My 2013 in Review, and Happy New Year 2014!! :)

Posted: Dec 31, 2013
Updated:
Jul 11, 2024

It’s now the last day of the year again!! It’s now my fifth year running PE and as with previous years, I’ll be doing a review of how my 2013 went, as well as my goals for the new year.

If you don’t do year-end reviews, here’s why you should: Why I Do Year End Reviews (And 6 Questions for Your Review).

My End-of-Year Reviews from 2008 to 2012

2013 in a Snapshot

2o13 felt like one of the longest years of my life. Probably because it is in this year when I met my soulmate, got attached to him, got engaged, and went through light-years of transformation in terms of my consciousness development.

(Here’s the series that details how we met and got together if you haven’t read yet: How I Found My Soulmate (seven-part series).)

Meeting him and being with him is the best thing I could have ever wished for. Thank you universe for putting us in each other’s path. :)

There were also many other things that happened this year which I’m proud of:

Being featured on Soul Sisters, a local documentary on inspiring women! My episode aired yesterday, on Toggle Eve channel. In case you didn’t catch it, I’m going to see if I can upload a copy to YouTube soon.
Being chosen as international personal-care brand Dove as their personal-development expert in their Camera Confidence Campaign. Thank you Dove for the opportunity to touch more lives! :)
More traveling: traveled to South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town), Scotland, India (Chennai), and Hong Kong, of which the first three countries are new territories for me!
Conducted more PE meetups: Hong Kong (26 Jan), Johannesburg (Apr 11), Cape Town (Apr 21), Singapore (Jun 23), and Edinburgh (Aug 17). It is always such a lovely and exciting experience meeting all of you; thank you so much for taking the time to come to the meetup and sharing your wisdom with everyone! :)
Launched four new products to my products lineup: The Passive Income System, Blogging Success Program, Anti-Procrastination Program, and Self-Esteem Webinar. (Update Aug 2015: I’ve retired PIS and BSP which I share why here: Retiring Blogging Success Program & Passive Income System.)
Set up my YouTube channel and built it with a selection of video interviews and video tutorials. At this point of writing, I’ve over 1,256 subscribers, 45 videos, and a total video view count of 70,000 views (the most popular being the vision board video with over 8,000 views), though I hope to build this further in 2014!
Being on a healthier diet and more regular exercising regime. I’ve been eating home-made salads and sandwiches more regularly than before and Ken and I’ve been exercising at least two-to-three times a week. I hope to continue this habit in 2014!
Having 14 new media mentions/features, such as in Her World, Kiss92 FM, Singapore Women’s Weekly and Cosmopolitan Singapore. Thank you to all media outlets for the coverage and opportunity to contribute! :)
Update: Just got a call from Channel News Asia to be on their show on January 6 (next Monday), to talk about new year’s resolutions for the new year. What a great way to usher in the new year! :)

Reviewing Against My 2013 Goals

As a form of accountability, I’ve pasted my 2013 goals which I wrote in my 2012 review, along with my comments in blue:

Start my online video channel to help others grow and live their best lives. — Done! :)
Continue to expand PE.
1. Convert past courses (passive income course, blogging bootcamp) into product versions as part of expanding my passive income streams. — Done! :) Launched four products this year, based on live PE courses.
2. Seriously explore collaborations with large-scale platforms. IMO, this will be necessary to bring PE to the next level. — Working with Dove is my first step towards collaborating with a mainstream brand, and I’m very grateful for that. I’m also working with Lifehack.org, a major personal development portal, to write a new book to be out next year. I hope to secure more of such opportunities in 2014!
3. Develop PE as a business, and not as a self-employed person. — I’ve been handling PE as a business, though I can do a lot more in this area! I still micro-task a lot and I need to adopting a more big-picture approach.
4. Achieve at least six-figure income (annual) for myself and my business in 2013. — Ack, unfortunately this is a miss. While my income is higher than last year’s and I’m earning more than my previous corporate career, it’s definitely not at the six-figure level yet. Money is not a priority to me (which is why I barely pay attention to it in my business development) but I do see the amount I’m earning as the representation of the value I’m giving. Not to mention that money is an important tool to live a better-quality life.
Continue traveling—this time to South America, India, and South Africa, which are places I’ve never been to before. — A check for South Africa and India. I would have visited South America (my plan was to visit in July 2013) except that I met Ken and my life plans changed after that! I’ll most definitely want to visit South America in time to come!
Live life as myself, in line with my vision, values, passion, and purpose. — Yes, without a doubt!

My Goals for 2014

Here are my goals for 2014:

Have an amazing wedding (and honeymoon) with my husband-to-be, Ken Soh! :) Our wedding is on May 25 (less than five months to go!), 80% of our guests have been invited and confirmed, and soon I’ll be busy with the second phase of wedding preparations (selecting the flowers, doing up our wedding album, picking out my gown, etc.).
Build PE’s traffic. I haven’t been as focused in this as I was when I started the blog, and I feel it’s time to go back to the roots and basics. It’s opportune that I’m now conducting a new run of my blogging course, Blogging Success Course, because it is giving me the chance to reflect on my own blog development plans. I hope to do this through:
1. Outreach efforts to get new visitors, be it through my content or marketing.
2. Better visitor-retention efforts. I need to re-look into my blog architecture as I work on this.
Secure more collaborations with large-scale platforms.
Build up my YouTube channel. This means more great interviews and video tutorials coming your way, so stay tuned!
Increase my annual income relative to 2013. I won’t be working on this goal directly; rather, I see this goal as a natural result of achieving #2 and perhaps #3 and #4.

I also hope that Ken and I will get our own home in 2014. We bade for a balance flat in November of which the results will be out next month (January), so let’s see! Even if we don’t get a flat from the bidding exercise, we’ll be looking at resale flats thereafter. When there’s a will, there’s a way!

Update July 2014: We eventually secured our new home in early 2014 and have since moved in and been living there

Happy New Year 2014!!

How has your 2013 been? What are your 2014 goals moving forward?

Hope all of you have an amazing new year’s celebration and let’s rock the new year ahead! :D Look forward to an exciting year with all of you!