“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce

A brand new year is coming, festive songs are in the air and everyone is gearing up for the new year ahead! I’m really psyched up for the upcoming year because there are so many exciting things I have planned for next year.

How about you? How do you feel about 2010? How do you want it to be? What kind of experiences do you want to create? What memories do you want to build? What impact do you want to have for yourself and others?

With every upcoming year, I’m always sure it will supersede all previous years to become the best year ever. One reason is because I set goals – Goals which I know will improve the quality and fulfillment of my life. I’m a huge fan of goal setting. The best way to determine how your next year to be is to set goals AND act on them. As Zig Ziglar said, “You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.”

For this same reason, I recommend you to think about what you want for yourself in the year 2010 and set them as goals. Here is a list to kickstart your thinking process . Of course, goal setting isn’t restricted to just the start of the year – you can refer to it anytime of the year for goal setting endeavors. There’s never a ‘best’ time to set goals – it’s all the time!

Check out the Bucket List article (101 things to do before you die) for more ideas!

1. Stop procrastinating and create the life of your dreams now
2. Become more organized in your life and work
3. Wake up early every day
4. Be on time for all appointments
5. Further your education – Get a diploma/degree/masters in a subject of your interest
6. Learn a new language
7. Maintain an exercise regime of at least 3 times/week
8. Express gratitude to people who have made a difference in your life
9. Take part in volunteer work for a cause you believe in
10. Cultivate at least one new skill that will enable you to perform even better at work (presentation skills, public speaking, effective writing, etc)
11. Be emotionally generous
12. Drop caffeine from your diet
13. Reconnect with at least 5 friends you have lost touch with over the years
14. Make at least 5 positive, like-minded friends and foster strong relationships with them
15. Spend more time with your family
16. Take your family out on a vacation
17. Revamp your room into your personal, inspirational haven
18. Lose X pounds / Lose X % body fat – Achieve your ideal weight
19. Achieve your ideal fitness level
20. Run a marathon
21. Be your real self
22. Read at least 30 books that enrich you (2+ books/month)
23. Read one meaningful self-help article a day (Here’s my list of some of the best personal development blogs)
24. Visit the holiday destination of your dreams (there’s no need to defer it to the future!)
25. Deliver your best performance at work ever
26. Get your biggest raise at work to date
27. Double your business revenue (for business owners)
28. Get a career switch to a better career
29. Or better still, pursue a career of your true passion
30. Earn a million dollars
31. Earn a billion dollars (for those who have achieved #30)
32. Fall in love – Find and get together with the person of your dreams! (for singles)
33. Propose/Marry the person of your dreams
34. Start a family
35. Get your own apartment
36. Get out of debt (if you are in any debt)
37. Save at least $XX amount of money
38. Help others. Do a kind deed wherever you can.
39. Go backpacking
40. Take up a class in something of your interest (dancing, singing, roller blading, ice skating, swimming, photography, web design, rock climbing, piano, guitar, yoga, pilates, etc)
41. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
42. Reduce your alcohol intake or quit drinking altogether (for people who drink)
43. Quit smoking (for smokers)
44. Widen your social circle by at least 30 people
45. Learn to see the positive side of everything
46. Turn every challenge into an opportunity
47. Let go of any past baggage – Forgive and send love
48. Meditate for at least 15 minutes every day
49. Go on a Vipassana Meditation Retreat
50. Write your book in something you are passionate about
51. Visit a new location you have never been to
52. Stop beating yourself up for bad things that happen
53. Love yourself for everything that you are
54. Start your life handbook and use it document everything it takes to live your best life
55. Learn to laugh at yourself
56. Limit your mass media exposure – Stop watching television or reading the papers (remove negative stimuli from your environment)
57. Take time out to rest and rejuvenate every week
58. Live every moment to the fullest!

Note: Success in resolutions is almost always in line with cultivating habits. Be sure to read how to successfully cultivate a habit in 21 days, an all-time readers’ favorite article.

Any goals/resolutions you want to add to the list? Feel free to share in the comments area

Related Posts:

• End of 2008: Reflection, and Moving Onward to 2009 :)
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• Which Area Of Your Life Do You Want To Transform This Year?
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A very very happy New Year’s Eve everyone!!! As 2008 is drawing to a close, I thought it would be good to wrap up the results of my goal pursuits and my achievements for this year and set specific goals for 2009 as we move onward to the new year

Importance of Setting Goals

A few days ago, I was chatting with a long-time friend. She was telling me how her friend and her were discussing about the upcoming new year and they felt 2008 seemed to have just slipped past their fingers, without realizing or making any significant accomplishments. There were certain sadness and nostalgia that accompanied that remark.

That is why it is important to set resolutions and goals. With clear goals and objectives in mind, you can orientate your energy, time and efforts towards a singular point, instead of drifting randomly from day to day. Only by setting goals will you have clarity on what exactly you want. No goals, no focus. No focus, no nothing.

If you are busy beating yourself up over a barren 2008 because you did not set any goals or pursued them, forget about it. It doesn’t matter. If anything, not setting clear goals or following through them in the past would have made you realize the importance of setting them and taking them seriously. There is always a reason for everything; always a lesson to learn from everything that happened. Look onward and start setting your goals for 2009. The future is in your hands! Focus on the present and starting set your goals for the future These goals will be the seeds that will shape the future to come

In alignment with this, I have a goal achievement series which I will be sharing over the course of the next few weeks. It is a 5-step robust framework which I have developed on how to go about achieving goals (that has worked very well for me), from goal setting as the first step, all the way to review, which is the last step. I’m very excited about this series and have invested a lot of time in writing it; I am sure all of you will find value in it as you apply it to your lives

Wrapping up 2008

Here is a topline of my accomplishments for 2008:

Health

- Became a full time vegetarian starting 1st wk Jan 08
- Became a full time vegan starting 2nd wk Jan 08, for non-cruelty, personal development and environmental reasons
- Lost 13 lbs!!!
- Started weekly exercise regimen alternating among gyming/jogging/badminton
- Picked up tennis and realized I don’t like it (valuable learning! )

Career

- Left my full-time job in brand management to pursue my purpose in full throttle
- Kickstarted my personal development career and planted the seeds for my long-term career
-> Started my personal development portal/blog, CelestineChua.com (Dec 08)
-> Started my coaching practice (Dec 08)

Spirituality

- Increased my connection with my subconsciousness/universal source

Personal

- Became a better person overall; More grounded, more positive, more empathetic, more conscious of living, more effective/strategic
- Picked up writing skills for blog

Relationships

- Made more new friends!
- Strengthened quality of existing friendships
- Started to be able to communicate with my mom/dad

Miscellaneous

- Travelled across Asia Pacific, including ASEAN, Australia (thanks to my previous job!) and China
- Learnt to rollerblade
- Wanted to learnt ice skating but deprioritized the goal due to other commitments

My goals for 2009

Here is the broad overview of my goals for 2009

Health

- Start daily morning exercise regime
- Continue jogging and badminton; Include resistance training in the mix
- Shift towards 50% raw vegan diet to further increase mental clarity and be healthier
- Lose another 5~10lbs of weight (will see how it goes)

Career

- Establish CelestineChua.com as one of the leading personal development sites/blogs
-> Build an extremely strong foundation of quality content
-> Drive disproportionate awareness and traffic
- Potentially introduce podcasts (depends on user demand/response)
- Return to corporate work for a few more years; Identify the best job assignment that allows me to bridge my current status and my long term vision to be a personal development educator; Will explore a relocation assignment

Habits

- Wake up at 6am everyday (will subsequently blog about the benefits of waking up early and how to do it, after I achieve this goal)

Spirituality

- Start daily hourly meditation (in the morning)
- Be able to communicate with my subconsciousness freely
- Be able to lucid dream freely
- Be able to astral project freely

Personal

- Acquire the following skillsets:
-> Self discipline
-> Increase my productivity (writing; day to day activities)
-> Become more organized
-> Strengthen coaching skills
-> Public speaking
- Continue to immerse in personal development materials to learn/grow/become better

Social

- Continue to make new friends
- Strengthen my existing friendships
- Further improve my relationships with my parents/family
- Meet my special someone (?)

Miscellaneous (Low Priority)

- Continue travelling beyond Asia (top choices being US and Europe)
- Get better at rollerblading i.e. be able to rollerblade freely
- Learn to ice skate

How about you?

Spend the next 10 minutes to think about the following:

How has 2008 been for you? What have you achieved in the year? What are your big goals and dreams for your life and future? What are the goals you can start setting for 2009 as you move towards those big goals and dreams?

Write them down and place them somewhere which is always in your sight; this will be the first step towards achieving your dreams! Feel free to share them in the comments area as well Stay tuned for the goal achievement series in Jan ‘09 which will help you conquer and bust those 2009 goals!

I’m leaving my home now to join my friends for our new year’s eve party! It’s a tradition that we established almost a decade ago to celebrate every new year’s eve together with a sleepover party at a friend’s place, and it’s something I have come to anticipate and look forward to every year . Have a very happy new year 2009 and 2009 will be an absolutely fabulous year EVER YET for all of us!

New posts will resume on 2 Jan 09. See you guys then!

Related Posts:

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• Two Important Things that Led to My Discovery of My Real Purpose
• Sneak Preview: The Personal Excellence Book (Pre-Order Starts 18 July, Sunday)
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• 6 Important Reasons Why You Should Set Goals