There are two periods every year when I stop to analyze what has happened and figure out what I want to do next: the end of a year and beginning of a new one and my birthday. My birthday plays a more important role when it comes to personal resolutions, the new year comes with other tipes of goal settings and plans.

This year I want to state what I want to achieve in 2009, so that this post can act as a reminder, a resource to analyze 2009 when 2010 is close and as a way for me to have a clearer view of what I actually plan to do with my personal and professional life.

Blogging

Words of a Broken Mirror

• publish at least 5 posts per week
• guest post at least once a month
• have some more guest posts on WoBM
• comment more and have more comments on my posts
• get business from the blog
• increase number of RSS subscribers, be it via email or readers
• increase blog traffic, Google PR (currently at 5), Alexa, Technorati and whatever other metric makes me happy

Travel Spells

• revive the blog and post at least 3 times per week
• get constant comments and far more readers
• change the blog theme and upload the cool logo that’s waiting in your email inbox
• and of course, traffic, pr, metrics and such

PRwave Blog (for those of you who don’t know it, this is a PR and communication blog in Romania, hosted by PRwave, the first PR community in Romania. This is where I write about similar topics as on WoBM, but in my mother tongue)

• 2-3 posts per month
• have readers identify me with the blog (as I’ve recently taken over the blog, it is still identified with its former author)
• get the conversation started with old and new readers

New Cool Online Magazine for Women (this is a project I’m working on with a couple of friends, an online magazine built on our idea of what a woman should find in a magazine dedicated to her: more articles that are really based on real life)

• build a launch plan
• find a name and purchase a domain
• launch and work on promoting the magazine

Mirror Communications

In case you’ve missed it, I run my own company now and am extremly proud of it. While the company was founded in mid-2008, it’s been on stealth mode for most of 2008 and I’ve turned it from dream to reality in the last quarter of the year. Now’s the time to really get it up and running!

• Launch bilingual website (English and Romanian)
• Gain customers
• Gain more customers
• Hire people

I know this does not sound as much of a plan, but there’s a limit to what I can actually disclose at the moment. I’ll have to update this section later in 2009.

Blogosphere, Social Media & Networking

• be thankful everyday for the wonderful people I’ve met online these past few years
• Meet new people and build relationships with them
• Stay active on the news, bookmarking and networking communities I am a part of
• Read more blogs, more tweets and more of everything worthwhile on the Internet (and stay clear of the junk)

Personal Plans

• Invest more time, effort and resources in my education
• Travel a little this year
• Finalize list for wedding guest and book a restaurant for the party
• Get Kayla, my lab, the treatment she needs. Unfortunately, she has dysplasia and she will need surgery. She’s too young right now, but we hope everything will be just fine and she’ll be able to go out and play with other dogs soon.
• Keep reading a book a week
• Get back in shape
• Cook more (with the help of Dani, my wonderful fiance) as it’s a lot healthier than the massive amount of junk we both eat.

I hope to be able to reach all my goals. But one important thing I learned in 2008 was that whenever you are unable to keep up with the schedule you’ve made for yourself (due to several issues), you should stop blaming yourself and try again! I’m going to remember myself, as I am extremely hard on myself

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

I’m extremely happy to welcome you to the first Monday Reading Roundup after our big move that kept me quiet for longer than I wanted . So without any other service interruption, here’s my list for today.

Have you always wanted to know what the secret formula to a successful business is? Your search has ended: Cath Lawson’s just made it public knowledge.

While so many out there have proclaimed print newspapers dead and burried, Shel Holtz has identified 10 changes that could save them.

If you have a site or a blog or both, you monitor your traffic. And admit it, higher numbers make you happier. But are you also mislead by traffic and driven to monitor the wrong metric? Dawud Miracle warns us against being tricked by the wrong numbers.

Ian Lurie is at it again and brings you a fresh and funny lesson on internet marketing. It’s about big crowds and how they don’t always have the smart solution.

We’ve all made mistakes. In business, these mistakes cost us our customers’/clients’ trust. Liz Strauss described the kind of apologies that help rebuild this lost trust.

In the end, I’ll spice up this weeks edition with Karen Swim’s reading recommendations. It’s a list of 5 wonderful blogs that I’m currently exploring (except the first one, that’s already in my reader).

Don’t forget to add your own suggestions to the comment box! See you all next week!