With this in mind, here are some tips to help you MAKE 2009 be your best year yet! These are things that I have done (and some I am still in the process of doing).

This is a great exercise to do on January 1st, and will help to set the course for a great year!

First print out this page, and the following two articles from this blog:

Your Passion in Life

Discovering Life’s Purpose

Now you need to find a quiet moment and a quiet place (away from the computer and Twitter!). This may be dificult at this time of the year if you have family and friends visiting, but I am sure you will be able to find at least 15-20 minutes at some time of the day. If not, don’t fret, this is not Cinderella here (i.e. if you have to wait til January 2nd to find the time, it will still work!).

Don’t forget to take a good old notepad and pen or pencil with you to your quiet place (yes pens and pencils do still exist in this digital world

Closing Chapter 2008!

Before thinking about new goals for 2009, take a moment to reflect on 2008. Perhaps it was a good year for you, perhaps not. But the key is:

• What did you achieve?

• Are you closer now to your life’s goals than you were at the end of 2007? (Not sure of your life’s goals? The two articles you printed out may help you to discover these).
• If you are not closer, why? If you discover that you have lost your vision or it has dimmed, this is a good time to refocus and get back on track.

  It is also a good time to tweak your life’s goals and vision. Was you vision too small? Too dim? Too vague before?

  Adjustments are ok, as long as you are following YOUR heart. (That’s why we are doing this away from all the noise and influence of our friends and family).

• Are there some things in 2008 you regret? This is a time to forgive the people involved, forgive yourself, close the chapter and be free to open chapter 2009!
• Are there some achievements you are glad about in 2008? Great, but don’t camp there! There is more to do, more to achieve. Your achievements of 2008 are building blocks for greater things.

Ok, ready to close chapter 2008?

Getting Started on Chapter 2009

Let’s get started on our goals for 2009.

There are 3 main things we are going to bear in mind while looking at your plan for 2009:

1. It has to line up with your life vision and passion.

2. It has to include a balance for all areas of your life. You, your mental, spiritual and physical health, your family, your business achievements, your leisure time and any other achievements you plan on doing are all equally important.
3. Life can always throw us some curves, so there needs to be some flexibility in our projects.

Here is an outline of some things you might want to write down for 2009. The following items are just ideas to help you get your inspiration flowing:

What do I want for myself?

• Excellent health, I take care of my health so I will be more careful with what I eat, avoid processed foods. I will also make sure I get adequate rest and exercise more.
• Be more alive spiritually, so I will take some time (or more time) every day to read the Bible and fellowship with God .
• Open up new areas of my mind, so I will read 1-3 books a month, learn a new language or start something new like working on brain teasers.
• Spend more time enjoying life, so I will make sure I get to take time to enjoy some bicycle riding, or sports, take up a new hobby and make new friends.

My goals for my family are:

• Spend more time with them doing active things together where there is more interaction (not watching just TV together)
• Involve them more in my business so they will feel a part of this area of my life too.
• Take time to explore new things together (such as learning a new language together, learning about other cultures and countries together, learning a new sport together)

My goals to reach out to others are:

• Join a voluntary organization to help support the community.
• Start supporting new organizations such as perhaps sponsoring a child, supporting St Judes Children’s Hospital, giving to organizations providing clean water where there is none available.
• Take an interest in a needy family and look for ways to help them.
• “Adopt” a teenager and be their mentor.

My business goals are:
I plan on having my business fully support me by ………. (set a challenging but realistic date here).

To do this I will: (This could include things like:)

• Write at least 3 posts a week for my blog (or it might be 1 a day – whatever is a challenge for you, yet attainable within your time schedule)
• Write at least 3-5 articles a week.
• Learn a new area of business (perhaps more about SEO, or traffic, or website building etc)
• Find some new partners to master mind with.
• Find a mentor to guide me.
• Have a daily plan and make sure I keep on track.

Well these are some things that will guide you to create your own plans for 2009, so that you can MAKE 2009 your best year yet!

This is a great book to work through for the New Year (yes it is not really one to simply sit down and read, it is one to study and make notes on). It will help you move up to the new heights you plan for 2009!

Success Principles:

How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.

Jack Cranfield Co-author of the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, went from being a school teacher to holding a Guinness world record for having seven books simultaneously on The New York Times® Best Sellers list.

This book contains 64 principles, each principle a chapter that challenges the reader to take practical and positive action to risk creating their lives exactly as they want them.

Some principles are better known (such as “Take 100% responsibility for your life”) while others are inventive (such as “Become an Inverse Paranoid”).

All are well worth studying, considering and acting on as they can only enrich your life and help you get to where you want to be.

Recommended reading: 10 Simple Tips for Making (New Year’s) Resolutions Stick

If you’re not on twitter you are really missing out on a great 21st century experience in connecting with the world. It is free to join and a great opportunity to connect with hundreds even thousands of people of all nations and interests. Consequently you can find great varieties of conversations all in 140 character blocks.

Some of these conversations are just plain fun and small talk for relationship building while many others offer exchanges of ideas and even debates. Then there is technical support, moral support and encouragement, conversations on all levels and business connections to mention just a few ways that this now famous busy micro-blogging platform is being used by millions around the world.

A couple of weeks back, Dawud Miracle, one of my friends on twitter who follows me (and I follow him) threw out a statement, fishing for comments.

(Note the following are the actual unedited comments, so some spelling mistakes are there too. Where you see @dawudmiracle, this is me – kiwichamp – replying to Dawud. Where you see @kiwichamp, this is Dawud replying to me.)

This is what Dawud said:

I saw this question and immediately replied:

In Jeremiah 29:11 God assures us: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (NIV translation).

What comments would you have made if you had the opportunity to join in this conversation?

And don’t forget to follow me on twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/kiwichamp

and Dawud at

http://www.twitter.com/DawudMiracle