Two Days Until Your Best Year Ever?
Greetings, everyone. I made it home from my Annual Review trip and have been enjoying the holiday week at home.
Only two days remain in this entire year… which brings us to this non-commercial reminder:
If 2010 was an awful year, well, it’s all over and now you get a new start.
If 2010 was amazing, well, it’s all over and now you get a new start.
See how it works? Eat, drink, and be merry, for 2010 ends forever tomorrow night. Then it’s time to start working on a fantastic 2011, and if you start today, you’ll be two days ahead of everyone else.
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This time of year, resolution-bashing is a common sight around the blogosphere. Don’t just make resolutions! Change your life! I know, I know, it’s a good message and I’ve done it too.
But the way you change your life is by deciding (resolving) on change and then taking action toward the change. Yes, some people join the gym and drop out by February. But you’re not “some people” right? Other people stick with it, and the former couch potato is running a marathon by the time September comes around.
So let’s be in the group that makes the change and sticks with it. Let’s make this the best year ever, whether we make resolutions or not.
Forthcoming Adventures
Late next week I head out to meet readers on a tour of every province in Canada. (January is a good time to tour Canada, right?) First stop, Newfoundland, then east-to-west across the whole country by planes, trains, and automobiles.
On January 25th I’m starting a completely new business venture, the Travel Hacking Cartel. I’m pretty sure it will be my most significant biz project of the whole year. Expect good things.
After that, I’ll be back on the road to visit 20 new countries. On the list for the first few months: Libya, Yemen, Turkmenistan, East Timor, Madagascar, and more.
I’m writing my second book (formal announcement soon) while preparing to host 450+ amazing people from all over the world in the great city of Portland.
Those are a few highlights of the first half of my year, and you’re welcome to participate in any of these adventures with me. But mostly I’m looking forward to hearing about your adventures and seeing what happens with all of you over there.
2010, what a year it’s been. But now we need to step it up for 2011. Are you in? What’s your big plan?
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Image: Sally
75 Comments
2010 was a good year, but 2011 will be better!
I’m going to get my undergrad degree, build a business, and improve my marriage. (I’m already working on the business, so I’m at least a week ahead.)
Newfoundland sounds intriguing! I’m thinking of purchasing Frequent Flyer Master as well.
I have three big plans for 2011.
1) Writing an e-book&launching it on the last day of the first group of EBK in April.
2) Competing at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Championship (to win and to become a champion, of course) in June – that’s right before World Domination Summit, in fact.
3) Traveling from Portland to Buenos Aires somehow (mostly by land)… after WDS. So, I’ll take WDS as the celebration ceremony for the beginning of my trip to Latin America.
This year has been a great year for me. I enjoyed translating the world domination guide into Japanese and that was one of the things I provided values to a number of people. So, I’m grateful that you let us translate the guide into Japanese, really. I hope your 2011 will be a great one!
Cheers,
Masa
Do, see and experience more. I’m pretty pumped for the cartel to go live. It’s an integral part of my plan. Cheers to an amazing 2011!
I spent some time looking at 2010 the last week and it was a good year in many parts. Other parts, well .. things need to improve. But considering I quit smoking, my weight is now down to what I used to be 15 years ago, I actually managed to launch a small webapp (not successful by any means but the success is that I actually got my things together to launch) and a lot of other great things I’m really happy with 2010.
2011 is going to be a big year. It is going to be hard work but for after a couple of years feeling lost I now know my priorities and where I’m heading again.
Thanks for the inspiration Chris!
A year from now, will I look back at what I’ve done or will I look back at what I’ve failed to do? Funny how time doesn’t care either way. I go into 2011 with more energy and excitement than I’ve ever brought into a new year. I have documented my plans and strategies, but they all fall under one umbrella; becoming the best version of me the world has ever seen. If we are here to give ourselves to the world, shouldn’t we give the world the very best we have to offer?
Wishing you peace and much happiness in 2011! Thank you for sharing the gift of you with the world!
My art will become a functioning business!
With the new year I’m learning German.
How I will learn to dance – but I will.
Chris, so glad you’re back in my life! Had read World Dom last year, and some way “forgot” it (wasn’t quite ready?). Now, it will be an amazing year, and your coaching will be much appreciated. Opening a new chiropractic practice in WV after a 12 year sabbatical. WV is where I started out as a DC back in ’77-so this ‘resolution’ is also a ‘revolution’…come by for an adjustment!
I love inspiring posts like this. I’m working toward a book contract in 2011!
I want to welcome myself to AONC. After my first encounter with “A brief guide to world domination” today, I am sure you don’t expect me to be conventional. My attitude is one of tenacious belief in me and my abilities. The positive energy on AONC is indeed contagious.
So I have just stopped looking outside of me for what I can achieve. I am now looking on the inside.Was I not horrified to realize that I have been standing in my own way for a long time?
2011 is my year of becoming prosperous financially. I want to be fruitful in a very significant and lasting way.
I also have a passion for inspirational presentations. I am going to head in that direction as well.
All will fall into place.
Good stuff Chris! 2011 is the year to follow through. Reading lots of great stuff from yourself, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, and others. Very inspiring. Translating the inspiration to action is tough when you have to show up to the 9-5 drone box every day. Working on getting my podcast and business off the ground. Focus is key. My goal is to start earning income from at least one thing that I enjoy. The day I don’t have to abide by someone else’s schedule, will be a beautiful day.
What a great post! I’m already thinking about 2011 — have been for several weeks. But don’t want to miss whatever is left of 2010, nor do I want to miss the opportunity to pause and appreciate everything that happened — the good and the not so good. 2010 was a banner year: started working — after 10+ years home raising my kids; got bitten by the running bug and ran my first 1/2 marathon this summer (Chris: you asked me to let you know how it was, and it was GREAT! Finished in 2:34 — not the fastest time, but a PR for sure! :)); brought back into my life two very important friends were missing for many, many years; got very clear on what is not working (too personal to share on a public site, however!) which is the impetus to what 2011 will be like and WHO I will be in the new year. Here’s to great things for us all in 2011!
Best to you Chris in the new year. Look forward to hearing about your incredible adventures and being a part of your amazing community!
Mia in NC
I’m ready to blitz on writing projects in 2011. I have 13 major projects in varied stages of completion. My goal is to release one a month. I might also add that I always set my goals so I have about a 50-50 chance of hitting them. So if I “only” produce 6 new ebooks, books, manifestos, etc. this next year that will still be light years ahead of the average guy on the street who’s dreaming of writing a book someday.
After nine months, I’m completely erasing a blog and starting over, back-dating every entry until I catch up with 2011 (but, before September)!!
In 2011 I am going to use my knowledge to help others! I have read/listened to about 200 books about leadership/motivation in the past 2 years.It started as an obsession of my own but has quickly grown into a desire to help others. My goal is to put that information to use to anyone and everyone I can.
I would also like to run a marathon, paint a mural, and volunteer more. Thank you Chris for this inspirational outlet!
I’ve been trying to look back at 2010, which felt pretty rough, and appreciate the high points.
Because now I am on a solid foundation to make 2011 THE YEAR!
Hello! In 2011 I will be working on my coffee table book and blog on the porn industry; I would like to have the book close to done by the end of the year.
I will be attending the WDS summit, hopefully exhibiting in some galleries, doing a photography fellowship at a prestigious photo center (can’t say which), developing a line of t-shirts that use my photos, and finding a way, amongst all that work, to travel!
Some top destinations for me for personal reasons (friends/family keep inviting me) are New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Canary Islands, Berlin and Rome.
I wish everyone the best with their 2011 and I hope to see you in Portland in June!!
Take care,
Frank
I’m hoping to come see you when you hit Toronto. Hopefully the mild weather will stay. Newfoundland, however, is a different story!
I love these days before the new year. It gives me time to not only reflect on the past year but feel inspired to take even more action in 2011.
Chris, thanks for the great articles on your blog. My two major goals for 2011 are finishing my second year as student of acupuncture with at least a B grade and second to be able to join a group of students and teachers to visit China and do a two week internship at a hospital there. The second goal is dependent on the first one 😉
Hi Chris – enjoy Newfoundland, that’s my home province! The weather there has been surprisingly mild this month, hoping it stays that way for your visit.
Thank you for a great year of inspiring posts. I’m working on my own annual review this week, and my goals will include – among other things – more visits to my family in Newfoundland 🙂
Safe travels and have a happy new year –
Roxanne
2010 was filled with losing a high paying job with limited professional advancement, to gaining a low paying but hugely rewarding job, falling in love and falling out of love (read I made a lot of mistakes instead of accepting the true nature of the relationship), friends dying in terrorist attack in a house I’d left a little under 2 months before and lots of homesickness! But it also included my first true traveling experiences, Syria as a single white female was not as scary as I thought it would be nor is catching a microbus to a secluded monastery without even speaking the language! And probably one of the best was picking a small little book called “The Art of Non-Conformity”
2011 is going to be about writing my first book, continuing my studies, travel to new places – first stop Bulgaria! and falling in love numerous times with all the amazing people and places in the world! oh and much more running! ;o)
Thank you Chris for inspiring me!
I hunted down this website after reading the description of Chris’s book on Amazon. I have not been disappointed! I am sold on living an unconventional life!
Four years ago, I left a good-paying, but unfulfilling, job in order to invest educationally in myself. I am nearing the end of that successful journey but I have been floundering on the next step. I want more than a 9-to-5 job that takes more than it gives. Therefore, I will invest in myself again in 2011. I will create my fulfilling career one step at a time and, in the process, live an authentic life that takes my dreams and values as it’s starting point.
I like setting Intentions, which is my way of making bold statements to the Universe.
My intentions for 2011 are to become even more comfortable in my own skin, to expand my activities in which I make the world a better place, and continue in my commitment to living a life I love.
This statement bothers me.
“If 2010 was an awful year, well, it’s all over and now you get a new start.
If 2010 was amazing, well, it’s all over and now you get a new start.”
This is the kind of starry eyed statement I’d expect from some self help guru. Whether it’s a new year or not will not erase a year of mistakes that a person will have to face. There isn’t a magic reset button on life, it takes hard work and discipline.
Hey Chris. Love this post! In 2011 I hope to release my fear and doubt and be able to step into my purpose in a bigger way. I love teaching and learning and hope to share what I know can help others – working on sharing my story of healing and growth in particular.
Also, letting go of expectations I have for other people. I know who I am and am so glad this community reminds me it is OK to think, be and act as I really am at my core.
Thanks again. Happy 2011!
I am so happy that you asked this question.
We have a mutual friend who showed me how to plan my next year in terms of my most important roles.
So, with that in mind, here’s a taste of what I’ve got on tap for 2011:
Mom-role: I will seek to better understand them, and to cherish them in the small, everyday moments that we share together.
Partner-role: I’m going to work on my financial independence, and seek to love in small ways daily.
Deep-Hearted Wisdom-Giver-Role:
2011 includes the following:
1. I’m writing a book about the relationships between animals and their people.
2. I’m releasing two products for 2011- Meet Your Inner You, and Energetic Intention.
3. I’m balancing my two businesses with a consistent schedule, keeping the “Don’t over-estimate a day, and don’t under-estimate a year” mantra in mind.
Big but-kicker:
1. I’m treating my body like a willing warrior, and not like an afterthought.
Thanks Chris for the opportunity to share, and for doing what you do.
Chris, I hated 2010–it brought me all sorts of ill will and bad luck. But I don’t want it to end: I either want to make amends, or take it out in some dark alley somewhere…
That said, I have my list of plans that I’m constantly working through. This morning, until your post came along, one eye was on email and the other eye was on recipes I’m using on my first catering client (potentially next week, yikes!!!). Entrepreneurship Round 2! 🙂
Looking fwd to hearing more about this Travel Cartel biz! 🙂
Take care.
As always it is a great post by Chris. Although I prefer “best year yet” to “best year ever”. This post reminded me of a your post about having a theme for 2011. My 2011 theme is “Next Step”. Time to step it up, time to build, a time to push forward.
Also, @Aaron Stewart… come on man, you know what Chris was saying with this statement. Don’t you see the hope a new year brings? The point is you can’t go backward… It’s an opportunity to resolve and move forward. Peace to you in 2011!
I’m definitely planning on this being my best year ever, partially because of this website and Chris’s message! I am planning on starting my Automation website and blog after the new year, going to Japan in April/May and leaving my current job for good! At 50 years old I plan on proving you’re never too old to change the direction of your life.
2010 was a huge year of growth for me. I launched the first ever virtual pilates studio and hosted my first retreat abroad. I’m spending the next few days planning my goals and setting my intentions for 2011. As a life coach and pilates instructor January is a busy month! I hope like you said that everyone can follow through and not fall off the wagon by February. Cheers to your continued success Chris! So bummed to have missed you when you passed through SF. Perhaps I’ll see you in Portland :D.
Great post as usual, Chris. Usually this week is a slow week for me and I get a chance to relax, reflect, and plan for next year. This week I’ve not had the chance, so I’m blocking out the entire weekend for this. My weekend reflection will certainly begin with reading some of your posts from 2010 and rereading your book for motivation/inspiration.
I’ve got some awesome goals lined up so far, including starting at least two businesses with my wife, running and ultra, completing an ironman triathlon, making a baby (big one!), and traveling to many places in the US, in addition to Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, and Uruguay. Can’t wait!
@ Blake Moser – Yeah that’s true, not meaning to be a jerk. In the sea of the self help positive thinking year end blog posts I’ve been reading I guess I got a little angsty. 🙂
Going to take a leave of absence from work starting in February and spend time down in Central Mexico. Lost my wife in 2010 and finally a point that I can take some time to take personal inventory of my life and future
Hi Chris. Sorry I won’t be in Toronto when you come through on January 16. One of my goals, starting in 2011, is to never again be in Canada during January. It’s just too darn cold! 🙂 I’m flying off to Buenos Aires on New Year’s Eve for a 9-week trip. I’ll be taking a guidebook writing course during the first week, which may lead to a paying gig.
The other main goal for 2011 is to start a web site about travel that will help me earn income and become less dependent on the big corporate world. And I’m sure there will be more travel!
Happy New Year everyone.
In 2011 I will continue learning German and I will also be going to Albania for a month! My biggest trip so far. 🙂 I’m really excited, I feel like this trip will be my “gateway” trip into many other adventures!
Thanks for the inspiration!
2011: kick off my online businesses, find the love of my life, travel to India, Moldova and an as of yet unknown beach!
Good luck to everyone, let’s make it happen!!
Thanks for the thoughts Chris. I’ve been so inspired by you all year long from the first 100 Business class to reading The Art of Non Conformity. This is the first year I’ve actually been inspired to write down my goals and try to follow them. How else will one see progress? Because of you, I’ve accomplished a lot in 2010: launched my artist website, created 20 new pieces of work, taken classes to learn how to market my art, gained some following, and most important – became totally passionate about being an artist and making a living at it. 2011 is also my year of taking flight and I thank you for your role in it! I plan to take my career seriously as an artist and promote the heck outta myself. May we all just soar this year and have a blast doing it! God bless you Chris, and have a great 2011!
Newfoundland is in my top 5 places to visit. 🙂 Good luck in Canada, Chris!
My big plan for 2011 is to reinvent myself. I’m so keen to uproot from the conventional life I’ve led for 15 years, and I have so many ideas and hopes and tentative plans…but first, some major soul-searching. I’m really excited about it. AONC will help me get there! 🙂
Be here now. But not until 2011. 🙂
Starting the new year with high adventure- leading an international tree climbing expedition into the depths of the amazon jungle. Been working at this for the past few years, with a few pilot runs last year. This is it, the tree climbing tribe is manifesting, heck we even have paying cliental on this trip. Thanks for the inspiration!
I hate the idea of resolutions. But I love setting measurable goals. So every year I make a yearly to-do list. This is all encompassing and I include things like fitness goals, travel goals, internal health goals, etc. This will be my 7th year doing it and each year I get better at realizing what is reasonable, what is a stretch, and what is unreasonable. I’m also getting better at defining what it is I want out of my life and putting that in my goals.
I feel a litte remiss this year. Usually by now I have I have done enough navel-gazing and have lists galore of the things I want to accomplish in the comming year. I love the newness of it all especially my completly blank new day planner. (Very dorky I know) But I can’t help looking at it and imagining what I will fill it up with. I am not a particularly brave or adventureous person and I don’t have a real travel bug but I love the idea of living a less conventional life.
I lost my “real job” several years ago and have somehow managed to continuing paying the mortgage all the while feeling like my life has been better for it. I am not sure when it hit me that I had become completly unemployable in the traditional sence but it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
It’s reasuring to find like minded people out in the blog-o-sphere.
Happy New Year!!
“…you’re welcome to participate in any of these adventures with me.” I would like to participate in the Travel Hacking Cartel. Any chance you’ll open that up again? Thanks Chris!
2010 was a frustrating year for me in which I was so caught up in what is external that I neglected my internal dictates. I witnessed myself get broken down so far that I made a breakthrough. And that breakthrough has been this: I can no longer operate under the assumptions or expectations of others, it is enough that I remain aware of them, awareness of does not equal affected by. I thought I had already learned that lesson, but I guess it took cosmic beatings to get me to truly know it and come back to self.
My intentions for 2011 are to finish my graphic novel, graduate from college in the spring, get an entertainment internship for the summer in California, and get into an animation and visual effects program. And also draw, draw, draw!
I’m glad I came across this blog. Keep up the inspiring work Chris and godspeed everyone!
In 2011 I’m going beyond my fear of success and launching a project that’s about more than just me. It’s scary and amazing and it keeps me up at night. I’ve never been happier.
It’s great to come here and read the comments, and see so many other people at different places on the same path. None of us are alone. I wish I could give back to Chris and the AONC community even a tenth of the value you guys have given me in 2010. The best of best wishes for 2011!
Sometimes despite good goals, planning and good old fashioned doing ya best, bad stuff happens and it is very hard to find the reset button or brakes – choose your own metaphor…
Most years I go through the goals process in the “Best year yet” program but this year despite or is because of all my best efforts – has been the Worst Year Ever!
Phew, so glad it’s over. A period of drifting is over too and I feel more excited about the next few months than I have for years.
Chris, looking forward to seeing what you bring to us all in 2011!
I saw you in Seattle on your book tour and enjoyed it very much.
Since following you I have finally jump started the swirling ideas in my brain!
I know 2011 will be my best year yet!
My mantra is global mindedness, my passion helping others.
Thanks for being a world changer,
James
I have two days to do my plan for the year (HEY! Just found your site yesterday and already have goobs of paper with notes jotted here and there!) Excited about the year to come, $2,000 left to my overall debt and ready to move ahead with my comfortable enjoyable life style that is my dream. 2011 is the year of living life fully yet setting myself for continued success and financial well-being.
Thanks for the no-nonsense well rounded gathering of many ideas I had found hither and yon. Here’s to you and yours, Chris, as the New Year rings in.
Happy Yule, everyone!
Miss Johnnie
1. completing a sprint tri in Feb
2. completing the swimming portion of a 1/2 Ironman in May
3. Finding a church
4. Going to east timor in July to voluenteer in a clinic
5. finding a job after I graduate
6. becoming a WW leader
7. living
1. Become a fully certified teacher of Irish Dance
2. Start doing yoga every day (I average 4 times a week right now)
3. Do as many performances as possible for Irish Dance
4. Revise my Steampunk novel
5. Launch my blog. By December, have 300 000 page views every month
Chris, 2010 was fantastic for me, I feel so fortunate. I just spent 8 hours doing a year-end review and I can only say that it was filled with dreams come true, a healthier, stronger, more vibrant me, new smart habits and a lot of good fortune. I also realized that I really want to pursue blogging as a platform for my life’s career and purpose and to use it as a means to build that empire you keep talking about ;)! In all seriousness, I am thinking about coming to Portland and looking at the World Domination Summit registration right now…be safe and keep raising the ante for all of us!
We are making some big changes this year:
1. We aren’t buying any new consumer goods for a year
2. Any money we save is going to a worthy cause.
3. I’m trying my hand at writing
4. Having a second baby
5. Trying to move to the west coast
2011 is a big year for us – thanks for asking the question!
Thanks for the clarion call, Chris. I’m calling 2011 the “Year of Growth.” Here are some of my goals:
· relaunch my blog with a new design and vision on January 18
· give away my first book for free at the relaunch
· continue to facilitate a vibrant community of gu.ebers on Facebook
· write at least two posts a week
· write at least three guest posts
· write a short book about dating
· write a short book about selling crap on eBay for a profit
· take my wife to Hawaii in April using only Frequent Flyer Miles
· run my first marathon in Nashville
· run my second marathon in Berlin, Germany, at the end of September then hang · around for the beginning of Oktoberfest
· pay off my wedding
· make at least one trip to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky
· spend more time in prayer
@Cindy F I am not sure when it hit me that I had become completely unemployable in the traditional sense but it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
Amen.
I’ve been creating on my site for a long time, but 2011 is the year that I make the transition to “great”. My wife and I have resolved that my site is the main professional goal of my career this year, and with that kind of support, I’ve got to follow through. I’ve invested some time and money into the design, and I’m excited to see where it takes me. I’m pulling the trigger on the dream this year!
Travel to new places, including a non-US stop;
develop the NonstopAwesomeness brand & content;
publish an eGuide of how i sold everything, got a $5 plane ticket & discovered who i am;
attend the WDS;
have my Awesomeness Empowerment & business consulting businesses up & running;
to connect deeply with 50 amazing people;
and much more
LOVE the idea Dan Miller put forth of half-goals – I have lots of metrics on my full plan for 2011, too – great way to see the bigger picture, of what each of us is accomplishing. again the thought, we all have only 24 hours – what are you doing with yours? 🙂
Look forward to seeing you and all the other remarkable people in June!
2010 was filled with new starts and big leaps, like every Aries year.
Relationship-wise, mine ended, but fairly peacefully. A friend and I committed to each asking 26 men on dates next year, so that should be entertaining; we’re going to blog about it of course.
Art-wise, most successful year yet but verrry far from supporting myself; blogging taught me some lessons; many hits on Etsy and Flickr without a sale. But I finished an awesome commission that’ll send me into 2011 with a smile. I do much better in person than online…in every way.
I gave myself the year to decompress and re-imagine how to combine my skills. Now I’m restarting my business with art, medicine, and therapeutic art retreats all in the same amazing loft space. Face to face. So excited.
I may never create an online business, but I’ll be back Chris. Thank you for the inspiration & happiest of new years.
2010… Divorce. Move. Downsize.
2011… Launch signature system via coaching circle/master mind, publish book, produce major content-laden website (for all the things I don’t want to be teaching every day), drop 25 pounds, become strong/flexible, simplify and unload boxes and boxes and boxes. attract adventure-seeking but kind and emotionally generous companionship.
Hello all,
Old way: set goal, start, forget, fail, feel bad.\, wait until Jan.2012 to fail again.
New way: Set goal(s), write step-by-step plan, join mini-mastermind, report to accountable buddy daily, success, feel good, set higher goals.
Lose 50 pounds by June
Make $5,000/mo in new Internet buiness with out-o-work son. 50/50 split.
2010:
1. Completed 3 years of study and transitioned into new career, while working and paying a mortgage (not easy, but satisfying).
2. Converted my travel blog into a traditional (non-blog) website – blogs are great, but not for everyone.
3. Gave up chocolate, ice cream and biscuits. Still waiting for my excess weight to drop off.
2011:
1. Continue earning less money, but in work which is more fulfilling, and more on my terms. As Chris says, “you don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to”.
2. Finish the novel which has been “on hold” for the last 5 years after I literally lost the plot.
3. If giving up chocolate, ice cream and biscuits hasn’t resulted in weight loss, maybe I need to …(gasp!) … exercise more?
Oh, that’s really not a tough one, the tough part will be keeping up with what I have in mind:
* expand fitness blog
* write 1 post a week
* launch a new blog
not sure how I will be able to incorporate that with my regular life 🙂
The Travel Hacking Cartel certainly sounds exciting!
It seems like I have learned a LOT in 2010 about entrepreneurship, working for yourself and online business type stuff. I’ve started working on my own “very small business” in the last months of 2010 and pretty much have to make it a success in 2011 due to my work contract coming to an end.
Many thanks Chris for The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself and The Art of Non-Conformity! They’ve certainly been a help in deciding how I should take action. I have to confess that in a small way I stole your “The Art of” title for my website and future ebook on internet privacy\mobile security. It was the most popular of potential titles when I tested with Google Adwords though so what can I say?!
I’m in, Chris.
Here are a few things on my list for 2011:
1. Have a contract for a novel that I’ve written.
2. Go public with a new website that will include a few e-books that I’ve written.
3. Travel to SE Asia in the Spring.
4. Attend WDS in Portland in June!
5. As a lead staff member of my 6-year-old church, begin construction for a multimillion dollar facility so that we can move out of the public high school that we currently rent.
Wish I’d found your blog much earlier. The world could’ve been at the palm of my hand in 2010! Spent last night reading your Guide to World Domination. I hope to put it to practice in 2011!
On achieving resolutions: this year I made a list (and a blog to shame me into following through) called The 30 Before 30 Project. I’ve crossed off half of it so far and this year my goal is to demolish that list! So sometime in the next 6 months I need to swim with whale sharks and master cooking a 5-course meal, among other things. After reading your manifesto though, I think I need to make something bigger out of my little list. The wheels are turning in my head! Thanks for the inspiration and looking forward to your posts (especially curious about your Libya stop). Happy 2011!
Awesome inspiration once again! I am really looking forward to some big changes this year too!
So my best wishes to everyone here….may we all make the best of every moment everyday,this year!
Happy New Year!
I’m in the middle of The Art of Non-Conformity and feeling very inspired.
2010 was a great year for personal growth and clearing up some health problems, but financially, it sucked.
In 2011, I will become financially independent from multiple streams (including writing, henna, and silk painting and a few temp jobs for the Man to make sure the bills are met in this year of full independence)
I will regain my strength and stamina so I can hike Glacier and Yellowstone in September. (Having both hips replaced within 3 months put a damper on my fitness regime….)
I will spend more time nurturing the relationships that matter most to me.
I will not worry (too much) about people who don’t like me.
I will get into a comfortable and sustainable routine of writing, appointments, festivals and workshops so that I can start offering a free art workshop in a low-income library once a month. (Right now I offer them for half-price, but I’d like to to include more groups)
I’m looking forward to a trip to Uganda in March to work on product development for my business, One Mango Tree, and then moving to Ecuador in May! Hopefully some consulting for artisan-run businesses in Jordan thrown in there as well.
Happy New Year!
Hell yeah. Congrats on the amazing year. It’s been an amazing one for me as well as I’ve decided to take control of my life even moreso. I’ve sold all my stuff, dumped my boyfriend of 4 years, and am taking off on the road to travel indefinitely. I’ve already done some really amazing things, but it’s time to step it up a notch. 2011 is going to be a hell of a year.
I love a new start
This year I will continue to figure out creative ways to stay sane while living in several geographical locations at once, staying present and enjoying the magical world around us. And of course, enjoy the ride!
2010 was a fantastic year for me, but I expect even better things in 2011. That sounds cliche, but in the most general terms it’s true. Our first baby, Evelyn Rose was born in June and the rest of the year was primarily mom and dad trying to figure out how the hell to be parents! I think we survived so far…
Anyway, my focus in 2011 is Simplicity and personal enrichment through reading and learning. Reducing, and perhaps even eliminating the physical and mental clutter will help clear the way for clarity and growth.
Happy New Year
2010 proved to be a very interesting year for me, a roller coaster if you will, but I definitely think it ended better than it started. 2011 is going to be EPIC. First step, positive attitude towards what is happening now, and what lies ahead.
Make 2011 amazing.
Wow so many people doing amazing things. 2010 was a year of building up momentum so 2011 just got to keep going with the flow. Art awards to get into, a blog to update weekly, interviews to do, portraits to be painted and stories to be told, better get back to work…..Oh, and thought I’d comment more. Safe travels!
THIS is the first time i have ever filled out one of these forms to leave a message. Finding a travel site here was just an added bonus. Recently I drove to work, a bar manager for the better part of 10 years. ANYWAY, while i am slightly ashamed of the way the next 10 minutes of my life played out, Thursday 22, 2010 was the day I couldn’t do it for one more shift, one more hour. I decided on the drive home i would never conform out of fear of the unknown, I also had to pep talk my inner “panic polly” we would be ok. Money could not be the reason life scared me. Back in school for creative writing because i F”ing love it!! And then it was time for a gamble, battle of wits with my fear, I took the last of my funds and booked a flight to China, I leave in Feb. I hope our travel paths cross one day,so i can thank you for being an inspiration and, while rare, true genuine individual. Safe Travels!! God Speed
It is indeed fantastic to connect with like-minded positive people who have worldly ambitions – your articles also inspire me to keep moving in my adventurous direction… this will be my last year teaching in Tanzania, in order to take a year (or wouldn’t it be grand if it were two!) off and finally jump on a long-distance cycling trip. I’ll be cycling from Amsterdam to Munich and then on across in a north/then south/easterly direction through eastern Europe. I hope to connect with some schools and set up some student interviews. My project is in the making and I am EXCITED for it all to begin – just have loads to do!! 2010 was great and I look forward to 2011 being AMAZING, filled with many new acquaintances and adventures.
I encourage all you travelers to embrace Couchsurfing.com; its a fab hospitality sight with incredibly generous and interesting people. I’ve hosted around 40+ travelers and they enlighten and inspire me each time they stay and share!
Hello 2011!!!!
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