goals – Jenn Chen

2022 Word: Intuition

My word for the year 2022 is “intuition.”

Every year, I pick a word or phrase to focus on. It’s better than setting resolutions in my opinion. This year, I’m choosing “centered.” For me, this means that I want to make sure that I’m opting in to do work and hobbies that are central to who I am. I want to reinvest in myself and my worth. This goes for both physical and mental health.

2019 Goals

I don’t really subscribe to the idea of “a new year, a new me,” but I do like to use the change of year to refocus some of my goals. I’ve been trying the idea of a theme or word every year to focus on and it’s worked out pretty well. Last year, the “year of me” helped me turn down some opportunities that, while interesting, would’ve taken up more time than I was able to give.

2018 Recap

It’s time for another recap post! Looking back, it felt like I had all of the intentions and excitement to take on the year and the year kicked me in the butt. However, I accomplished more than I expected, plus crossed quite a few things off my list! I had several 2018 goals in mind.

2018 Goals: The Year of Me

It sounds a little selfish when I write it out like that, but it’s the truth. If I can’t be my best self, then I’m not able to give much to my client.

So here are my goals, mixed in no particular business or personal order.

One Year of the Coffee Marketing Newsletter

Back on August 10, 2016, I committed to writing my coffee marketing newsletter. I had been sending it off and on first through Tiny Letters and then through Revue. That August issue was the beginning of my run of consistent sends. Every two weeks on Wednesdays, I’d send an issue. Sometimes, I’d be frantically putting it together and sending it at 10 pm. But no matter what, it was out and that was my low-bar goal.

My theme for 2017: Deliberate

I place a lot of importance on words. Articles swirl around in my head for weeks until I feel content enough to write all the words down. This one has been about three weeks in the making.

2014 Goals & Coffee Resolutions

2013 has flown by. In the past year, I have:

Made it into the Chicagoist, AAA Living magazine, and the Zagat blog
Took on a social media freelance opportunity
Ran my first 5K
Bought this domain name & launched the site
Ate at many amazing restaurants, including Next (which I still have to write about)
Traveled through Michigan in 12 coffee shops
Was invited to Coffee Con as a VIP blogger
Was recruited into my dream job
Wrote my first guest blog post

Six lessons I’ve learned in the last year

One year and two days have passed since I left Groupon employment. I’ve posted before on the trials of starting a business. Since then, I’ve waded through difficulties and learned even more about how I operate. I’d like to pass on a few key items that I may have initially dismissed as someone preaching to me:

1) Advice means nothing if you ignore it. Read More

Personal branding: what to expect from me

As the first post on my new domain, it seems fitting to write about personal branding. I once bought jennchen.org (because .com was already in use) with the intention of setting up a photo portfolio. In my naiveté of personal drive, I thought the $9.99 I paid for the domain name would motivate me to create content. It went unattended for an entire year. A few years later, after establishing two wordpress.org blogs and registering two additional domain names, I finally have the drive to finish what I started. A few weeks ago, I was randomly browsing and Googling myself with select iterations (e.g. jenn chen coffee”) when I discovered that this domain was on sale. I don’t even remember who had it before. Fifty dollars seemed a small price to pay for a name that exists thousands of times over across the globe. Read More

2022 Word: Intuition

2020 Goals: Centered