Well, 2018 was fairly interesting.

 The 7 days between Christmas and New Years always brings reflection between gatherings, cocktails and cookie binges. Sometimes I will reminisce on the good times; the social gatherings, the quiet mornings with my wife or the growth of my business.  Others times I will zone in on the failures of the past 365. I failed often in 2018 and I have learned much from those missteps.

 Todays post is all about my top 3 blunders of 2018 and how they have shaped my strategies for 2019.

1) Taking on a client who wanted to achieve a goal that my strengths did not align with. My ego said “I can get her there faster than any other knucklehead in south jersey”, reality painted a different picture. I wasted her time and I cannot be any more apologetic.

 The coaches that I admire most are known for being the best at 1 thing. They have a niche and they outright dominate that niche. It is very rare to see any of these professionals take on a client who falls far outside of their specialty. In 2019, I will continue to pursue dominance in my chosen niche. No more ego trips outside my expertise.

 2) In 2018, I did not emphasize recovery nearly enough. My training looked great on paper but my sleep quality was trash, my stress and anxiety levels were through the roof and my nutrition was not where it needed to be.  I would be so drained by the end of the week, god forbid some emergency occurred on a Friday afternoonI would probably just collapse in a heap of shattered manhood. I was not over-training, I was under-recovering.

 In 2019 I will emphasize recovery. I will impose an 8 pm cutoff for social media interaction and text messages. I will not read any articles on my phone or computer after 9 pm. I will focus on a few impactful ways to grow my business instead of spreading myself too thin. I will use excessive levels of soreness and mental fatigue as a sign that I am pushing myself beyond my recovery abilities and reign in my efforts in accordingly. Recovery for the win!

 3) In 2018, I failed to expand my services. I bounced back and forth between wanting to build an online consulting and training business and wanting to build a massive personal training studio full of expert trainers. I would spend a few weeks on one goal and then a few weeks on the other. Needless to say, this lack of consistent focus lead to zero traction.

 In 2019, I am going all in on expanding my online footprint. I will put out 2 to 4 quality social media posts per week and I will attempt to have my stuff published on various fitness websites. Consistency will be the goal and I will reassess at this time next year.

 Failure can be a positive if you learn from it. Take some time this holiday season to figure out where you f*cked up in 2018 and be better in 2019.