The New Year always comes with resolutions, goals and evaluations of last year’s performance. We make top 10 lists, list our best blog posts, review our accomplishments, name people of the year. It feels natural at the end of the year to look back and think ahead.
Some people create new year’s resolutions. Others choose words for the year. Some create year end reviews. Some do both.
Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, it’s helpful to take a step back and think about where you’ve been and where you’re going.
A brief review
2012 has been a year full of change and transition for me. If you’ve been reading along this year, you know I quit my job and left the corporate world behind. I started my own business. I moved back in with my parents.
Some things went well. Lots of things didn’t turn out how I had hoped. But as I look ahead at 2012, I’m excited about what it holds. A year ago, I was far less optimistic.
In the midst of all of my major life changes, I forgot to celebrate the victories. Maybe they’re small in the overall scheme of things, but as I was filling out Benny’s Annual Review sheet, I realized that I did accomplish things that I’m very proud of. I biked my first century. I started my own business. I made a commitment to pursue things that matter instead of letting other people tell me how to spend my time.
I still have a long way to go, but I think I’ll look back on 2011 as a turning point where I decided that I wasn’t content settling for what others expected of me. I wasn’t content settling for a life without inspiration, purpose or excitement. I wasn’t content to live for retirement.
My 3 words
I really like Chris Brogan’s idea to choose 3 words as my theme for the upcoming year. My words for 2012 are: Create, Action and Consistency.
Create: In 2011, I spent a lot of time researching and learning. I read lots of books and eBooks and blogs. And I’ll continue to read and learn, but I want to put more of an emphasis on creating instead of learning. I can’t just read about how to blog or write or make money online. I have to take actions to get me there. I’ve been slowly making progress on this during the last 6 months, but I want to get even better in 2012.
Action: It’s easy to get into a passive mode where I read 50 blog posts before accomplishing the important tasks. It’s easy to hit snooze 7 times instead of getting up early to exercise. It’s easy to dream and hope instead of taking steps to make my dreams a reality. I don’t want to store up ideas for later. I want to act on them today.
Consistency: It feels like I was all over the place in 2011. I moved from Boston to Denver. I found new friends. I started new activities. I experimented and tried new things. I worked several part time jobs. I was inconsistent as I discovered how to make money and how to spend my time. This year, I want to be more consistent instead of so fragmented.
12-3-1 Strategic Plan
While I love having these 3 words to guide my year, I also think it’s important to plan out specific steps that will help me accomplish my goals for the year. I took some time last week to develop my 12-3-1 Strategic Plan for the year. This plan incorporates my business, blogging and monetary goals for 2012.
The idea is to spend some time, but not too much time crafting a strategic plan with specific goals for the year. If you’ve ever worked in corporate America, you know that large corporations start strategic plans in October. Much time is put into forecasts, plans, predictions and strategies. Then once these plans are approved for the year, it’s almost impossible to change them. I spent hours developing PowerPoint presentations with hundreds of slides and Excel spreadsheets with forecasts to help with strategic plans that were outdated by February 1st.
The 12-3-1 strategic plan is simple. It fits on one piece of paper. It doesn’t have hundreds of PowerPoint slides and Excel models to back it up.
You simply list out 4-10 goals for the next 12 months. Then list the specific steps you need to take in the next 3 months to accomplish your goals. Next, determine what you need to do in the next month to make progress toward your goals.
Each week, you can use your strategic plan to populate your to-do list for the week. Instead of trying to plan a year in advance, this plan allows you to plan each quarter. For more information on the 12-3-1 plan, read this.
What it means for the Boomerang Kid
As I’ve been thinking about my plans for the year, I’ve naturally been thinking about my plans for this blog. I started this blog in March without much of a plan. At first I thought it would be a blog about Gen Y topics. Then I thought it might be a blog about being a Boomerang Kid. It turns out that the focus is much broader than I originally thought.
I reread many of my posts and comments and realized that this blog is really about finding a fulfilling purpose in life, making the jump from employee to self-employed, creating a business, living a life with meaning. (Hopefully you agree!)
I have some exciting ideas for this blog in the next year. And since one of my themes is turning ideas into action, you’ll start to see some changes soon. (If you don’t, you have my permission to send me emails, tweets and comments to call me out!)
I want this blog to be a resource and perhaps an inspiration for others who want to make a change in their career or life. I want to provide ideas and awesome products for people who are entering the world of self-employment. I want to interview more people who are creating and pushing boundaries and making a splash in the online world. (If you’re one of these people, email me! I’d love to do a video interview or have you guest post.)
Some of the most meaningful emails I get are from readers who write to let me know that my blog has encouraged or helped them in some way. My hope is that this blog will continue to provide helpful content for people who want to live life intentionally and with purpose. The connections and relationships I’ve built with others through this blog have taught me and impacted my life this year. I hope I continue to meet more amazing people in the coming year.
My Biggest Lesson From 2011
The hardest and best decision I made in 2011 was to quit my job, even though I didn’t have a backup plan. I realized that my health (mentally and physically) was more important to me than a stable paycheck with a crazy boss. The decision to quit wasn’t easy, especially since I had to quit at least 4 times when my boss kept trying to talk me into staying longer.
I wouldn’t wish the difficult experience on anyone, but it taught me an important lesson. It’s never too late or too soon to make a change. If you’re unhappy, if you’re in an environment that’s destroying your health, if your creativity is stifled, you can make a change.
I thought for too long that I couldn’t quit because it would look bad on my resume or it would make me seem flaky or because others wouldn’t understand my decision. I thought it was too soon to quit a job I had only had for 5 months. I thought it was crazy to move from Denver to Boston and back again. I thought I’d be a loser if I moved back in with my parents as a 27-year old adult.
It’s never too late or too early to change. And you shouldn’t worry too much about what others will think as long as you know that you need to make a change.
Your 2012 New Year’s resolutions and plans will almost certainly change. You aren’t a failure if you don’t accomplish everything you set out to achieve this year. You’re only a failure if you refuse to choose to blindly stick to a bad plan just for the sake of finishing. You can’t predict the future, so be flexible and willing to adjust as you learn and grow and as your circumstances change.
Here’s to an amazing 2012!
I haven’t commented on your blog for awhile. I’ve gone through many of the same things myself. After I quit my job, I thought the answer was to go get another one and I ended up more miserable doing the same thing that got me there. It takes real courage to be vulnerable and put yourself out there like you’re doing. I’ve always enjoyed reading your posts because I can relate to them and they resonate with me. I look forward to the direction of your blog this year. Cheers!
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Lindsay Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:04 am
Good to hear from you, Timothy! I’m glad you can relate to the posts here. I’ve enjoyed having you here as a reader in the last year. I think you were one of the first people who started commenting when I started the blog last spring!
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Sounds like you really did accomplish a lot last year Lindsay even if you’re beating yourself up to some extent for not having gotten yourself further along. I for one know it’s been a journey learning and growing in a direction you’ve never taken before.
I applaud you for quitting your job and I’m sure your parents were delighted to have you come home. Although I’m a little too old to be moving back in with my Mom, I can see it being the other way around in our future. Yep, she’s getting to be that age where we would prefer she doesn’t live alone any longer.
I have no doubt that whatever you set your mind to do in 2012 that you will accomplish them all. It’s just deciding what you want to pursue and just going for it. Everything takes time and it definitely won’t happen over night but it takes one step at a time.
I wish you the very best of luck and I hope you fulfill all of your dreams.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Exciting Things In Store For 2012
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Lindsay Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:28 am
Thanks, Adrienne! I do tend to be hard on myself when it comes to measuring my progress. Although I still have lots to do, I’m excited about the direction I’m heading. The difficulties in 2011 pointed me in a better direction and put me on a new path that I think will be much better in the long run.
I’m pretty sure my Mom hopes I never move out, but I think she’ll settle for having me driving distance away instead of a 2+ hour flight away ;-)
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“It’s never to late to make a change.”
That’s a fantastic lesson to learn Lindsay. To borrow a quote from Justin Bieber (I can’t believe I’m quoting him) “never say never”.
Life is too short to not take a chance on making a change. Sure you can fall flat on your face and fail miserably…or you can succeed.
How will you know? By taking a leap of faith and seeing where you land (on a rock head first or right into the water with a 10.0 dive). There’s no way around it.
Stay motivated!
~Jeremy
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Lindsay Reply:
January 3rd, 2012 at 8:35 pm
I agree–sometimes you have to just jump in head first and give it a try. Life is too short to not try new things and we often learn the most from our failures. I’m laughing about your Bieber quote.
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It was great to read about your wins in2011.
I really like the 3 words you chose for 2012.
I’m sorry to tell you that i am going to have to steal 2 of them. it’s just too good of an idea for you to keep all to yourself.
Happy New Years and good luck with all your goals for the year. What is your business by the way?
Annie Andre recently posted..6 Ways To KILL Complacency + How Killing It Helps Me Stick To My Goals In France
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Lindsay Reply:
January 5th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Feel free to steal them! I always say there’s no need to reinvent the wheel ;-)
My business (http://lindsay-hunt.com) offers social media and online marketing consulting to small and medium sized businesses. Many of my clients are local to the Denver area and I’m starting to do more speaking and training events as well.
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[...] I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolutions person. Instead of resolving to do better in the new year, I like to set more concrete goals for myself. I also have three words to describe my themes for the year in life and business. You can read more about my theme words (Create, Action, Consistency) here. [...]