What did I learn this year?
We made it! The third and final week of our annual review.* Our three questions are also on my blog if you'd like to refresh your recollection. So, to recap and introduce the final question:
What did I learn?
Oof. This last one is the toughest, right?! We kind of have to put everything together to answer it. Remembering that I'm answering as an entrepreneur only, going with my gut, and keeping things simple, here goes nothing:
I learned to just ask. I spend a lot of time in my own head, overthinking what to do or not do. One example is when I asked you all to be my ambassadors and help me identify speaking and writing opportunities. I probably delayed making that ask for at least a month's worth of newsletters. Until I simply did it. And you know what? I landed my first podcast, which lead to another podcast. I put the ask out on social media and got a speaking engagement and another lead. Whether this is a lesson to "just ask" or to "put yourself out there," either works. The first time you ask is hard, but the second time won't be as hard. And the worst that happens is you're exactly where you started.
I learned the importance of not losing the forest for the trees. I use this phrase a lot because I'm the first one to fall victim to it. But it wasn't until this year that the reason why the forest is important resonated with me. I spent a lot time on the individual pieces of JMT Speaks without considering the full picture. I mean, it's a heck of a lot easier to check the boxes on the easy stuff, like writing, than actually dealing with tech, marketing, and content planning. But guess what? Ignoring the hard stuff caused me to lose sight of the big picture: growing this business and taking it to the next level. Getting too comfortable with the small wins stunted my growth. And that's cool because I'm planning for this forest to reach the sky in 2022!
I learned to fail fast. I mentioned this concept when writing about how my JMT Interview series didn't go as planned -- err, more like it required more realistic planning than naive optimism. But guess what? I didn't force myself to stick with it, spin my wheels, or stay utterly devoted to the idea. I allowed myself to admit I was in over my head, tech is not my strong suit, and it was time to cut my losses and move on. This was much better than remaining hopelessly devoted to the idea for the idea's sake and wasting others' time. In failing fast, I allowed the idea to evolve into something more manageable that I'm PSYCHED to finalize for next year.
So what did you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down on this exercise? I've enjoyed keeping it simple and look forward to asking these questions a year from now when I take stock of my atomic habits as James Clear intended. For now, answering these questions generally has:
Kept me honest.
Allowed me to self-reflect.
Forced this "too hard on herself" gal to give herself credit.
Identified areas of opportunity for the year to come.
If you found this exercise helpful, drop me a line or share the blogs on social media. Hey, I figured I'd ask...!
*If you're new this week, here's the deal: I'm drawing from Atomic Habits by James Clear to ask myself one question for three weeks this month. I set ground rules to not overthink it, pick a category of life (like home or work) to respond about, and be honest and fair with myself. To check out more, see page 245 of the book and email me!