What I'm Doing Differently This Year

As I mentioned earlier this week, my word for 2015 is "FINISH."

I love starting projects ... I even enjoy the middle ... but sometimes, finishing is hard.

I was talking to a couple of resume writing colleagues about this today, and they suggested some ideas to help ... but I think the biggest thing for me is focus and mindfulness. Making it a priority to finish the projects is the first step. That includes actually putting tasks on my schedule so that I spend time on them each day.

I'm also using Evernote to help. Each day, I start two notes. One is a daily journal to help me keep track of my time. If I don't track my time (even loosely), it gets away from me. The second note is a daily to-do list, with no more than 10 items in bold that are my priority for the day. I try to at least get the bolded items checked off each day. (And I love checking off items!) I can copy-and-paste the items that are still on there to the next day's note.

The second thing I do is I write "FINISH" at the top of both of the Evernote notes. This reminds me of my overall goal for the year.

The third thing I'm doing is actively focusing on learning. I'm dedicating a minimum of 1 hour a week (my ideal goal is 2 hours a week) to continuing education and learning. That includes NRWA teleseminars, Career Thought Leaders Expert calls, and courses on Udemy. (I shared my affiliate link with my colleagues who want to learn on Udemy -- they're offering a $10 special on more than 9,000 courses, but it ends at midnight Pacific time tonight.)

I saw this statement on Facebook just before the end of the year:
If you want things to be different, do something different.

What are you doing differently?

What's Your Word This Year?

Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading my blog posts. (I know you are, because I had a sudden spike in sales of my "Write Great Resumes Faster" book after mentioning it in this blog post last week!)

I started a new tradition last year … choosing a theme for the year. I called 2014 "The Year of the Product" because I wanted to focus on developing a new passive income stream -- a training program for resume writers interested in earning passive income through affiliate marketing. My words were: Create / Share / Action.

I did meet that goal, launching the Resume Writer's Affiliate Income Blueprint program, fulfilling my dream of creating a program that would help resume writers meet their income goals while they also served the needs of jobseekers.

For 2015, I took inspiration from Kelly McCausey and narrowed my focus for 2015 down to a single word. I was trying to figure out what my word was going to be … and it was starting to worry me that nothing was really coming to mind … and then my subconscious mind kicked in when I looked at my to-do list. Suddenly, my focus for 2015 was clear.

Fotolia – © arybickii

You see, I have trouble finishing things. At any given time, my to-do list (the one I was just talking about), extends to more than a page. I have dozens of notes in Evernote with projects that I ended up dropping off my handwritten to-do lists.

I love writing resumes. I hate finalizing them. In an ideal world, I'd send the client the first drafts and someone else would handle all the minor changes and create the additional file formats.

I love coming up with ideas, outlining concepts, and even starting stuff. But I hate the middle and I really have a hard time with the end. (I'm only motivated by deadlines. And that's whether it's for a resume or each month's Bronze member resources on BeAResumeWriter.com.)

So FINISH is my word for 2015. I've set a goal for one project that I've been working on for about 15 months now. I'm going to finish it by the end of this month. And then I'm going to choose something else to finish in February. And so on.

But before I *finish* this blog post, I want to ask you: What's YOUR word going to be this year? Post it in the Comments section below.

And I expect you to hold me accountable on my theme. Ask me how my projects are going!!!