Forget New Years Resolutions
Did you know that January 19th is known as “Quitter’s Day” because it’s when people are most likely to give up on their New Years Resolutions? Or that 80% of people reportedly fail to achieve their New Years Resolutions? Wow, that’s kind of depressing - right?
Rather than make “resolutions” for the new year or the new decade, I decided to choose a word to live by for the year. A “mantra” of sorts to help guide me, both personally and professionally, in the year ahead. I got the idea from a fabulous group of women I have gotten to know this past year, so I can’t take credit for the concept but I think it’s an idea worth sharing. Some of the other words I have heard people give for their year ahead are focus, clarity, no, discipline, authority, continue and accountability. Mine is “intentional.” I want to live more intentionally in the year ahead in a number of ways.
First, I want to be more intentional with my work. In the first year of working for myself, I basically took on any kind of marketing work that I could find and people would hire me for. All different types of clients needing all different types of marketing projects done. And this worked for me because, let’s be honest, as a newly self-employed person I had bills to pay and a reputation to start building. That was OK for year one. But year two will be different. I’m going to be more intentional about the clients I take on and the work that I do. Not only do I want to provide for my family and reach certain financial goals, but I also really want to love the work that I do. Yes, that feels a little greedy to say out loud but also yes, I want to have my cake and eat it too. EAT. THE. CAKE.
So yes, I am going to be picky about who I agree to give a proposal to and be confident when I turn down work that doesn’t feel like a great fit for me, my goals, and my happiness. I am also going to reframe my offerings so that I can focus more on strategy and less on execution. I LOVE strategy - planning, building, organizing, sketching things out, coming up with creative ideas. That is my jam. That’s what I get excited about and that’s when I feel like I’m using my brain power to its fullest capacity - which feels great! Rather than agreeing to take over another company’s social media efforts, I will explain that I’d be happy to create a social media strategy for them and if they need help executing it, I know people who can help. Same goes for blogs, websites, email campaigns, and any other kind of content marketing.
On the personal side of things, I want to be more intentional with my time - as simple as that may sound. I want to fully immerse myself in family time without constantly checking my phone or feeling like I have to respond to email right away. I want to disconnect from the digital world and be more purposeful in the time I have with my son. After all, I keep reminding myself that some day he’s not going to want to play monster trucks or monopoly with me and that will be a sad day. I also want to be more intentional about date nights with my ever-supporting and unconditionally loving husband. It’s so important to have time as a couple and we don’t make it happen as regularly as it should. (I hear this is a common problem, but why don’t we actually do something to change it?!)
Intentionality is my overarching goal for 2020, and I hope that you have one (or more) big goals too. What a shame it would be to sit at the end of this year and say, "I wish I had done more," or ask yourself, "where did this year go?” Don’t be another statistic. Don’t be part of the 80% of people who fail to achieve their goals this year. And if you already quit a “resolution” that you had, create a new one. Pick a word to live by and remind yourself of it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Put it on the background of your phone, on the desktop of your computer, on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. Live it, breathe it, believe in it. And I’m sure you’ll have a 2020 to remember too. Cheers to BIG things in the year ahead!