Note: Thanks to James Clear for inspiring me to write this Annual Review.

Once again Happy New Years everyone! We’re now truly into the first week of the new years  and because I didn’t do this sooner it’s as good as time as any to reflect on the past 12 months and look forward into the next. So this year I am writing my first Annual Review which will highlight (for prosperity’s sake) my successes, my failures and my new commitments.

Basically, an Annual Review forces you to look at your actions over the past 12 months and ask yourself:

 “Where have I been and where has that taken me? What choices will I need to make in order to live the life I want?”

An annual review is a personal process. It’s not about comparing yourself to anyone else’s efforts, successes or failures. Rather, it’s about your life, your actions, and what you want to do for yourself. In other words, keep your eyes on your side of the desk!

As James Clear notes: There are 3 main questions to answer in your Annual Review:

1. What went well this year?
2. What didn’t go so well this year?
3. What am I working toward?

Alright, let’s get this party started…

 

The Year that Was..

2013 started with me actually having no job to go to. I had spent the entire school break spending time with the family and (to be honest) kinda hoping that the universe would somehow land me a dream teaching job. It didn’t.

So I found a sales job, cold calling aka door knocking. I quickly climbed up the ranks and realized even quicker that this was not a future career pathway I wanted to pursue. I didn’t start relief teaching until March and only sporadically.

In that time I attended an amazing Isagenix Celebrations on the Goldcoast and I had a blast. This further cemented for me the entrepreneurial dream.

Along the way I became the principal artist at Cabernet & Canvas (who is under wonderful new management). We held workshops showing complete beginners how to paint a masterpiece i.e a Monet or a Van Gogh etc within 3 hours, with a paintbrush in one hand and a glass of wine in another. 10 months later I would quit my workshop position and Art in general and more on that decision later.

I started a Meetup called Internet Marketing Perth Meetup and essentially have taken over another. And I worked on giving presentations about what was working for me in terms of online marketing. I also started an offline SEO business and quickly learnt it wasn’t quite for me (while still very profitable).

I completed 4 Toastmasters Speeches, and entered two competitions (getting disqualified in one for going 4 seconds over time and snuck into another).

2013 was a watershed year for me as I finally got to do what I’ve always wanted to do and that is work from home as an internet marketer! It actually wasn’t that hard  to take the plunge and work from home full time (even though I wasn’t earning a full time living in June of 2013.) However, ominous clouds on the horizon and some bizarre political changes in the education landscape meant that I could see the future for myself as a relief teacher or even as a contract Arts teacher were fast diminishing.

So I jumped shipped and I haven’t looked back since.

Sometimes you just have to jump before you’re ready and make your plane on the way down!

2013 became the year I earnt my first $2k online, and then my first $5k online. This month I’m looking at $10k alone. And undoubtedly this is through this wonderful system called My Top Tier Business. This year I made $23, 541.30 online!!

Through my success with the system I got the attention of the founder of MOBE, Matt Lloyd and when Matt called for submissions for Phone Coaches for his MTTB system I not only put my hand up I started waving and hollering. Almost two month later and a very rigorous trial period I have another income stream to my mantle.

So said NO to quite a few things in 2013. Teaching in the education system, painting, tutoring and a profitable offline business.

And I said yes to following my dreams.

And that has made all the difference.

 

1. What went well this year?

During 2013 I read a book that would change my outlook on life, its a simple book, not very long but highly practical. the Book is One Word.

Essentially the essence of the book was to choose an over-arching word for the year, one in which you would dedicate your thoughts and actions to. So words like:

Friendship. learning. Faith. Truth. Fun etc.

Guess what mine was?

Focus.

Focus has always been an area that I lacked in so I really wanted to focus on my goals and that’s what I did.

Through Focus I was able to:

  • Complete a 21 day blogging course and a 30 day video challenge
  • I developed skills in presenting and simply put myself in positions where I had to give some
  • I implement traffic strategies that enabled me to reach $10k in a month
  • Get more organized and develop systems to support my sales and marketing
  • I blogged more, networked more and connected more.
  • Get a dream coaching position and help others get started online

Mindset. I have been very achievement focused my entire life. This year, I made big strides toward becoming more process-oriented and focusing on the system rather than the goal. This was a major shift for me and the wonderful thing is that I’m enjoying the process more than ever and the results are still there.

So overall, with improved focus I was able to grow an online business, develop myself as a leader within the marketing community and nab a great job.

 

2. What didn’t go so well this year?

If I’m honest/ critical of myself I had just as many things that didn’t go so well as that that did. And they can be summed up in the following words:

Consistency. Followup. Discipline. (Or lack of thereof)

I was terribly inconsistent in my blogging, my followup with prospects and my overall marketing efforts. I also wasn’t disciplined when it came to spending (actually going into further debt) and I wasn’t consistent at all in my nutrition or my exercise. So much so that coming into the New Year I am more over-weight, and ‘weak’ than I’ve been in the past couple of years.

While I have had many things going and I’ve have the basics parts of a marketing system, I didn’t focus on creating a systematic marketing system in order to take people through a process.

So my Facebook fan page, my subscribers and my prospects have floundered. Just being honest.

 

3. What am I working toward?

If I had to condense my focus into two words this year it would be Discipline and Growth.I want to focus on walking the path of a clean and lean warrior, one who employs discipline to create habits that work for him rather than against. With consistency and discipline I will experience real growth rather than starts, stops and bursts. And I can take advantage of the gains I have made last year.

Health Like I said previously I have started the New Years not being in the best of shape (despite having great nutrition!). I will be focusing on creating the habit of working out every second day (or at least 3 times a week) for a minimum of 30 mins. I am not going to over do it but I am really lucky to have some great apps on my phone such as the 100 pushups app and some kettle bell and interval training apps. I’ve fallen in love with book by James Duigan called Clean & Lean Warrior. Its simply no nonsense, refreshingly clear and actionable. So it’s going to be my health bible over the next year and I want to make small changes to my life.

Marketing My goal this year is to hit $120k in earnings online. In order to double my current monthly earnings I will need to do some daily marketing and create systems and marketing products – no doubt about it. My focus will be creating an email subscriber list, adding at least 10 people a day to my email list and IMPLEMENTING traffic and marketing strategies. That’s been my biggest problem – knowing much more than I do. I’d like to change that around.

Sales One of my main goals this year is to become a Level 2 Coach in MOBE which is a much higher salary. In order to do that I need to have great followup and closing rates, and do them consistently. I will have to invest time into training and also create smoother processes for my coaching students.

Family All the above means little to me without the love and support of my family and friends. So while it’s easy to be so focussed on work and marketing. I need to ensure I am connecting daily with my family and also creating really good experiences with them. I may not have much quantity time with them this year but I will need to focus on quality.

 

The Bottom Line

I believe 2014 is going to be an amazing year for myself and the Pich family. By staying focussed, disciplined and consistent in the daily actions of eating right, exercising regularly, selling and marketing on a consistent basis these small daily tasks will create big windfalls for the year. Overlay these actions with what makes me happiest and that is spending time with those I love and connecting and renewing friendships.

Of course, I am happy with the progress I made in 2013 and I’m excited to make 2014 a year of slow gains, little habits, and unwavering consistency.

As always, thanks for reading. And if you want to share a suggestion, your thoughts, or your own annual review, then click here to leave a comment.

P.S. Feel free to use my annual review as a template for your own.