as a Choose Your Own Adventure wherever I can. I think I understand the assignment, and I’m here for it.
This is also a nod to Questlove, whom I revere for his brilliant gifts of music knowledge and curation. A year of Quest and discovery needs a bigger soundtrack. I’m committing at least half of my listening time to new artists and new genres outside of my usual post-punk / shoegaze / swampy / prog rock / metal / trip hop / downtempo lanes. I want to learn from Questlove and how he hears and curates music, and get really good at that myself, for funsies.
Collectivo
2026 is primed to be the year of collectivism. The year of We. It’s the thing that I’m planning to spend most of my focus on this year. By the end of 2025, the number of social posts I saw from entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, small business owners, artists, and freelancers in a state of stress and exhaustion was heartbreaking. All mirroring some Sisyphus version of being isolated, doing their thing alone, dealing with ridiculous headwinds from a shitty, broken system.
We don’t have to do it alone. We shouldn’t have to, anyway. Here in Mexico, there are collectives of taxistas, agriculture/growers, manufacturing, etc. But the collectivo spirit also shows up in things like a shared retail space, occupied by several different small, independent businesses, and it works.
Let’s let 2026 be a year where we come together in weird, unexpected collectives to support each other’s success in business and life, grounded in systems of mutual aid and reciprocity. It’s the medicine we need when it’s a handful of yt men at the controls of our systems.
Provecho
One of my favorite living practices that people do in Mexico is to say “Buen Provecho” when you enter or leave a restaurant or cafe. (‘Provecho’ is the casual variation and adheres to Chris’s ‘rules’ for these 3 Words 😂)
That can be something as simple as a cup of coffee (Coatepec has amazing coffee), or a full, fancy meal.
How natural, generous, and wonderful an ecstatic it is, to show a simple kindness to another human — that you’re psyched for them that they’re about to enjoy a really good cafecito or meal. It’s a generous wishing for someone else’s pleasure, enjoyment, fulfillment.
It’s a mantra and blessing I’m carrying into 2026, literally and metaphorically speaking.
These are feeling LIT. Thanks to Chris for planting this ritual in my practice so many years ago. Here’s to a JOYFUL, hopeful, buoyant 2026 for each of us!
Hola! If you’re new here, I’m Jaimey, founder of Bearfuht Labs. I love to help impact-focused SMBs and nonprofits build regenerative business operations and project systems that breathe—so your team can focus on the work that matters instead of fighting broken systems.
If your operations feel overwhelming, your team is burned out, or you’re holding too many bags, let’s chat! DM me or visit bearfuht.com to book a free coffee chat.