My Year End Review (Part 2)

This was a good year, I had some failures but some definite successes. I learned a lot this year and hopefully taught a lot. My dream was fully realized this year and I’ll be building upon it in a big way in 2014.

So last post I told you about the goals I made at the beginning of 2013 and how I did with my five main goals, I even showed you a picture of myself with my shirt off (weird I know). This post I want to talk about failures and successes, what I learned and how I will be moving forward in 2014.

Lessons learned

There will be haters: This year I picked up a few haters and one really dedicated hater. I know not everyone will agree with your message but there are those that go beyond. They’re not happy just to disagree, they have to go out of their way to make you look bad, to show you how wrong you are and how smart they are.

Ar first, I just ignored it but to be honest it bothered me. Then the hater started following me everywhere online, even the guest post I was doing (Dan Black can vouch for that). After thinking about it, I realized this is my blog and I don’t write it for the haters.

I write this for those of you who want that freedom and help doing this on the side, building it to support you and your family. So I stopped entertaining the haters and blocked them from this website. From time to time they still try to comment under different names but I don’t have time, I’ve got important work to do. If you’re doing something positive, get ready for the haters, they will come!

Less is more: This year I wanted to make enough money to support my family so I did everything I heard and read would generate income. I did a lot of stuff but honestly a lot of it was a waste of time.

You’ve read that one of my main goals is to do less next year so I can focus more on the important things. Alone those lines I want to keep things very simple, take what works and build upon that slowly. When you’re on this online dream chasing journey, you’ll be tempted to get into a bunch of different stuff that you think will work. Before you do, really make sure it’s something that will help you, not distract you.

Know who you’re talking to: Figuring out who my target audience is has made all the difference, it’s helped me “crack the code.” I was way too general and it confused those visiting my site, once I got clear, the audience responded.

I lost a bunch of email subscribers but gained over $4,000 a month in income. I can finally talk to a specific audience about specific things that affect them. I can also figure out where this audience is online and how I can get involved in those communities. If you’re too general, you won’t be as effective as you want to. Get real clear about who you’re talking to and get even more specific.

Successes and failures

Boy, where do I start? This was the first full year that my dream supported my family, so I guess you can say that was my biggest success

My failures: I took on way too much this year. I took on every project that I thought would work, I joined a bunch of Facebook groups and other groups. I took on too much with family and friends. It lead to a break down in the middle of the year, I had to take a step back! It also lead to a lot of unfinished projects and crazy ideas.

I wasn’t specific enough: I started this year talking about chasing your dreams in general which wasn’t too much of a help for anyone. If you got value from that content, I’m glad but by getting super specific has really helped me zone in and help people accomplish things. Now that I’ve gotten specific, there has actually been measurable results, check out my services page to see people who’ve been specifically helped.

I didn’t save enough money: I had a good year financially and despite the knowledge I have about money, I should have saved a lot more money this year. There was some frivolous spending on my part, I should have a lot more in the bank. That will be one of my goals for 2014.

Successes: You’ve read about my successes in the last post so I won’t get into them but it was a good year. One thing I’m really proud of was helping people. For a long time I didn’t believe in myself or my dream until 2011. Since then I’ve believed and took action, the results have been life-changing.

To help people believe and then see them take action is one of the greatest things I’ve done. Going forward I want to help more people, I want to see anyone who regularly reads this blog accomplish their dream by the end of 2014 and I mean that. It’s only going to get better and I hope you’ll stick around to see what incredible things I have in store for you this year!

What did you learn in 2013? What were some of your successes and failures in 2013?