Let It Go.

Let it go.

These are the three most powerful words you can tell yourself.

As you go through your day, pay attention to your thoughts. Pay special attention to moments when you start feeling negative thoughts. When you’re stressed, depressed, worried, anxious, angry, etc.

How often do those emotions happen for you every day?

How long do you dwell on these things? Do they get you off track or sometimes ruin the rest of your day?

In our hyper-connected, always on, need-to-be-productive-every-moment world, there are hundreds of things we want to influence and change every day.

We burden ourselves with too much. We expect to change too many things every day. We try to be in control of everything around us.

That desire for control works against us.

Negative emotions come from wanting to change things we cannot.

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Starting a Business Isn’t All Unicorns and Rainbows (the Other Side of the Story)

A reader emailed me this week with a suggestion.

She left her job over a year ago to travel the world and start a business with her partner. After struggling to get her business off the ground for the better part of a year, anxiety got to her.

Despite having significant savings, she became so distracted by money-related fears that she could no longer focus on building the business.

She started look for a job.

She found a great job. Excellent pay, fantastic benefits, flexibility on travel. The ability to live a great lifestyle without being self-employed.

So what’s the problem?

As I was reading this story, I couldn’t help but think about how familiar it sounded to my own story.

I too left a comfortable job to start a business. I too started feeling anxious about living off my modest and hard-earned savings.

My anxiety got so bad I sought medical attention. Stress can be debilitating for entrepreneurs. For some reason I slogged on, despite having no income, no investors and dwindling personal funds for a year. Twice.

I also came very close to looking for a job, and my path could have been very different if I had.

This reader wrote in to suggest that I offer some perspective on the issues and questions both she and I faced when starting a business.

So here it is, the other side of the story.

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Corbett’s Best of 2011

2011 was an incredible year for me, this site and Insanely Useful Media.

I started blogging here back in 2009 (this site used to be called Free Pursuits). In 2010 I created Think Traffic. In 2011, we launched Traffic School, the Hustle Project, the Million Dollar Blog Project and Expert Enough. Over 640,000 people visited our sites this year.

It was a busy year. Thankfully I didn’t do it all alone. Barron helped me with Traffic School and Caleb joined as Assistant Editor in August.

Business was great last year, but life was even better.

We spent last winter in Mexico and then traveled Europe for two months (Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Croatia and Barcelona). I took a full week off with no Internet and no computer. We also spent time in Sonoma wine country, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I rafted the White Salmon, fished for steelhead in the Klickitat and surfed Santa Cruz, Ocean Beach, La Ticla and a half dozen other spots on the Pacific Coast.

Jessalyn had three big exhibitions and started an incredible new body of work.

Thanks for following me on this adventure. My life is incredible because of your support. I couldn’t do it without you.

In case you missed some of them, here are my 15 favorite blog posts published here over the past year:

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When Goals Make You Crazy

New Year’s resolutions. End-of-year planning.

Goals. Plans. Hopeful futures.

They say goals are important. They make us happier and help us accomplish more. They’re the cornerstone of a fulfilled and productive life.

But what about when goals make us unhappy? What happens when we get so wrapped up in chasing goals that we can’t be happy in the present anymore?

I tend to set and pursue goals like most people do, but more and more I’m wondering where it all leads. Is life supposed to be a series of goal planning/chasing/accomplishing cycles?

Where does it all lead?

Maybe goals are like cameras. If you spend an entire vacation behind a camera, do you really experience it? Sure, you captured some shots to look at later, but how often will you really look back on them?

If you spend every moment chasing goals and shaping your future, are you ever happy in the moment?

If goals have been making you feel a little crazy lately, here are a four ideas for planning less and living more:

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4 Ways to Design a Happiness-Inducing Employment Arrangement

Last week, I wrote a post aimed at those of us with the entrepreneurial bug. If you’re like me, you’ll probably never be completely satisfied working for other people.

BUT, that doesn’t mean I think self employment is for everyone. I know people who love their jobs, and I know other people who would find working for themselves way too stressful and uncertain.

Also, many of us who long to be entrepreneurs will work as employees at some point in our lives.

Jobs aren’t going away anytime soon, nor do I think they should. For everyone in employee relationships out there, whether short-term or long-term, wouldn’t it be great if you could have a job AND live the life you want? Can’t jobs be more fulfilling?

Can’t we design better employment arrangements?

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