I’m not one for New Year Resolutions. I look at it as if I need a date to start doing something, I probably won’t do it. But 
this year as I sat at my desk on Jan 1st and reflected back on 2013. I realized that I need, no… want to make a change. 2013 was just a blah year for me. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. The most I can really say is I work a lot on my business, I’m still doing a lot of things I don’t want to do and I visited two places I don’t care to go to again. So for 2014 I thought, why not make some goals and changes? Things that I want to do to make my life better.
Here’s an example of what I did.
- I started to look at the aspects of my life and broke them down into three categories. Personal, Personal with my SO, and Business.
- I thought about each category and what I wanted and why. In general I came up with an overall goal for each category.
Examples
| Personal | Personal with my SO | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Have More Time for Myself | Build a Stronger Relationship | Make $###K for 2014 |
Having a general goal I wrote out what I want, why, and action steps to get there. Here are some examples.
| Personal: Have More Time for Myself | ||
|---|---|---|
| What | Why | Action |
| Take one day/evening off and do something I want to do. | Because I rarely do anything for myself. | Schedule a day and time as if it were a meeting with a client. |
| Workout: Do double what I can do now. | Because I want to continue to be healthy and I enjoy working out. | Create a better workout routine and keep working out 2-3 times a week. |
| Personal with my SO: Build a Stronger Relationship | ||
| What | Why | Action |
| Bi Monthly (twice a month) date nights. | Because we like spending time together but also it will force us to find and try new things. | Subscribe to local events web sites. Mark events on calendar. |
| Find another 2 player video game we can play. | Video games are both our hobbies that we rarely get to do together. | Ask my SO to find us some video games to play (She is way better at finding good games). |
| Business: Make $###K for 2014 | ||
| What | Why | Action |
| Create 1 mobile app/niche website every 2 months. | To create passive income. | Depending on the project: Schedule a weekly drunk programming* night with those who will help me. Or spend 2 evenings a week working on the app/website. |
| Spend 8-12 hours a week selling. Hire a sub contractor to help with extra work. |
In order to increase income, and have the time to work on mobile apps/niche websites I need to bring in more clients but I also need someone to do the work. | Join a networking meeting. Tap into my existing clients. Tap into my network to find a sub contractor. |
The one key factor between all of these goals for 2014 is that they all tie in together. Increasing my income will help me do a bi monthly date night. Taking time off for myself and working out will keep me refreshed and able work on my business. I didn’t really realize that until I wrote out all my goals. But hey, knowing they all tie together makes me feel good and gives me motivation. The last thing I did was print out all my goals so I could look at them everyday.
Just in the few days I’ve looked at them, I’ve actually refined a few, changed a few, and added a few more. So far I’m on the path and am excited about 2014. This is also something you can do any time of the year. You don’t have to wait for a new year!
*Drunk programming is where you get together with friends, have a few beers and try to write an app.
