Welcome to 2016!
I purposely waited until today to publish this to show how unimportant any specific date is. I’m not completely against setting a resolution at the beginning of the year, as long as you don’t get expect the changing of years to be some sort of miraculous time of new beginnings.
January 1st really is just another day.
I get it, new year, new you. And that’s great, but too often we set lofty resolutions, and then get completely discouraged when we don’t perfectly act out our new goals. Then, a month after the resolution is set, it’s abandoned. But it shouldn’t be like that.
We all fail. All the time. And that’s great.
Failures teach us new things. Failures help us grow. If you let them.
Accept the fact that you’re not going to accomplish any goal perfectly. You’ll slip up on your diet. You’ll miss a day at the gym. You might even miss your goal to read a certain amount of books this year, but that’s fine, if you view failure properly.
I’m posting this “New Year” post 11 days into the new year to show you that even if you wanted to start a new habit today, you’re free to do that. If you’ve already slipped up on your resolution, get back up and keep going.
You should constantly be setting and achieving goals. When something goes wrong (and it will), start where you left off.
Now that I got that off my chest, here’s what 2015 taught me and what you can expect this year…
What 2015 Taught Me
I’ve actually been taking some time off since the beginning of December. I am fortunate enough to have some awesome guest bloggers to fill in while I do things like that. (If you’re interested in writing for MoneyMiniBlog, please read this.) That’s what I love about blogging. Speaking of which, I’ll actually be posting a guide to make money blogging soon – more on that in a moment.
2015 has taught me:
- Content is king – This is a phrase that’s often said in the writing world, and I’ve found it to be true. You can post 10 articles a day, but if they aren’t full of great information, nobody cares about them. I devoted a lot of time to writing in 2015 and it paid off. I have more readers than ever and I’m grateful for each one of you. I promise to continue devoting time to research and writing, so I can continually produce the best content I’ve ever written.
- Rituals work – Not only have I stuck to a posting ritual of publishing 3 articles a week, but I have had other successful rituals in my life. I’ve had a ritual of either creating a new good habit or breaking a bad habit on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This has led to several broken bad habits and even more new good habits. It has turned into a ritual, and I continue to do this each time the 1st and the 15th come up. My morning ritual has been the driving factor in the success of this blog and the success in my personal life. I’ve watched awesome changes take place in every area where I’ve implemented rituals. By the way, if you didn’t know, there is a system to the way I publish. Mondays are finance articles, Wednesdays are guest posts, and Thursdays are productivity articles. If you see an article posted on an additional day, that usually means I have so many guest writers that I had to start adding days. Now you know.
- Discipline rules the roost – After getting very familiar with Steven Pressfield’s work, with his books The War of Art and Do the Work, I started to notice a trend…and then I started to notice the same trend with other authors. The trend is this: creative work and following your passion comes down to discipline. I’m sure some of the people who could be world renowned authors will never write a book. Why? Because thinking big and doing big things require a lot of discipline. If you get nothing else from this article, just know that if you just keep at it, working on your grandest goals, it will pay off. But it takes discipline and it won’t come easy.
- Money matters even less than I thought – I’m not a very materialistic person. Things really don’t matter to me as much as they used to, but through some life experiences, 2015 has taught me that stuff and money matter even less than I thought. Sure, get out of debt, invest for retirement and be responsible with your money, but ultimately, there are a lot of things that are more important than money. Your spiritual life, your family, and many other relationships are a few of the things that deserve more attention than just trying to figure out how to get more money and more stuff. The more wealth I build and the more things I own, the more I realize that it’s all just stuff – even money.
Here’s What’s Coming in 2016
This article is already getting longer than most of my articles, but hey, I’m summing up an entire year and focusing on another one in one article, so give me a break.
Here’s what you can expect from MoneyMiniBlog this year:
- Even better content – I’ve slowly built my writing schedule to over an hour each day, so you can expect extremely informative [and hopefully entertaining] articles this year. I’ve always been selective with my guest writers, but since I am having so many inquires from writers everyday, I’m cracking down even more. So whether it’s from me or my guest authors, expect even better content this year. One of the things coming is a complete guide to make money blogging. I’ve been working on it for almost a year and it will include everything I’ve learned so far, so be on the lookout!
- Back to the basics – When I started this blog, my vision was to provide simple, short, actionable articles. I’ve done that for the most part, but I’ll be the first to admit that I had some articles in 2015 that were a little more complex than I had planned. I’m planning to get back to simple, short, actionable articles, and that includes making sure all of my guest authors are doing the same.
- Less emails – Instead of getting two emails per week, plus a random bonus email with tips and resources, I’m going to make it more concrete. You can expect one email per week, and then one more email per month with a summary of the month and any exclusive offers, tips, or other information I have for you. If you haven’t subscribed to my list yet, there’s no time like the present.
- A new blog – I’m finally launching a new blog that I’ve been devoting a lot of time to. It’s a Christian productivity blog. I’m a Christian and that affects all of my writing, but I have tried to keep all of my articles pretty neutral on MoneyMiniBlog. If you’re interested in checking it out, it’s called Productive Christian.
As always, if there’s anything you would like to see here or any input you want to offer, please leave a comment below, or send me a message. Whether this is your first day here or you’ve been visiting for years, thanks for reading. I love you guys!