Happy New Year!
Well...almost. Today’s the day that we often reflect on what’s happened over the past year (if you’re watching in the future, today is December 31st but we do this throughout the year when we set goals too). What trips we took, what memories we have but when you are a business owner, this takes on a whole new meaning.
Reflecting on the last year of business can be exciting and it can be stressful. Whether you made the numbers or progress you wanted to, I want to challenge you to take a look at at it all and not be hard on yourself.
Over the break - yep, I took a full 2 weeks away from my business (kind of unintentionally but nonetheless it happened) - I watched a lot of Bob Ross videos on YouTube. Long story but the short version is that my hubby and I found a shirt that we literally laughed out loud in Target about (pic below) and it took us down the YouTube tunnel for days. We know speak “Bob Ross” almost every day around my house. But I figure, it could be worse.
So in the words of Bob Ross, “we don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents”.
When you reflect on the year you’ve had a yoga teacher, remember this. Remember that you worked hard, you shared your yoga with others and you impacted lives. This I am certain! But do take an inventory of what worked and what didn’t, just don’t focus on the “what didn’t work” too much. Identify the lesson you learned through that experience and then move on.
2018 Word of the Year Reflection
As I reflected on my 2018 as a business owner, wife, step-mom, daughter, aunt, sister, and friend, I started with my word of the year: Acceptance.
2017 ended roughly for our family and there was a lot of stress happening, plus I was trying my hardest to grow a business and some things were working and some weren’t. So I choose the word Acceptance so that I could focus on accepting the things I couldn’t change. This included some personal stressors, a knee injury that I’m still dealing with today and trying to let things flow in business more than forcing things. I wanted to be more accepting of my life.
Overall, what I did well was start to identify when I wasn’t being accepting of things. I am not super aware of when I’m not accepting something. Now, this doesn’t mean I immediately change and accept whatever is happening but awareness is the first step, right? =) I have found that over the year I was able to do this most effectively in my business choices. For example, when I felt the nudge to go all in and focus on only yoga teachers, I did it even though it was scary for me. And it was single-handedly the best decision I’ve made in my business so far. This doesn’t mean I started rolling in the dough immediately though. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite. I had to let go of larger, steady clients because it didn’t align with my new focus and that had a big impact on my revenue but I wholeheartedly believe that it was still the right decision for my business.
How I Held Myself Accountable
That was just one example in my business-owner role that was successful but there were many other examples I could list that technically were “unsuccessful” when it comes to me accepting something. But like I’m urging you to do, I reflected on those and identified some lessons that came out of them. For example, in almost every example I have, whether successful or unsuccessful, I started by catching my thoughts. If I was able to catch the first thought of me not accepting something, I was more likely to change the outcome. However, there were many times that I didn’t catch those thoughts and found myself in the not-accepting pool (the water is colder there!).
About half or maybe even 3 quarters through the year I developed an affirmation that I began to say:
“I have an underlying peace and joy no matter the circumstance”
I had this in my back pocket at all times. When I would find myself in a situation where I wasn’t feeling like myself, I would remind myself of this. And like most affirmations, it didn’t feel true many times but it did help each time. If only to change my thought pattern, it worked.
And the other thing I did to hold myself accountable was to tell other people about my word. Not so that they would ask me about it but simply telling someone else about your goal or focus will increase your chances of success. So I told everyone, including you!
And on that note...my 2019 word(s)
Last year I asked myself “what is my word for 2018?” and came up with Acceptance. This is not what I did this year due to a fantastic conversation I had with my bizbestie. She said this and I completely stole it. I asked myself:
“How do I want to feel at the end of 2019?”
She said she read it somewhere (I like to give credit where credit is due and I think it was Danielle LaPorte) and I couldn’t agree more. Think about it... If your goal is “make a million dollars” focus on what that million dollars would make you feel? How do you want to feel? If the million dollars would make you feel “accomplished”, then that would be your word. Because you could reach your goal of earning a million dollars and actually not really achieve your goal of feeling accomplished. But if you identify what the feeling is, you can get there. So I asked myself that question and the answer was clear:
Focused
Then my friend and I kept talking and she said her word is going to be Freedom. She was talking about how she wanted to feel free to make decisions and as she was talking, I knew I was going to steal her word too. (Good thing we are bizbesties and what’s mine is her’s and her’s is mine.) So I really have 2 words this year:
Focused and Free
Focused because homegirl feels SCATTERED right now! Granted I did some deep digging on my staycation recently and got really clear on things, it’s time to implement. So I have identified 2 goals/rocks for this year and 2 products of focus for the year. That’s it! Every day I will be working towards just 2 things in order to earn a living on 2 things. Because I want to continue earning a living doing this, being a Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers. I want to empower yoga teachers to feel great about earning a living aligned with their yoga. That fires me up! And if I don’t stay focused on this mission, I could have to go back to a corporate job and not be as happy. So I am determined to be focused!
Free because I want to feel free to make decisions based on what I want. While I started a business based on what I wanted to do, there was still pressure to do what others were doing and I’m kicking that to the curb. My incredible business coach asks me all the time “Amanda, what would be fun right now?” and that is how she tells me to make decisions. Based on what would be fun. (She is also very business minded so of course there is strategy behind the fun but you get the point). So I’m giving myself permission to ask myself “what would be fun and help me achieve my goal today” and then do the dang thing! How awesome is that?!
How I will Achieve My Words
I have a very simple answer for this and I kind of love that. The answer = boundaries. In order for me to be focused, I need boundaries of what I will work on in my business and what I will delegate. In order for me to feel free, I need boundaries of permission for myself. This goes for business but life in general too. There will be boundaries in my personal life just as much. And I couldn’t be more excited!
What I plan to do every day in 2019:
I will be asking myself at the beginning of the day:
How can I feel focused today?
How can I feel free today?
I will be asking myself at the end of the day:
When did I feel focused today?
When did I feel free today?
I want to feel focused and free in 2019! How do you want to feel?
