It’s April 1st and we’re a quarter of the way through the year, man time is flying. At the end of December I wrote up 30 things I wanted to do this year and figured it was a good time to look at that list and see how I’m doing. I can already cross off a couple things like, blog more, drink more wine and guest blogging. There are a few items that were more ongoing items like, run 1000 miles. I’ve almost logged 300 miles this year already so I’d say I’m on track. On the list was also to draw everyday and I’ve been doing that with my doodle a day. There is still a lot on the list but there are also still nine more months to go so I’m feeling pretty good. I feel like there are a couple that might not happen like visit India; two trips out of the country are a lot and we’ve done a lot of traveling this last month. Truthfully, you never know what could happen. 

If you made yourself a similar list at the end of 2012, it’s always good to look back and see how you’re doing and re-work the goals if they are slipping. 

I love cartoons and try to watch them as often as I can. Of course these days I’m watching them for different reasons then I did when I was 10 years old. Today I’m still watching them for entertainment but mostly for the animation style as well as for the underlying metaphors that can be applied to business and life. 

One of the recent episodes of Adventure Time I watched was called, The City Of Thieves. This episode was awesome because it had two great lessons. The first being that you’re effected by the friends and colleagues you hang out with. If all your friends are thieves and keep stealing then you’re going to get corrupted and become a thief too. They say you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so don’t let them all be thieves. Otherwise you might find yourself stealing a pair of sweet red boots.

The second lesson the episode taught is that if you stay true to yourself, you can accomplish anything. Don’t let others tell you that you have to change or sink down to their level to get what you want. 

See, cartoons don’t only look awesome they have some great life and business lessons. And since it’s Saturday, grab yourself some coffee and have an Adventure Time marathon. 

We’re now a week into everyone’s New Years resolutions and I’m sure there are a handful of people who have already given up on their goals. I’m still working on mine but I know it’s going to be harder as everyone get’s back to their “normal” routines this week. 

When New Years hits it’s easy to get caught up with the feeling of needing to achieve self improvement. Whether it’s to be happier, lose weight, or find a better job. The trouble with these resolutions is that they often leave us in a constant scenario of wants and then you’re never going to be happy. Rather than setting a bar so high that it’s out of reach, what about just improving off something you’re already good at. You can try to build on something you are already good at or at least decent at. For me this has been illustrating. Illustration is something I feel like I’m decent at but I’ve never been too great at drawing with a pen and paper. Sure I can get my illustrations working when I’m in Illustrator or After Effects but when I have a sketchbook in front of me everything tends to look the same. 

Here I am building on a strength and not starting from scratch. I’m sure we all have a strength that is tied to another weakness. Knowing what your strengths are is important and can help you get far but you also have to identify your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid of them, we are all bad at something. 

You’re most satisfied working a job that allows you to do what you’re good at doing. When you’re in a working environment where you can continue to develop skills that improve your weaknesses you are never going to be bored. 

One of my weaknesses is not only the poor physical drawing skills but it has been handling budgets. I’ve become better at it over the last couple years having my own business. Which building the business has been something of a strength for me but there are parts that need improvement. I’m still not the best with the financial side of the business but it’s a weakness that I know I can delegate to someone else when the time is right. Which will allow me to get back to my strengths. Taking the time to identify your strengths and weaknesses will help you set better goals then just to get rich or lose 20 pounds.

I hope everyone’s new year has been off to a great start and you’re still working on all those resolutions that you made. One of my goals for this year was to draw more every day.

You might have noticed more illustrations and doodles here in the blog. I’ve set this up as a one-a-day project and have been posting everyday for the last week. It’s off to a great start so far. The doodles aren’t anything amazing but it’s something just to have fun with and hopefully improve my illustration style. This is something that will not only help with the work I do at LooseKeys but allow me to explore new styles. 

Are you doing a one-a-day project? There are a lot of great reasons to do a one-a-day project. Nick Campbell wrote a great post on his site about One-A-Day projects. He talks about all the benefits like removing fear, fast feedback, experimentation and becoming better. 

Hopefully you enjoy the doodles  Let me know if you have any feedback, I love hearing from everyone. 

There were a ton of highlights in 2012 and only a few missteps or miscalculations. Which is good; its better to finish up, then down. 

I decided to shelf CellarCaptain. It’s a project that I’d still love to see happen but right now I decided to not worry about it anymore. If something happens and I find a great developer to help maybe we’ll see what we can do. You have to know where to focus your time and energy and this wasn’t it.

Another project that was a bit of a time suck that I would love to see more of and I know many of you would is Cellarz. But man just that one episode was a lot of work. 

I think the common theme of this past year has been that I need to make sure I’m focusing on my direct goals. I love experimenting with side projects and seeing where they go but sometimes when they begin to suck up too much time or aren’t working, you have to drop them. 

I’ve been running for almost a year now and it’s been going pretty well. For most of the year I was running because of my wedding in October. Not so much to lose weight but I wanted to make sure I stayed in shape and didn’t let the stress overwhelm me. Now that the wedding is over, I’ve still been running but truthfully it’s harder to stay motivated without a goal in place. Most people run so they are ready for the next race but I haven’t signed up for any races and with winter setting in, there are less of them. 

It’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t have a goal in place and the same is true with work. You can get stuck in a groove or even a rut when you’re running the same path everyday. 

Figuring out goals, short term or long term really help push you in the right direction. I have a number of goals with LooseKeys, short term and long term that I think helps keep us focused and making great work. Now I need to figure out the same with my running and figure out a good reason to lace up everyday. 

Every day we need some small victory to keep our spirits up. Within your business it can be hard to measure the victories. If you’re not releasing a product or update everyday, you might not have much to show for your day. That’s why it seems important to find those smaller wins everyday. We all know how great it is to cross that task off the to-do list, no matter how tiny it might be. Almost every morning I’ve been starting my day with a 3 mile run. Once that victory for the day is done, I’m ready to accomplish the next goal. Having those smaller goals make you feel better about tackling the big tasks you might have to get done. So keep track of those victories, no matter how insignificant they might seem. It will keep moral up and help you feel that you have momentum pushing you towards those big accomplishments that you can’t wait to share with others.

How quickly it can happen, losing site of your vision and your goals. This happened to me over the last couple weeks and I find myself needing to take a step back to remind myself why I decided to work for myself and what I’m trying to do. After years of creating motion graphics work in the industry for small and large clients I decided to take the plunge and try to start my own business and work for myself. Being my own boss and creating my own hours, working where and when I needed. I wanted to focus my craft and create videos for startups and small businesses. To see the work that I create help those businesses grow and succeed. And I’ve been very busy doing just that! And yet I quickly lost sight of this goal in only a months time. I recently took on a project that split my focus, it took time away from this goal and time away from important projects that I should have been focusing more attention on. It wasn’t something that I had passion for or something that helped me to reach towards my goal but for some reason I still found myself saying yes to doing it. I can see now why the idea of a mission statement or a defined goal is so important. It gives you something to keep yourself from going off track. Try writing up a mission statement or a set of goals for yourself or your company if you haven’t already. If you don’t have a clear path set out, sometimes all it takes is a push in the wrong direction to remind yourself of the right direction that you should be heading in.