Three Guiding Principles for 2012

Right after I graduated from college, I remember posting a list 10 principles on the bathroom mirror in my apartment. They were guideposts for how I wanted to live my life.

I think this mentality is really helpful for your business too – especially when you tie it in to your goals and plans.

Last year, I developed a list of three guiding principles to help me reach my business goals. This is similar to Chris Brogan’s three words idea.

I wanted to share my guiding principles again with you this year. Not only will this help keep me accountable, but I want to encourage you to do the same.

Here are my three guiding principles for the year:

Be Disciplined.

Last year, one of my guiding principles was to be intentional. This year, I’m taking it one step further and focusing on discipline.

To me, being disciplined is the combination of focus and developing good habits. With discipline, I can improve a lot of areas of my life – running and fitness, blogging and building my business.

It’s really easy to start of the year with a lot of big ideas and shiny new goals. It takes discipline to stick with your plans to help you get there. This is going to be important for me this year.

Experiment.

Experimentation is an essential component to marketing and business ownership in general. If you want to grow your business, you have to be willing to try, test and yes, sometimes fall flat on your face.

But here’s the problem, we’re so afraid of failure we don’t take the risk to try new things.

I’m no exception.

I’m throwing this mentality out the window this year and looking at ways to do business differently – for myself and my clients. I’ve got a lot of exciting ideas that I can’t wait to share with you in the coming months.

Find the Joy.

In 2011, I knew a number of people whose lives were taken far too soon. I think when tragedy strikes, it serves as a great reminder that life is incredibly short.

Yes, work is important. But, there is so much more to life than that.

It’s about being passionate about what you do. It means doing the things that give us joy.

For me, this means that I will carve out more time to spend with my husband, family and friends.

This means staying true to the mantra of my business to only work with people I enjoy and businesses I believe in.

And, this means taking time to smell the roses every once and awhile.

When I do that, I’m a happier, healthier person. And, that helps me do a better job of helping you.

It’s going to be a stellar year

Once you’ve got your goals and your 2012 marketing plan in place, take a few minutes to think about three principles to help guide your way this year.

I’m confident that doing this will help 2012 be an awesome year for you.

What are your guiding principles for this year? How do they tie into your goals and plans for your business?

Image credit: John Curley