Hello and welcome back to The Ethical Entrepreneur! I hope you’ve all had a good Christmas break and are well-rested for the start of 2018. This Christmas was another great one for me and my family – a lot of travelling (as usual), but thanks to the construction industry closing down over Christmas I had nearly three whole weeks off! A large part of the break was spent recuperating from what had been quite a manic second half of the year and the rest was spent enjoying time with friends and family, and setting out some goals for this year. Last year, I set a number of goals for this blog, including increasing readership, writing more current affairs commentary and launching a vlog. Due to various commitments, it turns out that I missed nearly every goal I’d got last year! Whilst I’m not usually in the habit of making excuses, looking back, I think these goals were perhaps a little ambitious considering everything I took on last year!
Last year was also a bit of a milestone year for me as I turned 25 – I’ve got some financial goals I want to achieve by the time I turn 30, so it really marked a good year for me to do a review. These goals include growing my property portfolio, making a six-figure income and growing my charitable contributions to society – I’m well on track for achieving these, but I’m going to need to continue my momentum over the next five years and take some strategic actions each quarter. A lot of people might look at my list and doubt whether it’s possible, but if I never try then I’ll never know!
For 2018, this means stepping things up another notch and really going all-in. I’ve made a promise to myself not to be held back by fear of risk or other people’s doubts and just get on with pursuing my goals. I’ve already starting exploring options for growing my property portfolio, starting taking twice-weekly calls with investors and potential business partners, and invested in a LinkedIn coach to improve the way I’m using a key networking tool. The real proof is going to come through next month though, when I the information and contacts I’m gathering this month and make a move! As a friend said at dinner last night \”if you only ever talk about it, you’ll never actually get to where you want to be\”.
I’m also taking a conscious decision to spend more time with positive people this year. Stress breeds stress and towards the end of 2017 I noticed that a few people I was spending time with had really been whining and moaning about their situations for most of the year without doing anything to make improvements. I like to help my friends out – I believe if we all take fifteen minutes a day to help someone close to us that the world will be a better place. But when that fifteen minutes a day becomes fifteen hours a week, well, you quickly end up getting bogged down in other people’s problems with no time for yourself!
So my first goal for 2018 is as follows. Every time someone whines, or moans to me about a situation or a person, I’m going to respond positively.
We all have days when things get us down. It’s perfectly normal to struggle when trying to juggle busy jobs and social lives, but some people seem to be perpetually moaning and whining about how hard things are. We all have things that we’d like to change or improve about our lives, but when identifying those things is just the first step – you actually need to take action and make the changes, otherwise you just get bogged down in a mire of depressing moans and groans on a daily basis. Being surrounded by people that suck all the energy out a room makes it a lot less likely that you yourself will have the energy and the drive to achieve your goals. You’ll get sucked into their problems and consequently spend less time working on yourself. Helping people out is great, but at some point they actually have to get up and help themselves – by listening to their complaints for months on end, all you’re doing is wasting time – both yours and theirs.
Secondly, I am going to make the most of the opportunities that are around me.
When I was reviewing some of the actions I took in 2017, I began to see that not all of them were actually effective. Whether I failed to follow through, or didn’t understand how to capitalise on them, or suffered from analysis paralysis, I figured I probably wasted just under half of the big actions I took in 2017. To me, that’s just absolutely unacceptable, as all the hard work I’m putting in by taking risks, networking, finding mentors and gaining experience is useless unless I can capitalise on the opportunities that arise from it. A good example was a property I spotted last Easter in Nottingham . I’d got the money set aside to make the acquisition, but for one reason or another I just sat and watched it. The property sat on the market for about five months before being sold and I missed out the opportunity to buy into a great real estate deal.
This year, I’m determined to let that happen less. Sure, I know I can grab absolutely every opportunity that comes my way, but generally speaking I want to get back to making the most of the opportunities I see. Some of the best experiences I’ve ever had have only come about because I was willing to take a risk and try something that wasn’t 100% perfect, making me some really strong contacts and future opportunities, which have often bloomed into new deals.
Thirdly, I’m going to be getting in better shape this year. My partner and I have already started a 30 days abs challenge, which I’ve added to a weights regime I started just after Christmas. I’ve never considered myself to be unhealthy – I’m slim and eat pretty well, but I’d like to get stronger this year. Over the Christmas break, I was watching Spectre, and was looking at the way Daniel Craig wears suits. I generally dress reasonably well, but man, the way he wears a suit just puts me to shame.
So in 2018, I’m committing to bulking up my shoulders and arms.
Finally, I’ll be continuing to grow the content on this blog by publishing at least once a week for the remainder of the year. 2017 threw up some real challenges for me, both personally and professionally, and at times I found it hard to commit to this blog the way I’d have liked. I’m absolutely certain that 2018 is going to have challenges of it’s own, but I’m going to get smarter with the way I schedule posts here on the blog. Ultimately, I’m determined to make 2018 the year I grab new opportunities and commit to making the most of every day I have!