It’s time to “review the tapes” of the past year. This will be the second year in a row that I do this. I wrote a review post in 2018, 2017 and 2014 before that. I felt it was useful for my reflection process and want to continue again. I’m on a 3 year streak now 🙂
Something for you — 10 Questions to help you review the tapes of 2019
I present to you my 2019 State of Paris (the person; not to be confused with the place). You’ll find the following sections below:
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What did I learn?
What’s ahead for 2020?
What went well?
Content Bundles. I participated in my first content bundle. It was run by April Lemarr over at nichestarterpacks.com. I created a special piece of content for the bundle – Fitness Motivation Content Pack. I enjoyed challenging myself to create a content pack like this and getting it ready in time for the bundle launch. I was able to gain new subscribers on my list as well.
Got out. One of things I wanted to do this year was get out of the city a few times this year. I was able to get out of Shanghai several times this year, which was great.
One trip was not for favorable reasons, but I was able to see family.
I also made my way down to Thailand. I really enjoyed the relax time there.
China Company. This was a big step forward for doing more business inside China. I went through the process of registering a company in China. The process has gotten easier than it used to be in the past.
Hit CC debt zero. I hit zero credit card debt at one point this year. The feeling was amazing. I will be there again this year, and I will be staying there for a while if I can help it.
What didn’t go well?
Personal Loss. It was a shock learning that my Grandmother was on her last days this year. Only by God’s grace was I able to fly back home in time to say goodbye, before she took her last breath. While I still mourn her, I also give thanks to God for making a place for her in heaven. Love you Granny!
Content Creation. I aimed to create 6 new pieces of white label content along with 12 new pieces of blog articles. Both weren’t achieved this year. I will need to go back to basics and revisit my habits that allowed me to create content before.
Routines and Habits. I felt like my habits went out of whack this year. My rhythm was off and I struggled to get it back.
Outsourcing. I tried outsourcing some writing assignments, attempting to build a small team of writers. The quality came out “meh.” There was one writer that showed good potential. I will probably attempt to work with her again when I get in a good rhythm with my content creation.
What did I learn?
Showing Up is better than not. Although I didn’t achieve many of the things that I had set out to accomplish this year, I did find a way to continually show up for many things. There were times when my mood and energy levels were super low. Rather than curling up in a ball, I mustered up the strength to go forward and just show up. Once I got to a certain point, things were okay.
One example is how I handled fitness this year. My morning routine used to be regimented, involving a walk to the gym by 7am at the latest. This year I was not waking up that early anymore. Instead I had to adjust my workout times and schedules on the fly. Even if I wasn’t in the mood to go to the gym, I forced myself to walk over. Just show up. Usually when I arrived, I did something productive. And that is the lesson.
Outsourcing will require time/money in the beginning. This is a BIG lesson for running a one-man company with virtual team members. It will take some time and investment to get the right people working with you.
Keep strict accounts. Keeping track of expenses and income are essential to analyzing your business growth, or decline. Never catch yourself wondering where it all went.
What’s ahead for 2020?
2020 is a year for clarity I believe. There are several things that I would like to focus on going forward into the year.
Small Habits. I believe these will be the building blocks of achievement for this year. I will start with one small habit of reading 20 minutes every day. Then I will slowly get back to waking up earlier in the morning and finishing a six-minute morning routine.
Content Creation. I will be carving out time to focus on content creation. This time I want to work on one thing at a time rather than several products at once. I think this will allow me to stay focused on finishing. Stacking this with other habits will compound into something. I can feel it.
Savings. An important step this year is to save money. I plan to work toward saving for a move to Europe or southeast asia. Either way it will take some money to make that move out of Shanghai, and I will have to be ready.
I plan to keep track of income more accurately than before. I want to know which channels it is coming from, in addition to which channels it is not coming from. This will help me isolate the processes and products that are producing results. Several of my passive income mentors have an ‘income dashboard’ of sorts for tracking what is coming in. I want to do the same.
Well, that’s it for now. Let’s see how 2020 shapes up.