This is something I have done over the past number of years and I find it an interesting exercise.
Successes
- My book Hating Excel – Learn to love the software that can transform your confidence and career becoming an Amazon best-seller in October.
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- To be honest, it has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Earlier in the year I had done a FutureMe letter (where you write a letter about hopes and dreams and have it scheduled to be sent to you…in the future) and I had put down that I had hoped it would be in the Hot New Releases category. It did that and more. So if you know someone who hates Excel (or that is true for you – get a copy!)
- A huge part of that success was the support I got from two mentors. I was in writing groups with both of them
- Jennifer Louden
- Debs Jenkins – and thank you to my writing companions: David Pullan and Sharon Eden (They both had bestsellers as well)
- I had consistently great feedback from my customers (many of whom are repeat) and here are some of my favourite comments. If you would like to have a chat with me about training for your organisation – here is a link to my calendar
“You have broken down Excel into something I never thought I would master. I really enjoyed the way you delivered Excel”
“The style of teaching kept my attention the whole time, thank you”
“The use of multiple training tools and breakout rooms. Homework was a good idea and refreshed learning”
“Everything was explained really well and it was very relatable to our work”
“Anne was very approachable and friendly and explained things in a way which made it much easier to understand.”
- I visited France with one of my besties and that was wonderful. It reminded me of how much I love all things French and got me back to learning French again. I did a Fluentin3months course that I have done before and always find hugely beneficial.
- I maintained my weight. I’m still ready for any upcoming famine (as I like to point out to my skinny hubby) but not thinking about food/steps etc has released a lot of bandwidth.
- Celebrated 30 years of marriage. We are still talking, still have good craic.
- I sent out a newsletter every week. I am particularly proud of this as a lot of my previous year end reviews had flagged that as a failure.
- I upped my data visualisation game and worked with another instructor on a data visualisation session.
- I did quite a few simple upgrades: all my tracksuit bottoms all have pockets now. New bed clothes from Ikea. Getting favourite coats repaired.
- I completed my reading project: Reading the Wolf Hall trilogy. Truly magnificent. I haven’t seen the final installment yet but am really looking forward to it.
- We also got solar panels installed. ASEI did a great job in and out in the day. They were lovely to work with and very efficient.
- I worked as a volunteer on the Data Ceili conference and I enjoyed it immensely. Got a chance to meet one of my IT pals – Sue Bayes.
- I hate cooking so this year I decided to sign up for a meal delivery service – Clean Cut Meals. It works really well. The meals are delivered to my door and I am not spending time thinking about what I want for dinner during the week.
- Already have lots of work booked in for 2025 which is most appreciated.
- Went to see Hamilton in Dublin with one of my besties – it was a wonderful experience and I am looking to attend something else this year.
- I have continued working with Zita Lewis as my VA (Virtual Assistant) and I have been steadily outsourcing more admin work to her. As I say to her “I love her but not in a weird way”. It is so comforting to have someone who treats my customers as if they were her own and can cope with my control freakery :-).
- I am a big fan of Gretchen Rubin and this year I did her Happiness Project Revisited Course. Part of the homework of that was to complete a set of Personal Commandments. Here are mine.
Disappointments/failures
- I set myself a goal of applying for the Excel world championship but completely underestimated how much time/bandwidth the book would take. So I made the decision to park it for 2024. I feel both drawn to it and also completely terrified…
- I had planned to take my blood pressure two or three times a week. I even bought a contraption to do so. Did I do it? Of course not.
- I did a meetup presentation on Teams and felt really disappointed with it for myself.
- Even though it was outside my control, I found a week with no Internet (and the corresponding rescheduling/adjustments) quite challenging. It didn’t help having 3 days with no power either. Yes, I know. #FirstWorldProblems.
- I had planned to develop at least two online courses – I have worked on both but there is still..as they say “a lot to do” .
- I had set up a lot of quizzes to go with the Book Resources and they are still not quite where I want them to be.
- My son and I had planned to take a trip to Italy in October but it clashed with a choir workshop he wanted to attend so we have rescheduled it for March.
Lessons learned
- Learning is one of my key values so I do a lot of courses every year. I tend to be quite good at implementing what I learn from the IT ones but I tend to “do the course” rather than “do the work” particularly for the topics that are new to me. I like buying the materials but I don’t always allocate time to actually do the work. I want to be more aware of that pattern this year.
- Hubby, son and I went to a wedding this year to a previously unvisited destination. That usually ends up in a 3 way argument – me, Sat-Nav and hubby. This year I chose to (literally) take a backseat and let Son be the co-pilot. I brought my Kindle, read in the back and kept my mouth shut. Result: we got there and no arguments
- I need to redesign some of my systems and processes especially around non-training stuff. I found myself looking for stuff, having entries in 3 different places. I want to make that restructuring a priority for 2025.
- The blood pressure thing was a SHOULD goal and I’m realising that as I get older, I end up not doing them.
- On the other hand, flagging a failure to myself over a number of years gets me to do it in the end i.e. the newsletter.
- I have realised that one of the things I am really bad at is “taking in the good” – really appreciating how much goodness there is in my life. This is something I want to pay attention to this year.