How to make this your best year yet
Making this your best year yet will not be easy or painless, it will however be worth it. So often we stay in the comfort zone or maybe we gather up our courage and walk to the edge, take a peek at the abyss below us and suddenly forget that if we take that leap of faith we may be granted wings to soar.If you are ready for your best year, then please join me and ask yourself these (somewhat difficult) questions and then do the most important part: take action!
Insanity
The well known definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Now I ask you - is there a part of your life in which you are insane?
It's very likely that we can all answer yes to this question. I certainly can. I want my micro business to grow, yet I keep doing what I've been doing all along. Writing the same types of blogposts, working on patterns when I feel like it, which truth be told isn't very often, because most days, after work I'm 'too tired', or so I tell myself. I keep telling myself I'm committed to making this a profitable business, but telling myself isn't enough, I have to take action as well.
There may be more than one area of your life, in which your actions and expectations aligns with the definition of insanity, if that is the case then choose one, the most pressing one, the one you feel most uncomfortable with, the one that will bring the most and best change to your life and focus on that area in 2015.
Full Disclosure
As you may know my theme for 2015 is Full Disclosure. It stared out as full disclosure towards you, but I've come to realise that it means so much more - it means full disclosure towards me. No longer will I be kidding myself, wondering why things aren't moving faster, when I put in so much effort... When in fact I'm not putting in nearly as much effort, as I though I was. So look at the area of your life you just decide to focus on and ask yourself this: Are you being completely honest with yourself? Are you telling yourself lies and more importantly, are you believing them? Identify at least one lie you are telling yourself in regards to your chosen area.
Failing to plan...
Another famous saying is that if you fail to plan you plan to fail, that is why you need a plan to even have a shot at making this your best year yet. Make a list of 12 small things you would like to focus on inside the limits of your area this year. These aren't goals, they are sub-areas to focus on, you could even do 4 bigger headings with 3 goals each. You'l need 12 in order to have a new focus each month. I'll show you about mine to illustrate what I mean:
Blogposts
- Evergreen
- Quality over quantity
- Compilations
Social meadia stragegy
Patterns
- Layout
- E-book
- marketing
Education
- Pattern writing
- Designing new pieces
- Techniques
Make some goals!
Now it's time to make some goals for your sub-areas, preferably SMART goals, that is goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. First of all your goal should be Specific, it can't be 'work on my blog', it has to be something like 'come up with ideas for evergreen content'. Now Measurability comes into play and it's an important one, you can't just say you want to come up with ideas for evergreen posts, that way, if you come up with two you have succeed, because that fits the plural of your goal, instead make it your goal to come up with 2, 12 or 24 (you get the point) ideas for evergreen content. Your goal also needs to be Achievable, but make sure at leat one of your goals for the month is a bit of a stretch, while still Realistic: what can you expect to get done? The Timely bit mostly gives itself in this case, as you have one month where that specific sub-area is your focus, so make sure you can get it done in one month.
Work the plan
Each month you'll focus on a new sub-area and it's specific goals, for example in January I focus on coming up with evergreen content for this blog (kinda like this post, genius, right?!) and then come February my focus will be on quality over quantity, but I'll still keep the evergreen aspect in mind. Thus each month you'll add a new aspect to focus on while you build on the past months' sub-areas. By December 31st you'll have done a complete overhaul of your chosen area in life.
Now go out and take that leap of faith!
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