My 3 biggest revelations in 2011

Only a few days left for 2011.  As I recover from the giddiness and celebration that is Christmas, various family gatherings, a short trip away with family and friends, and recounting the number of turkey dishes served a multitude of ways, I am deeply appreciative for the few days with a slower rhythm before the new year begins.  Being very action-oriented by nature, it’s been a treat to spend a few serene moments reflecting on 2011.

A few questions came up:

1.  What is the ONE thing that made the biggest impact in my business?
2.  What is the ONE thing that I will take into 2012 from 2011?
3.  What is the ONE thing that I want to eliminate?

What made the biggest impact

This year, it would no doubt be “Clarity”.  Clarity means different things to different people.  In my case, it’s about being clear on the 50,000 feet level vision and who I am at the core, my goals, AND being clear at the 5 feet level on what is needed for implementation and the skills and actions needed to get there.  It’s about connecting with that which I am most passionate about, knowing my gifts and what I want to offer the world, and building a clear plan to get there.

My clients who have the greatest successes, share this knowing as well.  They are the ones whose businesses mean more than making money.  Each has a business where there is a clear vision for who they want to be, where they see themselves in 3, 5, 10 years, and they pretty much CAN’T not do what they do because it is a bigger mission than who they are and their work benefits many many others.  Once this vision is clear, they build results through action.  They create strategies, long-term and short-term plans, and build accountability into their business to track progress and measure results.

In my case, my vision is “Education”.  I love inspiring everyone to absolutely be bold in courting passions and dreams and turning them into reality.  You should never not do anything because you don’t know how, or what to do.  It pains me when people quit because they don’t have the knowledge or skills, or have run out of steam. With the right mindset, strategies, and plans, you can absolutely achieve greatness in your business.

It’s become clear that every business (or previous jobs) that I have ever had is about education and empowering those around me to grow, learn and experience success.  For my own business, this clarity has enabled me to educate myself – to seek out the best mentor, create the best processes, and find the best clientele to work with, so that I love what I do everyday.

What I am taking into 2012 from 2011

I’ll admit, my tendency is being really really (really) impatient.  I want to achieve goals in half the time others take to do it, and if it doesn’t happen, doubt creeps in and I wonder if it was meant to be, and then get distracted by other things that seem shinier.  In a business meeting with my mentor earlier in the year, I realized that he had a very different way of tackling issues.  Instead of saying “oh well, it didn’t work, what’s the next thing to work on”, we spent the entire meeting dissecting what went wrong and what to do to change things up.  It was a small tweak on the mindset, but I ended up adopting this mindset and it has resulted in amazing results in 2011.  I’ve landed 8 training contracts, advised over 40 clients to start businesses in a self-employment program, built a strong roster of private coaching clients, and successfully completed hundreds of documents licensing work with joint venture partners.  There have been times where I want to focus on seemingly shinier things, but have stuck through even when the work isn’t pleasant.

For 2012, this is a trait I’m continuing to work on.  There are still a few projects on my hand that are doing the stop-go-stop-go pattern that I need to persist through!

What I am eliminating

Continuing on the same vein, I’m eliminating distractions and only taking on clients and projects that are in line with my vision, passion, and purpose.  This means that I’ll continue to focus on work that aligns with my passion of educating business owners on business development and growth, and working with clients to build businesses that are sustainable and scalable.  It means making tough decisions to discontinue a few ventures that have been fun but don’t quite align with the bigger vision, and focusing on those that do.

And with that, I am energized, excited and eager to begin 2012!