A Year In Review
In my last Four For Friday blog, I told you about Tim Ferris's yearly habit of reviewing his past year, as a process of making resolutions for the new one ahead. I said that I was going to try it out, and...I did.
Positives and Negatives
2018 was the first year that I kept a handwritten daily calendar, with goals, and personal and professional checkboxes. Daily Step Count! Monthly Income! Blogs! Meeting up with friends! Travel! Pretty much everything I had to do, did, wanted, or didn't get, is recorded there in one way or another.
Per Tim's instructions, I grabbed a notebook and made two columns - "Positive" and "Negative". I went through my calendar week by week, and rated every event, appointment, checklist, etc, as either one or the other. I did it in one sitting. It took about three hours. The ultimate goal, once you're done, is to immediately calendar more of the most positive events in the coming year, and figure out how to do less of the negative ones.
The Trouble With Work
I had a hard time rating work tasks in either category. The stuff that I was getting paid to do was neither negative or positive, it just had to get done, you know? First big revelation, though: Over 52 weeks, I saw that everything did got done. Checkboxes (huge fan) were getting checked off, or they were getting carried over to another day/week, and getting checked off there. Pretty much everything had an "X" next to it. I completed a few new projects, and I even finally finished Marie Forleo's B-School .
The Positives
I also noticed was my immediate reaction to reviewing positive events as they come up. Hanging out with my friends. Working from Disneyland for the day because I had an annual passport and I could. The weeks where I wrote my daily wedding tips on time and/or ahead of schedule. The big work wins, like when I tracked down a specific, almost-out-of-stock wedding dress in New York so my bride could try it on during a business trips. Finding a new rental company for another wedding because the one they'd put down a deposit with cancelled their order because- true story - they had too many other events that weekend. Yes, I'm still bitter. Performing a wedding ceremony in my own backyard for the first time. Launching this new business on schedule, and with two gigs on the books. Reliving it felt great.
I went into this exercise feeling like 2018 was not that great a year for me. After going through my calendar, I realized how much I'd actually accomplished . Weddings successfully executed. Crazy huge metaphorical couches moved across rooms. Starting a new business from scratch. 365 Wedding Tips written and submitted. Bills paid, travel made, fun and laughter literally from coast to coast. I was so stressed about what had didn't work, or didn't happen, that I never acknowledge what did come through. I got a lot of stuff done, because I'm a woman who gets a lot of stuff done. In 2019, I'm going to appreciate that trait a lot more.
The Negatives
A nightmare of a website relaunch where I wasn't being listened to and kept letting it go. A disaster of an online workshop. A couple of failed collaborations, where, again, I wasn't being heard, and let it go. I had multiple frustrations over missed financial goals, and figuring figure out what was next for me professionally. In April, my laptop was stolen out of my car, two weeks before my next wedding. I had to buy another one ASAP, and replace the shattered car window. Two separate family health scares. It was an expensive year, in many, many ways, you guys.
But, "Figure out how to do less of the negatives" is a little more complicated. A few things happened this year that I couldn't control. For those that I could, I recognized a lot of familiar mistakes. Forgetting that if something starts off badly, it's usually will not get any better. Focusing on what someone else is doing "for" me, as opposed to what I actually need . I learned all of that - again - in 2018. In 2019, I'm going to pay more attention to my instincts and devote more of my time to long-term planning. I'm ready to work on those every day.
The Takeaway
The biggest takeaway for me was a better perspective on how 2018 really went down, and why. Celebrated my accomplishments and mourned my losses. I understood why I won and lost in each instance. I see now how I can do better this year and feel better about what I'm doing. Reviewing the year behind me definitely lead to solid resolutions for this year. The surprise was that it has less to do with adding and deleting events and tasks but more to do with changing my mindset.
What are your goals and resolutions for 2019? What project, program or back-up do you need right now to make this a great year for you and your business? Contact me and let me know, or click here to get on my calendar for a free 30-minute consultation.
I'll talk to you soon,
