“Every single year we’re a different person.” — Steven Spielberg
If you read this on the day I publish it, today’s your last chance to change the story of your year.
It’s your last chance to do something memorable, something you wish you would have done this year, or something you’ll be proud to remember when you look back on 2017 years from now.
It’s not too late to do so.
It’s fun to think about the upcoming year, the changes you will make and things you will do.
But you don’t have to wait until tomorrow to do them. You can start today.
So, what are you waiting for?
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. MY 20 MOST POPULAR POSTS OF THE YEAR
“I hope you learn as much from reading them as I did from writing them.”
I’ve published 70 posts in 2017 on topics ranging from how to negotiate better to how to improve your phone habits and you’ve read and shared many of them so thank you!
I put together this list of my 20 most popular posts of the year to make it easy for you to catch up on any you missed and/or take a look at back at which posts resonated most with readers this past year.
2. SIX SECRETS OF PEOPLE WHO KEEP THEIR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
“People who are successful realize that resolutions are not a one-time change.”
It’s one thing to make a New Year’s resolution, it’s another to stick with it for more than one year.
Fast Company interviewed six people who have kept their resolutions for multiple years to find out how to stick with your resolutions.
Their tips include to base your resolution on small changes, write down your resolution every day, and make failure difficult for yourself.
3. FIVE THINGS NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IN 2018
“Worrying about money never made me money. The ONLY times I’ve ever made any money was when I solved someone else’s problem, communicated my ability to solve it for them, and got paid for it.”
If you chose five things to stop worrying about in 2018, what would they be?
James Altucher has done just that and details his choices in this list of five things he refuses to worry about next year.
His list includes money, politics, other people’s opinions, the future, and pleasing others. Not a bad place to start.
4. WHY WORKING IN SPRINTS MAKES YOU MORE PRODUCTIVE
“Most of us are in a state of constant energy preservation. We’re never fully on and never fully off. Never fully engaged and never fully disengaged. Instead of living oscillatory lives, we live linear lives (which is the complete opposite).”
Your productivity may be influenced more by the rhythm of your work than the time you spend doing it.
Nils Salzgeber explains why working in sprints makes you more productive and suggests you spend your time doing one of two things: fully engaging 100% in your work, or strategically disengaging and committing 100% to taking a break.
5. FOUR WAYS TO CREATE YOUR BEST SOCIAL MEDIA POST EVER
“One of the best ways to get traction for your posts is to use them to express sentiments your audience wants to say, but either can’t or won’t say themselves.”
When I’m not working on this newsletter, I’m busy working with clients to help them create more valuable social media content.
In this post, I share four ways to write better social media posts including to answer questions people ask you, say things your audience wishes somebody would say, share your process, and share relevant historical stories.
Plus, I include specific examples of how I’ve used these tactics to help clients create successful posts.
(If you’d like my help with your social media content — email me.)
6. SIX THINGS RESEARCHERS LEARNED ABOUT SINGLE PEOPLE IN 2017
“Adults are having less sex than they used to. Analyzing survey data collected from more than 26,000 people between 1989 and 2014, researchers found that the average person now has sex around nine fewer times per year than the average person in the early ’90s.”
It appears single people aren’t quite as ready to mingle as they used to be — but they are getting more action than married people.
The Cut breaks down six things researchers learned about single people in 2017 including that marriage is no longer considered a key part of adulthood, high schoolers don’t date or have sex as much as they used to, and a record number of adults in the United States are currently not married.
7. NINE CREATIVE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS INSPIRED BY TED TALKS
“When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life and theirs.”
Still searching for a New Year’s resolution to shake up your year? Try one of these.
TED has compiled a clever list of creative New Year’s resolutions based on TED Talks that include to become pen pals with someone in prison, say yes to everything for one month, and take a person you disagree with out to lunch.
8. DON’T FORGET TO PRACTICE INTIMATE MARKETING
“Ideas and people take time to get to know each other. We’ve forgotten that to move someone to action they need to see a message repeatedly. You have to earn trust. You have to earn respect.”
This is a simple post, but an important reminder for anybody that’s marketing something.
Tom Critchlow reminds marketers of the need to have a conversation with your audienceand suggests you take a break from chasing hypergrowth strategies to attract new people and spend more time connecting with the people you’ve already attracted.
9. HOW TO THINK LIKE THE SMARTEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
“The difference between great thinkers and ordinary thinkers is that, for ordinary thinkers, the process of using models is unconscious and reactive. For great thinkers, it is conscious and proactive.”
This one gets a little deep, but it’s worth the journey.
Michael Simmons breaks down how to think like the smartest people in the world based on his work studying people like Elon Musk and Warren Buffett.
He suggests the key is to learn to apply mental models to your work and learning patterns.
10. WHY PEOPLE ARE AWKWARD
“Studies say the right amount of eye contact during conversations is about 3.3 seconds. Awkward people don’t instinctively do that.”
This two-minute video from The Atlantic explores a simple question, “Why are humans awkward?”
It touches on the reasons people avoid eye contact and have trouble picking up on social cues.
This week’s header image features technicians working on the New Years ball in New York in 1978.