The end of 2018 brings us fully into our fifth operating season with the greenhouse. I thought it might be fun to share our year-end review, the first one that I’ve ever shared publicly (I enjoyed Denise Duffield-Thomas’ review so much, it encouraged me), to give you the process I use at the end of the year to move forward.

I have to admit, the end of any year for me is honestly an entrepreneurs dream. I’m super motivated and starting anew is VERY exhilarating. It’s like I can leave all the things in 2018 that I didn’t like and mould 2019 into something that reflects what I want; I can bring the good things with me and leave behind the bad. 

Entrepreneurship is interesting, it enables a person to show and build on their greatest strengths, but it also becomes blaringly obvious what weaknesses you have. It’s a mind game of balancing your abilities with your shortcomings, and not giving in to the voice that keeps whispering in your ear that you don’t know what you’re doing. My biggest asset and my biggest liability are my mind and something that I recognized early on in my entrepreneurial life is that it’s 90% mindset.

Can you psyche yourself into it, believe in it even when no one else does, and keep your belief going? Or a better analogy – you clean yourself up everyday, so shouldn’t you “clean” your mind everyday too? (I can’t remember where I first read this, but it stuck with me). “Cleaning” my mind is an ongoing commitment I make every year. How do you clean your mind? By setting intentions and meditating.

Every year I set one word as my guidingword to follow. This year my word was learning. One thing you may or may not know about me is that I read a ton of books. But I found reading was really challenging this year because of my pregnancy and post-partum brain. I literally couldn’t string sentences together sensibly whether I was trying to read them or write them. I found the nearly 11 months of my brain not working (like it normally does) to be very frustrating. My brain bounced back in December and since then I’ve read two books going on my third (maybe I’ll finish it before midnight!). The type of books I read focus on mindset or business. Reading is the cheapest form of education that I can buy, and I take that very seriously.

You might be surprised when I tell you this, but I don’t view myself as a very creative person. I’m lucky enough to work with some of the most creative people, but where I really shine is behind the scenes. My “creativity” comes out when I’m working on the business, not in it. And I tell ya, did I ever stretch my “creativity” this year! I participated in one on one coaching with my life coach Heidi, and I also discovered Diana House and managed to snag one of her one-on-one coaching sessions. The biggest lesson that came up for me personally in 2018 is that it is ok to be ambitious and not be afraid of that. Diana gave me permission to be who I am, own it, and to go forward and live it.

The really big secret sauce to entrepreneurship is becoming as clear as possiblein what you want to create. Part of getting clearis cutting out what you can’t commit to the next year. I do this exercise every year to focus in on what projects need to go and which ones I can commit to.

I hope you can go forward with motivation, excitement, and clarity that brings to you the life you want. Have a wonderful New Years! I’ll be reading, writing, and getting clear on what I want for 2019. Peace out 2018!

I would love if you would leave a comment today, let me know if you want to read more about my entrepreneurial journey, the ups and downs that I go through running our greenhouse. Thank you!