So here we are in the final hours of 2010 with a new decade looming. It’s a time for reflection and resolutions for many of us. Christmas Eve saw me celebrating my 40th birthday so I’m beginning my life again now too apparently?! I must admit that I haven’t bothered making resolutions for the past few years as until this year I had allowed myself to drift somewhat. This time last year I was working Monday to Friday in a part time job I loved although I wasn’t keen on being an employee. Fast forward to now and a turn of events during the summer saw me pursuing my dream of working for myself and here I am now. I have a good feeling about 2011!
In four months time I will be married. My partner and I are looking forward to this immensely and we’re approaching the busiest period of wedding planning which will see us frantically trying to put all the individual components of a wedding together to create one magical day.
At the same time I will be working hard to get my business off the ground properly. In the few months since I started my business, I have gained some great clients and met some fantastic people. You’ll know from my previous blog post that I’ve recently become a member of BNI. In fact that blog post has opened a few doors for me too and brought me into contact with some more great people which has been a very positive experience for me. In 2011 I will be building on my BNI networking and hopefully getting out to a few other local Chapters to meet even more business owners and spread the word about the wonders of social media promotion.
I’ve set myself two resolutions for 2011 and they are as follows;
- Lose two stones in weight by April
- Grow my business and work with as many business owners as I can as well as one high profile personality.
I expect the first resolution to be the easiest. I am determined to achieve this target and will be joining Weight Watchers in the New Year. The second resolution will again only happen if I make it happen. I’ve always aimed high with my ambitions and strived to get my foot into doors which have appeared to others to be barricaded rather than locked. I have an ambition to work with one reasonably high profile client this year and I’m going to do my best to make it happen. I’m by no means disregarding all the other businesses I currently work with or will work with – not at all. Every single client who contracts me will get my absolute best efforts and I always aim to exceed, rather than meet expectations in my business. However I would love to work with someone who is already widely known and respected for what they do but perhaps needs help with their written or social media promotion.
As I said before I’ve aimed high in my life a few times before and had to ignore those who told me I had ‘no chance’ of being successful. I’ll tell you a little story about one such situation which I hope will give you some encouragement if you are encountering negative reactions to your own hopes and dreams;
Just over ten years ago I was a newly qualified Bookkeeper looking for my next career advancement. At that time I was a Finance Officer for a Social Landlord which entailed a lot of processing of payments and banking money. I saw a job advertised for a Group Accounts Manager at a local Travel Agent/Tour Operator and I knew immediately I wanted that job…very much! I put together the best application for this job that I could and submitted it. A few days later I received a call from their HR Manager inviting me in for an interview! I attended an interview with the MD and the HR Manager who said they would be in contact. I didn’t hear anything for a couple of weeks and presumed I had been unsuccessful. I was disappointed but I also knew I was under-qualified for this role so if anything, I had been extremely fortunate to even get an interview! Shortly after lunch on the last working day before Christmas the HR Manager called me again. She apologised for the delay in responding but said that the MD had really enjoyed our meeting and although he could recognise I wasn’t experienced enough for the role he was advertising, he knew he wanted me to work in his business. Would I be interested in going back for a second meeting after Christmas to discuss my working in a different role? Heck yes! Definitely! She couldn’t tell me which role it would be because the MD hadn’t exactly figured it out yet himself but we arranged to meet again in the first week of January! This was very exciting!
The Christmas break seemed to last forever that year as I was eager to learn what he would say to me. It was my 30th birthday that Christmas Eve and it was also the Millennium so I had plenty to occupy my mind but not quite enough obviously because this potential job consumed my thoughts. On the day I went along for the second interview and the MD informed me that he had created a Deputy Accounts Manager role for me and would like to offer me that. The salary would only be a small increase from my current salary but to me that wasn’t important. I had a fantastic opportunity to learn and progress plus I was going to be working for a travel company! I would probably have taken a salary cut for the chance alone but I wasn’t going to tell him that! I joined the company and learned a lot in my first six months. I was on a steep learning curve and I loved it. A new Accounts Manager had been appointed to the original vacancy on a six month contract so the MD could review the situation to ensure having the dual roles was working. At this review a very strange thing happened. The MD decided he only wanted one of us and he wanted me in the Manager’s role! I had the job I wanted!! I’d taken a round about journey to arrive at this destination but I had achieved what I set out to do! All because I took that chance in the beginning! If I can do it, you can too!
I’ve been reading Brad Burton’s book ‘Get Off Your A*se’ recently and he describes a similar concept. Brad is the MD of 4Networking and is a straight talking Northerner who tells it as it is but is also very funny. He has been told to temper his dreams and ambitions through his life but like me, he doesn’t listen to detractors. He aims high too and suggests that if you aim high you will achieve high – aim low and you’ll only be as successful as you aimed to be. In fact if I could have a third resolution it would be to have a 1-2-1 with Brad. This is slightly less achievable than the other two as like I said, he is the MD of 4N and I belong to BNI but I honestly would love to talk to him. Perhaps I can stalk him at an IPad geek’s convention?!
Let’s all look forward to being successful and building our own great networks next year. If you’ve not yet joined the ranks of social media you’re missing out big time. I’ve met a lot of positive and inspiring people via my social media activity and several of them have become clients, mentors or suppliers. What are you waiting for?
What are your resolutions for 2011? Have you given any thought to how you will achieve them? I’d love to hear what your aims are for the next year so please do leave me a comment below.
Have a very happy and prosperous new year and I look forward to working with you in 2011!
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Thanks for your comment Wendy. I have found in the past
that when you write down your goals, it can invite a kind of magnet
force to make them come to fruition. You probably know more about
why that works from your coaching work but it does appear to be
effective. I like your suggestion of stating the outcome of my goal
to lose weight as opposed to the work needed to achieve this. I
also recommend the philosophy of “fake it to make it” whereby one
acts as if the goal has been reached and adjusts their thinking and
actions accordingly. In this example it could be a refusal to buy
any more clothes in my current size and instead buy my intended
size 🙂 I’ll be tweeting progress so watch this space! Thanks for
all your support and I look forward to seeing you again in 2011
x
Hi Veronica, It has been good to meet you and it’s great to
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of this. Happy New Year! Wendy Ager