Crazy reflections. Photo by: Bert Kaufmann
Three hundred and sixty five days ago I made a resolution that 2011 would be the year I started a blog (I finally launched this blog on February 27th). Well here I am.
I made some other goals for 2011 too (part of my milestones for my bigger goals) – some I nailed, some I bombed at, and some things popped up that I wasn’t expecting at all.
Note: I see goals are very different than resolutions – goals are something tangable you work towards throughout the whole year, resolutions are multiple knee jerks that quickly become forgotten.
And accessing how you performed on these goals are equally important.
Accessing yourself on how you perform on these goals are really important – (and giving yourself kicks up the arse & pats on the back where required) In this post I’ll be accessing how I did in 2011 and I’ll be sharing my goals for 2012 in my next post.
My 2011
Goal: Start a Blog and grow it to 6,000 visitors
One of my big goals this year was to start a blog – well after a delayed start (and some stop-starts in the middle i.e. a road trip across Australia) I’m here and loving it.
I’ve discovered some really fun things about blogging along the way.
Did I meet my goal of 6,000 visitors?
Yes I sure did – With 7,230 visits and 6,093 unique visitors, and I’m averaging over 1,000 uniques per month now.
Am I happy? Sure I’m happy. I met my goal and am loving blogging but have realised that both visitor numbers are a poor metric to go on & there’s lots of room for gorwing this MUCH bigger – I’ll address these both in my 2012 goals 🙂
Side Note: I also just started using Twitter seriously one year ago today. Now I have close to 5,000 followers – I think that’s a win!
Goal: Be Debt Free Earning & be $10,000 net per month
So I planned to debt free and be making $10,000 per month at this point – am I?
To be honest: No.
There were moments when I was on-course for it (including my as digital marketing agency started getting a tons of clients just before I left Australia), but definitely came up short on this one.
Big lesson is that some things take (annoyingly) longer than you want them to i.e. playing off the last of my college fees. But 2012 will be the year 🙂
Have a Self Sustaining Startup business
Do I have a self sustaining startup?
If you had asked me this question in March – I would have said hell yeah! But my business in Australia didn’t transfer well to my move back to the United Kingdom, and the answer now is resounding:
Nope.
However every cloud has a silver lining and mine has sparkling silver. Coming back to the UK has really allowed me to focus on what I really want:
Working on tech start-ups and getting ready to launch my own (very different to having a service business like I did in Australia).
So I’m delighted it happened! And there’s some exciting things in the pipeline for 2012….
Goal: Achieve Work Life Balance
Wanted to achieve a really good work life balance – with plenty of time off.
I think I failed on this one.
Although on one side I did get to travel to wonderful places like Australia, Thailand, USA, Malaysia, Ireland and the UK– I’m definitely working a hell of a lot of hours right now.
Trouble is: I love it & don’t want to change it.
Lesson: Set 2012’s work/life goals based on people I connect with and places I go – not hours I work – it’s relationships & memories that count, not hours.
2011 Overall
When stop & look back over 2011 – it’s insane how far I’ve come. To think I was still doing my PhD (which sucked) only 15 months ago is crazy. I’m working on great projects, with amazing people & learning exactly what I need to.
When I started this blog I wrote about how I felt like a car spinning its wheels (i.e. burning lots of energy) but not going anywhere of note.
Now it’s completely different.
Now I feel I’m more like a race car that hasn’t quite got a fully tuned engine yet – I know where I need to get to and I’m going my max speed to get there. Although the max speed isn’t quite fast enough just yet, my mechanics are honing the engine & I’m getting faster all the time.
Enough dodgy sporting analogies for one New Year 🙂
Will be back with my 2012 goals in my next post – Happy New Year.
Your Turn:
How was your 2011?
