What if your entire next year could fit on a keychain?
Yes. A keychain. Seriously.
Not every appointment, ambition, and item on your to-do list. But the heart of it: who you want to become, where you want to go, and what you need to remember when everything else gets noisy.
One word. One short phrase. Maybe an image or a symbol. Something physical that you hold in your hand almost every day.
I keep coming back to this little idea because it starts with a much bigger question: Before you ask everyone else what they want from you, have you asked yourself what you want?
Who Are You Asking: Your Customers or Yourself?
I was listening to Ryan Levesque talk with Amy Porterfield on her podcast, and something stopped me in my tracks.
Ryan wrote a book called Ask. So did I, by the way. His work is about asking customers what they want, and in this conversation he described a realization that came years later: he had spent so much time asking other people that he had neglected to ask himself.
What do I want? What do I need? How am I taking care of myself?
Those are not small questions. And they are remarkably easy to skip when you have customers, clients, a business, a family, a spouse, and a dog all needing something from you.
It is the oxygen mask principle. Take care of yourself first so you have something left to give.
This is not an argument against listening to your customers. It is a reminder to include yourself in the conversation. Your business can respond beautifully to everyone else's needs while the person running it is running on empty.
Why I Keep Coming Back to the Year of You
There are some big changes happening in my life. After ten years in a little town in the Netherlands, we moved to Utrecht. It is gorgeous. Next year, the plan is Italy.
Big personal changes tend to bring professional changes along with them. Where do I want to put my energy? What work do I want to do? What am I ready to leave behind?
I have been doing a pretty good job of narrowing my focus to three things:
- The Year of You.
- Public speaking.
- Tacos.
Yes, tacos. We can discuss that another time.
The one I keep returning to is the Year of You: taking care of yourself and deliberately shaping the coming year. Maybe it becomes your best year yet. Maybe it is simply better than this past year. That counts, too.
The point is to ask who the next version of you will be, then find a way to keep that intention close.
And somehow, after all my books, videos, and years of working on these ideas, I have arrived at a keychain.
Seriously? Seriously.
Why a Keychain Instead of Another Big Plan?
I have explored plenty of ways to give an idea a physical or creative form: a poster, a postcard, a book, a phone background, even a song.
A book can be wonderful. It is also a bigger commitment. There is more to create, more to work through, more to carry.
A keychain is small. It is attached to something you already use. You pick up your keys to leave the house, open the door, or head to work, and there it is.
Your direction for the year, in your hand.
A phone background could do something similar, and if that works for you, great. But I like having my wife, my dog, or a photograph from Italy on my phone. I do not necessarily want my annual intention competing for that space.
The keychain gives it a place of its own.
Think of it as a keepsake, a talisman, or a little guiding light. Not something that does the work for you, but something that reminds you what the work is for.
It can help you return to the clarity, courage, and confidence you wanted when you first planned your year. And you do not need to open an app or find a document to encounter it.
Designing Your Keychain: What Belongs on It?
The first question is not where to buy it. The first question is what it means.
I cannot choose that meaning for you. I can help you uncover it, but this is your year. Your word. Your path forward.
Here is how I think about turning that into a design.
1. Ask What You Want From the Coming Year
Start with the questions that are so easy to direct toward everyone else:
- What do I want?
- What do I need?
- How do I want to take care of myself?
- Who do I want to become in the coming year?
Before you decide what a keychain should look like, give yourself room to answer those questions. The object comes later. You come first.
2. Find the Shortest Meaningful Expression
Is it one word? A tagline? An image? A symbol?
It needs to be short enough to fit and clear enough to recognize. We are not putting a paragraph on a keychain. You should not have to find your reading glasses to decipher your guiding light.
The challenge is to distill your intention, not squeeze every goal into tiny lettering.
3. Choose Something You Want to Hold
Now we can talk materials. Metal? Plastic? Glass? Gold or silver? Acrylic? Something rubberized and bendable?
Shiny or matte? Smooth or flexible? What would feel right in your hand?
I like the rubberized idea, although those can get dirty and be harder to clean. Clearly, I have spent some time thinking about keychains.
These choices are part of making the object yours. It is something you intend to carry regularly, so how it feels matters alongside how it looks.
4. Keep the Design Simple
You can include a symbol that connects to your future, but resist the temptation to include your whole life story.
A keychain has a useful limitation: it makes you choose.
What matters enough to come with you every day?
My 2027 Keychain Says GEAU
My word is GEAU, pronounced “go.”
Not G-O. G-E-A-U.
GEAU is the name I have given my gut, that part of me that helps make decisions. Sometimes my gut says it is go time. Sometimes it says to let something go.
Same sound. Two useful reminders.
My keychain idea is rubberized, with a little Vespa because of our planned move to Italy. There is blue sky and there are puffy white clouds, because I really like puffy white clouds.
That combination means something to me. It does not have to mean the same thing to anyone else.
That is important. Your keychain is not a product you need to sell or an accessory you need to show off. It is for you. Its meaning could even be a secret.
Someone else might see a scooter and a funny word. I see a reminder of how I want to make decisions and where I am heading.
You May Not Need More Ideas. You May Need a Conversation.
“But Bradley, I do not know my word. I do not know what my keychain should look like.”
I suspect you know more than you think.
It may be less a matter of inventing an answer and more a matter of uncovering one. Imagine an attic filled with old socks, photo albums, dust, and things you have not touched in years. Somewhere underneath is the little gem you are looking for.
The gem is there. There is just a lot sitting on top of it.
This is where an interview can help. Not a public interview. Not something destined for my channel. A private conversation in which I ask questions, follow ideas, and help draw out what matters to you.
I have done versions of this with people before, including a conversation with a friend while walking in the woods. It does not have to feel like filling out a form or completing homework. It can feel like having a chat.
You still supply the meaning. My role is to help you hear it more clearly.
The $500 Keychain: A Thought Experiment in Value
There was another idea in that Ryan Levesque conversation that made me uncomfortable in a useful way: who has the money, and what do they want?
His point, as I took it, was that a low-priced, information-only offer may find itself competing with an AI bot. What would a high-touch, high-value VIP version of your service look like instead?
Of course, my mind went straight back to the keychain.
What if someone likes the idea but does not want to work through the process alone? What if they are short on time and happy to pay for help?
My friend Spencer once put his available resources at something like five minutes and twenty bucks. But another person might say, “I would rather pay you to help make this happen.”
Those are different needs. They suggest different ways of delivering the same underlying idea.
A Private Chat, Then a Personal Creation
The VIP version I am imagining could begin with a private, hour-long Zoom conversation. You show up. We talk. I ask questions and help uncover the information needed to create your keychain for the coming year.
The outline is simple:
- Have the conversation. Talk privately about what you want, need, and see ahead.
- Uncover the meaning. Find the word, phrase, or symbol that captures your direction.
- Bring it into physical form. Translate that meaning into a personal keychain design.
This is an idea I am exploring, not a claim that a finished $500 package is already in place. I still need to work out the manufacturing side.
But the price makes the question interesting. Five hundred dollars for a keychain?
As a piece of rubber or metal, that sounds ridiculous. As a shorthand for a personal conversation, help finding your direction, and a custom object that carries that meaning, we are discussing something different.
And yes, “my $500 keychain” would probably start a few conversations.
What Is the VIP Version of Your Business?
There is a question here for your own work, too.
What would the most personal, high-touch version of your offer look like? Where could you replace effort your customer does not want to spend with attention and guidance they would value?
Not everyone wants more information. Some people want help turning what is already inside them into something clear and usable.
In my case, the physical result might be tiny. The conversation behind it would not be.
What Would Your Keychain Say?
Maybe a keychain is not your thing. Maybe you would rather have a postcard, a poster, a book, or a phone background. The format should serve you, not the other way around.
But I keep coming back to something small, physical, custom, and close at hand.
Something that belongs to you and reminds you of the year you are choosing to build.
So picture picking up your keys next year. There is one word, one short phrase, or one image attached to them. You know why it is there.
If your next year had to fit on a keychain, what would yours say?
The Year of You |
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It's All About You |
| Today Is the Day |
