Posts Tagged → goals

Annual Review Part 2: Lessons Learned & Looking Forward

Quilatoa Crater, Ecuador

This is the final post (#4) in the series wrapping up the year that was in 2010. Previous posts can be found here, here and here (with my favorite annual reviews around the web posted here). I can honestly say this has been the most thorough annual review I have ever done. I’ve chewed and let pieces of it reverberate in my head and it’s felt really amazing to take this time to reflect on where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.

Year of the…

I believe in creating themes and having power statements as I look forward. I’ve made vision boards and life lists. I actively envision the future I want. But for the first time, I’m creating a theme for the year. My friend Erica O’Grady talks about this, as does the master of the annual review Chris Guillebeau. I’ve decided 2011 is the Year To Be Mindful.

Mindful is a mix of being aware and cognizant. I look to 2011 as a year not only of focus, but as a year where I am aware and indeed mindful of my actions, decisions, interactions and entire being. This includes how I spend my time and my money, where I spend my energy (personal and professional) and the outcomes of those actions. Part of this is meant to streamline my own process, I’m simply one of those people who want to do everything. All. The Time. In reality that is impossible. I can’t know everything all the time, read everything, be everywhere or be everything to everyone. This will be a challenge for me, but a welcome one. I plan to be mindful of being mindful, have fun along the way, and of course share my thoughts and perspectives here as the year goes along.

What lessons did I learn in 2010?

You control how fast the wheels spins. I can easily let myself spin out of control with too many obligations and saying yes to everything that crosses my plate. About half way through this year I was completely burnt out. And not fun to be around! I had a situation where I was asked to submit a proposal for a big (huge) brand and they offered me the job but countered with an offer that was way underpaid. I wanted to say yes because of who they were and what it could do for my career, but I also knew it was too far below my bottom line. I realized I control the wheel and I control how overcommitted I let myself become and also value my own work and not compromise to a level I’m uncomfortable. I said no to the project, and took back control. Saying no (respectfully), taking time off from being online, and creating boundaries are glorious revelations I’ve had this year that have made me better and stronger. I’m more of a marathon runner now and I don’t feel that push and pull of being burnt out or pressured by what I perceive as other peoples’ schedules and how that impacts my own psyche. It’s an amazing shift and I’m not letting go of this one for a long long time.

Learning when to exhale. Home, for me, is where the heart is and where my friends are and where my family is. It’s not always my home where I rest my head or the driveway I pull into or the ever-elusive view of where I think my life should be. I didn’t have a permanent place to rest my head in 2009 and in 2010 I moved into two separate furnished places in New Orleans. Both felt immediately like home. I went to Seattle and Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and New York City and immediately felt at ease. I wondered why. It occurred to me that without realizing I had fundamentally changed the concept of what home is to me. Refined the idea of stuff. My heart might be in one place while I’m physically somewhere else. It’s all less tenuous to me now. I can exhale and relax easier knowing it’s not tied to preconceived notions of stuff.

Walking makes everything better. I can seriously get my walk on. I have always loved being outside and walking but the big change this year was feeling the difference in me when I could take that time to get outside, clear my head and change my environment. I have a theory that everything changes when you walk 10 minutes in one direction. Often this year, I needed that perspective to keep going because life was so busy and I was balancing a lot of emotions at once. It wasn’t only walking but also leading a healthy lifestyle including yoga, eating healthy, limiting caffeine and alcohol intake, all of these things made a huge difference in me and almost eliminated entirely the mood swings that I remember all too well from my 20s. I largely credit walking.
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First Quarter Review: Changes and Upgrades To The Causemopolitan

This is the first of three posts reviewing the first quarter.

Life goes by fast and I’ve found if you don’t stop and smell the roses, well, it passes fast and it’s hard to look back and remember things. Remark on them. Tell those you care about how much those moments COUNT for something.

A friend of mine told me of an exercise where she takes the printout of her calendar and at the end of each month writes on the back what she is most proud of, who she is happy she connect with or who impacted her the most that month and then looks forward to the next month.

I’ve been wanting to do that for every month of 2010, which of course didn’t happen. It was a whirlwind and instead of fighting the wind, I succumbed to it. I was wrapped up and twisted into post-Davos, Superbowl, local election, Mardi Gras mayhem, trips to Los Angeles and SXSW and wouldn’t you know, a truly terrific cold and cough that once I recovered from, I was staring down the face of mountains of work. The work I love! It just leaves little time to post, to write, to share.

No matter. I can go back and recount what happened a few weeks ago, a few months ago. I’m no less busy now, but sometimes you just have to force yourself to MAKE time. This is me making time.

So looking back on the first three months of this year, I’ve decided to break the posts into three parts:
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Catching Up On New Year’s Resolutions

In reflecting on my reflecting of 2009, I looked back at the resolutions I made a month ago and can’t believe the progress I made. I joked recently to a friend that January brought so much positive change and sheer brute force that I’ve flown through a lot of these. January was one of the best months of my whole life. I felt in control of my path, I got back on track and back to work. I received a paycheck again. I swooned and awed and danced little happy dances in my apartment when no one was watching celebrating life.

Nonetheless, one of the things I want to do in 2010 is sharing of my goals and the things I work on behind closed doors to make things happen.

First a note. My mom requires my sisters and I submit our New Year’s Resolutions to her in-person, by phone or email by 11PM EST on New Year’s Eve. No exceptions. I have dialed mine in from Cairo to Buenos Aires. My mom puts our Resolutions on paper and in a bottle in the back of the freezer to look at again the next year. I’m being bold sharing my resolutions with you here hoping that this mix of self-determination will lead to fulfilling my “official resolutions” for the year.

I develop many more goals as the year goes by, but these, well these are the starting point for the adventure and state of mind I wish to be in for 2010.

My resolutions (as I wrote them to my mom):

1) Adventure: Go skydiving, get a tattoo, visit Japan, learn to drive a stick (carry over from last year), visit one state I haven’t been to yet.

2) Professional: Attend one conference I haven’t been to before, give at least 10 talks on “cause-filled living,” publish at least 10 articles in magazines or longer form blog posts (separate from repurposing content), blog every day for one month. Write a book and get it published. In general write more, publish more, continue to build a brand around “cause-filled living.”
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Vegas, New York, Pittsburgh, New Orleans – An Update on My Schedule

A little housekeeping. First, I’ve finally updated my SCHEDULE in the upper navigation to show the most recent set of travel and what is upcoming. The piece that is NOT in there but I want to do is exactly which villages I was in while in the Philippines and my journal with those notes is in Pittsburgh so next time I’m back there (hometown for those of you new to my blog and my temporary home base and mailing address to accompany my nomadic lifestyle) I’ll add those barangays and villages in.

What you will notice is that I hit the U.S. running. This could be good, it could be bad, mostly it just IS. Which means life has a way of taking hold and the Cause It’s My Birthday campaign wasn’t going to plan itself, and we had only three weeks to pull everything together so all things considered I don’t regret the lack of sleep or long days leading into the campaign and then, well, the long days and long nights of the campaign itself. All in all, if you have to be out of the country for a few months at a time and miss everyone and want to make a splash – throw a 7 city, 7 day, 7 party tour. I think that outta do it.

So the question burning on everyone’s mind is what’s next? Well, I can’t tell you everything (because a lot I don’t know not because I’m being secretive…or am I…) but I can tell you what’s up right now, where I just was and where I’m going and what I’m doing in those places.
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Cause It’s My Birthday Update

Here’s the deal. You wanted to come to a party but you didn’t make it. You live in a city where we weren’t having a party but weren’t sure you could contribute anyway. You wanted to donate online but forgot. You came to one of the parties, had an amazing time and want to give more. You’re thinking to yourself, “Maybe if I donate and help Sloane and Doug reach their goal she’ll FINALLY move on to blogging about something else, good god.”

Whatever your motivation (better parking karma, cache with the ladies, because you just damn want to help and feel involved in something bigger than you), whatever it is. Please take a moment and make a donation on the paypal widget above. Your donation, every single dollar, takes us closer to our goal.

We have set our goal to $20,000** and are keeping the campaign open until Saturday at midnight PST. That means we have 4.5 days (from now) to raise the additional $2,315 that we need.

That’s 463 additional malaria nets. $5 a piece remember? Wow, right.

$20,000 nets equals 4,000 nets total. Wow again. So close.

Changes and updates to the totals in the last few days.

An update on Cause It’s My BIrthday! Yes, we’re alive! Yes, we’re still posting pictures and videos and thanks. Yes, we’re loving all of you more than ever. Yes, we’ve now raised OVER $17,000 in donations. $17,685 to be exact.

So what’s the deal?

Los Angeles is still in first place with $4969.
New Orleans is a strong second place with $3930.
San Francisco in third at $2140.
New York City is fourth at $1925.
Chicago is fifth at $1445.
Seattle is sixth at $1406.
Miami is in seventh with $410.

Let me say that ALL the cities are winners. I know, that’s kinda cheesy. But I mean we did do this campaign without knowing a ton of people in some of these cities and the fact that we HAD a party and that people showed up is pretty spectacular all things considered.

Thank you to everyone. Your donation saves lives.

Cause I believe that tomorrow should be better than today,
Sloane

**Yes the original target was much higher. Well first it was lower and than it was higher. As an experiment we were just trying this out. $20,000 is now our goal and we’re confident we can make it. With your help.