Year in Review – My Goals, Successes, and Failures
2010 was an amazing year for me.
This time last year I was working with my mentor as a business coach in his firm. I really enjoyed it but kept seeing the ceiling of what I could make income wise and how much impact I could have if I only coached locally.
I’m really glad I took the leap to venture out on my own. As much as I wanted to stay with him because he is awesome and fun to work with, I knew in the long run it would be better.
What made it sweeter was that my clients didn’t want to give me up. They wanted to stay with me and not go with another coach. So my mentor graciously agreed to let me take my clients with me.
I had freedom to do anything I wanted. It was both a good and bad thing. I went all over the place at first. I got a provisional patent, I started this blog, I created an iPhone app, and I wrote a 50,000 word book. I did things just because I wanted to try them.
I helped my friends EepyBird launch the Coke and Mentos Rocket Car video in 3D which had an amazing 2 million views within weeks. I even went to the David Letterman and Early Show with them.
Family wise this year has been great too. I did almost all of the things on my list that I wanted to do with them, like go to the drive in, camped in our backyard, went to amusement parks, played outside for hours and sat out under the stars. The only thing I didn’t do was start Brazilian Ju Jitsu and start my son in karate.
I traveled to Blogworld and met amazing people. Shortly afterwards this blog received a lot of media coverage, with CNN Newsroom, MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, CNN Money and local news stations here.
After Thanksgiving it has been a bit of a blur. With my son’s birthday and holiday parties I’m not sure exactly what has happened to this month. I have great memories of parties and delighted faces but it went by so fast. It’s already gone and we are all gearing up for 2011, and our cruise in a few weeks.
I’ve worked with amazing business owners this year and I am excited by how much growth I see. I see the people I am working with becoming better people. They are handling difficult situations better, they are enjoying their business more just by changing their outlook, and they are gearing up for big changes. My clients are amazing people and I am so thankful for them.
A few words of advice for 2011:
Everything in this world is temporary. 2010 was temporary and we are on to 2011. Since it’s only temporary we might as well kick butt while we can. Make 2011 the most FAN-Freakin-TASTIC year yet. You can always go back to the way things were in 2012.
My Personal Goals Update
Here are some of the personal goals I had that I listed in this blog and how I did.
1. I meditate five times per week, and let go of situations I have no control over.
I have been able to meditate a lot more than the previous year. It still seems to come in waves, where I will hit the goal for a few weeks, slack off and then pick it back up. Overall though I have been much better at this. (Having a second child helped me become a lot less of a control freak overall!)
2. I earn $2,000 per month passively.
Currently I earn $12 per month passively myself. Woo! My iPhone App was more of an experiment to see what the process was like (and good thing because it only makes like $12 per month!) This stopped being as much of a priority during the middle of the year and it didn’t get much traction.
My husband earns a bit in passive income from the licensing of his music around the world, plus thousands in CD sales.
3. I maintain 140-145 pounds and no longer eat any sugar or fake sugar products.
I was at 100% for the first 6 months. Then I was doing so well, so I added in a little bit of a splurge while I was in NYC. Bad idea! Especially since that I didn’t stop. And now it is the holidays! (Lame excuses I know!!) But I am resetting this goal for the New Year.
4. I have a clean and organized home with an office that is a sanctuary.
Yes! We have a beautiful office and library on the third floor now. It’s nice and quiet and I’d call it a sanctuary. Most of our house is organized too. Though it could always be better!
5. We took two family trips that were amazing and fun.
We only took one this year with the children, and we are going on a cruise to Honduras, Belize and Mexico in January with the family! I also went to Las Vegas, and NYC on my own.
6. We contributed $1,000 to great causes.
I don’t have the exact numbers on this until I do my taxes but we are pretty close. I know we just donated a check to a local family who’s daughter has a rare kidney disease. It astounds me what strength parents have when their children are sick. Earlier this year we donated a lot to Charity Water too.
7. Matt and I go on a date night once per week.
Not once per week, but probably once every other week. That is a huge improvement from last year! We just saw TRON in 3D last weekend, and another movie the weekend before that. We realize we really use up the entertainment budget when we go out so much!
At the end of the year I ask myself, “If this was my last year on earth would I be happy with it???? My answer is yes. And really, that is all that I can ask for.
Have a very happy end of the year!
Tags: business failures, business success, Goal Setting, Goals, personal goals
Categories: Fear, Finances, Goal Setting, Goals
Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.
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17 responses
Interesting review of your accomplishments! I am putting together my goals for 2011 and thinking a great deal about it. It is the first time I don’t know if the goals are realistic. I guess I will find out when I review them a year from now.
What a wonderful, honest way to sum it all up and then map out the next year. You are right, it is all just temporary… Might as well make the most of it! Here’s to meeting all of your goals in 2011 and more!
Congratulations on the goals! I like how you managed to still donate a sizeable chunk of money to a really worth cause. Thats something thats NOT in my budget right now, but should be — donations.
Thanks! I know that if I don’t put it in there it won’t happen. Just because other things always seem more important. They aren’t, but my brain sometimes thinks they are 🙂
Your upcoming cruise sounds awesome! (And so does your year in review)
Jaime – good for you for setting the goals and holding yourself accountable. It’s never perfect, but I buy the shoot for the moon you’ll end up among the stars approach. without clear goals you just meander around life with no direction. you may not meet them all, or in varying degrees, but clearly you’re better off than you would have been without them. Good luck to you in 2011!!
Thanks so much Chris. I love hearing your thoughts. I agree with you of course!
Very cool you have an app!! That will be great if you could make $2,000 passively!
All active Yakezie Members will make at least $500-$1,000/month from their blogs by the end of the year. That is our goal!
Best, Sam
It’s so nice to have someone else working towards my goals too. 🙂 Thanks Sam. I love Yakezie!
What a fantastic year. Thinking about mine it kinda stagnated a bit, so its really great to hear of others who accomplished so much. Looking forward to 2011!
It’s great to review our year and what we have accomplished. 🙂 I do that every year and only lately I posted it in my blog. People probably don’t care about what I have accomplished but it’s a good reminder to what I have achieved.
You’d be surprised. Last year I never would have assumed that someone would like reading my year in review. I said the same thing when I first put my goals up, well at least I’ll have them recorded and backed up! 🙂
Nice Goals!… I found your link on “Problogger”…
David Edwards
Love to hear honest evaluations of goal progress. You’ve done quite well this past year. Best to you in 2011 as well.
I actually have a whole post about that which is up at Erica.biz today:
http://www.erica.biz/2011/how-to-achieve-your-goals/
Let me know what you think! 🙂
Brilliance.
I love the goals that were set, and the progress that was made.
I was particularly moved, Jaime, by the closing:
>> At the end of the year I ask myself, “If this was my last year on earth would I be happy with it?”
My answer is yes. And really, that is all that I can ask for.
Such an important question to ask oneself.
And I also appreciate the perspective that everything in this world, including 2010, and 2011, is temporary. So why not KICK GLUTEUS MAXIMUS!
Here’s to ruffling (and kicking) some tailfeathers this year.
And to the upcoming blockbuster success of your iPhone App escapades. WOOO-HOOOOO!
You know, I have always really wanted to try building my own iphone app but I just don’t seem to have the time 🙁 Once I leave high school I am definitely going to be looking into it as i will have like 4 months of free time on my hands! 😀