I guess you’ve noticed that we have entered into a new year. At least if you follow the Gregorian calendar. Previously I have made a list of things for the upcoming year, but this year I made an exception. No New Year Promises, no detailed plans on how to become a better person. And there’s a clear reason for this.

I have noticed that most of these promises and plans have failed after few weeks. In a way it’s expected, as I still remain the same person. New habits would mean that I would have become another person, and that takes time. It takes more than 3-4 weeks to learn a new way to act or behave, and usually after couple of weeks it becomes too hard to maintain the new way of living. And we get back to our old habits.

I know this so well as I had a 16 week health project years ago. I lost 16 kg during those weeks, I walked almost 700 km in total and yes, I gained more self confidence. But I couldn’t keep that weight when my life back stabbed me: my child was diagnosed with a permanent illness, I got a burn out and I finally got divorced.

But there’s always that silver lining, even when it doesn’t seem like that while we are having these hardships. In my case that silver lining was my freedom. Like it’s said in “Me and Bobby McGee”: ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose’ , I needed to lose so much to see clearly what I still had.

All these experiences showed me that even if I feel weak and powerless, I still have my brain. I still have my knowledge. I still have two functioning arms. I still have that determination and dedication. I have learned to handle things all by myself. Oh yes, I did ask for help, but that was denied, so I stopped asking and just kept on going. It’s still making me sad, that I needed to slay my demons just by myself, nobody was there for me, but it also cleared all the illusions about family and friends.

Based on these experiences I feel that I need to be the one who is making the action. If I start waiting for the prince to come and save me, I will still be waiting at 100 years old. So, I have decided to create my own digital products. Those that I’ve done so far, were merely the testing samples, and next steps are to really put all this information into action. I try to keep it more simple, as I tend to start too huge projects and then I’m not able to finish them. This time I hope I can learn from the past, take smaller steps and later on wrap them up into a bigger lumps. Instead of building that skyscraper as the first building 😀

So therefore, I introduce my educational platform called Skillful You. And as my blog reader you will get the discount of 30 % with the code of Blog30, at least until the end of June this year. There’s not much to see yet, but within next weeks, there will be more courses and materials to choose from. I keep on editing and filming, filming and editing. I might be a middle aged single mother, but i’ve started with computers at the time you needed to write code if you wanted to use it, so modern pc is a piece of cake. The only limit is time, as I still need to run my main business as a full time worker.

During past two years, I’ve learnt a ton about digital products and online possibilities. But still there’s one specific group of online activity that I’m not too familiar with, and that is affiliate marketing. That’s why I took a chance to join Eran’s Affiliate Marketing Challenge and I learnt few practical things, but it’s still very new to me. He’s working on a new version of it, but when comparing the information on it and the price of that challenge: it’s money well used! I recommend it if you are willing to learn about affiliate marketing.

While I’m writing this we are having most likely the warmest January day ever: +5 C in North Carelia! Three days ago it was -20 C and today it was raining. No matter what you say about climate change, this is something new in here. My major concern has turned into the survival of Saimaa ringed seal population: babies are about to be born under the piles of snow very soon, and there’s literally no snow left! Without artificial, man made caves this year would be devastating to newborn seals. Last year we had nothing but minus degrees and snow, and this year it’s totally opposite. The only thing remaining is the lack of sunlight. But today we even had some sunshine, so I got a feeling of the spring. Should I start seeds for my garden?

And that brings me back to my major problem: How can I stay focused on one topic when I*m so interested in many topics? If you have a solution, please leave a comment. This is something where my ADHD brain is slowing my progress. I can’t do everything at once, but if I find a good trick to stay focused in one thing, I will be shockingly effective. At least I hope so.

With winter love

Joana