New Years Resolutions 2009 Edition

So I asked my friends on various sites what I should resolve to do in 2009, some responses were funny, others offensive, some even offensively funny, but in the end it really meant I was being lazy and should have come up with the list myself.  I am a huge believer in small iterations in software and web development, so I think I am going to approach my resolutions the same way. Everything will be made up of smaller steps.  The other thing is by posting them here, I will hopefully have a public record of this and it will force me to do some of these things.

Resolution #1 – Lose weight (yeah yeah, cliche, I know)
So my goal for the end of the year is to lose 15lbs. So every season my goal should be to lose 5lbs. 52 weeks to accomplish this. Should be doable. This means 1/3lb a week. So by the end of the year, I should be close to what I weighed when I was a first year in college (aka freshman).  This goes hand in hand with just getting in better physical shape overall.

Resolution #2 – Make more money (screw you recession!)
How much more money? Well I think I’d like to peg my fiscal growth at a 10% per quarter bump. Thats my goal. Each quarter to generate 10% more than last quarter. So if I can continuously optimize all my revenue streams, and make my money work for me harder each quarter, I think this should be doable. So by the end of the year I’d like to have way more stashed in the bank, and be running a more efficient business.  This also means I am going to start doing sales (yup, never done any sales on my own till this point, all power of word of mouth), and tracking everything more quantitatively.

Resolution #3 – Monetize my ideas
If you know me well, you know I ALWAYS have thousands of ideas floating around which I bounce off of everyone I know. The thing is most of these ideas really just require a few weeks of dedication and investment, something I haven’t been affording myself due to client work. So this year I am putting my foot down and making things like Twitbin generate revenue, and monetizing my other side projects. My goal is to be generating 5 figures monthly by the third quarter from these passive investments.

Resolution #4 – Be a better friend
So sometimes I notice I have the ability to help friends and acquaintances and don’t always do it. Other times I have noticed I don’t always make that extra effort to show up on time to things my friends are organizing (parties, events, gatherings, etc.), and I feel bad about that. So this year I am going to make an effort to improve my friends and acquaintances lives in as many ways as I can. I also am going to make a better effort to befriend lots of you whom I know, but don’t know very well. So this year, I am inviting you all to a cup of coffee. Let me know if we don’t know each other very well and I will happily buy you a cup of joe.  This I hope would go under @rjsaylor’s suggestion of being awesome in 2009. thanks Rebecca 🙂  This also means building up more good karma.

Resolution #5 – Say yes more often
So this might seem ridiculous, but I saw the movie “Yes Man” with Jim Carrey a few weeks ago, and really felt inspired. I tend to be a no-person way more often than I think I should be. So I internally tell myself negative things about potential situations and then avoid them. I need to try new things, and be open to more opportunities.  So this year I am going to learn to scuba (which I won last year and haven’t gone yet), maybe go do something else adventurous (sky diving?), or just be willing to try things I normally wouldn’t.  I would like to learn to fly a plane, so if anyone wants to teach me for free…. 😉

Resolution #6 – Create more
This means take more photos, videos, blog more, share more, and launch more websites.

So what are your resolutions?