The Morning After

Today is a new year. A time for triumph. A time to eliminate all of the bad habits you have been practicing for the last 365 days. It is true that New Years Day signifies a new beginning. Most people use this day to make a ‘resolution’. We use today to plan our tomorrow for the better. The fact is though, today is just another day.

Your tomorrow, your next week, your next month will not be any better by simply making a resolution. Waking up and saying, ‘I will be healthier’ or ‘I will make more money’ are the same mantras you said to yourself the last time you were out of breath or the last time your paycheque wasn’t enough to cover an unexpected expense. The easiest part of goal setting is coming up with the goal. If you’re like most people who learn from making mistakes, you probably made a new resolution weekly or even daily last year. I know for a fact I did. New Years Day is filled with hope and resolve (and in many cases hangovers). I made a December 31st resolution to not start 2011 with a hangover. So far I’m perfect when it comes to resolutions achieved. In addition, I decided that 2011 was going to be a great year. The greatest year of my life. I’ve made this very easy to achieve by breaking my grand New Year goal down; into bite sized, manageable pieces that I can chip away at day by day. I suggest you do the same.

What is a great year anyway? It is just 365 great days strung together. That sounds simple enough to me. 2010 was very good in its’ own right. So how have I ensured that this year will be better? I broke down the three main areas of my life I want to do my best at. The first being my health (physical and mental), secondly my self (including my relationships with friends and family) and third my personal wealth (increase earnings, increase savings, increase free time).

Goal setting is mostly about planning. The goal is what you reach after you properly implement your plan. When I get in the car to drive to an appointment and I have never been there before, I will look at Google Maps or my GPS and plan my route to get there. If my appointment is at 1234 Main Street, Toronto, Ontario – I don’t just jump in my car with the goal to arrive at that appointment on time and just drive around hoping I get there. That would be impractical. I plan my route to get to where I want to be at a certain time. The same goes for your goals this year.

By writing out the 20-30 daily small actions, that I will take every single day this year, to improve upon the three areas of my life noted above; I am 15 hours into having the best year of my life. If you improve one area of your life a mere 1% every single day, how great will that area of your life be in 30 days? 300 days?

This 2011, instead of saying you area going to do something, just do it. Become a person of action. I promise you, win or lose people of action live better lives. Enjoy your hangover today; I’m on my way to being 365% better for 2012.