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My 2018 Year In Review: Successes, Failures & Lessons Learned

I have created a new and improved version of K Money Mastery which is called, Mastering Book Publishing!

At the end of each year, I always make sure to take some time to reflect back on the previous year.

I do this for two reasons:

1. To acknowledge all of the successes and accomplishments of the year.  By celebrating all of your “wins”, it gives you more certainty towards achieving your future goals.  Not only that, but it feels damn good and you get to feel proud of yourself!

2. To carefully review all of the failures, challenges, and goals that I came up short on.  What can I learn from these experiences?  What good can come from it?  By finding the positive and the lessons learned, those challenges then become your asset.  This will ensure you don't make the same mistakes or experience the same challenges/failures for your upcoming year.

What gets rewarded, gets repeated.  Success breeds more success.

In this post, you will see me reflect back and list all of the successes, celebrations, and lessons learned from 2017.

There is A LOT more that has happened for me in 2017, but this list is what I came up with during an hour of reflecting back through journals and thinking about my year.  I'm probably missing a lot, but these are the highlights.

This “Year In Review” video blog will also include my Monthly Goals Report for December 2017, as I give an update on my goals and progress made during December.  There was just no need to make another video blog for that.

CLICK HERE to view my 2017 goals and resolutions and Monthly Goals Reports.

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Successes, Accomplishments & Celebrations

These are some of the biggest successes, accomplishments, and celebrations of 2016 that I'm most proud of.

Health & Fitness:

  • Got tested for heavy metals.
  • Did several rounds of mercury and lead detox.
  • Did a WellnessFX blood test.
  • Did 3 DEXA bone density and body composition scans.
  • Did a Dutch Advanced Hormone test.
  • Did a food sensitivity and allergy test.
  • Hired and worked with 2 personal trainers (in Vancouver and Los Angeles).
  • Completed Tough Mudder in Whistler with Tatiana.
  • Ate clean and healthy 5-6 days per week.
  • Worked out consistently 4-5 days per week.
  • Consistently consumed wheatgrass shots, ginger shots, and organic, cold-pressed green juices.
  • Invested in the JOOVV red light therapy and used regularly.
  • Consistently used my Lifespan Treadmill Desk.
  • Consistently used my PEMF mat for increased energy, better quality sleep, and recovery.
  • Invested in the Oura Ring for advanced activity and sleep tracking.
  • Invested in the Chilipad to optimize my body temperature while sleeping.
  • Invested in the EarthPulse PEMF for improving deep sleep quality.
  • Invested more into my health through the highest quality supplements
  • Had healthy meals delivered to me twice per week via Fitness Foods
  • Did a lot of yoga classes and muay thai kickboxing classes with friends
  • Did several colon hydrotherapy sessions
  • Rebounding daily as part of my morning routine
  • Did several cryotherapy sessions
  • Did several IV Vitamin Therapy drips
  • Got a number of massages and bodywork done

Money & Investing:

  • Made over $3,400,000+ CAD in revenue for 2017 (accountant needs to verify exact number).
  • Had my highest income month of $1.2 million in revenue CAD in December 2017.
  • Invested over $2,000,000 CAD into stocks, bonds, ETF's, REIT's, and digital currencies.
  • Grew my holding company assets and investment portfolio to over $3.2 million CAD.
  • Received over $85,000 CAD in dividends from stocks (most are in a DRIP – Dividend Re-Investment Plan)
  • Actively got into investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using Coinbase and other digital exchanges.
  • Was fairly active in trading and investing in 2017.
  • Expanded my investing knowledge and experience.
  • Benefitted massively from foreign exchange trading of USD to CAD.

Business:

  • Published 198 videos on the Project Life Mastery YouTube channel.
  • Published 150+ episodes on the Project Life Mastery podcast.
  • Published 243 blog posts on the Project Life Mastery blog.
  • The YouTube channel got 12,658,000+ views, with 99,100,000+ minutes of watch time, and 256,000+ subscribers.
  • The website got 2,145,000+ unique visitors and 3,624,842 page views.
  • The podcast got over 600,000 listens.
  • Grew e-mail lists of active subscribers to over 178,000 total.
  • Reached 59,600+ followers on the Project Life Mastery Instagram.
  • Reached 18,600+ followers on the Stefan James Instagram.
  • Reached 72,000+ followers on the Project Life Mastery Facebook page.
  • Reached over 134,000+ followers on the Stefan James Facebook page.
  • Reached over 18,200+ followers on the Project Life Mastery Twitter page.
  • Reached over 6,900+ followers on the Stefan James Twitter page.
  • Hosted an Online Business Mastery Mastermind event in my Vancouver penthouse.
  • Hosted a Life Mastery Transformation seminar.
  • Created the Life Mastery Accelerator monthly mentoring program.
  • Created the Online Business Mastery Accelerator monthly mentoring program.
  • Consistently hosted a monthly Student of the Month contest for Mastering Book Publishing, Online Business Mastery Accelerator, and Life Mastery Accelerator members, giving away thousands of dollars in prizes.
  • Did coaching and consulting for a few key clients.
  • Created and launched Mastery Apparel, with dozens of merchandise for sale and giving 100% of profits to charity.
  • Launched the new ProjectLifeMastery.com website.
  • Personally coached and worked with hundreds of people to build successful Amazon FBA businesses.
  • Had thousands of new customers invest in my online training programs and helped create many remarkable success stories.
  • Improved all of my courses, adding in new additional training.
  • Created the Mastery Mentality training video and added inside all of my courses.
  • Created the 21 Morning Ritual Cheatsheet (free).
  • Created the 67 Morning Rituals e-book and gave away as a bonus inside Morning Ritual Mastery.
  • Added many new training videos inside Affiliate Marketing Mastery, including the headlines template bonus, EasyAzon plugin bonus, WordPress themes bonus, and many others.
  • Partnered with many companies with amazing products to share with my audience through affiliate marketing.
  • Created many new systems in my businesses to help strengthen our foundation and processes, allowing us to scale up.
  • Improved the culture of the Project Life Mastery team, focusing on living our vision and values.
  • Improved nearly every aspect of my businesses, including our overall quality, design, marketing, customer service, content creation, etc…
  • Focused on training and investing in my team, to help expand their skillsets.
  • Read many amazing business books and expanded my business knowledge and experience
  • Continued to learn about SEO and hired an SEO specialist to help us improve our SEO.
  • Met and networked with many amazing, successful entrepreneurs
  • Interviewed dozens of amazing, successful entrepreneurs
  • Was interviewed by several bloggers and podcasters
  • Went to an entrepreneur mastermind in Jackson Hole.
  • Did 3 business photo shoots to get quality photos to use on social media.
  • Invested in dozens of new courses and training programs to expand my knowledge and skills
  • Did dozens of affiliate promotions that resulted in 6-figures of commissions
  • Spoke at the Amazing Seller Summit in front of 2,000 people.
  • Spoke at the Internet Marketing Meetup with Matt Astifan.
  • Spoke at BCIT (British Columbia Institue of Technology) to the marketing class.
  • Invested in new camera equipment, including the Panasonic GH5 and the Canon C300 Mark II.

Self-Development, Lifestyle, and Relationships:

Contribution:

  • Donated $50,000 to Imagine1Day (now We.org) to build schools in Ethiopia and Kenya.
  • Raised over $3,060 and personally matched with another $3060 ($6120+ total) to donate to WorldHousing.
  • Actively loaned money to those in need on Kiva
  • Traveled to Ethiopia to volunteer and for the inauguration of a school that I helped fund.
  • Hosted a few teen mentoring programs and merged the Teen Mentoring Program with giving teens 18 and younger access to my Life Mastery Accelerator for free.
  • Spoke at BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) to the marketing class.
  • Focused more on giving, loving and supporting those in need (especially the homeless).
  • Reached and impacted millions of people through my videos, articles, podcast, products, services, and coaching.
  • Gave gifts to my family, taking care of them and being a good family member.
  • Gave bonuses to my team, supported them to do well.
  • Contributed a lot of my time to help people online, answering questions, giving feedback/coaching.

Challenges, Struggles, And Failures:

I personally don't like or really use the word “failure” much, as I don't really believe in the concept – I think every experience is an asset, as we can learn from it and it helps us grow.  I wouldn't be where I am today without the “failures” I've endured.  But with that said, here are the biggest challenges that I faced.

  • Setting more realistic goals for some of the habits I set for the year – with travel and some unexpected events coming up, I wasn't able to be 100% in sticking with them – in the future I've learned a better way to set some of these goals so I can set myself up to win.
  • Being more strategic in my planning throughout the year – anticipating delays and challenges more, so I can better prepare and plan.
  • Overworking, sometimes having projects consume my time too much and not working smart enough.
  • Training and developing my team – making sure that I invest more in them and empower them further.
  • Not having enough employees to support the growth of Project Life Mastery – need to hire more help.
  • Had a few too many “cheat meals” at times – a bit more than what I would've liked.
  • Being a bit too much of a “perfectionist” and not relinquishing control over certain aspects of my business.
  • Getting back to people regularly – at times with travel and a busy schedule, I can be late or forget responding to people.
  • Dealing with receiving hundreds of e-mails and messages daily – still overwhelming at times.
  • At times, lost some of the motivation and momentum towards a few goals – had to get myself back on track and re-associate to my purpose.
  • Didn't do enough activities and hobbies that I wanted to spend time on – such as yoga, kickboxing, snowboarding, dancing, etc…
  • A few goals I didn't achieve that I really wanted to, such as the Vipassana 10-day silent meditation retreat (that I've been putting off), Spartan race and a half-marathon.
  • Being more strategic about my relax/recharge time – as otherwise leads to burnout.
  • Committing to too much at times, need to say “no” more to things and opportunities.
  • Communication with my team – spend extra time communicating projects and tasks upfront for smoother implementation.

Top Lessons Learned And Breakthroughs:

  • I must find and hire more A-players to support my business growth, which will allow me to continue to scale and become more of the business owner, not the business operator.
  • B and C players are costly on your team – utilizing the Topgrading methods.
  • Focus more on my WHY and PURPOSE for achieving my goal, as this will lead to the HOW.
  • Work can become a black-hole that consumes you at times.  With constant demands from others and opportunities, sometimes you can lose track of what's most important – must CONSTANTLY re-balance and continue the path of Life Mastery.
  • Set up systems for rest and recovery – ideally every week taking 1-2 days off, and every 3 months taking a week off.  This helps avoid burnout, allows you to reflect and re-prioritize.
  • Set up Quarterly Meetings and Performance Reviews with team – has been a game changer!
  • Hire more specialists and consultants, leveraging their expertise and skillsets to grow faster.
  • Must constantly simplify and re-prioritize, being adaptable/flexible to be able to focus on what will bring the biggest returns.
  • Before moving onto new projects, sometimes it's smarter to really expand and grow ones already completed to maximize the potential of them.
  • Spend more time in a state of abundance – give more, share more, focus on serving others even more.
  • Stay consistent with testing and measuring, in all aspects of life.
  • “Frank Sinatra doesn't move the piano” – focus more on leveraging others.
  • Utilize my personal assistant Darina a lot more – she is a blessing!
  • Be better prepared when I travel – get meal prep services set up in advance so when I arrive I don't skip a beat with my consistency.
  • Preparation and constant anticipation is one of the most important skills to master.
  • Continue to love all – even those that try to hurt you, as this is the most important spiritual quality.
  • Invest more into quality friendships, those that you truly value and make them apart of your family.
  • It's so easy to underestimate what we're truly capable of – we're always capable of more than what we think.
  • Meditation is essential for entrepreneurs to have a calm and focused mind.
  • Spend less time on the computer and using technology and social media.  Real life is lived traveling, exploring and connecting in-person with human beings.

Overall, 2017 was an amazing year!

This is a list I came up with within two hours and I'll be sure to continue to add more to it as I reflect on the year more.  It's amazing how much progress you can make through goal setting and what is possible when you continuously invest in yourself.

2018 is going to be an even better year!  I can't wait to share with you some of my goals and resolutions for 2018.

P.S. Many people ask me how I set my goals and how I'm able to achieve so much every year.  One of my secret weapons has been the 100 Day Challenge program, which is something I've done every year for the last 6 years in a row.  I'll be participating in it again in 2017.  If you want to join me in starting off the year fast and strong, then CLICK HERE for the 100 Day Challenge.

If you'd like to learn how  I set goals, then I'm also hosting an in-depth Goal Setting Workshop inside the Life Mastery Accelerator – CLICK HERE to join and get access to the training.
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ABOUT STEFAN JAMES

I'm an internet entrepreneur, life and business coach, and philanthropist with a passion for living life to the fullest and fulfilling my potential as a human being.

My mission is to be a powerful and passionate example of the unlimited possibilities that are available for anyone that commits their life to mastery, while sharing my very best ideas and strategies that can make a difference in every area of your life.
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