I’m writing this post on New Years Day 2021. We just finished 2020, which let’s be honest was a HARD year for everyone. It was harder for some than others, but everyone in the world had some sense of loss this past year.
I’m a firm believer that phoenixes rise from the ashes and you only get tougher by going through the fire. And boy oh boy was 2020 a dumpster fire of epic proportions.
But as St Augustin once said:
“Pray Not For a Lighter Load But For Stronger Shoulders”
There is one way to get stronger shoulders:
Put them under stress and do the work to lift it.
If you want to have your best year ever in 2021 and slingshot out of 2020 (no matter your circumstances currently!), there is one way to do it.
You have to put in the work this year.
And to put in the work, you have to start.
That is the way to have your best year ever:
Start putting in the work.
If your goal is to be self-employed by the end of 2021, you have to start building your business now.
If your goal is to be in the best shape of your life by the end of 2021, you have to start getting in better shape today.
Notice I didn’t say that you need to start planning how to be self employed or how to get in the best shape.
You need to start.
If you want to be self-employed by the end of the year, start reaching out to potential customers and seeing what they’d pay for. Do this until you know what to build, then start building.
If you want to get in the best shape of your life, pull up YouTube and search a workout. For me, I’m a skier and I want to be in good skiing shape. Yes I can get in shape by just going skiing (and I do, with 10 days on snow already this year), but if I want to really improve I need to work out. So I searched [ski workouts at home] and did one of the first came up. This one if you’re curious.
Now you may have the question of “but what if I start doing the wrong thing?”
To begin with, there is no wrong thing. So get rid of that mindset right f’ing now.
What’s the best business to build? The one that you build that makes money that supports you.
What’s the best workout to do? The one that you actually do consistently.
What’s the best diet? The one that you stick with.
Stop stopping yourself by always analyzing, always wondering, always being afraid to actually do the hard work.
If you start going in one direction and it doesn’t work out and you find that it’s the wrong direction, guess what?
CONGRATS, you just found out what you shouldn’t be doing.
It’s like going hiking. If you’ve ever gone hiking from a trailhead, you may know that sometimes there are multiple trailheads at the same parking lot. Sometimes you’re going to start in the wrong direction, which is fine because then you can do one of two things – keep going in that same direction and see where it takes you or turn around and go find the one you wanted to be on.
It’s the same with business. If you start building a business and realize that you can only charge $19/mo and it’s extremely competitive and you hate running a business with low profit margins and a lot of low paying customers, then you can start building another business that you can charge more for.
You are not required to keep working on the same thing.
What is required for success is to start working and adjust from there.
And that, my friend, is how you have your best year ever.
To health and happiness (whatever that looks like for you),
John
