The ONE Thing You Need To Do in 2019

“What is the one thing you're going to accomplish this year?”

If someone asked me that last year, I would have laughed, given a wry smile and nod of my head and replied: "What am I NOT going to accomplish?!"

I'd then pop the cassette tape into the boombox, hoist it onto my shoulder and run around the neighborhood with the Rocky theme song blasting in my ear. Soon a parade of Broadway dancers and a high school marching band would pop out of the woodwork and follow along behind me to further illustrate to the world my energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to making my dreams come true by saying YES to EVERYTHING...Ok, I'm getting carried away here - but you get the picture.

street parade

It's easy for the thought of a new year to bring along with it the promise of a whole different life! "Everything is going to change this year, I can feel it!" But roughly four weeks in, the shine wears off, and you're left sitting on the sidewalk, elbow on your knee, hand smooshed against your face and someone walking by saying "Yo, why does she have a boombox? It's 2019."

I digress

Last year my mentality was, if I just keep my energy up and push myself to keep moving forward, no matter what, I can do EVERYTHING! If Elon Musk and Beyonce can do it, so can I! And as a result of this - I started two businesses, took up a part-time job, said yes to every new client who came calling and ---- came pretty darn close to a complete and total meltdown. Not because my business wasn’t thriving, but because I was dying a little inside everyday.

After mentally dragging myself along the floor for so long, I had the genius realization that this was not working. Which is when I stumbled upon a fortune cookie that read:

"You can do Anything, but you can't do Everything."

And the lightbulb went on

I gently took myself aside and with a soft, imaginary but comforting hand on the shoulder said calmly "You are going to do amazing things, but you can't do them all at once. And you can't do them all this year. You're a human after all, and you need to leave space for the human stuff."

Human stuff. Like the fact that this morning I woke up with a throbbing headache and no logical explanation for why, or that my fiancé called and needed something delivered to the post office ASAP, or the call from Dad saying Grandma's in the hospital, or the announcement from the subway conductor saying "This train is being held at the station, we apologize for the inconvenience, we will be moving shortly," and then you never move. Life is full of twists and turns; most of them awe-inspiring, a handful migraine inducing - but the lesson here being you need to create and make space for your life, in your life.

So I took a deep breath and started to unwind this stressful, messy knot of commitments I had gotten myself into. Slowly shutting the doors on one of my businesses, turning down clients and attempting to make room for the work I felt matters most. Making room for my ideas, and giving them the attention they deserve to become the real deal; a living and breathing thing that's worthy of the attention of others.

Cut to January 1 2019, and I've said sayonara to any weight loss plans. I'm not even going to force myself to meditate or do yoga every day. The ONE thing I'm going to do this year? Give myself permission to focus on one project at a time, leave space for life to happen and let the universe have its say in my path forward.

Everything else falls into place after that. Now, I eat good food, because I know that's how I'll be able to stay healthy and create tools and work that will support my clients, local businesses and community. I can say "No" (without guilt) to a new project that doesn't align with my goals because I know that saying yes would take away from the value I could provide to other clients who do align with the type of work that makes me happiest. It's not a New Year's Resolution, but a New Years Commitment, to myself, my community and my future.

So, What is the ONE thing you’re gonna do this year?


P.S - I’m hosting a free Intro to Email Marketing + Mailchimp Webinar on January 15th! You can reserve your spot here! Space is limited so be sure to sign up soon!