At the end of a strange year even by my standards, I found myself proverbially flipping through the pages of this blog and looking back on all the posts of 2009. I forget sometimes how random the frothing rantings of a mad man can seem.

I hope you guys found some entertainment and hopefully a helpful idea or passage from time to time, reading all these posts now is strangely personal. It’s very much like a journal of the year, each post reminding me of a year that has been. A full stop in the paragraph that is my life.

This blogging business can’t help but be personal. The more I look at the time I spend and the record I’m leaving, I know that this blog will become a pillar for me in 2010. We get out what we put into our work. I plan to achieve a lot on this blog in 2010 and in return am steeling myself for a lot of hard work and dedication.

Lessons I learnt in 2009

• Blogging is a social event not a post or a blog, writing a post is only the start
• Get your own domain
• Learn enough HTML to break your site
• Then go learn some more to fix it
• Blogging is the disease and the cure – pour hours into your blog for little gain when you begin and soon you’ll be pouring hours into your blog for not much more gain
• Write often
• Write clearly
• Involve your family and friends or suffer the consequences it’s tough out there on your own
• Give what you hope to receive
• Spend less time on design and more on content – no one ever said “well that was a life changing message, but can you believe that font, I’m never coming back here!”
• Don’t be to proud to ask
• Don’t re-invent the wheel
• Social media is your friend

Many of you are new and probably missed a lot of monetize so here’s a quick recap of 2009 on Monetize Your Life .

Top 5 posts by Unique visits

1. Evernote Review
2. How I use Evernote
3. Refocus on your goals with goal tracking tools
4. SEO – Your writing Should Engage Others
5. Conquer your fear of success

Top 5 posts by comments

1. SEO – Your writing Should Engage Others
2. What’s more important what’s Right or getting caught
3. Enjoy 60 Good Seconds with me – Beginner meditation in 60 seconds
4. Using Evernote: How I process my Stuff
5. Oh how I love Spam! Lessons on accepting what Is in your life

Top 5 blogs I read

• Aliventures
• The Brave Programmer
• Lifestyle Design for You
• The InfoPreneur
• The Simple Dollar

With that I am now officially back from my end of year break will put the year that was to bed. Let’s Boldly go into 2010, where no one has gone before.

Onward and upward.

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I’m becoming more and more annoyed with the state of humanity. It seems the notion of right has completely dissappeared from the world. Everywhere I go I see people trying to get away with a shortcut here, a corner cut there. By small degrees the world’s gone to hell. Next thing you know they’ll make a movie based on the A-team.

What’s right?

Nothing, well not at the moment. Having worked with the public for a while I can tell you parents are pretty much oblivious to the lessons they’re teaching their children. Every time a mother insists an under age child be allowed to watch an age restricted movie or that some policy doesn’t apply to them, they’re simply telling their kids the rules don’t apply to us. What do you expect in a society where kids call their parents by their first names and parents jockey for popularity.

So what’s that mean Mike?

It means the end of personal development as we know it. The contempt for the rules we’re breeding in our offspring is meaning kids are increasingly looking outside of themselves for the causes of their problems. We are as a planet becoming less self aware.

So what’s this ultimate right crap you’re talking bout?

Some would argue there is no ultimate right. What we should and shouldn’t do are relative. Fair comment. So relative to our current reality, what is the absolute right? Is that what we’re teaching our kids? Or are we teaching them it’s ok to wake up late and then break the speed limit on the drive in too work, as long as you don’t get caught?
Evidence of what we’re teaching our kids is all around us. Go walk round outside in an unpoliced area and tell me how safe you feel. We’ve socially devolved as a species by about 100 years and are heading back into the wild west where the only law is the law that can be enforced.

So next time you:

• Jump a stop street
• Jaywalk
• Break the speed limit
• Sneak food into the movies
• “Borrow” some stationary from work
• Cut-in in traffic
• Talk about someone behind their back
• Argue that the customer is always right when you know you’re wrong
• Cut in line at a fast food outlet
• Park illegally
• Submit a creative version of your taxes
• Overlook the cashier giving you too much change
• Cheat at a board game
• Put an empty milk carton back in the fridge

Think about the lesson you’re teaching and the statment you’re making. This rule doesn’t apply to me… Unless I get caught.
Image Credits

I’m becoming more and more annoyed with the state of humanity. It seems the notion of right has completely dissappeared from the world. Everywhere I go I see people trying to get away with a shortcut here, a corner cut there. By small degrees the world’s gone to hell. Next thing you know they’ll make a movie based on the A-team.

What’s right?

Nothing, well not at the moment. Having worked with the public for a while I can tell you parents are pretty much oblivious to the lessons they’re teaching their children. Every time a mother insists an under age child be allowed to watch an age restricted movie or that some policy doesn’t apply to them, they’re simply telling their kids the rules don’t apply to us. What do you expect in a society where kids call their parents by their first names and parents jockey for popularity.

So what’s that mean Mike?

It means the end of personal development as we know it. The contempt for the rules we’re breeding in our offspring is meaning kids are increasingly looking outside of themselves for the causes of their problems. We are as a planet becoming less self aware.

So what’s this ultimate right crap you’re talking bout?

Some would argue there is no ultimate right. What we should and shouldn’t do are relative. Fair comment. So relative to our current reality, what is the absolute right? Is that what we’re teaching our kids? Or are we teaching them it’s ok to wake up late and then break the speed limit on the drive in too work, as long as you don’t get caught?
Evidence of what we’re teaching our kids is all around us. Go walk round outside in an unpoliced area and tell me how safe you feel. We’ve socially devolved as a species by about 100 years and are heading back into the wild west where the only law is the law that can be enforced.

So next time you:

• Jump a stop street
• Jaywalk
• Break the speed limit
• Sneak food into the movies
• “Borrow” some stationary from work
• Cut-in in traffic
• Talk about someone behind their back
• Argue that the customer is always right when you know you’re wrong
• Cut in line at a fast food outlet
• Park illegally
• Submit a creative version of your taxes
• Overlook the cashier giving you too much change
• Cheat at a board game
• Put an empty milk carton back in the fridge

Think about the lesson you’re teaching and the statment you’re making. This rule doesn’t apply to me… Unless I get caught.
Image Credits

The shackled Muse makes mention how pointless New Year’s is in her post New year’s resolutions. While commenting on the post though it struck me how motivating those new year’s resolutions can be. Sure we all get a bit cock-eyed and proclaim from the stage of New Year our lovely intentions, much like Miss Universe rambling on about world peace, but in those few moments as we rattle off our goals we’re energised. Our misguided resolve to magically become better people, tomorrow, invigorates us and stirs us into action, well almost.

New Year’s Resolve

That big fat wad of New Year’s resolve is what gets us all fired up. The reality of 12 months spent like a little old lady with a large bowl full of coins at a casino, pulling every one armed bandit in hopes of some luck dawns on us. Oh the shame and horror, 12 months wasted and how many more years do we really have, who know. Oh the horror. That’s when lights go on! We need to sweep the cobwebs clear. Start exercising quit smoking stop and buying our tools to catch the roadrunner from acme. In the cold dark shadow of a whole year’s inaction our options are simple, collapse in a snivelling heap or start planning to make it better.

This is the bit of the New Year’s resolution we need to tap into. The reflection and the refocusing on the good stuff. The meat and potatoes of our life. Now imagine if we did that every morning. Looked back on the day before and said oh crap, I can’t do that again.

All is quiet on New year’s day

So it’s new years day we stare into the mirror at our hangover ravaged face and you know what? I’m off work today and I don’t really have any work to do tomorrow. So I’m livin’ la vida loca . Yes, and we’re off to the races extending New Year’s eve to New Year’s day. I’ll start eating better tomorrow. I’ll quit smoking tomorrow.

The day after New years comes and we’re still wasted from our jelly shot drinking heroics the day before. We’re back to work and we feel like death, but dammit we will do what we resolved… tomorrow.

The day after the day after New Year’s

The problem you see is not New year’s resolutions, it’s the day after the day after New Year’s. Whenever we’re living “out there” in tomorrow or the in the day after we’re in deep trouble.

The key then for a great 2010 is to bottle that New Year’s resolve:

• Decide that the first step to achieving your resolution is right now!
• Right now write down your resolutions
• Now write down the reasons behind your resolutions eg. if you want to lose weight, why do you want to? To feel better about your self? To increase the quality of your life? Only you can answer These questions. Review the reasons often. They tend to change and you’ll tend to lose site of them.
• Set a SMART goal – Take your time now,  and set a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time driven goal for your proposed resolutions
• Keep these goals in 2 places, Next to your bed so you can review them daily in the morning and night and in your time management system. Whether you use a traditional diary or a tool like outlook leave a note in your diary or a daily task in Outlook to review your goals and the reasons they are important to you.
• Spending a minute in the morning, afternoon and night on reviewing your goals you’ll be immediately more in touch with them and will start feeling the energy of New Years spilling over from day to day. Three minutes a day is equal to 18.25 hours, so you’ll be spending bout one day, less sleep, on your goals not a bad deal, for achieving the stuff most important to you in 2010

So let’s all ditch our to-do lists and our to-don’t lists for 2010 and let’s begin focusing on keeping that New Year’s feeling all year long.

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