Most of us are tempted to engage in the time-honored ritual of setting some New Year's resolutions. According to our friends over at Wikipedia,
A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior, to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their life.
I usually do this -- most often the "old-fashioned way", sometimes via Chris Brogan's 3 words process -- and almost always in the personal realm. This year, at the urging of a friend, I also added a few resolutions related to my work. Here they are in hopes they inspire you to set a few intentions for your own career or business.
Resolutions for my business
→ Create a practical guide to writing based on the practices we use here at The Word Factory. I know, there are tons of writing books out there. I haven't seen any like the one I'm planning, though, and I know there's a market for it even if it's only a niche. I'd like some sales, of course, but my purpose is to gather all the strategies and tactics that I use in my consulting and coaching work (and share here on the blog) into one volume. It's time.
→ Expand my consulting practice to other creative agencies. At Content Marketing World last year, I talked to a lot of agency owners who are having many of the same problems as my corporate clients and, thus, uncovered a new market for my coaching and consulting. I also discovered that I have solutions for performance and business management from running my own agency that would help them run theirs. So I'm making plans for an agency speciality area.
Resolutions for my writing
→ Infuse more empathy into my writing. I've been working on this for a while -- especially in my ledes and endings -- and have gotten good feedback. Now I want to up my game to establish an even deeper emotional hook for the writing and work it through a piece.
→ Be more vigilant about avoiding "helping verbs". Because a lot of my clients use these verbs, I find myself slipping into it, too. I know, though, that my writing is stronger and more effective when I don't do it, so I'm trying harder this year.
→ Proofread more carefully. I owe it to myself and my editors to be more careful about silly little mistakes.
Here's to a 2019 in which we're all successful at whatever we resolve to do.
Related Content
- Writing Pro Tip: Meditate
- Learning from last year
- Taking stock [an article I wrote for Staples]