I was told recently that we’re coming up on the time of year where we begin writing resolutions and evaluating our progress for the year about to pass. We scribble goals on napkins (uh 1. go to gym 2. don’t eat cheetos on way to gym 3. work out while at gym, don’t just watch plasma tv in fancy dressing room 4. don’t eat cheetos in parked car at gym after workout), we realize our shortcomings (1. could have spent more time on marketing 2. could have written more thank you notes 3. could have eaten less cheetos) and by looking backward, we look forward.

I understand the mentality of a calendar year ending, but I firmly believe that if 01/01/0x is the only time you seriously evaluate yourself, your business, your relationships, or your health, you’re in trouble. I was once told that my success would be due to my never being satisfied. That doesn’t mean I’m never happy (I’m actually an extremely upbeat person) but that I know there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Therefore, these are the self evaluations I run constantly:

1. After every real estate transaction, I take notes on how others (lenders, other brokers) did and learn from their mistakes while writing down how well we did and what we can do differently next time. Business becomes stale without constant case-specific evaluation. Too many people believe that they’re perfect.

2. Monthly, I make sure I’ve called or written the people most important to me. I never get to December 31 and say “I should have could have.” When my brother died this fall, I didn’t have the regret of “we should have talked more” because I am always cognizant of those around me and if I neglect them, I’m fully aware of it and aim to do better immediately.

3. Quarterly, business goals are written down so they are tangible. They are based on the wins and losses of the previous quarter. These goals transcend the “I will make X dollars” but encompass “I will try X new social networking tools,” “I will call X previous clients and check on them,” etc. Having specific, tangible commitments to yourself makes evaluation easy- did I succeed or fail at my various goals? How can I do better and build on those goals this coming quarter?

4. How is my health? I’m the worst at this, so I’ll take my own advice here. Get your annual check ups and never ignore a festering pain or oddity. With modern medicine, a variety of problems may be caught early with screening and diagnostics. Try some new health foods, even if you’re like me and think of them as “hippie foods”- healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to burn patchouli incense or vote for (insert whoever I’m not voting for here). Push yourself in your exercise regimen just a tad harder.

How do you set your goals? Are you a decemberthirtyfirster or are you constantly evaluating yourself?

So, the oversaturation of social networking has hit the Internet led strongly by MySpace and Facebook while WE are all left to scramble. Where do we advertise?  Which network should we join (we can’t join them all)?  What types of ads work on these networks?  What is the actual demographics of these networks?  Should we brand our person or our company?  Jeez.

Just because I know how to turn this ol’ laptop on and I can whip out a WordPress theme in a matter of seconds doesn’t mean that I have the golden ticket for advertising on social networks- I’m just as overwhelmed as you are.  In studying, I found this article by Mashable.com to be the best analysis  of branding on these networks.  The result?  These social networking sites aren’t as important for advertising as we thought!