Theme for a New Year: Creativity, Profit and Adventure

It’s 2015 and most people start all their New Year’s Resolutions, lofty goals, or otherwise map out how the coming year will be better than the last. I’ve tried it lots of times and one year made a resolution not to make any more resolutions.

Two years ago, I set out to focus on goals. Ten of them to be exact. Based on a Brian Tracey interview I had heard through Success Magazine (a favorite of mine). For thirty days, I wrote and memorized my top ten goals and three action steps for each. The year progressed. At the end, I looked back and discovered I had failed to achieve any of the goals. “How could this possibly be,” I asked. They are all still important at the end of the year, but I failed to achieve even one. The fault must be with me, of course.

Last year, 2014, I set no goals. No intentions. Just wanted a few certain things: for my business to be successful financially, to help my friends and family, and to strengthen my relationships. This time, while I had some success and had amazing help from friends and family throughout the year, I still didn’t quite experience what I had hoped to happen.

However, while there were many many challenges that I had never thought I’d face, there were many successes:

1. I wrote nearly 60,000 words for a novel and even more for ideas for other stories. With this, I’ve decided that I am, officially, a writer. I’m not a professional writer, but a writer none-the-less.
2. My friends and extended family members helped my family through a very hard time that occurred at the beginning of the year. I am eternally grateful and humbled.
3. My business partner, key employee and staff helped solidify and strengthen my business setting us up for long term success. While we lost some great folks, it wasn’t due to anything we had done wrong, but rather great opportunities that they were offered. Recent research says that if you have great people, expect them to be poached.
4. My wife and I (and boys) managed to go through a tough time and come out stronger than ever. Our future looks bright personally and financially.
5. I accepted the role as President of a professional organization chapter. While I still feel like a kid compared to the professionals I am helping lead, I have been so rewarded professionally and so excited to see businesses thrive that have joined. I still have 9 months to serve and hope things keep going in the same direction.

There is more, but those are things that feel key.

This year, I turn 49…one year from the half-century mark. This gives me great pause as my mother passed away suddenly at only 55 years young. Logically, I know I’m healthy enough to go on many many more years, but there is that subconscious fear that I have to achieve whatever I was put on earth to do more quickly. Regardless, I’m eager to accomplish more sooner than later.

And it was with that thought that I decided (and have heard of others doing the same), to simply create a theme for the year. And that theme is fairly simple: Creativity, Profit and Adventure.

CREATIVITY

1. In writing and art
2. In my business and for clients
3. In relationships and for fun

PROFIT

1. For things I want to explore in life
2. For the ability to help others in business (mine and others)
3. For the resources to give to the community

ADVENTURE

1. To travel and explore parts of the world I’ve never seen
2. To experience new things with my wife, family and friends (individually and together)
3. To create things only in my imagination to thrill and inspire others (see Creativity above)

See how it all loops together?

That’s it. I hope to write more this year than the past, but…hey…we’ll see. It could be an adventure!

How about you?