Today was New Year’s Day observed, which meant I had the day off work and since Johnny was working from home, that meant the day was all for me.

I slept in (yay!), had a home cooked breakfast with the man, ran off to meet another friend for coffee and to talk about our year ahead, had lunch with one of my truest, most amazing friends, made it to CrossFit (deadlifts, hang snatches, and overhead squats, oh my!), and am now enjoying some writing time. This year rocks already.

Put Your Goals Somewhere That You Can See Them

In following my track record of making goals and achieving them, the sure-fire way for me to fall flat on my face and not get something done is to write out a set of goals and then hide them. Sure, this works really well when cleaning my desk and I find my goals stacked between that book I didn’t finish and that notebook that has pages left unfilled (surprise!). And even though when it happens, I’m usually surprised by how many of those goals I actually accomplished. And while it’s been proven that the very act of writing down goals increases your likelihood of achieving them, it’s hard to be unintentionally intentional.

So this afternoon I went through my goals for the year and picked three things that I want to make sure I carry with me through the year. They are my goals, mantras, and things that could be roadblocks between achieving my goals this year.

From there, I wrote down five or six things for each category on index cards and literally pasted them to the wall of my office.

I used the red light/green light approach to organizing these three categories:

• Goals on green cards, as that’s where I want to go.
• Mantras on yellow cards, as I’ll probably be stalled when I need to remember them.
• Roadblocks go on pink cards, as those are things I need to stop doing.

Test the Red Light/Green Light Approach to Goals

Green Light Goals

I have three main goals for the year and two things that I need to do more of.

Goals:

1. Give 100% to building my day job (kick ass in my position at a startup)
2. CrossFit three times a week (build strength)
3. Write every day (blog)

Do more of:

1. Get a full night’s sleep
2. See friends and family (socially)

Yellow Light Mantras

Mantras, sayings, and expressions to keep you centered. These are my favorite and I’m putting them on my wall to keep myself accountable and remember what’s important to me. I’ll probably add more as the year goes on (or not).

Mantras or things to help ground me throughout the year:

1. Value myself, my time, my skills
2. Kick ass every day
3. Trust my gut
4. If things aren’t right, change it
5. Speak less of my plans – do more
6. Do one thing every day that scares me

I’ve actually started writing down the thing I do each day that scares me as another way to keep myself accountable, and because I’m curious to see what that says about me a year later. Doing one thing that scares me every day is not about going skydiving, but something like going to a networking event, alone, where I don’t know anyone and introducing myself. Would you do that on a normal day? If the answer is, “no,” then that could be your one-thing.

Red Light Potential Roadblocks

These are things that I recognize might prevent me from meeting my goals. Since I’ll be looking at these cards every single day, I didn’t want to write, “Don’t say yes” or “don’t be fearless” when I need to have a list of things that I should do to prevent the roadblocks. If that doesn’t make sense, read this blog post by Jeff Baumgarten, 30 Things…To Do (Riff).

Potential Roadblocks:

1. Say, “No.”
2. Don’t make excuses
3. Don’t commit to projects that aren’t my own
4. Be fearless
5. The Mayans are wrong

Fearing the end of the world is no reason to keep me from meeting my goals.

Will this work?

To be honest, I don’t know. But I’m going to try it. I also have some friends who have signed up to help me stay accountable.

How do you make sure you meet your New Year goals?

There are two kinds of end of the year/New Year blog posts to write. The first is a reflection of the previous year – everything you did, everything you didn’t, what you’re proud of, and what you’re not. And the second is a laundry list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for how to make the next year rock much harder than the last.

And then there’s a third, which doesn’t reveal anything about the writer but gives you, the reader, a map of how you can stick to your resolutions for the first time ever.

Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work Out

New Year’s Resolutions are like plans – you write them for how you’re feeling (usually fat) at that time (post-holidays) for the future (that has yet to be written) – and they never work out. They look great on paper, but horrible in execution because they all lack one thing – foresight and the understanding that you have to sacrifice something to accomplish what you need (and the ability to adjust to continue the momentum).

Instead of resolutions or plans, I make goals. I did this unknowingly as I entered 2010 and consciously as I entered 2011. I met the three goals I set in 2010 but not all of the goals I set for myself in 2011. While all of this past year’s goals looked great in December 2010, by mid-2011, an imbalance between work and life happened and parts of those goals were prioritized while others were not. Plus I set too many goals.

I don’t feel like 2011 was a failure, but just plain weird. In the Christmas letter John and I sent to our family, I summarized the year as one of “change,” and by God, if that isn’t true.

2011 started with a lot of oomph, passion, and excitement as things were set in place that I had been working hard towards achieving in the previous year and a half. But I got burnt out early, outgrew that opportunity faster than I imagined, and a new opportunity revealed itself and I jumped on it. If 2011 was a shape it would look like a giant “U” with a big, deep dip in the middle.

A New Template for Plotting World Domination in 2012

Earlier this week, my husband and I spent the evening working through Benny Hsu of Get Busy Living’s 2011 Year in Review Worksheet. What I like about his template is it focuses on how the previous year ended so you can reflect on what you’re proud of, what you accomplished, what you learned, what didn’t work, and where you’d like to see yourself in the future.

Benny’s worksheet helps you see where you want to go by reviewing where you came. It’s similar to racing a car – they say that you should look at where you want the car to go, not at the wall that you don’t want to run into.

Goals, plans, and strategies are the same way – look at where you want to go, not where you don’t want to go.

2011 was the U-shaped Year of Imbalance, Burnout & Change

And because I am who I am, there are many times where I bent the template and added a few extra items.

10 greatest things that happened in the past year:

1. Getting a new job (Jolkona) and off unemployment
2. Attending SXSW
3. Investing in my blog, especially during November
4. Quitting my job, getting a new one (Scrappy Face)
5. Finding a treatment that worked on my shoulder (I’ve been trying to rehab bursitis and tendonitis in my right shoulder since injuring it in July 2010)
6. Vacation to Iowa to visit extended family and anniversary trip to Victoria, B.C.
7. Publishing my first article on Mashable
8. Big, awesome, amazing year for networking
9. Building an incredible, strong team while at Jolkona (and kicked ass at that job)
10. Date night with John every Friday night
11. Seeing how happy my husband is since he started drawing again 

I am most proud of these three accomplishments last year:

1. My writing and my blog
2. Getting recruited out of my last job to join my current one
3. Making a name for myself
4. Reluctant patience with my shoulder (it’s really hard to treat an injury when you don’t know what really went wrong…)

Three great lessons I learned from last year are:

Listen to my gut, because:

1. If something is wrong, change it – don’t wait for it to fix itself; it won’t
2. Do what’s best for me and my family
3. If I can’t make it through a CrossFit workout due to lack of focus, than something is probably wrong outside of CrossFit.

Three personal developments I have made in the past year are:

1. Knowing that I’m really a writer
2. Trusting that my background, experience, and skills are valuable
3. Learning how to manage people and a team

If I could do things again last year, I would do these three things differently:

1. Quit my previous job sooner
2. Prioritize my writing earlier in the year (and continuously throughout the year)
3. Be more aggressive about finding the right treatment for my shoulder

Three things I need to do less of next year are:

1. Making excuses for what I really want (or don’t want) to do
2. Saying “yes”
3. Committing, volunteering, and helping out with too many projects that aren’t my own

Three things I need to do more of in the next year are:

1. Get a full night’s sleep
2. Write!
3. Go to CrossFit
4. See my friends and family

Three things I need to stop doing completely next year are:

1. Making excuses
2. Volunteering for projects that aren’t my own
3. Under-valuing myself

Three reasons I didn’t achieve my goals in the past year are:

1. I set too many goals
2. Life happened, priorities changed
3. I didn’t have as much control over my schedule as I thought I did due to work and not setting boundaries

Three goals I want to achieve next year are:

1. I want my blog (or my writing) to be a destination
2. I want to have a national speaking engagement
3. I want to lead the Scrappy Face movement
4. I want to be able to do a strict pull-up

Three reasons why I want to achieve these goals are:

1. I’ve been writing since I was 8 and I’m damn good at it
2. I want to achieve these goals and I know I can
3. I’ve been wanting to lead a movement since winter of 2009, before I worked in social media
4. It’s time to be strong again

Smartest decision I made last year:

I quit my last job.

Biggest risk I took last year:

I accepted a new job and a new startup.

One sentence that sums up this past year:

2011 was harder than it should have been.

One year from right now, I want my ideal day to look like this:

Wake up with John and have a home-cooked breakfast (meaning not eating on the bus or on-the-go). Head to the park and ride and take the bus downtown. The first half of my day will be dedicated to writing, blogging, working on the movement or other marketing projects for the Scrappy Face brand. I will never eat alone. Afternoon will be dedicated to client work. After work, I’ll head to CrossFit then head home to have dinner with John at the table and not in front of the TV. After dinner I’ll write for an hour or two before heading to bed.

The weekends will be mine. I will not work on the weekends but play. Sundays I’ll write.

2012 is the Year of Kicking Ass, Writing & Building Strength

And there you have it, my year in review. That last question was so hard for me to write because it asked me to look so far into the future (a year, I know!) and imagine what might be. Up until that question, this template was my best friend.

2011 had a few themes: work, burnout, and battling an injury. 2012 will have three themes as well: kicking ass at my current job (I am helping build this company and studying for how I will build my own), writing, and getting stronger at CrossFit.

That’s it.

There will be awesome details that will create an amazing rollercoaster across the year, but those three things are what I’m focusing on: my work, my passion, and my body.

That’s it.

Hey, 2012, I’m ready to kick ass with you.

Two questions for you:

1. Fill out Get Busy Living’s Year In Review template. Did it reveal anything to you?
2. If you didn’t, what’s one goal that you’re planning to achieve in 2012? What are you planning to make happen?

Thank you, Benny Hsu, for this awesome worksheet, and Alexander the Great for introducing me to it.

Photo Credit: ayeshamus

Today is the last day of November which means that all of the men who grew ‘staches for Movember can finally shave, we all flip our calendars and freak out about the goals we have left to meet in 2011, and it is the end of National Blog Posting Month. This is my second year at posting one blog post every day for the month of November and – woah – what a month it’s been!

Goals and Milestones

On November 1st I made six goals for myself to keep this month. Here’s how I did:

1. Post at least one blog every single day

By the time I publish my recap, I’ll have published 27 blog posts in a month with 30 days. I skipped three days; one was because I was out with friends and forgot and two were because it was the first week of my new job and I was tired.

This weekend I read Om Malik’s list of lessons he learned from ten years of blogging and he shared something Doc Searls said: “Blog if you have something to say and respect your reader’s time. If you respect their time, they are going to give you some time of their day.” And while there are a few blog posts I wrote this month that I categorize as “throw away” posts (meaning that I could have gone without writing them because I was too exhausted from life, uninspired, was unwilling to write, or had plain and simple writer’s block), every single post that I wrote and published went live before midnight and that’s an awesome accomplishment.

2. Stick to the content calendar

Who was I kidding when I wrote this? My blog is the place where I can write about “life according to Laura,” and this life says that content calendars are great, but mostly irrelevant for whatever I’m feeling right here and right now.

Screw that.

Okay, okay, so I probably stuck with the content calendar 30% of the time, like today and this recap. I’ve had this recap blog post planned for an entire month

3. Be fearless

Yep, did that, but not without hesitation.

4. Increase traffic

I totally nailed this goal and my traffic for the month of November 2011 was up 56% from November 2010. I’m proud of achieving this goal.

5. No epic blog posts

I made sure not to write or publish any “epic” blog posts this year. Epic blog posts are essays or articles that could honestly be a senior-level college thesis. They include a very strong point of view and research to back that up. And they take a lot of thought to write and a lot of time to edit. Epic blog posts should not be cranked out in 2-4 hours, but days or weeks.

While I technically didn’t write any epic blog posts this year, there were three blog posts that were about timely subjects and I wrote them a day or two in advance. The problem, you see, is that NaBloPoMo isn’t about writing everyday, it’s about posting every day. So there were a few nights where I cranked out that day’s post, published it, and went straight to writing the next one. That was a little hard, but it sure was fun to relax and not write the next night.

Small victories

Oh, and the best part about not writing epic blog posts is I’ve been listening – to what you’re responding to in my posts, to what other bloggers are writing and asking about – and I’ve put all of those ideas in a queue and I’m very excited to dive deeply into those topics. So get ready.

6. Read one new blog every single day

I’ve been reading a lot this month, but I haven’t been commenting as much as I wanted to. Why? I quit my job and started another one. Oh, and I’ve been blogging. A lot. So suck it. It happens.

Milestones and big announcements

• I came out as a writer, a real writer (and my first writing professor responded to it)
• I quit my job
• I started a new job
• I started a new weekly-roundup series
• My husband became an artist
• My friend launched his daily art project
• I started a Facebook page for my blog (Toss a girl a like?)
• Yesterday, I published my 100th blog post on lamiki.com

Bragging rights

• 500 Words or Less – I wrote a blog post about something that a writer said at an event and he wrote a response back. That was pretty awesome.
• Hipster Generation of Entrepreneurs – I I wrote a response to the New York Times article about the Entrepreneurial Generation and I was quoted in an article on GeekWire in response to the same NYT article – big win in my world.

Blogs I had the most fun writing

• Happy Thanksgiving Eve – I had the most fun writing this post and telling you not to listen to every other blogger and Tweet during Thanksgiving (Okay, ‘fess up, who stayed online all weekend?)
• Picturing My True Identity – Because who doesn’t love sharing photos of themselves from high school?
• That Blog Post About my Cats – Even though cats may rule the Internet, being a cat lady is still does not. This was one of the most creative posts I wrote and, let’s be honest here, I have cats, two of them, and they’re pretty awesome.

So long, NaBloPoMo, we’ll meet again!

I had fun this month. And while I really think that the 2010 NaBloPoMo experiment was my breakout year, I kicked ass this year and I’m emerging from the 2011 NaBloPoMo season as a better writer who is pretty damn good at blogging. And as a result, I know you and myself a lot better. Thank you for being with me on this journey.

What’s next? Not a new blog post on Thursday, December 1st, but you will see a new post this weekend.

Stay tuned boys and girls. And thank you for being here with me.

Photo Credit: Lorena Cupcake

It’s 9:55pm on November 1, 2011 as I start this post and my mind is blank. This is actually hilarious since I’ve been writing my inaugural NaBloPoMo post all freaking day.

This is not a good sign.

Today is November 1st and the start of three very big things: National Blog Posting Month, Movember, and the great paleo challenge.

As though I didn’t need more ‘new things’ to juggle…

National Blog Posting Month

Last November I embarked on a month-long journey to post one-blog post every single day for thirty days. I did this on a dare form an amazing and awesome blogging buddy.

The plan was simple, I laid out some goals, and I was good-to-go.

But what I didn’t know was how much I’d learn about myself through the process of writing. (You can read the recap here: When Creativity Flows, Don’t Turn Off the Faucet.) And over the past year, I have become an even stronger writer, communicator, and individual. And a lot of that was due to the routine of writing – and publishing – every single day.

For my sophomore attempt at National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), here’s what’s changed:

New blogging buddy

Anthony is still blogging, but he’s trading up from NaBloMoMo to participate in National Novel Writing Month (or so he says).

Meet Ms. Melinda Moseler, my NaBloPoMo blogging buddy! For background and bragging right, I helped inspire her to start her personal blog and made her fall in love with Twitter. She and I have been writing together at Jolkona for almost two years. At Jolkona, She and I have a dual writer/editor relationship that most hermit-writers dream of. You know the kind where you write something, one reviews it, and somehow figures out how to pull that point that makes your article, your blog, or even your media pitch that much stronger. I do that for her, and she does that for me. It’s pretty awesome.

In other words, she rocks.

She’s also based on the east coast, has accepted the fact that I blog late-at-night.

I am so exited to have her with me on this journey this year! Here’s Melinda’s first NaBloPoMo post: It’s National Blog Post Month!

New goals

Setting goals last year kept me on the ball and off of the ledge of despair. So here’s what I’m shooting for:

1. Post at least one blog every single day – this is required.
2. Stick to the content calendar – but I have permission to be inspired and write on a whim.
3. Be fearless – write what I think, say what I mean; this is my blog after all.
4. Increase traffic – I want to have more views this month than in November 2010.
5. No epic blog posts – still want quality, but there is no time for quantitative research-based articles. Those will have to wait.
6. Read one new blog every single day – I’ve been slacking on my reading list, commenting, and connecting with new bloggers, want to try and work that in this year.

There’s one big giant difference between this year and last year, and that’s the fact that I have a fulltime job. Sure, staying up until (cough) 2am will not fly this year.

Though I am a better, stronger, writer who knows how to kick out a blog in no time…when I’m focused. So we’ll see if those two elements can work together or not.

Mustaches and Going Paleo

Right, so this month is not just about blogging. I’m officially a mo’sista for the team that John is leading for Movember. He’s doing some really cool stuff to raise money and awareness for men’s health, like sell some of his artwork and donate the proceeds. (Here’s a preview; I’ll write a more substantive post with the story this week.)

Also, I’m going paleo. Yes, the hunter-and-gatherer, eat-like-a-caveman diet. Again, I’ll go into more details later, but this is altering my behavior so it’s going to be rough. I promise not to try and eat my blog late at night when I’m trying to crank out a post and all I want to eat is sugar, bread, salt, and bacon.

That’s right, bacon is not paleo.

What’s that you said about bacon?

I’ll go into detail about that later. For now, welcome NaBloPoMo! I’m very excited to see you again!

Are you participating in NaBloPoMo? Leave a link to your blog and help me with my sixth goal!

Photo Credit: KalebColeman

I am starting my own business.

That’s right, a business and I have no idea what it will be yet. I’ve mentioned this to a few people, how I want to start a business but I haven’t had that idea that strikes like a bolt of lightning and makes me say, “holy shit, this is it!”

Actually, that has happened, but I’m still ruminating on it.

There are two things I’m obsessed with: 1) building things, and 2) movements.

The first I know quite a bit about from positions I’ve had over the years. And the second is a relatively new passion that was born out of the love I have of being the voice that connects brands with their customers and from watching organizations like the Girl Effect and Movember harness their communities and ignite a wave of action.

It’s pretty incredible.

So while I research and learn what exactly those two things mean – What do I enjoy most about building things? And what exactly is it about movements that totally draw me in? – and how they’ll work with each other, today, I’m officially coming out as an entrepreneur in training.

I don’t know when I’ll land and settle with an idea that I will want to build, execute, ship, and implement, but it will happen. It’s going to happen. And it will probably happen way sooner than any of us think it will.

And I’m bringing this blog (and you!) with me along the way.

Photo credit: tubb

Speak Less by Laura Kimball

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know I. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I once received a fortune cookie that read: “Speak less of your plans, you’ll get more done.” What’s one project that you’ve been sitting on and thinking about but haven’t made progress on? What’s stopping you? What would happen if you actually went for it and did it?

(Author: Laura Kimball)

On Sunday, June 19th, the prompt I wrote for the Trust30 challenge went live. This is actually a mantra that I have written about and repeat to myself on a daily basis – it is also the saying that is featured in the header of my blog.

Why I wrote this prompt

My intention for writing this prompt is I have encountered way too many people who talk about the things they are working on and are doing and don’t deliver anything. People who brag about powerful brainstorming sessions and how they’ve strategized something amazing and then—that’s it. That’s where the conversation ends.

I’m a fan of results. I’m a fan of action. I’m a true blue storyteller who means it when she says, “Show, don’t tell me,” and “Actions speak a hell of a lot louder than words.”

I really appreciate how Marek Lutz criticized my prompt by pointing out how contradictory it is (it was something I didn’t realize myself), but the point of this prompt is to take the ‘bull’ out of the shit that people brew every single day. Have you ever told someone that you were writing a book? Or working on a new company? Or had ‘the next great idea’ and are going to launch in the fall?

Or, worse, were you ever that person who ‘thought of that’? The person who thought about it so much that it didn’t go anywhere but someone else took it, ran with it, launched, sold it, and is not sitting on top of your millions?

That will never be me. I don’t have my ‘great idea’ yet, I just haven’t been that lucky. But I do have ideas for how I will make myself ‘great,’ but I keep them to myself or let them leak out to a careful select few because I want to be the person who launches that idea into an explosion. I want to take my friends and the world by storm. And I do not want to have that awkward conversation in six months or a year when someone asks, “Whatever happened to that project you were working on?”

The point of this prompt is to ask you, “What is that one thing you want to be working on right now? Are you working on it? And why aren’t you working on it?”

Show me. Don’t tell me about it. Unless you need help along the way, and then, all you have to do is ask.

How others are speaking less

Meanwhile, my life offline has turned life on this blog and participating in the Trust30 challenge on its head. So while I have been failing miserably at this post-every-day thing, I want to share with you a few responses to this prompt that I enjoyed and I hope you enjoy too.

• Speak less of your plans by Kirri White – If I had written a prompt, it would have been this one: “There is a little secret passion I keep concealed beneath many layers of half-truths and maybes…The place I go to play when I dream in glorious wonder, only to awake firmly rooted in doubt…once more.”
• Speak Less: What’s are you sittin’ on #Trust30 by Jennifer Price Davis – A fun and totally appropriate response (she and I share the same answer to the question, “What’s stopping you?”)
• #Trust30 challenge: Speak less by Chris Bell – a nice response to the prompt followed by a very raw critique of the challenge and why we’re doing it

My response

What’s one project that you’ve been sitting on and thinking about but haven’t made progress on? – This blog.

What’s stopping you? – Honestly, time and brainpower. It’s amazing how much I’m starting to ‘write’ or map out blog posts on the bus and how different my life is now compared to last November when I was able to blog every single evening for 30-days straight.

What would happen if you actually went for it and did it? – I would rearrange my schedule and blog more so I wouldn’t be up until 2am every night trying to get it down.

How are you speaking less?

Photo by waters 2712

Prompt: Post-it Question by Jenny Blake

That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? . . . Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.

Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.

(Author: Jenny Blake)

I am interviewing interns right now and one of the questions that I like to ask them is, “How would you describe your standards for yourself?”

Interviewing interns is always an interesting process. In most cases, you are not really interviewing them for their skills and what they bring to the table, but what potential you have in bringing out their potential. Training interns is a lot like raising kids; their success is a direct reflection of who you are—as a manager or as a parent.

This is how I would describe my own standards for myself: way too [explicative] high.

I’m never satisfied with where I am. Whenever someone is impressed by the work I do or the output I have and how “much” I’ve done, it shocks me to the point of mass disbelief. Seriously. Every time I hear people get lost somewhere between an “awe” and a “whoa, you’re fucking insane” about how I wrangled over 200 authors, twice, I shrug because it was just something that I did. It was my job to do, so that’s what I did. I didn’t stop and wonder if what I was doing was too much, too little, or not enough, I just did it.

That’s how I describe my own performance standards: I either do it or I feel like I don’t do enough.

I have no idea if that sounds as positive as it should. What I mean is that my own standards are much, much higher for myself than others have of me. And therefore what makes me feel amazing is working hard towards something and then being able to see the fruits of my labor finished. Done. Complete. I like to see the results of my action.

And lately I haven’t been finishing things. I’ve felt trapped in the endless hamster wheel of—something. I’ve been at a crossroads or at the turning point of—something. But what that is I’m unsure of. Because every other moment, every other day, every other week I feel like I’m closer to finding it and then I feel like I’m not.

My biggest challenge

My biggest challenge is: I don’t feel like I’m being successful in my work (personal and professional).

My question is: How do I move mountains?

And this, of course, can be answered in the most basic and the most extravagant ways you could ever imagine.

The mountains are metaphors. The represent any decision, task, or action you want to make. They can be as small as deciding to go to the gym or as large as deciding to make a gamble with that new job. And they can change with each and every step that you take.

Moving mountains means the same thing as taming wild buffalo and slaying (or taming) dragons. It’s a turn of phrase to describe kicking ass and it’s a tune I try to sing every day.

And yet, I’m not moving mountains right now. I’m making my way towards the mountain but my wheels are stuck in the grass. The throttle is to the floor and only my wheels are spinning.

And I’m not satisfied.

My secret weapon

I move them. I remind myself of my goals and work towards them with laser-focus and no excuses. I stop talking and start do-ing. I am strong and listen to my voice. There’s a 12-step-plan somewhere and here but it starts with me taking the first breath and the first step.

This is my problem and I am the only one who has the solution.

What’s your question? And who can help you get to the answer?

Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs

Prompt: Liz Danzico – Today

Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tracks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.

(Author: Liz Danzico)

I wrote two:

1. Some days you are the ass kicker and sometimes it’s your ass that needs to be kicked.
2. Actions speak louder than words.

Photo credit: Ismail Nathij Ahmed

I have been in a funk. Yes, that’s right, I said it. I don’t know if it’s Seattle’s endless winter or the fact that some things in my life have not been rolling on the shiniest side of the coin and I don’t really know what’s going on.

Okay, that’s a lie. I know what’s wrong and what’s not right and I’m nervous to admit it. Mainly I’m upset because I’m guilty of not moving forward. You know that I’m a fan of getting things done, making things happen, and a ton of other clichés. I am not wearing my strong suit right now and I’d rather shy away from the public eye instead of staring what’s wrong in the face, owning it, and changing it.

And then I write.

I received some really honest feedback about a month and a half ago that was so spot-on that it made me nervous. I internalized it and because of that I’ve let that feedback turn from constructive criticism, a chance to inspire and motivate myself, into something that has been halting me.

This has happened before and I know that “feedback” is hanging over my head when it really shouldn’t. It was meant to empower and give myself a gut check, and I totally took it the wrong way.

The problem with criticism (constructive or not)

I’ve been guilty of violating Tara Sophia Mohr’s eighth rule for Brilliant Women as I have been open to the feedback and guidance others are graciously offering to me, but I have not been viewing their feedback through my own eyes and my own perspective about myself. It is good to be open to the advice and feedback of others as it’s a good gut-check to how I’m coming off in public, but never, ever, when it’s at the expense of myself.

For example, I have been struggling with an injury since last summer and in January I started taking control of my own body and going to see specialists, physical therapists, massage therapists, and an acupuncturist to try and diagnose what happened so I can recover. It’s working, slowly. But around the first few weeks of February I came to a stand still when my physical therapist declared that I am a “hyper flexible” person or have “hyperextension” in my joints. It’s not bad, it’s just how I am and probably attributed to the injury. But then my doc gave me a barrage of information about how I should be aware as a “hyper flexible” person when lifting weights that I don’t over extend myself since I have weak joints, etc.

I became the poster child for “hyper flexible” people. I actually met someone at a party and we bonded over our hyper-flexibility. Seriously, if I found a bumper sticker that said, “Hyper Flexible People Unite!” it would have gone on my car.

Flexibility isn’t always a good thing

Everything I did was through the lens of a “hyper flexible” person. I was an advocate with a new identity (and a ridiculous one at that). And then one day at the gym my coach sat me down and read the following quote from Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher, to me:

Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everything that happens; for you will find it an impediment to something else, but not to yourself.

Whether it’s a physical ailment or part of what drives you, you can let something define you or it can just be a part of who you are. You can let it rule your life or you can rule it.

The choice is yours.

Has something someone said ever rocked you to the core and changed how you thought about yourself? How did you crawl out of that and find “you” again?

Photo by: 416style

We claim that January is the time to celebrate the New Year and the new you.

Got 10 pounds of Christmas cookies you need to shed? No enrollment fee on gym membership.

Got a relationship that’s holding you back? Enroll in our seminar and we’ll teach you how to walk away.

New Year’s resolutions are a load of crap. They are goals that we should have been striving towards since the little bug in our ear said something was not right in our lives. January 1st is just another day. The calendar flips and nothing in our life is different except we need to start writing “2011” instead of “2010.”

And yet, the New Year gives us a reason to light a fire under our ass and do what we have wanted to do all along.

New Year’s resolutions are good for something – they allow us to wipe the slate clean and start over. And if all we need is a cleansing of the psyche, why fight it?

2011: Bring it.

2010 was an interesting year in my life, and a year that actually started by a pretty big event that happened on September 30, 2009, and lasted until just a few weeks ago. And at midnight on Friday when I give and receive my New Year’s kiss, for the first time ever, I am looking forward to everything that I plan to achieve in 2011.

I haven’t made resolutions, per say, but goals. In 2009 as part of a job application, I was asked to submit 5 goals (3 short-term and 2 long-term), plus a list of my ideal work environment down to the essential functions of the position. That document actually served as the framework for my entire job hunt throughout 2010. And I’m happy to say that I achieved my 3 short-term goals mid-way through the year.

To prepare for 2011, I sat down with a good friend and outlined a number of achievable goals that support the major areas of my life—from health and CrossFit to writing and investing in this blog, plus how to maintain my personal sanity, reach professional goals, and even travel. I also added a few self-less good deeds that will help me prioritize relationships I want to improve on this year. Under each category are 3-to-10 actionable items that I will do daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly and track.

These goals are preceded by 9 ideas to keep me centered and focused throughout the year. They’re very personal and aren’t easy to track. But they are behaviors and ways of thinking that I want to incorporate into my life, slowly.

My friend is doing the same thing of writing out goals for 2011 that he can track. Our plan is to meet up regularly to see how the other is doing and keep each other accountable.

In all honesty, I’m looking forward to 2011 because I’m ready. I’ve shed some psychological and emotional baggage that was holding me back the past year, I have 2011 mapped out according to my terms, and I have some pretty exciting news to announce come early January.

2011 will be is my year.

So there you have it. New Year, New Me? Not exactly. But New Year, New Ways to Kick Ass? Yes, that’s absolutely true.

Want help planning your New Year’s resolutions and 2011 goals?

Read Scott Berkun’s post, New Years Resolutions that Work. It’s the best how-to I’ve found as it outlines, step-by-step, how you can write a resolution and follow it.

I’m actually following a number of tactics on Scott’s “Divide and Conquer” list, and probably the reason why it’ll work.

What are you looking forward to the most in 2011?

Photo Credit: meddygarnet