How Will You Finish 2014?

With exactly 3 months left in 2014, I am already focused on how I will finish this year,  both personally and professionally.

It does not matter that I started this year on a Whole30 diet to clear my mind and break up my unconscious habits.

It doesn't matter that my business is growing at a 300% clip going into a quarter when I grew 900% last year.

It doesn't matter that I cannot go one week without yoga, my newfound relaxation and exercise panacea for all the ill my life.

Nor does it matter that I am 0-8 on every federal contracting opportunity I've bid on.

It doesn't even matter that a personal crisis dropped in our laps on the cusp of the fall threatening to blow up every single plan that was made for this year.

The next quarter is my chance to run across the "finish line" of this year - 2014 - my year of being unencumbered  - with most or all of my goals in the rear view mirror. I've got a little over 90 days to make that happen.

Now that is not going to happen "by chance." Here are the five things I'm doing to finish 2014 well:

1.   Make contact with all the potential business partners I've been cultivating relationship with all year. If I am just reaching out for the first time, chances are they will be a warm enough prospect to impact this year or set me up for work next year. It's the time of year for budgets for 2015 and final projecting for 2014. Small end of the year projects go to those who are asking.

2.  Sit down with each family member and look at what I need to do to ensure we are in sync going into the holidays. Holidays are stressful but they are more stressful when not properly prepared for. I'll make things right with anyone I've wronged so we can have a peaceful and fun holiday season.

3.  Do a gut check with all my current clients. Set up meetings to gage their satisfaction and these will be in continuation to all the efforts I've made all year. Many of my on-going partnerships have already expressed intentions of continuing - it's on me to create more value.

4.  Self-reflect. Even though I do this often, I will have a serious inventory chat with me. Am I where I want to be? What's holding me back? What can I do to change that? Taking time, going into the final stretch of the year is critical for ensuring I actually shut down when I have my down time.

5. Plan my break. Every year since I've been an entrepreneur, I have experienced a near shutdown at the end of the calendar year. The first year it startled me and I was not prepared. By year two, I had plan and now I won't ever go into final quarter without one. We have a trip to California on the books and a surprise waiting for us all on the other side of year end.


I am looking forward to this final quarter of 2014 and the push to start 2015 well. Every move I make over the next 90 days will ensure I hit my goal of finishing well both personally and professionally. What are you doing to end 2014 the way you want to?

#2014Unencumbered My Theme For The New Year

Best visual for the word unencumbered

Back in late 2011, when it was amply clear that my side gig, Relationships Matter Now, LLC was going to be my main gig, I decided I needed a theme (and hashtag) to power me through the next year. I landed on #2012Rocks.

I cannot tell you how helpful and fun it was to end certain social media posts with #2012Rocks. It was like the team huddle scream whenever I made progress or moved closer to profitability. Then for 2013, I was stumped.

Not just wanting a fun rallying cry, I had a rough time coming up with the theme that would carry me through the good and the challenging moments of year. Then on New Year's Eve 2012 in the basement of a friend's house, I was reminded that I needed to face the new year without fear and so #2013Fearless was born. That theme served me well,  even becoming part of my first TEDx talk that I entitled Care More, Fear Less in the spring.

Going into 2014, I was not as perplexed to find a theme. I knew my theme had to embody both tough and good times as the 2013 one had done. My theme also had to acknowledge the big hairy audacious mountain of goals and objectives I'd put on myself both personally and professionally for this new year.

So many great words and phrases crossed my mind the last two weeks of 2013 as I tried hone it on the theme and hashtag I count on all year long. Then it hit me.

Unencumbered.

#2014Unencumbered

It's a clunky word and surely makes for a long hashtag but I could not shake it once I started toying with it in my head. Dictionary.com defines unencumbered as:

1.  not impeded, slowed down, or retarded; free to move, advance, or go forward.

2.  having few or no burdens or obligations.

3.  not burdened or weighed down, as with bulky or heavy objects.

 

I love that definition, every word, especially under 1. "not impeded, slowed down ... free to move, advance and go forward." That's exactly what I needed going into this new year. Ironically, I'd already come up with my theme, although I had not shared it, when I met with my B.E.S.T. coach the week before the year ended. Ironic because she read from my energy that it was time for me to do something drastic with my diet and she challenged me to leave behind a limiting thought.  All this as I shared where/what I wanted for myself over the next 5 years. The diet is not about food, it disruption. It's about examining all areas of my life and looking for ways to move closer to what I want and deeply desire especially for my business but also on a personal level. 

 

It lined up perfectly. My theme #2014Unencumbered captures well what I need to reinforce in order to fulfill the objectives I've laid before myself for the new year and beyond. I will use my theme as a rally cry, a comfort,  a soul-nurturing motto, an extra push and an encouragement to all who are within ear shot. 

 

I am so excited to tackle life in 2014... unencumbered!