My 2012 Failures

Updated: June 22, 2015

The year is about to close and as we all look back to the year that was, I’m now here to give you my list of failures for 2012.

Why share something so “negative”?

On the contrary, I believe it is actually a very positive experience.

By summarizing the things that I’ve failed to accomplish, I am forced to come to terms with the mistakes I’ve done which then inspires and teaches me on how to become better.

Personal Failures

Losing weight. A nutritionist already told me that given my body type, the only way I could lose weight is by regular exercise – something which I never prioritized in my schedule. After a year of eating a healthy and balanced diet, my weight remains the same, which only proves she was right all along. The coming year should be different.

Reading a book until the end. In the past, I’ve always managed to read a book from cover to cover within a couple of weeks. However, this year, my reading habit somehow took a backseat and there are now five books on my bed side table, all waiting to be finished. I’ll never buy a new book until I’ve read all of them, and I promise not to bring my iPad to bed until then.

Business Failures

Opening a mall business. I’ve always wanted to open a mall-based business and I remember including that in my 2012 goals. A year has passed and I never did anything about it. Curiously, I don’t regret having done nothing which makes me realize that there is a need for me to re-evaluate my entrepreneurial plans to see if this is still something I want.

Growing my online store. Sales for Blogger Shirts remained stable for the past year. However, I wish I could have done more with it. Since August, there have been no new designs and no marketing efforts were done to extend its reach beyond my blogging network. I need to sit down on this one and devise a marketing plan for 2013.

Other Failures

Publishing my book. Another goal which I had for 2012 was to finally publish the book version of this blog. The year is ending and I’m still editing it. Procrastination played a big role in this failure – and I often ignored the deadlines which I’ve set for myself. I should work with a copy editor this 2013 so I’ll be forced to work through my laziness.

Getting a U.S. Visa. I was hoping to attend FinCon 2012 – the peer conference for financial bloggers. I already had the budget and a willing sponsor for the trip and all I needed was to get a U.S. Visa. Again, procrastination prevented me from getting one on time. While I don’t regret missing the event, it made me realize that there is a need for me to address my emerging problem of putting things off until the last minute.

Failure Is Not The Opposite of Success

About half an hour into writing this post, the more failures in the past year that I begin to remember. As much as I want to share all of them, I think the list above is enough to hopefully inspire you to think about and assess your own failures for 2012.

Failing is an important part of the learning process and is a necessary step to success. And if there’s anything I learned in this activity, it is that the biggest obstacle to success is inaction.

Inaction is the opposite of success.

For 2013, I need to be more conscious about how I set my schedule and prioritize tasks. I need to be more active in battling procrastination and stop being lazy to myself.

I’ve always had a good attitude when working with other people – and this is something I need to extend to personal projects. I believe I owe it to myself to still be at my best, even if it’s only me I’m working with.

And with that, I’m ending this post about my 2012 failures.

Before the year ends, I’ll give you this blog’s top 10 posts for 2012 which would also highlight some of the biggest successes I had this year. Be sure to catch that by subscribing to Ready To Be Rich.

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Photo credit: sixthlie and hans.gerwitz