2020 Word(s): TIGHTEN UP

Last year I jumped on the latest New Year bandwagon, adopting a word-of-the-year instead of the traditional resolution.  It seemed like a better way to approach the year, with anticipation and a plan vs. just a set of painful changes to make.  So my 2019 word was GROWTH.

Well the year started off pretty good.  A larger team and a more systematic approach and the intent of me doing more strategic work and less delivery.  But the only thing that grew was the amount of time I spent on packed airplanes and in Hampton Inn hotels.  My expenses grew even as the amount of products we offered shrank.  Late in the year, my priorities became figuring out how I would pay my team, not taking a swing at passengers in the airport, keeping my sanity,  and of course, picking out a good word for 2020.  The word that came to mind that seemed inspirational and suitable for putting on my social media was VISION. 

And then in December, I decided to forget the VISION.  And the GROWTH.  What needed to get done first and foremost was EFFICIENCY.  But since that sounds like some sort of business cliché, I opted for what I needed to do and that was to TIGHTEN UP.  And that’s the plan going forward.  TIGHTEN UP even further what we offer and make that easier to market, sell, and deliver, while maintaining superb quality.  TIGHTEN UP my team and take it back to where it was, just me and two others.  TIGHTEN UP our processes, focusing on what works and getting rid of what doesn’t.  TIGHTEN UP on free stuff.  It seems like the more stuff we did for free, the less people were willing to buy.  TIGHTEN UP on my laziness.  Instead of figuring out how to delegate more responsibility, I will be taking on nearly all the deliveries and all of the sales.  After all, if you can’t sell your own stuff, how can you expect anyone else to?  And while I have a whole bunch of amazing associates who are far better teaching a workshop than I am, customers still want me to come out and do their training so I will happily oblige.  While some companies want to grow big and scale, we are going to get smaller and reach higher.  That’s what TIGHTEN UP means to me. And TIGHTEN UP is what we’re going to do.

And now, let’s talk about what it could mean for you, assuming you’d like to adopt my 2020 word.  As you think about what 2020 holds in store for you, TIGHTEN UP could look like this:

1. TIGHTEN UP your GOALS.  Goals are important.  Short and long term.  The challenge becomes when everything becomes a goal and the line between short and long blurs.  Then you work at a frantic pace trying to make progress and realize at the end of the year that you made very little progress and yet are twice as exhausted.  Welcome to my 2019.
2. TIGHTEN UP your TIME.  Time is one of those commodities that all of us never have enough of.  We watch YouTube videos on better time management and buy fancy planners in December and yet when it comes right down to it, we have little left for anyone or anything, and again no measurable progress toward goals and family and friends that complain about the lack of time you have for them.  Maybe for this year, think about managing priorities first, then time second.  That’s my plan for 2020.
3. TIGHTEN UP your PROJECTS.  Like lack of time, projects are those things that seem to exceed the amount of capacity you have at any given time.  There are two kinds of projects that need to get done:  YOURS, and OTHERS.  Try prioritizing YOURS first this year and then triage the projects OTHERS need of you.  May I suggest your FAMILY’S projects need to be acknowledged and scheduled.  Your WORK priorities have to be prioritized and scheduled, lest you find yourself out of work with plenty of time for your FAMILY’S projects, but no money to do them.  TIME and PROJECTS are directly related to plan and balance.
4. TIGHTEN UP your SPENDING.  Budgets are good things, but hard to stick to in times of plenty.  MONEY, like TIME, is a finite resource.  I’ve learned that by pretending you don’t have MONEY, it’s easier to manage what you do have.  That’s my plan for 2020.
5. TIGHTEN UP your HEALTH.  This year, I’ve had several people I know personally get really sick or die.  I’ve also seen my own HEALTH deteriorate some.  Well maybe not HEALTH but the damned scale seems to be stuck and won’t get any lower than 215 and whatever the cleaner uses to dry clean my pants seems to be shrinking them around the waist.  So I’ve decided to TIGHTEN UP on the amount of meat and Jack Daniel’s I enjoy and loosen up on the plant-based stuff.  No, I’m not going vegan but I think it’s time to pay attention to what I eat.  And since I’m old and fat and lazy, I’m not going to make any recommendations on how to get healthy, but at least think about how you might look at HEALTH in 2020.

So that’s it.  My 2020 Word(s).  Feel free to use them or think about some for yourself.  It’s only the first week of 2020 so you don’t have to rush, but TIME does seem to fly so don’t wait too long.