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“Next Year, I will not….?”

At the start of 2021, my New Year’s focus was on bringing fresh systems and structure to the way we run things here at Blanc Media.

At the time we had just switched over to Notion and we were making lots of changes to our team systems, etc.

Along this same theme, during this past year I have read a bunch of books about business strategy and leadership. And, over the summer, we had our first-ever team retreat to talk about our company values and vision.

Now, as we prepare for all the awesome things we want to do in 2022, I will be spending the next few weeks thinking about how we can continue to go deep in what we do.

Back in 2020, we went very wide — we created and shipped 5 new courses on The Sweet Setup. In 2021, we went deeper — shipping less courses than the year prevoius, but thus focusing on a few core things and doing them with depth

As I’ve been thinking about what we have done so far in 2022, and what we will be doing in 2021… I have come up against that most frustrating of truths:

“Focus is a Jerk”

When you are focused on something, it means you are directing your attention on it.

By definition, in order focus on one thing you must ignore many other things.

And I get serious FOMO when I think about ignoring other ideas, opportunities, and goals.

And but so, this is the way.

As you begin looking toward 2022, have you considered what you are NOT going to do?

(I love asking this question, btw.)

For 2022, what will you stop?

What will you avoid?

What will you say no to? (even though it hurts)


In his his book, Essentialism, Greg McKeown writes:

Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important.

Don’t be that person.

Don’t be the person who is stuck, holding on, clinging to the belief that EVERYTHING is important and you must do ALL OF IT!

If you’re familiar with Parkinson’s Law, it states that your consumption of a resource expands to meet the supply of that resource.

(I have tested this law myself using a bag of potato chips and a new season on Netflix. Telling myself I can eat just a few chips and watch just one show, I will instead consume the entire bag and watch the entire season all in one night. Blast! Parkinson wins again.)

In our desire to be more focused with the work we are doing, we have chosen to LIMIT the things we write about on our websites to only those which help folks to be more creative and productive.

(Hence, you may have noticed that in 2021 we hardly did any “news” articles on The Sweet Setup. And, on The Focus Course side, we spent the whole year focused on developing the all-new Focus Course Academy.)

By stopping all other non-essential work activities, we were able to focus on what is most important. And, looking back, we see the fruit from that focus.

And so, dear reader, as you look to 2022 and the things you WANT to do… you must also remember that you cannot do it all.

What will you resolve to stop or say no to so that you can say “yes” to what is even more important?

How would you finish this sentence:

Next year, I will not……..”


Speaking of focus…

Give yourself a head start, and get the tools and frameworks I use to avoid saying yes too often.

How to Plan Your Year (Even if you hate planning and think goals are dumb)

What: Free, live workshop with yours truly (Shawn Blanc) to cover planning, goal setting, and focus

When: Tuesday, November 16 at 3pm Eastern

Where: Online, RSVP here

RSVP NOW