More

Yesterday, I wrote about my theme-based resolution for 2013, Less thinking, more doing again. My life has changed dramatically in the last two years because of less thinking and more doing, so I’m going to keep doing what works. To me, less thinking, more doing means getting out of my own way. I sometimes spend so much time planning and thinking and fretting about something I want to do that I don’t take action to make it happen! So: less thinking about calling someone to book a trunk show, more picking up the phone and calling; less thinking about going for a walk, more going for a walk; less thinking about having people over, more inviting people to come over (I really do want to have people over to watch the season 3 première of Downton Abbey – all Houston-area friends are welcome!)

Less Scarlett O’Hara:

I’ll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day!

More Jessica Herrin (CEO and co-founder of Stella & Dot):

When I started making jewelry in my living room, people thought I was crazy! I thought, “Yes, I am! But who cares – I’m on my path to happiness.”

Yesterday, to usher in my new/same theme, I invited a Facebook friend to be my friend in real life! We connected on Facebook for a specific, superficial reason, but then I started reading her posts, clicking through her pictures (I’m not a stalker, I promise!) and paying attention to things she liked, shared, or commented on, and I thought it would be fun to get to know her in person. So I sent her a message and asked if she’d like to meet for lunch or coffee…and she said yes! We haven’t set a date or time yet, but I’m ready when she is!

I mean, when was the last time you asked somebody to be your friend?

This year, I have a lot of business-related goals, but the ones I’m sharing today are personal. For the first time in my life, I am on my own. I have the time and space and a little money to do some things that I’ve always wanted to do but, for different reasons, haven’t. This is my More  list for 2013:

• practice yoga
• take voice lessons
• take an acting class (it’ll take me a while to work up to this one!)
• visit friends I haven’t seen in a long time
• make new friends and nurture the new friendships I made in 2012 (you wouldn’t think this would be so hard for me, but it is)
• try online dating
• travel – first stop, NYC!
• exercise like I really mean it and get fit and trim and be able to run and play with Luke and Anna Jane (and be around in 10 years when their parents threaten to ship them off to Aunt Kelly!)
• volunteer – possibly at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where my mom was treated
• take Coco to doggie school (she needs a refresher course on doggie manners)
• get Coco certified as a therapy dog and take her to visit people in need of comfort
• cook – and enjoy it!
• entertain
• write

I don’t have a plan for doing any of the things on my list, but I’m working on it (in a good way, not in a spend-so-much-time-thinking-about-it-I-never-do-it way.) It’s not even about doing one or all of those specific things. It’s about being engaged in the world, staying connected with people, and living a vibrant, healthy, happy life.

What are your hopes for 2013? Do you set new year’s resolutions? I think 2013 is going to be a spectacular year!

Less/More

Someone posted this picture on Facebook yesterday, and I saved it because it perfectly captures my vision for 2013. Last year, I set a theme-based resolution instead of a goal-based resolution. You can read about it here. My theme for 2012 was Less thinking, more doing, which leads right into this year’s theme: Less thinking, more doing again. It worked pretty well last year, so why change it?

Because of Less thinking, more doing in 2012, I:

• joined a business networking group
• met a lot of my neighbors while walking Coco – I feel more connected to my fellow condo-owners now; Coco even made a new friend, Harley, and we’re going to have a playdate at the dog park soon!
• booked Stella & Dot trunk shows with new hostesses, women I met at other trunk shows, through my networking group, or through mutual friends (most of my 2012 hostesses were women I did not know before the year started!)
• started walking twice a week with a new friend from the gym
• spent 2 days in Napa Valley with one of my Stella & Dot besties before our sales conference in San Francisco (check out the link – the house, owned by someone I babysit for, is to DIE for, as is the little town in which it is located, St. Helena)
• took a spur-of-the-moment bus tour and ate dinner in the Fisherman’s Wharf with a new Stella & Dot friend on the last night of our conference
• ate dinner with a new friend at a Mexican food restaurant and spilled my life story to her over a damn good margarita
• said “yes” to three vendor events this fall – although they weren’t big successes financially, I met new people and even enjoyed 2/3 of them!
• got to name one of the pieces in the Spring 2013 Collection after my mom (my name was pulled in a drawing – I received an entry for meeting a sales goal every month from July 2011 to June 2012, which I did because of Less thinking, more doing!)

There are more, I’m sure, but these are the things that come to mind. Many of my successes were business-related, which is great, because I needed to expand my network of potential customers and hostesses, but aside from that, I made a lot of new friends this year. I also have a lot more confidence about doing new things, because I’ve tried and succeeded many times.

So 2013. Less thinking, more doing. Because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Now, about the picture at the top. I live in Houston, so there will be no Less driving, more walking, m-kay? If I could, I would change that to Less sitting, more walking, because that’s how we roll in the land of freeways and 100° summers. I don’t care how close it is, I’m not going to walk to the nail place/Walgreen’s/Chinese food restaurant down the street!

Tomorrow, a post about what I want to do more of in 2013.