So as promised, I have spent parts of this past week, recording my goals for 2010. To be honest, I have struggled with this a bit for the simple fact that goals hold me accountable. I have always enjoyed the freedom to be flexible (Translation: having the luxury of not doing a goal because I am to damn lazy to persevere).
Making a public declaration of my goals is no less comforting, but it will certainly make me much more accountable. That and I now know where to go to find my goals for this past year, unlike other years where I am still trying to remember where I stored/saved them.
Creating a 2010 that rocks…
As I began listing my goals, I realized 3 things.
1. It is an organic document that will evolve over time.
2. As a result of personal growth, I will discover some goals that should be added. I will add them as needed.
3. I will discover some goals that just aren’t important and will either be deleted from existence or reworked to more accurately reflect the direction my life is going.
I also feel it is important for me to have both a key phrase and a sentence that quickly gives clarity to who I am and what I am striving for in 2010. It’s easy to let life kick the shit out of you and then suddenly, without knowing it, you are suffering from 2010 goals amnesia.
A theme worth committing to…
So my overriding theme for 2010: Be bold!
While I have many fears (sitting beside some blabber mouth on a 5 hour flight, blind dates, and having my fly open when doing a public presentation) I desperately fear failure. I have a perfectionist type personality and thus I don’t act until I am 100% certain that I will succeed. I finally realize this thinking is completely the opposite of what I should be doing.
Success will come by failing often and I plan on having at least 100 rejection letters/failures this year. This is definitely well outside my comfort zone, but is something I am eager to test out.
Being bold is my simple reminder to act when I would rather play it safe.
Capturing my vision in 15 words or less…
This idea literally came to me yesterday. I happened to check out author Dan Pinks blog and on it there was a video for his new book, Drive. The premise of the book is that there are two questions we should ask ourselves. One was, “What is your sentence?”
The object of the question is to have a sentence that best captures what you stand for. I have chosen to write it in the past tense, almost like a very brief (lazy man’s) eulogy.
My sentence: He helped people nurture their inner resources to go after and attain the life they most wanted to live.
My goals…
OK enough of my gibber jabber. Here are the bulk of my goals for 2010.
Physical health…
Note: In the past, I have stated things like work out 4 days/week or 5 or 6. I have opted this year to actually identify a few tasks that I would like to achieve and essentially create a routine and eating habits that will help me achieve this.
- 15 pull ups (I can only do 4 to 6 depending on how forgiving gravity is)
- 10 hand stand push ups (right now I can do none without fear of cracking open my noggin like a walnut)
- 100 push ups non stop (I don’t have a baseline for this yet, but I would think I can do 25 to 30 before I collapse face first onto the floor)
- have a six pack (my grade 12 biology class told me that humans have 6 abdominal muscles. While I have seen no evidence of this in my body-I have one smoothly rounded one-I am eager to find out if this is in fact true)
- eat a vegan diet rich in raw foods (70% of my diet will consist of raw foods)
- introduce 2 new recipes each month
Intellectual Health…
- read 1 book a week-52 for the year (this is ambitious considering I have probably only read 52 in my life, but I will finish my first one today)
Emotional Health…
- embrace fear and failure (make 100 requests where success isn’t certain and record the outcomes)
Financial…
- be debt-free (ambitious as my credit card worked a lot of overtime in 2009)
- grow my consulting business to $55,000/year
Online Business…
- grow QuitBit subscriber base to 1000+ subscribers (need to enlist your help on this one)
- 24 guest posts to prominent blogs in my niche
- develop 3 online informational products to sell
- earn $10,000+ from online business products (no clue how to make this happen yet)
- increase blog profile so I will be interviewed by various bloggers and other more traditional media outlets
- add podcasts about quitting to the blog (interviews of people and their quit story)
- two a month (minimum)
- get paid gigs to speak about the Power of Quitting
Writer…
- 200+ blog posts on QuitBit
- tender a book proposal to at least 10 book agents
Adventures to have…
- 1 week bike trip with my brother (destination unknown yet)
- go to New York for the first time ever (attending a book launch by Seth Godin on January 15th)
- participate in an overseas school building project (looking at a company called Schoolbox.ca)
Causes bigger than myself…
- get involved with a privately funded animal rights cause (something in my area)
- raise funds (use the website) for a school building project. I would participate in the building.
Famous people to meet and interview…
Note: This one is simply me shooting for the stars, but I have 3 people I want to meet right now that are all famous in their own right.
- Seth Godin-best selling author/blogger
He is doing a live book launch on January 15th in New York. This guy speaks to companies like Google for thousands of dollars. In an effort to create buzz for his 13th book (I think it is number 13) he is doing a live book launch and he offered tickets for $25 and $100. The second, which I snapped up, allows the opportunity to meet for 2 hours after lunch for a Q and A session.
I intend to introduce myself to him and my goal is to eventually interview him and get his quit story. I have already sent him an email on this and he did respond the very next day, but requested that I follow up with him in March once things die down with his book tour. Of course I am sure he is hoping I will simply forget, but I already have it scheduled in my calendar. I will wear him down until he cries uncle and gives me an interview just to be rid of me.
- Andre Agassi
I am a huge tennis fan and a huge Agassi fan. I read his new autobiography, Open, and literally devoured it in about 4 days. That hasn’t happened too many times in my book reading career. Besides getting his quit story, I am also very interested in learning more about his charter school, which is doing some amazing things.
- Shania Twain
As some know, I actually grew up with her (true story) when she was still Eilene Twain. She lived on my street until the summer of grade 8. In fact, my claim to fame is she had to kiss me (or me her, I can’t remember) in a serious game of spin the bottle. Actually, it was a French kiss, which I had no experience with. Poor girl never knew what hit her. It was like she was being kissed (licked) by an out of control puppy. Ah good times those were.
Anyhow, besides getting her quit stories, I have always wanted to know more about her journey to fame. Her overnight success story was about 15 years in the making.
So there you have it, most (not all) of my major goals for 2010.
I would love to know what some of your goals are for 2010. Head on down below to the comment section and let us know.
To finding ideas worth quitting to make 2010 rock,
Dean
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