I try to keep my posts here informative, educational, hopefully entertaining, and always vaguely nerdy.
But this site is also a journey for me as well. I’m not sitting at the top of the mountain, throwing off wisdom to the masses. I’ve learned a lot of things, but I still have far to go, even in taking my own advice.
In short, I don’t always succeed how I wish I did.
And nowhere does this feel more clearly with FinCon 2018, starting this week in Orlando, FL.
Table of Contents
FinWhat?
FinCon is a conference for those in the financial media space. This means anything from bloggers to more “professional” content producers. It’s a meeting of money and media, and for me, it’s like a kind of homecoming: a crew of hundreds of people all interested in the same nerdy things about money.
It also can be extremely challenging for that exact reason. It’s very common to find people doing more or less the same thing as me, and always makes me wonder how in world am I supposed to stand out?
In short, it’s fun, but also an emotional roller coaster.
I wrote about my experience last year. Moreover, I wrote about my goals for FinCon 2017. Reiterating, they were:
- Be an equal
- Be open to influence
- Be prepared
- Leave space for the unplanned
- Leave space for space
- Come away with actions
By and large, I felt like I achieved every single one of these. I planned, left room for the unplanned, met some great people, and came away with a few big actions to undertake before next year.
And well, here we are at next year. Already.
Unintentionality
I returned from FinCon energized and excited. I had filled up a notebook full of notes and ideas. I was ready to make things happen!
Also, I was busy beyond words. I was gone the following weekend on another trip. In fact, I was away on trips for some or all of the next five weekends after FinCon.
My notebook, so brimming with ideas, sat on a table, unused. My momentum deflated.
And since then, I’ve had a year to put into place some of the rather big ideas I’ve had for this site, and I haven’t come through with them. I had a particular goal in mind that I wanted to have in place to be able to show off for FinCon this year, and it looks like I’m not going to be able to make it happen.
That hurts.
It hurts because I wasn’t intentional. I had let the year get away from me.
Now, I haven’t sat totally idle. I’ve continued on with my coaching practice, and have continued my goal of posting twice a week, a goal I’ve been able to achieve without fail since I started in 2012.
So it’s not like I’ve done nothing. But I’m still not giving myself a pass.
Lack of intentionality is the #1 tactical reason why we don’t achieve our goals. And I’m just as guilty as anyone who wants to get out of debt but doesn’t create a spending plan, to lose weight but not change their habits, or to travel but makes any plans to make it happen.
But one of the best things about life is that, as long as you wake up tomorrow, you’ve got another day to make things right. Every day, every month, no matter what, is another chance.
This isn’t reason to remain idle. It’s a reason to be hopeful. A lack of intentionality is all too easy. Getting good at battling it takes time and a few mistakes along the way.
Goal #7
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]One of the best things about life is that, as long as you wake up tomorrow, you’ve got another day to make things right.[/perfectpullquote]
So for this year’s FinCon, I’m going in with all the same goals as before (see above), but with a 7th one added to the list:
7. Set aside time after the conference to work on the actions, and create a plan for doing so going forward.
I already know that the next few weeks after FinCon are going to be just as crazy as last year. The difference is that I’m going to make a plan for when and how I’m going to put my plans into action. It might take a little longer than I’d like, but it’s going to happen, and that’s the most important thing.
Off to Orlando I go!
