Even though we have formally bid adieu to 2011, let’s take one last look back at the year that was. That’s the scope of this week’s speedlink, the first of 2012.
As you make your way through your new year’s resolutions, Trent Hamm reminds you that you are not alone in this journey. He has experienced his financial bottom, but he has emerged stronger than ever thanks to the support and encouragement of those around him. He felt alone in his struggles, but he never really was.
In line with achieving our financial goals, Derek Semmler provides a Kindle publishing tip. If you are going to sell your e-book through the Amazon Kindle platform, make sure you utilize Author Central. This allows you to edit information on any of your books, like the product description. You can also highlight reviews and add special sections.
I agree with Anny Chih. Growing up, my reference point for memories was my school grade level. I did X in grade 5 and Y in grade 8. These days, different milestones are used as markers. For Anny, 2011 was a small measure of time that felt like “living three years in one.” She sure accomplished a lot, from traveling to working to volunteering.
With each new year comes new and exciting ways to connect to the rest of the world. While XtraNormal certainly isn’t new, Jeff Cutler is seeing potential in this kind of content strategy. Companies need to establish “new channels” and new ways to “engage their audiences.” They’ll need writers (like Jeff and I), interviewers, media folk, and more.
And finally, you may be wondering about that photo at the top of the post. That comes by way of John Biehler and his recent visit to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. This is easily one of the best zoos that I’ve ever visited, being more expansive and more interesting than even the San Diego Zoo. John was trying out his new telephoto zoom lens on the trip and I think the pictures came out great!
Thanks for the mention Michael.
But more importantly, thanks for the reference to Trent’s post. I’ve found myself in that same spot recently, not with my finances but my own health. My wife has lost weight and gotten in great shape, yet I’ve been sliding the other way and his post really hit home for me.
As we have discussed many times in the past, I don’t hold much confidence in New Years Resolutions. They are way to broad, too contrived and ultimately set ups for failure. Having something that is going to most likely end up as a failure isn’t a good start to a year, so I like to set small goals for myself with time frames to finish parts of the goal.
I have only one goal for this year, which is to consistently try do better than I did the day before. I have a list of things that I want to try to do better which are attainable and if I succeed then after a while they will become habits that I can erase from the list and add new ones.
To me that is much more of a positive lifestyle change than saying I want to lose weight this year, or I want to get a better job, or whatever it is. Change is slow and steady, kind of like the Tortoise and the Hare.
Good idea about setting smaller, more realistic goals. I used to aim for something hugely unrealistic like losing 20 lbs in a month or something like that which I would never achieve anyway. But that said, I have made a few broad, sweeping resolutions too that have to do with trying to just improve in small but constant increments in just about everything I do and try to be a better person through it.
-Jean