At the end of last year my friend Kelly James offered to make me an intention bracelet. I am not a mystic type of person but when something woo-woo is offered to me, whether it's an intention bracelet or a tarot card reading, I usually say yes. I told her I wanted to try new things, but I wasn't sure what, in the year ahead. I didn't have specific goals, I just knew I wanted to try new things, get better, see if I could change my work up a little bit. Kelly gave me a bracelet that said "GROW."

I'm glad I said it out loud because maybe that helped make it happen. After working on a story about Basecamp for  Entrepreneur I got the idea to "sell your byproduct" and created and started selling my pitch packet (which you should buy!) I moved my newsletter, Evil Witches, to a paid platform. That has been a constant experiment--working on something I know is not for everybody and that's okay, and asking money for it, and both things have been good for me. I wrote an issue about anger that I actually think helped me with my kids. Finding both my structure for the newsletter but also leaving it very open-ended (I might end it after a year or two, who knows! And that's okay!) were rewarding experiences.  

I got a couple of work opportunities that I'm not allowed to talk about, which is annoying! But all I can say is that they each involved someone asking me to work with them on a project I've never done the likes of before and I said "yes" because for some reason they think I can do it, and who am I to judge? These projects have much longer timelines and higher fees than most prior projects. They involve getting to know topics previously unknown to me. Ultimately towards the last quarter of the year I began working more on projects instead of assignments and I like the pace of that better.  

Financially, amazingly, this all led to a good year, so I'm grateful that I got to stretch and try new things and that it actually paid off.  

So, thank you to Kelly and to her bracelet. I guess for 2020 my phrase would be GROW MORE.