2014's words were Brave, Calm and Connect - how did I go?

I had not planned on writing a post like this, quite frankly the next planned post was when I sorted out my three words for 2015 (which may not be until early January at this stage).

Something happened recently that has made me a little more reflective, made me think a bit more about what 2014 has been – and whether I lived up to the three words I set for myself this year. As a reminder, for 2014 my three words were BRAVE, CALM and CONNECT, the post explaining them is here. So how would I reflect on this year in relation to these words?

BRAVE

This was probably my bravest year to date. Starting with my TEDxHobart talk, then launching my business and running my first 90 Days of TEDcourse (I’ll be giving an update about that in January). It is a fascinating process to keep pushing ahead with something when every fibre of your body is screaming out at in you in fear.

What I’ve realised is that fear is just a mechanism to protect me – and it is great that my brain wants to protect me from failure, making a fool of myself, getting hurt, loss etc. But if I don’t do the things that scare me, I will never achieve the success that I want to achieve; I will never get where I want to go. I have chosen a risky path in some ways, and my brain just has to be retrained to get on board or get out of the way.

I’ve gone a long way in that retraining, but I still have a long way to go. So, even though it won’t be a word for this year, I still have to remind myself to be brave – but I think that is true of most people.

CALM

I could have done this a little better at times throughout the year. My ability for calmness improved when I started my own business; gaining greater control over the structure of your day introduces an innate calmness. Don’t get me wrong, that control comes with fear and anxiety over getting paid work, but there is something wonderful in knowing a random SLJ is not going to be thrown over the fence to you without any notice.

There is an aspect of this that will come into my 2015 words as well, because I think I need to put in more effort to looking after my mental health. Although, I still think that the greatest thing I can do in looking after my mental health is protecting myself against people trying to mess with it.

CONNECT

This was my year of networking, online and offline. This year, I connected more with new people than at any time in my life. I joined Hobart’s Live Your Legend get togethers – a group that has allowed me to meet, and develop lovely friendships, with a small number of like-minded people in Hobart. It has been wonderful watching the members of the group change and grow throughout the year – and they are a very positive addition to my new freelancing life.

Talking at TEDxHobart gave me a couple of other new connections, who have become wonderful additions to my world down here. The Ripple community has also added a few people who have become important to my support network. Then there are the two companies that I have started doing consulting/training work for as well.

Online I joined Chris Brogan’s Brave community, did Ramit Sethi’s ZTL course (and trialled his Brain’s Trust as well), and forged stronger connections with some writing friends in the US. The online space also saw the expansion of my dinkylune mailing lists, although I would still like them to grow a lot larger – but who wouldn’t?

As well as all of the new connections, most of my older friends continue to provide me with support, laughter and sanity breaks. This is harder with the ones I seldom physically see, but they have still been there for me, and I cherish that.

So, I think that connection went well this year – combined with Brave it has brought about some lovely outcomes in my life.

What are your reflections on the year that was? Did you do three words for the year or have any goals that you set for yourself? Have you reflected on how well you met, or didn’t meet them?

I’ll be back in early 2015 with my three words for the year. I have two but the third is proving a little elusive at the moment.

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