2009 went by way too fast! I can’t believe it is 2010 already. To be honest, the closer we got to the end of the year the slower I wanted it to go. Why? Because I had not achieved all I wanted to in 2009. There were a few goals I set for the year that I had not reached and I wanted more time to do so. But that didn’t happen, so what’s next?
Analyzing my failures
I’m not afraid to call them failures, failures are not always a bad thing. Sometimes we fail due to lack of effort. Sometimes due to bad planning. Sometimes because we set the wrong goal.
Many of the goals I had for 2009 were actually unrealistic. Unfortunately I figured that out too late and probably put more stress and wasted time than I needed to.
Sometimes we have a goal or project in mind that we want to do, but fail to really evaluate how important it is or whether we can achieve it in the time we set.
My biggest failure in 2009 was taking on too much. Which really stinks because in this business that is what the experts warn you about. I took on a lot of projects which caused me to overload and not finish many of them to 100%.
I want to list some of them here so that I can read back on it and see if I learned my lessons.
My Failures
I started blogging as a serious blogger in late 2008 – early 2009. 2008 was kind of experimental but it was last year that I made the decision to really work at it. One of the dumb mistakes I made was taking way too much time designing my first blog instead of actually blogging. This was a huge mistake that was mostly made in 2008 but affected 09.
I also ended up with 2 blogs within my first year, which I definitely do not recommend.
Too many projects. As I started to increase my understanding of Internet Marketing and wanted to do more of it, I took on too much. This cost me a lot of money because it became very hard to finish a project.
Many of them I cannot list here but one of them is Tweet Matrix. This was one of those cases where I had a great idea but did not evaluate the time I would have to invest. I also did not consider outsourcing the work and come up with a plan to do so. So it sits there and waits for me to get time or drop it.
Not being as organized as I wanted to be was another failure. Although I am more organized than ever it was not good enough to be as productive as possible. I can definitely say however that the last 3 months have been very productive. So I did get it about 90% down toward the end of the year.
Moving Forward
So moving forward into 2010 I actually am taking a tip from Chris Brogan and using the “ 3 words” method.
My 3 words for 2010 are:
Grow – There are a lot of areas in my life that I have room to grow. A lot of things I have learned that I know I could perfect. I don’t think we ever stop growing in any area of our life but I know there is growth needed in 2010.
No – I have to work on saying no more. No to people who need my time when I don’t have it to give, and no to myself. That includes not taking on too much. Some ideas need to be filed in the “long term” file. I say yes too many times when someone needs my help, it’s great to be helpful but not if I just don’t have the time.
In fact there is one project I have been a part of since 2004 that has taken a lot of my time. It’s a good project but I always find myself unable to give 100%. Going into 2010 I am phasing it out.
Structure – This is my term for organizing in 2010. I like structure, little systems for getting things done. When you structure different areas of your life you will find that it is far more organized. And many times each area affects each other and we don’t realize it.
So what are your failures in 2009? List them in the comments and reference back to this post next year. What are your goals for 2010?
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