Know-How Exchange : Other

Happy New Year to everyone.

I agree that New Year resolutions are absurd. There's nothing magic about January 1 for doing what you should be doing (or stopping what's not working). That said, almost everyone runs on a fiscal year -- often starting on January 1 -- and planning is an important part of the business cycle, driven (at least in part) by tax laws and accounting practices.

So to the extent that New Year resolutions are just plans that have been thought-out, January 1 is a convenient time to make sure that objectives and strategies are in place, and that there's a system for tracking progress and reading feedback ... in time to change what you're doing if it's not working according to plan, without waiting until next January.

Anyway, Happy New Year! Hope it's happy, healthy and prosperous for all the KHE crowd.

Dear Michael,

HNY to you too!

Abstracts: we're surrounded by them. January 1st is no different.

Or is it?

In the mythology of Ancient Rome, Janus (or Ianus, which is Latin for "archway") was the god of doors and gateways and the god of endings and beginnings.

The month of January is named in his honour, so it's perhaps apt that we look back and forward at this time of year—at what was, and at what might be.

Might the problem though, be that we spend TOO much time looking back and not enough time looking forward?

There is no time like the present to gift ourselves with a brighter, more prosperous, and healthier future and to do this, to arrive at that destination, we not only need to know where the hell we're going, but also how we'll travel there and how we might adapt our perspective and take side trips along the way.

Goals are all well and good, but without a plan, a goal is a large net into which one tries to kick a ball.

So let our resolutions become our plan, and may that plan be a grand one.

Might we be better if we resolve to plan our journey and head toward our destination with everything that's good, honest, true, right, and upstanding EVERY day of the year, not just for a few weeks of the new year?

Might a two year plan, or a five year plan better allow for setbacks and screw ups, thereby giving greater leeway to wiggle this way and wriggle that way? But let us not forget that regardless of where we are going, the journey IS the destination and the more people we can help along the way, the better for all concerned.

The idea of getting a running start on resolutions, no matter how new they might be for the year in question is, I think, an excellent one.

As we enter a new decade, and whoever we may be and whatever we may do, or think, or contribute—to this forum, or to ourselves; to others, and to our clients and customers and the industry as a whole, let us ALL resolve—to our best intent, and to the best of our abilities and expertise, to help, advise, opine, guide, and shepherd for the betterment of all: question askers and answerers, and for the betterment of marketing as a whole.

Whatever 2010 might have in store for you, may the rewards
be great and may the values and benefits you bestow on others change lives for the better and build businesses that are stronger and more profitable than ever.

Remember, every day we have a choice: we can be helpful and awesome. Or we can be hindering idiots. Let's choose wisely.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA
Follow me on www.twitter.com @GaryBloomer

For me, the problem with resolutions are that they are ideas. Maybe they are really good ideas, something that would truly benefit me, my family, or my business. But I'm unlikely to act on the idea until I change my habits (otherwise, I would've already achieved the goal a long time ago).

Changing habits is non-trivial. Ask anyone who's tried to quit smoking or lose weight. That's why change requires not only good intention, but also knowledge of how to change yourself to achieve your goals. Peer support groups work for some. Mentoring/coaches for others. Ditto, journaling, affirmations, self-help courses, etc.

That's why in addition to stating a clear goal, with measurable results, you also need to understand your own motivations and learn what will permanently let you shed your old habits for new ones.

HI,

I guess most of the folks actually are commited to work towards new year resolution, but eventually they just give it up.

I guess its just the sheer commitment & dedication which leads the guys towards being successfull in their career.

A Very Happy & properous new year.

Swap.

皆さんー明けましておめでとうございます。

That's Happy New Year in Japanese. Pronounced "akemashite omedetougozaimasu". Literally means "congratulations from making it into the new year".

No resolutions here.

Dear Michael the fundamental thing about moving forwards is knowing where you are at the moment, so your commitment to re-centring daily will give you your map reference at the starting line from where you can set a course to wherever you want.

Re-Centring daily a great idea and I will adopt in myself. By all means send me a bill for nicking your ideas but send it to our office in Middle Earth!

Enough of this joking. I joined MarketingProfs because out of many similar Google search results it seemed to be the most professional place to get a question answered. I then popped my question about PR response rates and volumes year by year and “Is PR no longer a lead generator in vertical markets”

Once I’d digested the excellent answers (And solved my problem) I plucked up courage to answer a few questions where I felt that I had the experience to offer advice. I’ve carried on doing so because I enjoy attempting to be of service to other marketers, sure in the knowledge that if I write rubbish, I will get shredded in public by finer marketing brains than mine.

Responding to questions is also the best form of exercise for the Marketing Hemisphere of my brain (OK, I made that up, there isn’t a marketing hemisphere in my brain, more a sort of cloud-thing) so that I can keep myself sharp for my own tasks and projects.

Being in the top 100 as judged by one’s peers out of a community of 340,000 subscribers isn’t a bad reference and I’m sure that it has opened the odd door here and there.

So I have a goal for 2010 rather than a resolution. It is to continue to serve my clients and my friends and my acquaintances in the world of marketing more diligently that in the past, but also to pay a little more attention to the commercial side. After all, if I can answer someone’s question for free at 2.00am, why can’t I do the same for a proposal for someone who will pay me, or even worse, is paying me.

Between the “Y’s” you refer to I resolve to do more on the revenue front whilst holding true to the values which I think make me worth dealing with.

Thanks for a provoking new-year opener!

Steve Alker
Xspirt

Happy New Year, everyone!

Resolutions... You can make numerous or them, but nothing is going to happen until you are ready and eager. And you feel it yourself - when you have crossed that line where there is no way back. So, I wish you to be here, on this side of the line, where everything is possible and can happen!

Whatever Happens -
Good Luck!

Natasha Chernyavskaya
Artographica
Los Angeles, CA