For a while now I’ve ordered items from Avanti Sport which is a large online sporting goods retailer. Orders I’ve placed in the past have been shipped as confirmed and I haven’t had any trouble whatsoever. So when it was time for a new gym bag, since my heavily used one of 3 years was beyond mending, I ordered one from the site. To be honest, I didn’t really look at the specs, just the dimensions. That was a mistake. It proved to be one of those football players use with a hard bottom and spinning wheels. Not what I wanted, but my mistake. Still, I wanted to see if there were any option to return the bag. And there were plenty.

First I had a choice of returning the bag with a full refund or exchange it for another product (for both, items had to be in original package and unopened, which mine was). I choose the latter and picked another bag. The system immediately recognized that the newly picked bag was cheaper than the original one, so it gave me a choice to either order something else to make up the difference or have it reimbursed to my bank account. Again, the latter was my choice and then it was just a matter of picking the shipping method. I could either bring it to a Kiala point and shipping would be free, have it send to their postal adress and have a few euro of administration costs or have it send to their shipping address and have the shipping costs on me. Since the Kiala point was close by I opted for the first. I confirmed the new order and received an email confirming the exchange. I dropped the return parcel at the collection point, got a receipt with a tracking code and went home.

With the tracking code I could see the parcel had arrived at Avanti a few days later and that same day I received an email with the shipping tracking code of the new order and the amount difference was transferred to my bank account. Next day, new bag arrived.

As positive as I was about them before this, I noticed that I turned into an advocate for them, telling friends and family this story and how much I’m impressed with their service. Perfect example how a customer experience like this can create great word of mouth. I will surely order from them again.

As I have been doing for a couple of years now the new year for me means getting some perspective on the year before and identifying the things I want to focus on in the upcoming year.

Last year the 3 words I focussed on were: Social, Experiment and Execution. I have been fortunate to meet some new people through work and new activities. And although none of those new relationships have grown into the kind of friendships I have with some of my older friends they certainly have improved my life. Experimenting and execution have come together in my new online income experiment. The beauty is that some of these experiments have become lifestyle choices (such as the primal/paleo diet). I have to be honest and confess that in some areas execution still is a bit lacking, but overall there has been a significant improvement on that.

Now on to my 3 words for 2012!

Relationships

As was the case in 2011 I’m more open to meeting more people. But on top of that I want to spend more time with the people I love spending time with, whether those are new acquaintances or people I’ve known for years. I don’t feel I’m neglecting people, but I find that I love spending time or doing things with certain people. I want to make more time available for spending even more time with those people, while spending less time with people that feel like a psychological drain.

Health

I’ve been around the same weight for about 8 months now, which is about 10-12 kg away from my goal. So this should be the year that I reach the goal of my weight loss journey which has started a couple of years ago (yes, I was that overweight). In order to do that I will be focussing on being stricter on what I eat (read: more strict with Paleo) and increase the number of times a week I will Crossfit, something I started about 2 months ago, and keep on spinning. Crossfit is something I really like to do, despite the fact that my muscles have been extremely sore after every workout and I’ve been called crazy by a couple of my friends for even doing it. And since I hate people telling me I can’t do something without me even trying, it’s just a bit of extra motivation. It’s also about more than just the weight issue. I want to improve my overall health, cutting down on sick days and appointments to doctors and dentists, but also being more agile and flexible. This means I have to take (even) better care of my body (and all aspects of it) than I have been doing previous years.

Entrepreneurship

Although I consider myself to be far from an entrepreneur, I think the word represents what I will try to achieve in 2012. As part of ongoing experiment I think it’s important for me to learn what running an online business entails. It will certainly mean more learning but also testing what works and doesn’t work. I’ve started a blog a couple of months ago and the information I’m getting from running it has already helped me in understanding what it means to run a site where the ultimate goal is making money.

I’m looking forward to 2012. Beside my 3 words I’ve just started a new job which seems to be a challenging one and I’m looking forward what the year will bring. Hope it will be the same for you.

As part of my experiment in generating online income I’ve been starting up another blog and have been writing for that. The blog has been launched on November 1st (yes, 3 months later than expected due to some issues) and since then it has published 7 posts. Not a whole lot you would say, but I’ve also had to create an about page, a disclaimer, a privacy statement, a disclosure and other pages. I’ve also written some drafts for upcoming posts.

Furthermore I’ve been going back to something I did a while ago and that’s creating Squidoo lenses. I came back to them in order to create some backlinks to the new blog, but I had some ideas for some new stuff and started to create new lenses. I still have some ideas for some other ones so I set myself a goal to get to at least 20 lenses, with 50 being a long term goal. With 50 lenses and some good content I believe this can also become an online revenue generator, albeit not a big one.

So yes, I’ve been busy writing, but because that writing has taken up most of my time I haven’t been coming back to where my online writing has started: this blog. So see this post for what it is: not as an excuse to why I haven’t been writing here for a while, but a simple update on the experiment I’m running.

Besides having a great holiday in september, I also did a small experiment: I asked for what I wanted. Whether it’s about some extra perks you can get in the hotel/hostel you’re staying, a more personalized dish in a restaurant or better seats on a flight. There are a lot of possibilities out there which are not willingly advertised, but are feasible nevertheless. And all you have to do is just ask.

It’s also a trick of wording your question just right. When booking a rafting trip I thought the price was a bit high. So I asked him if any type of discount was available. When the answer to that was no, I asked if there were any combination trips available which would lower my price. When it turned out that I could also book a personal driver for a day there, which would help me get from Sanur to Ubud AND look at some sights along the way, which would half the price of the rafting and get a 25% discount on the ride I booked immediately.

I did have one rule though: when the definite answer was no, I didn’t push further. I hate it when people nag about something not being possible (especially when you notice the person you ask is trying to help but just can’t) so it would be wrong for me to do it myself. When something just wasn’t possible I thanked them for trying and let it go.

Asking for what you want is a bit of a trick and for me a change in mindset. You often think that when it’s not advertised it’s not possible, but that proved to be a wrong assumption in some cases. As said, the wording of the question is important and if you do it right the benefits can be great. I know it helped me enjoy my holiday more than I already did.

On Twitter I follow a guy named Aaron Lee. He’s in his early twenties and links and writes about all things social media. As a favor to someone he send out this tweet regarding a girl who looked for a guy named Paul from Liverpool she met at a festival. My reply, without stating it in order to get a laugh, referred to Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Aaron’s reply clearly stated he didn’t get the joke. And I thought the Beatles and their members where known all over the world!

And there have been many other examples where, for fun, I referenced an older catchphrase (for instance this one) from older series or movies or just a thing that was part of popular culture at one point during my life and people don’t get it.

This all could be that it’s not about me getting too old or my references being out of date, but the fact that I’m just not funny. Luckily I still get a laugh with these things from friends my age.

And I’m pleased to say that things have improved quite a bit since my earlier experiences. Trains, trams and buses have become more comfortable. Buses and trams have LCD displays which show which stop is next (so you don’t have to rely on the mood of the driver to know where yours is). Bus stops have electronic information boards which show you which line will be next and how much time it will take to arrive. Sites like 9292OV can give you a complete route to your destination and with the new OV chipcard you have a single payment option for all your public transport travels. And with the night lines it’s even become an option as transport for a night on the town.

But it’s not perfect yet. Every once in a while a train still will be late or will just be cancelled. Buses and trams still break down. You can order your OV chipcard online and have it send to you, but when you want to use it for train travel you’ll still have to stand in line at the station ticket desk to have it activated. Same goes for when you want to charge it automatically. Villages outside of the greater urban areas still are difficult to reach.

Still, it’s much better than I remember and there’s real improvement. In many large cities, public transport is the best way to get around. You don’t have to stand in traffic jams to get there and you don’t have to pay outrageous fees to park. During rush hour most public transportation is even a quicker and better option. Just hop in a train and relax with a book or paper (or use a laptop since free wifi is available in some trains now as well) and use a bus or tram to get to your final destination.

It can be quite a joy to use public transport nowadays.

Mostly these are students who try to make an extra buck selling coffee, tea, soda and sweets. During the busiest hours of the day they trot through the train, hauling their merchandise in a sort of backpack. Usually they enter a wagon, raise their voice to announce they have something to sell and walk through to see if they are called upon. Since this is not the most glamorous of jobs, many of them just go through the motions. But not all.

Last week after the train had just left the station in Utrecht there came an announcement of one of them, saying he was going through the train, selling freshly brewed coffee and tea and having a special sale if you bought a coffee and a candy bar. Many raised their eyebrows or snickered at this announcement, but after a while he entered the wagon, said the same thing and while walking through asked every single person in that wagon if there was something he could get them. He looked as if he really enjoyed the work and with his demeanor, which was so different from what people are used to, made 4-5 sales in my wagon alone (with other vendors there may be one or two; usually none).

He didn’t have a better product than the other vendors, but since his approach was so different, his success rate was much higher. This just show that it helps if you know how to make the sale.

One of the great things about moving is the fact that when all’s done everything is nice and neat and ready to be lived in. Fresh sheets are on your bed. You might have bought a few new items that make your home more comfortable. Fridge is freshly stocked. You’ve thrown away the things you encountered and didn’t need, leaving only the essentials. Walls are freshly painted. Everything just looks crisp, clean and tidy.

So I’m going to enjoy that as long as it lasts. It’s just a matter of time before I have to pick up my regular cleaning anyway.

Whether it’s my mom and dad who are ready with their help and advice, my sister, brother in law and nieces who give up their free time or my friends who help without hesitation, they make me realize that they’re a great group of people to know and love. I make it a habit to thank them on whenever and however they help out but I just hope that they actually know how much I appreciate what they do.

Because I do know one thing: you can have all the Twitter followers or Facebook friends in the world, but it’s people like these who really count.

And with the new year come New Year resolutions. For me these resolutions are more general goals that I want to achieve (see last year) but I thought there were too many to just list them here. Then yesterday I read this post by Chris Brogan and I thought I could capture how I want to achieve things in 3 words as well. So here they are:

SOCIAL. EXPERIMENT. EXECUTION.

These words will be the 3 guidelines that I want to base many of my decisions on.

Social

As stated last year I’m open to meeting some new and interesting people. I’ve had the good fortune to meet and spend time with a couple of great people but there’s always room for more, either in a personal or business situation. This means the introvert me will have to give me some free reigns to be more outgoing and open.

Experiment

I’ve talked about my experiments on this blog before and I’m planning to do more of that. Mostly to find out what it is that I exactly want out of life. Don’t get me wrong: there’s a whole lot to like about the life I’m living but I think there can be some improvement both on a personal and business level. And you won’t know if a change you want to make works before you try it.

Execution

I’ve become a bit of a slacker when it comes to doing certain things well. Doing things a bit half-assed so to say. Not that I’ve let people down or caused damage with the way I do things, but I always held myself to a pretty high standard and it seems that during the last year or so I let some of those standards slide. So whatever it is I do in life, whether it’s a change of something I’ve done for ages, I’ll have to go all in and with determination or just don’t do it at all.

I know 2011 will be a year that will throw some challenges my way. Whether it’s my impending move this month, the search for a new source of income, the last leg of my weight loss or any other thing that might pub up. That’s OK though. I love a challenge. Bring it on!