What Will You Do Before John Cusack Gets Another Leading Role?

The Mayans have done one of two things with their calendar.  Either, they have predicted the end of the world, in which we have only few years to live in a state of constant anxiety or with absolutely no reservation…ORRRrrrr they were too lazy to count beyond 2012, which means we will live beyond 2012 and wished we lived the past two year with no reservation instead of being anxiety ridden.

Just for the sake of positive pressure, why don’t we all assume that the world is going to end in 2012.  What would you do in 2010 that would make you’re entire life meaningful?  The world is changing rapidly, the people that are going to facilitate that change are the people that are going to be able to picture what they want, plan out how to get it and make meaning  behind their entire course of action.

You may get the sense that I intend on making the most of my upcoming years!  And it all begins with 2010.  We need to make this the year that we go beyond New Years Resolutions and achieve what we are meant to achieve.

With all that being said it takes a little more than putting your mind to it.  It takes understanding, planning and action to accomplish great things in 2010.

Understanding- Start With Resolutions

We have all fell victim to poor New Years Resolution planning before…there is no need to be ashamed.  Typically what happens is you jot down a few things you would like to do in the new year.  The resolutions are normally 180 behavioral shifts from stuff you did the year before.  That paper you jotted down your resolutions on is supposed to keep you accountable throughout the new year…full proof right?

Try this…

• Jot down everything you want to accomplish in the new year.
• Explain to yourself why you want to accomplish each item.
• Move you resolutions onto a goal list and see if each resolution fits within your master plan.

Planning- Set Goals

Goal setting is where your real planning takes form.  These are the items that you are a 100% accountable for.  These goals should be near and dear to you and act as a constant reminder of what needs to be accomplished.

Here are the steps you can take to make sure you don’t only set goals, but you accomplish your goals:

• Take your resolutions and begin to separate them based on category.  Example) write for Mashable goes in the Personal Branding/ Social Media category –> Finish my first course of French goes in the Personal category.
• Start building goals around resolutions you have set in each category.
• Make sure each goal is measurable.
• Give a timeline for the accomplishment of that goal.
• Access all your goals and begin to reduce your list.  Begin to take away the extraneous and time consuming goals that won’t fulfill your overall mission.  Note that reducing your scope of goals can be even more important that building you goal list out.  If your list is too big, you may be overwhelmed and discouraged by your lack of progress because you spread yourself too thin.

Last but not least…

Action-Track Your Milestones

I learned that goal lists often get lost in the shuffle (just like resolutions).  Therefore, I made an effort to break down my yearly goals into monthly action plans.  Monthly action plans is much easier to manage than a list full of goals.  I have seen the best results when I:

• Take goals from each category which need to be addressed right away.
• Break them down into quantifiable goals that can be met over the course of a month.  Example) If your goal is to have 20 guest posts published in 2010, your action plan for January should be to write 2 guest posts for x and y blogs.
• Create milestones for each week.  Over the course of 7 days, what will need to be finished in order to finish up your monthly goals?
• Take a Post It and write out what you need to accomplish for that day.  Make sure to keep it short and sweet (maximum 3 medium sized tasks).  This will make sure you never loose site of the task at hand.

What I will be doing…

In case you were curious…here are a few things I am focusing on in the upcoming year.

• Less time in front of the computer and more time reading and being physically active.
• Exploring the outdoors.
• Building up myself as a go to resource in the social media and young entrepreneur niches.
• Become even more active in meeting new and interesting people.
• Start a highly successful business (more on this to come).
• Create multiple streams of income.
• Begin to put money away in reserve.
• Begin to learn French.
• Hang out more with family.
• Hang out more with friends.
• Love my girlfriend more and more each day.
• Live everyday with gratitude.

For me, 2009 was the fastest year of my life.  I hope I was able to absorb everything I took in.

For everyone, I hope 2009 has been amazing and even more importantly, I hope you accomplish all that you truly want to accomplish before the world ends