Whew!

What a year.

Back in December 2010, I did a year in review as part of #reverb10, an initiative to reflect on your year and contemplate what’s next.

It was the first I’d ever done and writing stuff down really helped me see just how amazing a year I’d had, when I thought I hadn’t done anything much.

So dude, this is good stuff.

If only to look, learn, celebrate, recommit and move on with renewed focus, clarity and direction.

Last year I broke it down in 3 parts – business, personal and community. This year, I’ve gone a little more in-depth with it and have brought some stats into the mix as well as answered some insightful questions posed by a fellow blogger.

The story unfolds …

At the start of 2011, my main goals were:

1. Launch an online forum for multi-passionate sparklers aka scanners
2. Do a weekly entrepreneur interview for my Entrepreneur Series (carried on from 2010)
3. Be clear about my message and niche so my ideal clients know exactly how I can help them
4. Create a course & worksheets around my Procrastination ebook (currently given away for free)
5. Grow my online presence, email list, Facebook page, increase website traffic & conversion
6. Move to Argentina for 3-4 months, hang out with Nat, then come back to Canada for the Summer
7. Revamp newsletter, be more consistent with emailing my awesome subscribers
8. Create online courses on business growth, personal growth, and social media
9. Have fun, be unconventional, build my business MY way no matter what the ‘experts’ say
10. Do a Landmark course after being curious about it for 10 years

 So how did I do?

It started off great! I gave up my apartment, sold all my furniture, packed my life in 8 boxes, prepared for Argentina, did the Landmark course (didn’t get as much out of it as I thought), bought vbulletin forum software in Jan 2011, started a mastermind group, kept blogging and .. life handed me a lemon,

Argentina didn’t happen, instead of summer warmth I ended up in -30 Calgary, had a crisis of “wtf am I doing with my life and business” and started questioning everything.

Remember #9?

I decided to do it my way and my way was screaming to step back, review and be with what was coming up. For 6 months I went on a deep personal journey that transformed the next 6 months to come.

The only things I was consistent about were meeting my mastermind group every 2 weeks, and to continue blogging and connecting with people through social media.

I stopped everything else. Every.thing.

No newsletters, no product creation, no Interviews, no courses, no coaching, and no forum.

Sh**! Was I crazy? Doomed?

This was the biggest test, the biggest leap of faith I took all year – to trust that my intuition was guiding me strongly through a process and that my job was to allow it.

I set one single intention “To be taken care of financially and not have to worry a minute about my finances” in 2011.

And… that’s exactly what happened. I had an idea of how this would work out and it unfolded how I’d imagined (family, friends, simple living, savings, unexpected sources of income). Goosebumps!

In April, I wrote a blog post about Scanners that brought out a whole community of multi-passionate renaissance people who learned for the first time that there was nothing wrong with them, they weren’t alone and that being who they were was a BLESSING, not a curse as they’d always thought.

This post changed many peoples’ perspectives and I got a ton of emails from multi-passionates who told me how their lives had changed by learning this one fact and they could now love and accept themselves for who they were instead of trying to fit in a box.

I knew that I HAD to create a space for us to learn, grow, connect and support each other!

Fast forward to June end. I woke up one day feeling stronger, clearer and more inspired than ever. Things started shifting. Then in the 1st week of September, I did something that altered 2011 forever.

What was that, you ask?

I made a decision.

A simple one, yet powerful in its impact.

After a strong intuitive hit, I decided to get rid of ALL tolerations, be consistent and claim my leadership and place in the inspiration & personal development world.

Specifically, this looked like:

1) Getting rid of my Aweber mailing list account (which I’d had for over a year but rarely used because of how much I detested using it) and moving to Mailchimp. This went against all conventional marketers who insisted Aweber was for professionals and Mailchimp was for newbies. Remember # 9 again? My life, MY way.

2) Letting people go from my life who I was tolerating instead of enjoying

3) Simplifying and de-cluttering electronically, energetically and physically (huge energy release)

4) Doing the Entrepreneur Interviews only when inspired instead of sticking to the 52 week plan (lesson: be willing to change course, halt or quit a direction if it just doesn’t feel aligned any more – DON’T drag it on and on!)

5) Saying no unless it was a HELL YEAH (thanks Derek Sivers, for that one!)

Pretty simple, huh?

That’s when all sorts of awesomesauce started happening.

• Starting mid Sept, I consistently sent out an email to my subscribers on a weekly basis
• A young blogger I’d reached out to offering support, ended up helping me expand my reach (Justin, I am forever grateful to you for your largehearted generosity!)
• I wrote a blog post that went viral, followed by a couple of other widely shared posts
• I created a social media course, launched a super fun and successful self help style e-course, rejuvenated my forum idea, coached, and hired a designer to revamp the YLYW site

Ok, ready for more specifics? Since September 15th, 2011, here’s a list of what I term successes.

Successes

• Launched a Social Media 4 week video course, which sold out to 25 participants
• Launched Inner Sparkle e-course, which sold out to 60 participants
• Launched Inner Sparkle II (starts Jan 9th, if you want in!)
• Previous clients reported sweet successes, some came back for more coaching after 2 years to move on to the next level

• Followed an intuitive hit one night and spent 10 hours creating a post JUST for the joy of it. This was the one that  went viral and brought 100,000+ unique visitors in Sept-Oct 2011
• Many other posts were shared thousands of times on Facebook and Stumbleupon
• Thanks to Kristi’s amazing post, I’d already made sure my blog was set up with calls-to-action, email opt-in-box etc to make the most of unexpected events – and it paid off in September!

• Facebook page grew from 1853 to 8000+ members in 3.5 months (currently 8238)
• Email list grew from 500 to 1800+ in 3.5 months, and growing every day (Love you guys!)

• Decided not to buy any info products or books all year – and did pretty well, buying just 2 products
• Contributed a prompt to the Ralph Waldo Emerson challenge
• Made my first ever commission from a product sale (followed by a few more, whee!)

• Restarted work on the forum, put a date on it (March 15th) + started site redesign work to better reflect the resource site this is
• Created a coaches group of over 750 coaches on Facebook to support and share with each other – one of my dreams come true!
• Went down snowbanks in a little plastic saucer, lived to tell the tale and then did it heaps more times! There ARE benefits to being in -30 temps after all

• Met tons of social media friends in person and forged new friendships
• Went from 5000 visitors a month to over 30,000 a month (on average, for the last 4 months)
• In Dec 2010, hostgator shut down my blog for 2 days because of “heavy traffic” and it kinda was – tens of thousands of spam accounts created by bots in the forum! Less than a year later, hostgator suspended my site again. And this time, it was because of the insane amount of visitors & hits on the viral post. Ironic, much?

200,000+ visitors in 2011 - this was beyond my wildest dreams and just goes to show that anything is possible at anytime if you TAKE INSPIRED ACTION, keep showing up and doing what you’re passionate about. Don’t expect it, but be prepared for it.

“Failures” – in quotes cos nothing’s a failure if everything’s an experiment!

• “Dropping the ball” on blogging after the huge traffic influx – this was a prime opportunity for me to really showcase and convert visitors into readers and subscribers. Although some of this happened organically, I posted just once in November and twice in December! I was busy travelling both months, creating courses and focusing on the Facebook page so blogging suffered.

• Not starting on Sparkle Club sooner - I bought vbulletin forum software in Jan 2011, got the ball rolling and then .. ignored it for 6 months. Picked it up again, talked to someone about setting it up and .. dropped it again. I spent ALL year talking about it but didn’t start because I had no idea how to structure it. That’s 12 months of experimenting, playing, tweaking that could have taught me tons and put me way ahead on the map.

• No regrets though. Everything is a learning experience and both these showed me the value of a plan, systems, support network and timing.

Learnings

• Show up - even when I decided to take a 6 month break from my business from Jan – June 2012, I was still posting on my facebook page, twitter, connecting with people & meeting my mastermind group every 2 weeks. That made a huge difference because I stayed connected and plugged in.

• Gratitude and setting intentions are POWERFUL. When I decided to be more consistent with my list in September, I realised WHY I hadn’t been and made a simple change, which changed everything. Opportunities I could not even have imagined, fell into my lap.

• Having a support network is one of THE most important factors in success. Without my mastermind group, I might have given up midway through my personal growth process but with them, I was supported personally and professionally and even more than that, INSPIRED by their words and actions in their own businesses.

• Although the big stuff happened in just the last 3 months of the year, it was the CONSISTENT small actions that I have been taking for TWO+ years that brought the right circumstances, people and results together. It’s NEVER an overnight miracle, and it always pays off to stay the course.

• Quit if you have to but never ever ever give up. Persistence is one of my biggest assets, as is believing in my purpose / mission / vision. I choose to do what I do even when I want to throw in the towel sometimes, because my WHY is important enough for me to stick it out.

• I refined my WHY, why I do what I do here – to inspire people to love themselves, do what they love and live an extraordinary life, THEIR way. Because we all deserve the life we want, not the one we or others think we should have or want. Personally, I do what I do because I want to live and work on my own terms.

• I freakin’ ROCK at life, finding the joy in small things and living with intention.

• Intuition is my (and your) friend. Trust, trust, trust it.

Top Posts of 2011

10 greatest things that happened in my life in 2011

1. I ate good food all year, cooked by people who love me
2. I lived in 4 cities, was well looked after and had no financial worries
3. My amazing MM group really held and supported me as I did them
4. I visited India after 3 years and am loving it
5. I launched 2 courses and sold out
6. I made yummy money doing what I love!!
7. Had a health scare but all my test results were A-1
8. I hired an amazing designer LisaV to redo my site (coming soon!)
9. Met old friends after years and re-established our friendships in new ways
10. I grew up and started treating my business like a business instead of a hobby ~ word

3 lessons I learned in 2011

1. I was born to shine and help people shine, my mission is to inspire you to love yourself, do what you love and live an EXTRAORDINARY life, YOUR way
2. Take more risks – create, create, create, experiment, experiment, experiment, ship, ship, ship.
3. To be successful, I have to know, believe and trust that I already am – and I AM

3 things I’d do differently

1. I’d have created the forum in Feb 2011 (better late than never)
2. I’d have created a product for sale much sooner (it’s on like Kong in 2012)
3. I’d have hired a copywriter to help me tell my story better (coming in 2012!)

3 things I will do less of in 2012

1. Procrastinate on shipping (creating, writing, courses, products)
2. Learning by reading (time to learn by doing instead, baby)
3. Mindlessly surf the internet instead of creating (I’m seeing a trend here – create create create)

3 things I will do MORE of in 2012

1. Be more positive more of the time, trust in the bigger picture
2. Create more products and SHIP them, ie, take action a lot and fast
3. Make more money from various sources while having a blast (but of course!)

3 things I will STOP doing in 2012

1. Complaining about things, being negative and critical
2. Saying I “wish I had more clarity and direction” – cos I have enough!
3. Comparing myself to others and using it as an excuse to beat up on myself

3 reasons I want to achieve these goals are

1. To be successful on MY OWN TERMS doing what I love, living where I want
2. Cos I damn well deserve financial and professional success, I’m an achiever
3. To help thousands of people become more confident, happy & live extraordinary lives

Smartest decision I made last year
To bring together 6-7 women I adored and admired into a “Secret Society of Awesomeness” on facebook, without knowing why in the beginning, just following an impulse and then watch it turn into a mastermind with calls every 2 weeks, as well as daily support in the group. Best.Decision.Ever.

What I learned from this – follow your intuition, let people into your vision and co-create something even more magnificent that serves you all!

Biggest risk I took last year
Deciding not to get an apartment after giving mine up in Dec 2010 for the impending trip to Argentina, which never panned out, and moving every 3 months for the rest of the year.

One sentence that sums up this past year
I trusted the Universe to look after me as I took time out, followed my intuition and believed that everything was happening perfectly, leaving the door open to magical things happening – as they did!

Intentions for 2012

My 3 guiding lights are Expression over Expectation (I’ll explain more in a blog post), Generosity, and Openheartedness.

Instead of ONE word for the entire year, I’m doing it Quarterly and will let it come to me each quarter. For Q 1, I’ve chosen EXTREME JOY and FIERCELY UNSTOPPABLE! I also have a list of 7 specific goals for Q 1 but I’m keeping them to myself for now. The big, overall goals are as listed in the section above.

My tips for a crackerjack 2012:

• BE you
• Make fun a priority
• Have clear intentions
• Hit a pitch a day, don’t worry about where it lands
• Listen to what people say but trust your intuition more
• Get support by way of a coach, mentor or peer mastermind group
• Break big, giant goals into quarterly goals and check in every 3 months to add or take away
• Be kind to yourself, ease up on the pressure, know you’re doing your best & hold your vision

To sum it up, while I’m grateful for the growth and movement this year, my REAL success has nothing to do with these numbers.

What made me smile the most and feel like I’d done worthy work, was the emails, the comments, the messages and stories from people whose lives had been made brighter, who’d taken action, become more positive and happy, started blogs, found new jobs, increased their confidence and moved closer to living the lives THEY want, rather than following other peoples’ dreams.

I can’t share most of those here, so I’ll just thank the 200,000+ people who read my posts and visited my site in 2011. THANK YOU also to my email subscribers, Facebook fans, twitter peeps and everyone I know!!

Here’s to an awesometastical 2012 for you and me!

ps: In case you’re wondering what the “one thing” was that changed everything, no it’s not the traffic or the growth or courses – it was making the decision to TRUST my intuition and do what feels good/eliminate tolerations. Try it, it has the potential to change.your.life.

Over to you – what did you learn in 2011 and what are your intentions for 2012? Thanks for reading, sharing and BEING here! You rock! xoxo, Tia.

Stay updated:

1. Sign up here for weekly Tuesday inspiration updates right in your inbox (& get the fun, FREE ebook on 10 top KICKASS ways to stop procrastinating and get things DONE).

2. Join the Facebook page  for daily inspiration & coaching tips.

Xoxo, Tia

get the free Top 10 Ways to Overcome Procrastination eBook . To find your 'passion', a career that lights you up and leap into your highest potential, check out individual coaching . And come hang out with us on facebook, 'k?

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]]> http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2012/01/03/2011-the-one-thing-that-changed-everything/feed/ 32 http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2012/01/03/2011-the-one-thing-that-changed-everything/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yourlifeyourwaynet/~3/3Bw7kFsM4WM/ http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/12/24/tiny-buddha-book-giveaway-winners/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:23:32 +0000 Tia http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/?p=10907

Yay! Just did the Tiny Buddha book drawings on Friday, Dec 23rd and here are the 2 winners! There were 2 drawings done at random.org (screenshots attached). Some names are repeated because they entered twice.

Please send me an email with your mailing address and I’ll send it forward to Lori so you can get your gifts.

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered! There are always fab giveaways happening here so you’ll get another chance in 2012 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. xo, Tia.

Winner # 1 - Jennie

 

Winner # 2  - Jennifer Cox

Reminder: The Inner Sparkle e-course is back in Jan. This 30 day, 21 email, mini self-help style e-course (in the words of a participant), is for anyone who:

• Would love to get 2012 started off on the right foot
• Wants daily mojo-revving inspiration & motivation
• Would like to be happier, more fulfilled and present in your life
• Thinks it’s time you met your Kickass Inner self & got a better sense of who you REALLY are
• Is SO damn ready to see life & its challenges with a fresh perspective and start shaking things up
• Loves the idea of having a fun, safe, space to connect with fellow adventurers AND get my *almost* undivided attention (optional – do it with or without group support). 

What you’ll get:

• 21 days of inspiring, uplifting email prompts spread over 30 days
• Short, fun, (sometimes intense) and insightful exercises to do in 5 – 20 min a day
• From writing to thinking to playing to surprise mini tasks – expect anything.
• A space to share your experiences, learnings & insights in an exclooosif (optional) group with fellow #21Shine peeps. Think facebook.com/YourLifeYOURWay on STEROIDS. In your OWN special secret society of 10X the AWESOMENESS. Hot.Damn. 

For just $35 CAD (with forum) or $21 (do it on your own), this makes for a FABULOUS gift for yourself or a loved one. Go on, make someone’s life better in 2012 by gifting them community, perspective, and insights! Click here for more details and to register. 

get the free Top 10 Ways to Overcome Procrastination eBook . To find your 'passion', a career that lights you up and leap into your highest potential, check out individual coaching . And come hang out with us on facebook, 'k?

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]]> http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/12/24/tiny-buddha-book-giveaway-winners/feed/ 0 http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/12/24/tiny-buddha-book-giveaway-winners/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yourlifeyourwaynet/~3/TLIqo0zOWpM/ http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/12/14/ylyw-interview-16-lori-deschene-on-tiny-buddha-wisdom-book-giveaway/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:52:16 +0000 Tia http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/?p=10807

Super stoked to feature Lori Deschene today!

Her site, www.tinybuddha.com is a favourite of many and my first stop for simple wisdom.

Lori’s interview has a lot of great insights and to top it off, she’s giving away TWO copies of her brand new book “Tiny Buddha – Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions” to 2 YLYW readers.

In the interwebs chock full of information and wisdom, tinybuddha stands out with its simple, relatable, gentle and quality content.

You can enter to win 2 times:

1) Leave a comment below sharing your main takeaway from this interview or why you’d like to win
2) Head over to the YLYW facebook page right here & let me know you wanna win for your 2nd entry

The winners will be chosen via a random.org draw on Friday, December 23rd.

Q1. What’s your WHY ie, why do you do what you do, has it changed over the years and what’s your process for finding it?

Great question! When I started with Tiny Buddha, I had one driving motivation: I wanted to do something meaningful to make a positive difference on the web. I was working 50+ hours per week online—by myself, from home—but none of what I was doing mattered to me on a personal level.

Over time, I’ve identified some equally compelling “whys” that guide my choices.

One of them is to connect with people on a meaningful level.

As I’ve written in my book Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions I spent a lot of time isolated, feeling scared of everyone else. Learning to see myself in other people, and them in me, has opened me up to a whole new world where we can all help and support each other, instead of keeping each other at a distance in fear.

Another one of my “whys” is to recycle pain into something positive.

That’s really what the site is all about: exploring our struggles, mining lessons from them to share with the community, and then moving forward empowered, not embittered.

I’ve found my various “whys” by being honest with myself about my struggles, my successes, and where the two intersect. That’s generally my strongest motivation: when I feel I can make a positive difference both in spite and because of all my varied experiences.

Q2. Tell us about a time you failed or nearly gave up. What did you learn and what changed as a result?

In 2009, right after I launched tinybuddha.com, I entered a blogging contest alongside hundreds of other people.

The winner would get to write about happiness every day for six months, and would get a massive salary for no more than two daily hours of work. Two rounds of the competition entailed getting votes from your community, but, ultimately, judges chose the winner.

Like a lot of people, I’d been struggling financially after getting laid off from two jobs, and I thought this would be a wonderful way to support myself while the site grew. I ended up finishing in second place with votes. The judges chose the woman who was in first place – who had existing notoriety from vlogging for ABC Family.

I’d really put myself out there over the two month voting period, approaching my community in every way possible to amass a total of 27,000 votes (over two rounds) and I failed, publicly. Though I didn’t get the gig, a lot of good came from the experience.

• For one, I became a lot more public. Previously, I’d been running Tiny Buddha anonymously, and this gave me the nudge to shape the site into what it is now.
• Secondly, I realized that I don’t need a massive salary to do what I want to do. That first year of building Tiny Buddha with a tight financial situation reinforced my “why.” It will never be about the money, and I think that reflects in how I run the site.

Lastly, it reminded me to be humble, which is a necessity for personal growth. I know that I won’t always win at everything I do, but I can always find some way to learn and evolve.

Q3: Your top 3 tips for living a happy, fulfilled life?

1. Live in accordance with your values and priorities. In other words, know what’s most important to you, and shape your life around those things.
2. Forgive yourself. When you make a mistake, whether large or small, remember that it all helps you learn and grow. Then focus on what you can do or change from this point forward, instead of getting down on yourself. Dwelling never helps!
3. Remember that freedom is where your feet are. A Tiny Buddha contributor named Erin Lanahan actually came up with this phrase. It means ground yourself in the present moment, free from stresses related to yesterday or tomorrow. Really see what’s in front of you, and allow yourself to appreciate and enjoy it.

Q4: In your experience, what are the most difficult challenges that people (especially women!) struggle with most when trying to build a business online AND bring balance and simplicity in their lives, and how would you address them?

I really can’t speak for other people, as I don’t offer coaching or provide a service that would give me insight into what other people struggle with in building businesses! However, I can address some of the related conversations people have had through Tiny Buddha.

Whenever someone writes a post about pursuing their dreams, some readers inevitably chime in that not everyone can just drop everything and do what they really want to do.

This is a valid point; people with fewer responsibilities can make different choices than people who have families to take care of and/or debts to pay down. They may also be able to put more time into their businesses.

We all have different circumstances, and that means there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for making a career change. My best advice is to be realistic with your expectations so that you set yourself up for success along the way, as opposed to placing heavy demands on yourself and constantly feeling like you’re not measuring up.

If you commit to doing something for an hour every day, or in whatever window of time you have, and then focus on the process, not the outcome, you will feel motivated every time you are able to do that.

If you set massive outcome-based goals, and then struggle to meet them because you have other things to juggle and also need time for yourself, you will feel discouraged at each point in the process.

Allow yourself to feel proud of what you are able to do – without overextending or exhausting yourself – and let each mini success fuel others. The tiny steps all add up. Even if you don’t feel like you are making progress, you are – and you will see it eventually if you keep going at a reasonable, steady pace.

Q 5: Many people fail to get going because they have so many passions that they can’t decide which one to pick. How did you discover and pick (if you had more than 1) a passion you could turn into a business / career you love?

I know what that’s like! For a long time, I felt clueless as to what I really wanted to do, and as a result, I bounced through numerous industries, and held more than 100 jobs (if you count various freelance and contract gigs).

I eventually realized I was struggling to choose something because I didn’t think I could do what I really wanted to do. I knew in my heart that what I loved most was writing, but I assumed it would be too hard. So I looked for other things that would fit.

Eventually, I simply started tweeting quotes that inspired me, while also doing other things. Since that meant something to me, and it was just a small daily activity, I was able to do it with consistency. And it grew.

So that’s my best advice. Start making tiny choices based on what moves you. You’ll likely stick with what you love because it means something to you—and it’s through consistency that we choose what we do with our lives.

Wow! This interview is one of my absolute favourites! Lori consistently impresses me with her honestly, genuineness and generosity. What a beautiful woman and what a beautiful heart! Thank you SO much for the fantastic insights, Lori.

Lori Deschene is the founder of tinybuddha.com, one of the most popular wisdom destinations on the web that features tips and authentic stories from readers of all ages all over the globe. You’ll find posts about happiness, motivation, inspiration, love, relationships, meaning, possibilities, mindfulness, and letting go. Get the book here!

Wanna win it instead?

Each of these is counted as one entry (you can enter 2 times): leave a comment below & then go comment on this thread on the YLYW facebook page. Good luck!

Stay updated:

1. Sign up here for weekly Tuesday inspiration updates right in your inbox (& get the fun, FREE ebook on 10 top KICKASS ways to stop procrastinating and get things DONE).

2. Join the Facebook page  for daily inspiration & coaching tips.

Xoxo, Tia

get the free Top 10 Ways to Overcome Procrastination eBook . To find your 'passion', a career that lights you up and leap into your highest potential, check out individual coaching . And come hang out with us on facebook, 'k?

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