A Year In Review: Lessons From a Weekly Newsletter

At the start of 2022, I made a commitment—a BIG goal—to write a weekly newsletter.

I’m going to fall short of that goal by 4 newsletters—unless I inundate your inbox over the next week and a half.

I won’t do that!

Before I get into anything, I want to thank you—deeply—for being a regular reader. It means the world to me and, because of you—just knowing that you’re there—I’ve been driven to continuously get better at this weekly endeavor.

You’ve helped keep me accountable to a goal.

You’ve made me a better writer.

You’ve made me a better coach.

You’ve made me a different person.

Thank you!

A Little Bit Goes A Long Way

Yesterday, I did a little data gathering: I went through each newsletter I sent over the past year to better understand my process—my journey.

As things currently sit, just from these newsletters, I wrote approximately 23,000 words. A quick Google search led me to the following:

“As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printing…[a] typical book's words-per-page count tends to range between 225 and 275—an average of 250.”

That gives me, roughly, an 83-page book.

As someone who has a goal of writing a book, that’s pretty cool. And it all happened just by doing a little bit on a consistent basis over a long period of time.

And, it also provides me with some valuable information!

If I’m honest with myself, I spend about 2-3 hours on each newsletter. So, over the year, that’s 92-138 hours of writing. Extrapolating that to a 200-page book, I can expect to dedicate about 230-345 hours just to writing.

That helps me transition out of absurd thinking: “oh, I’m just going to sit down and write a book one day.”

No.

Like any BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL, it’s going to be a process.

It’s going to be a journey.

And, it’s going to take time.

Damn, I thought there was a quick fix to everything these days.

Lesson: There is no quick fix to BIG changes. But, if you do something quick—take your daily medicine toward your goal—over a long period of time, a little bit ends up going a long way.

Improvement Is a Natural Byproduct of Consistency

My first newsletter was sent out on January 5th, 2022.

Looking back yesterday, from current me’s perspective, it was pretty bad.

But, I was so proud of it at the time—because I did it. I took the risk to put something out in the world for assessment.

11 people opened it—and that terrified me.

However, as the year progressed—as I sifted through each newsletter yesterday—I noticed that things just naturally got better.

In February, I started adding images.

In April, I changed the heading so that it has today’s look.

In June, my subscriber list increased to 100.

And, month after month, the writing, the themes, my thinking, and the process improved.

As all of these changes happened, the fear of hitting “Send to Recipients” dissipated.

Lesson: Consistently leaning in naturally makes things better and, in the process, what once seemed scary, is done with confidence and authority.

One Miss Is Irrelevant—Two In A Row…Is Relevant

My first newsletter miss was the week of May 2nd. We were out in St. George, UT for Julie’s World Championship Ironman event—which she crushed!

I almost missed one the week we moved back to MN. But, the streak had a powerful grip on me at the time.

Lately, the holiday season has had an impact: a miss the week of Thanksgiving and then another two weeks later.

And, I’ve noticed something in the past month—momentum quickly dissipates when misses get stacked closely together.

The task at-hand seems a bit harder.

But, with each miss, I reminded myself something that I remind my clients all the time: when chasing after goals—change—you have to give yourself grace.

The compassion allows for forward thinking, readjusting, and stronger commitment.

One miss stays at one miss. And, in the big scheme of things, one miss is irrelevant.

But, when patterns in the opposite direction start to appear, it’s okay to get a little tough with yourself because that’s where excuses start to carry more weight than the streak.

Lesson: One miss here and there is going to do nothing to affect the progress toward your goal. Give yourself some grace as it will allow you to get right back to your streak. Pay attention though—and get lightly tough with yourself—when one becomes two.

And that’s it—a year in review from Steele Coaching.

My hope, as always, is that it provides you with food for thought as you continue your journey toward your own goals—toward that story you’ve always wanted to tell.

Here’s to wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a huge congratulations for all the work you did in 2022—it mattered!

Onward.