Resolutions, Changes, And My Word For 2022

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED Hey, Hey, welcome to the final episode of coffee and converse in 2021. Today, I want to have a chat with you about my word for 2022 and show you how I'm practically implementing it so that it'll hopefully inspire you to really dig deep into your word of the year, your goals, your resolutions. I think at this time of year, we're really bombarded by a lot of ideas on how to do things. And I think that's fine. And I think we need to take what we need and leave the restaurant. So before I dive in, I want to be clear that I'm not expecting you to take my word of the year or even one of my resolutions. I simply want you to pay attention to how and why I'm thinking about things in a specific way and see if there is an application in your business. So my word for 2022 is simplify. Now that doesn't mean that the challenges and issues and ideas that I face in 2020 to either myself or for my clients, won't be complex. But more that, in solving those challenges or implementing those ideas, I'm striving to find the simplest. Possible. I think after the last couple of years, we've been chasing a lot of simplicity in our personal lives. Right? We can you see it in the home and it shows, or the Marie Kondo shows, where order and decluttering are creating these peaceful awaits oasises or white society or licenses. You know what I mean? We see it in the minimalist movement where people are aiming to do everything with the least amount. literal baggage. We also see it in the surge, in the self-improvement space where everyone is keen to leave behind that less literal baggage so that they can move forward. But I haven't seen it as much in people's businesses. Mine included. We still seem to be constantly adding, tweaking and bending to our client requests, and often in a state of overwhelm. And the problem with that is in a state of overwhelm where we feel like there's not enough time or there's too many things to do. We often can't see the simplest solution because the problems we're facing feels so complex. So we assume we need a complex solution. A lot of my time spent with clients is actually pulling them out of the complexity and diving deep into the problem to find the root and then finding the simplest solution for that root of the problem. Very difficult to do when you're in a state of overwhelm. So, what does simplify look like? Practically in my business? I'm looking specifically for things to remove from my business in 2022, either because they no longer fit the business or they no longer work for me, the person behind the business. And my goal because let's face it, I'm a complete numbers. Nerd is to get rid of 22 things, but I have a couple of caveats or rules around that for myself. The first one I haven't decided on all the 22 things. I haven't randomly come up with a list of 22 things that I planned to stop doing. This needs some thoughts, and it needs me to look at data and do some analysis and sit with what's working and what's not working. So it's not a case of, oh, Hey, it's January one, these 22 things are stopping, but in the same way, simply saying, I want to do less. And my business is not as helpful as having an actual number to strive for. So for me, the 22 is important. What they all are right now. Is not as important. My second caveat or rule is that they can be outsourced or removed completely or shuffled to a back-burner, but to have to be meaningful and active in my business. So it's not like I'm going to stop reading my email first thing in the morning. That's not what I'm talking about. So I'm going to give you an example of a couple of things that are already on the list so that you can have a feel for what I'm looking for. The first one is actually related to this podcast. I've decided not to produce the mini bite-sized podcast episodes would go out every Tuesday. I find that I want to go deeper on some topics in 2022. And that requires more time. So rather than giving you two longer episodes every single week, because we're all really busy, we're all getting a lot of information all the time. Instead, I'm going to mix in some longer solo episodes with the guest interviews. There'll probably be 15 to 20 minutes actionable ideas like the mini bites all rather than hour long lectures or anything like that. This, I think simplifies the podcast for me. It allows me to talk for longer when I need to. It allows me to keep the guest episodes, which I also love doing. And it allows me to remove some of the overwhelm for you. The second thing that I am removing in 2022 is my vault of resources on my website. So from January one, you'll be able to take a two-minute quiz to determine your CEO archetype, and then you'll get access to the best resources for you. Because as much as I want to simplify things for myself behind the scenes, I also want to make sure that my audience or my clients have a really simple, yet effective experience with me. I want everything to feel customized to what it is you need in that moment, rather than simply having all my resources available, where you feel, oh, I'm just going to grab everything and then you get overwhelmed and it gets lost in your inbox. I would much rather you took one targeted resource and use it to simplify something in your business. So that's my business resume. to simplify and remove 22 things in 2022. You've already heard the first two, only 22 ago. Now I also want to share my personal simplify resolution with you as well, because it does actually have a business implication. I'm calling it the rule of 22. I told you I'm a total numbers nerd. And I guess it's less of a specific like resolution than it is more of a restriction on my resolutions. Let me give you an example. So every year I see people talk about reading a book a week and I love to read. And so I get on board and then January happens and I'm already full books behind and I've broken my streak and then overwhelms, creeping in. And I never quite get to those 52 books. So my rule of 2022, we take this resolution and make it 22 books in 2022. Chances are I'm going to read far more than 22 books in 2022, because I do love to read, but 22 gives me a target to chase. It gives me something to work towards but I'm also less likely to give up because it's not a weekly streak that I can break. You know what? It's like a streak is great for keeping you going, but then once you miss it, once you change to just go, oh, well I've missed it once now. So, if I aim for 22, I'll probably read more, but I probably also won't get. Another example is habits or, you know, giving things up. I think every year we mentally make that list of things we want to start and stop doing. And the following year, and we dive into everything and January 1st, and we've usually failed miserably by January 17. We all great at overestimating, what we can get done. we Pile on the new hobbies and habits and to do items. And then we wonder why year after year, we felt like a failure so year after year, I give up diet Coke and year after year, I go back. Year after year, we make a promise to ourselves and year after year, we break it and then we go back into our businesses and we make promises to ourselves about how much content we're going to produce, how much money we're going to wake. And we wonder why it's really easy to break those promises. So my rule of 2022 for new habits is that I can only add something after I've done the previous thing for 22 days. Now that doesn't mean that I have, it is embedded in 22 days. If you're a James Claire fan, you know, the average is 66 days. Sometimes it can be months, but at least it gives me a headstart to keep one promise to myself before I make it. As a side note this year, I accidentally gave up diet Coke in October. I stopped drinking it because I wasn't feeling great and just decided to clean out my food a bit rather than over to a specific day. And you know what? I still haven't had one. I have no idea what day I stopped. I have no idea how many days, weeks, or months it's been unlike every time I've made it, my resolution to quit on January four. Now do. I still need to think twice about it in the grocery store when it's like gleaming at me from the checkout or at lunch before I order water instead. Sure. But most of the time, I didn't really think about it. So don't assume you have to start something on January 1st for it to stick. You might actually find it easier to do it later in the year when there's less. Now, these are my business and personal resolutions and you can take them, use them, disregard them at well, but I hope that you will at least keep asking yourself if there's a simpler way as you review your own goals, plans and resolutions for 2022. And I hope you'll keep that in mind. As you continue to listen to the podcast in 2022, we have some incredible guests and deep dives plan for you. And I can't wait for you to hear them with that. I just want to say, thanks for listening in 2021 and happy new year.