“Now, therefore, be it resolved…” (2014 Edition)

Maybe it’s because 2012 turned out so well and a correction was due.

Maybe it’s because my goals for 2013 were too ambitious.

Maybe I’m just overly optimistic.

But I definitely went 0-for-3 on my New Year’s resolutions this past year

For a quick recap on the resolutions themselves, you can read the entry from a year ago today. The reasons for the failures are numerous, but in a nutshell: NC SPICE wasn’t approved for 501(c)(3) status until late in the year and is (temporarily) dead in the water, I stopped exercising and regained every. single. pound. I lost the year before,1 and the number I picked as a revenue target for my law firm in Year 1 was a wild guess with no relation to anything even vaguely resembling reality.

Now normally I’d take all that as a signal to stop with the resolutions entirely. Not worrying about something certainly trumps failing at it.

But I also hate going out on a loss (something you might have noticed from past entries).

Soooo once again throwing caution and impulse control to the wind, here are my three resolutions for 2014:

1. Blog more. Across all of 2013, I only updated law:/dev/null a mere 14 times — barely over once a month (and 4 of those entries were last January alone). Granted, I like to think most of those 14 entries have really good stuff in them; I’ve gotten several comments on the tips for first-year solos, and a barrage of emails on the entries detailing my first-year finances and then responding to questions about those finances. But at the same time, as great as those entries were, there’s a bunch of other stuff I wanted to rant about and just never got around to it.2 So I’m going to try and do better than once a month on the blog front.
2. Fix the TGD Law website. My law firm’s website has suffered from the same neglect as the blog. I set up the basic framework two Thanksgivings ago now, and other than finally adding a bio and a contact page I haven’t really done much of anything with it. I’ve somehow gotten to nearly 200 clients in a year3 without a single page really detailing the stuff I actually do. I need to get on it before Thanksgiving #3.
3. Finish TGD Law’s 2nd fiscal year with $140K+ in revenue. I had just picked a random number when I threw out $70K last year as a revenue target, and then promptly missed it by 37%. I don’t actually expect to reach $140K this time around, but I figure if I miss it by 37% too I’ll have actually had a pretty good year

And now that they’re committed to writing, that means I’ll actually have to work on them (ha!).4

Have a great week y’all!

—===—

From the New Year’s Resolutions archives:

• 2014: “Now, therefore, be it resolved…” (2014 Edition) –
  • “Blog more”
  • “Fix the TGD Law website”
  • “Finish TGD Law’s 2nd fiscal year with $140K+ in revenue”
• 2013: “Now, therefore, be it resolved…” (2013 Edition) –
  • “Wrap up the weight loss” (Failed)
  • “Open the first SPICE Center” (Failed)
  • “Finish TGD Law’s fiscal year with $70K+ in revenue” (Failed)
• 2012: Mission Accomplished (or “T., Esq.”) –
  • “Graduate with honors” (Done!)
  • “Don’t f*ck up my commencement speech” (Done!)
  • “Pass the North Carolina bar exam on the first try” (Done!)
• 2011: [combined with 2012 post] –
  • “Push my GPA above a 3.0” (Done!… then Failed)
  • “Get back in some semblance of shape” (Failed)
  • “Win something” (Done!)
• 2010: “Now, therefore, be it resolved…” –
  • “Finish 1L year with at least a 3.0 GPA” (Failed)
  • “Make it to, and through, Marine Corps OCS” (Failed)
  • “Finish [UNCASG] strong” (Done!)
• 2009: [combined with 2010 post] –
  • “Graduate from N.C. State” (Done!)
  • “Win reelection as UNCASG President” (Done!)
  • “Get into law school” (Done!)

1. Which has made wearing my suits an experience (and not in a good way) — I got them all tailored midway through the weight loss, and now they’re all insanely tight around the waist and I can’t afford to buy new ones [↩]
2. Ranting is a great stress reliever, and spares folks from having to listen to me do it in person [↩]
3. And only lost 3 cases! [↩]
4. Post #1 of at-least-15 down btw [↩]

Tags: Festivities and Diversions, NC SPICE, Post-L, Resolutions, Solo Practice