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Episode 119 – Self-Audit 2017
[-27:14] Let’s play a game! This is something I do want you to write down:
– Take a look at your year.
– Figure out what was working / what wasn’t.
– Narrow down how you can apply that knowledge to next year.
2017, on the scale of 1 to 10: How did you do?
How many goals have you accomplished? For some of us, the goals are valuable because they are steps to bigger goals.
How many of those goals have you not managed to achieve — and WHY? It’s important to reflect on these reasons. These reasons might go deep, like fear of failure or fear of success; or judgements of other people.
If at First You Don’t Succeed — Try Again!
[-24:58] By diving deep into this, you can deconstruct the reasons and set yourself up for success for the next time. Leverage those goals that are still worth doing that you want to try again. After you take a look at the reason why you’ve failed to accomplish these, eliminate those risks.
[-23:15] Think of the reasons why you haven’t accomplished these things. Put in mini goals and attack them with urgency.
[-22:37] Figure out why you want to accomplish these goals in the first place. If you want to get in shape, for example, figure out what drives you to make it a real goal. You have to justify why you’re putting up with the punishment / sacrifice.
The 80 / 20 Principle
[-20:24] There is the Pareto Principle that states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come form 20% of the causes. That’s something that’s worth checking out:
– What were the things that made you most money?
– What were the things you found most enjoyable?
STEP 1: If you take a look at your clients, it may be that 80% of your clients made you 20% of your income. The more you grow, the more you realize that the other 20% are giving you 80% of your income. This leads you to discover the clients that you enjoy working with the most and / or that make you the most money (depending on your indicators). Certain clients might be stepping up your career.
[-19:11] If you get rid of the 80% who are only bringing the 20% of your income, you can free up space for more successful relationships. If you find your success points and double down on those, you can grow your income. (I’ve talked about this with Christina Burton: allanmckay.com/99/.)
Get rid of the job that are unreliable and pay attention to those who bring in most of your income and are reliable.
[-17:01] STEP 2: The next big thing is: What did you enjoy working on the most this year? It may not have made you money, but it was a dream to work for. Those are the jobs you want to find more of. As soon as you can identify that, you can double down on those.
[-16:14] On the flip side, what are the jobs or clients with whom you hated working? Or the experiences that you would never want to have again? I cannot count the number of times of sitting at my desk, three days without sleep and hating a job. We all go through those.
[-14:00] STEP 3: Another good point to bring up: Who are the people you would conflict with? Especially when you’re working on site with other people, there is always going to be one person who bugs you. That’s why I enjoy working for myself. The advantage of freelancing, I am not stuck with those people. Who were the people you conflicted with? What were the reasons behind your conflicts?
[-09:51] You can look at someone’s negative behavior and learn something from it. Look at those interactions. You may be in the right or in the wrong.
The 3-6-3 Mindset
[-09:02] You might be surprised to see where most of your income came from. It may be from the same client. The key is to get to 3-6-3 mindset (allanmckay.com/16/). You may need to work those jobs for 6 months and bankroll the freedom you want for the things you want to do. That can also apply to a situation where you want to switch careers.
[-07:28] What were the experiences you’ve had in your life that overwhelmed you:
– Meetings;
– Speaking engagements;
– Tasks you don’t enjoy.
This is the time to identify these things. If you’re getting asked to animate and you hate doing it, you can communicate that with your boss. You can then focus on the things you want to do. You can approach it the right way or the wrong way.
The Questions Worth Asking
[-04:33] It’s worth asking yourself these questions. But you have to sit down and think about these. You don’t know what kind of realizations you’re going to have by doing this audit on your year. It might sound like a lot, but it shouldn’t take that much time.
– What worked / What didn’t work?
– What were your successes? What can you do more of?
– If you could go back in time to the beginning of 2017, what would be the things you would warn yourself about?
Sit down and go through it. You will start to think differently: You will see where you’re getting most success and where you’re failing repeatedly. These things can change the outcome for next year.
Shoot me an email with any aha moments: [email protected]. If you can, leave a review on iTunes.
Rock on!