Susan 馃悵 Rooks, The Grammar Goddess

6 years ago 路 3 min. reading time 路 ~100 路

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Thursday Thoughts: Looking back at 2017. Leaping forward into 2018.

Thursday Thoughts: Looking back at 2017. Leaping forward into 2018.

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Aaack! It's almost January 1, 2018!聽

2017 is nearly gone, and I'm sure I won't be the only one looking back at the year, thinking about its ups and downs, or what the new year might bring.

Based on stories from and interactions with friends on social media and in "real life," I know many of us had plans, ideas and/or dreams for this year, and some exceeded our (and maybe their) expectations.

The first one that came to mind was Storyteller Sarah Elkins' (Elkins Consulting) idea for a group of us who interacted a lot on LI to meet up in person in Atlanta in February 2017, at the first NLV (No Longer Virtual) conference. About 25 of us attended, whooped it up, laughed a lot, and learned a lot about each other we wouldn't have known had we not attended. Social media is fine, but fact-to-face? So much better! And #2 -- #NLVDenver -- is now scheduled for February 22-23, 2018!

Have you registered yet? The clock's ticking . . .

I also had the privilege of working with several friends and colleagues on their books and articles, all of which I enjoyed immensely; based on the reviews and sales of the books, I'm in good company. And with the wide variety of projects to work on, I learned a lot about subjects I had little understanding of before. It's one of the things I love about what I do!

Deb Helfrich, the founder of Insights Occur, wrote Second: A Tale of Grief & Puppy Love, about losing and finding love again, something most of us can relate to. Having had many dogs and two cats in my adult life, I sure do appreciate this book because it speaks from her heart to mine. And I bet it'll speak to yours, too.

Best-selling author Heather R. Younger, J.D.'s book, The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty, is a best-seller in its niche. It's a terrific reminder of why employees are loyal (hint: it's not the money), and it shows how to create an environment that accomplishes that in your company. If you're a business owner, you need to read this book!

Writer/trainer Marietta Crawford Gentle's book, From Nine to Thrive, is a must-read if you want to know how to brand yourself. We all have personal brands; many have business brands. We need to be smart about how we're seen. And if you've read her posts, you know she's the real deal. I learn from everything she writes.

Award-winning author Sandra Elaine Scott created a wonderful adult coloring book, Color Me Sane, to help us adult doodlers find a way to de-stress. But that's not her first book, not even close. Check out her other books on Amazon.com.

Ted Egly, MBA's wondeful book -- Conversations with a Billionaire -- is due out in 2018. It shows us how we can all improve as leaders, with excellent examples to guide us. And yes. The billionaire is a real person.

Rounding out the year for books I've helped with is Business Coach Larry Boyer's The Robot in the Next Cubicle, due out August 2018 (preorders are being accepted at Amazon). Did I learn as I worked on it? Oh, my. Yes. So much I knew nothing about.

Others writers I have worked with include:

John White, MBA (Social Marketing Solutions), a globally recognized columnist for Inc. magazine, an international conference presenter, and someone who was named a top 5 most influential CMO by聽Richtopia. He has taught me more about using social media than I ever imagined, and I am truly grateful.

Dustin McKissen (McKissen + Company), twice an LI Top Voice, currently a columnist for Inc. Magazine, a contributor to CNBC and Venture Beat, and VP for Entrepreneurship & Marketing for the EDC Business and Community Partners. Dustin's a prolific writer with a social conscience, and some strong and smart ideas for supporting entrepreneurs, especially in the U.S. heartland.

Mark Anthony Dyson (The Voice of Job Seekers), an award-winning career advice blogger and podcaster (who interviewed me twice), and author of a free ebook entitled "118 Job Search Tips." His podcasts are full of fun and insights into his interviewees' passions. And his voice. Yeah. Trust me.

John Sattler (CPC, CPRW, Career Solutions), Certified Resume Writer / LinkedIn Profile Writer / Job Search Coach - Provides Personalized 1-to-1 Premium Service, who creates resumes that are visually arresting, clearly highlighting an executive's strengths and experience.

Lisa Jones (Specialized Resume Services), Resume & Academic CV Writer | LinkedIn Profiles | Job Search Strategist | SPN, creates SEO-rich executive resumes. She also creates tip sheets for those seeking new jobs and posts them on her website.

And to wrap up this year and start 2018 off in fine style, John White, MBA, and I have formed a collaboration to help more professionals be seen on his blog -- as guest bloggers. There is nothing like partnering with a social media expert or having your blog shown on his site (he has over 170,000 connections on social media!) to ramp up your own efforts.

How did YOU succeed in 2017? What does 2018 look like for YOU? Were there any lessons learned that you would share with us?

*****

If you enjoyed this post, please share it so others can see it too. And please comment; it helps you to stand out and you never know who might be interested in YOU. (Just ask聽Deb Helfrich聽how well that has worked for her.)

For more posts on topics聽ranging from American grammar to Friday Fundays, please visit my website:聽GrammarGoddess.com. Poke around. See what you find. See if there鈥檚 anything I can help you with!

#Thursday Thoughts #Thursday #Deb Helfrich #John White #February
Comments

Lisa Gallagher

6 years ago #6

So many people we know published books this year, kudos to them! Happy for your collaboration with John, you two will make a great team Susan \ud83d\udc1d Rooks, the Grammar Goddess! I helped my husband more this year than in previous years. It can be daunting because I do most of my work from home and home can become lonely. Honestly, I feel like I didn't accomplish a lot this year (oops, cat out of bag), hurry go catch it ;-) I need to find a job (I don't get paid to work for my husband) and wouldn't want paid, costs more in taxes for both of us. My hope is that I'm able to find something I can do to give us an extra income in this year; we could use the extra income and it would be great to have a job that includes healthcare benefits since our monthly premium went up about 300.00. I anticipate premiums will go up a lot in 2018 because they removed the mandate hence, those of us working will have to pick up the extra costs again to pay for those who don't have insurance. I keep looking for remote work but most of the companies I find which would intrigue me need you to live close to their city and all the cities happen to be large Metro cities. If anyone has heard of something that's legit and allows you to work from your home anywhere, let me know. I was SO hoping to go to Denver NLV this year but it won't be possible. Well crafted Susan :)

CityVP Manjit

6 years ago #5

As fond as I am of the Christ dude, I do not count my year from January 1st. Instead I have a "Learning Pathway" and in 2018 at a certain point will begin Learning Pathway 57. Now, in the spirit of our current tribal ways we can share what was meaningful about a particular year, but a year is not a pathway for me, it is simply a time stamp which we keep stamping until we can stamp no more. The fact that billions of us do that in unison is something I do find remarkable and even more remarkable that we do this in the context of happiness and success. This is a context which more often than not finds it way on to some kind of alter, whether it is one for accomplishment or identification. There are many alters to social experience and it is our personal prerogative as to how and why we socially build them. I do not know whether in not answering your question whether you personally honour this frame of shared experience, because no matter how shared a shared experience is, for me, it is at its root, as diverse as we choose it to be. That I am at times not the creature of conformity so maybe it is is simpler to label me as as a contrarian. This is fine because success and happiness are labels also. What we write on these labels allows others to open the label, even though our freedom usually means that what we seek to go beyond the labels. What I learned most this year, is that 2017 is a page number in a book of life we are all given shared access to. That is fine until I note the Hebrew year is 5778. When I examine this as a page, these respective cultures do seem to be 3761 pages apart, unless the page we are writing is truly specific to us. I don't know if that answers the question you specifically asked but as they say in the one hit wonder musical land "whoomp! there it is" :-)

CityVP Manjit

6 years ago #4

As fond as I am of the Christ dude, I do not count my year from January 1st. Instead I have a "Learning Pathway" and in 2018 at a certain point will begin Learning Pathway 57. Now, in the spirit of our current tribal ways we can share what was meaningful about a particular year, but a year is not a pathway for me, it is simply time stamp which we keep stamping until we can stamp no more. The fact that billions of us do that in unison is something I do find remarkable and even more remarkable that we do this in the context of happiness and success. This is a context which more often than not finds it way on to some kind of alter, whether it is one for accomplishment or identification. There are many alters to social experience and it is our personal prerogative as to how and why we socially build them. I do not know whether in not answering your question whether you personally honour this frame of shared experience, because no matter how shared a shared experience is, for me, it is at its root, as diverse as we choose it to be. That I am at times not the creature of conformity so maybe it is is simpler to label me as as a contrarian. This is fine because success and happiness are labels also. What we write on these labels allows others to open the label, even though our freedom usually means that what we seek to go beyond the labels. What I learned most this year, is that 2017 is a page number in a book of life we are all given shared access to. That is fine until I note the Hebrew year is 5778. When I examine this as a page, these respective cultures do seem to be 3761 pages apart, unless the page we are writing is truly specific to us. I don't know if that answers the question you specifically asked but as they say in the one hit wonder musical land "whoomp! there it is" :-)

CityVP Manjit

6 years ago #3

As fond as I am of the Christ dude, I don not count my year from January 1st. Instead I have a "Learning Pathway" and in 2018 at a certain point will begin Learning Pathway 57. Now, in the spirit of our current tribal ways we can share what was meaningful about a particular year, but a year is not a pathway for me, it is simply time stamp which we keep stamping until we can stamp no more. The fact that billions of us do that in unison is something I do find remarkable and even more remarkable that we do this in the context of happiness and success. This is a context which more often than not finds it way on to some kind of alter, whether it is one for accomplishment or identification. There are many alters to social experience and it is our personal prerogative as to how and why we socially build them. I do not know whether in not answering your question whether you personally honour this frame of shared experience, because no matter how shared a shared experience is, for me, it is at its root, as diverse as we choose it to be. That I am at times not the creature of conformity so maybe it is is simpler to label me as as a contrarian. This is fine because success and happiness are labels also. What we write on these labels allows others to open the label, even though our freedom usually means that what we seek to go beyond the labels. What I learned most this year, is that 2017 is a page number in a book of life we are all given shared access to. That is fine until I note the Hebrew year is 5778. When I examine this as a page, these respective cultures do seem to be 3761 pages apart, unless the page we are writing is truly specific to us. I don't know if that answers the question you specifically asked but as they say in the one hit wonder musical land "whoomp! there it is" :-)

CityVP Manjit

6 years ago #2

As fond as I am the Christ dude, I don't count my year from January 1st. Instead I have a "Learning Pathway" and in 2018 at a certain point will begin Learning Pathway 57. Now, in the spirit of our tribal ways we can share what was meaningful about a particular year, but a year is not a pathway for me, it is simply time stamp which we keep stamping until we can stamp no more. The fact that billions of us do that in unison is something I do find remarkable and even more remarkable that we do this in the context of happiness and success, a context which put on some kind of alter, whether it is one for accomplishment or identification. There are many alters to social experience and that is our personal prerogative as to how and why we build them. I do not know whether in not answering your question whether you personally honour the frame of shared experience, because no matter how shared a shared experience is, it is at its root as diverse as we choose it to be. That I am at times not the creature of conformity may simply label me as as a contrarian. This is fine because success and happiness are labels also. What we write on these labels allows others to open the label, even though freedom usually means that what we seek goes beyond the label. What I learned most this year is that 2017 is a page number in a book of life we are all given shared access to. That is fine until I note that the Hebrew year is 5778. When I examine this as a page, these respective cultures do seem to be 3761 pages apart, unless the page we are writing is truly specific to us. I don't know if that answers the question you specifically asked but as they say in the one hit wonder land "whoomp! there it is" :-)

Joel Anderson

6 years ago #1

Nicely done.

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