Goals might seem big and scary, but they can be beaten.

If you don’t set goals in life, what is the reason?

Is it because you don’t know how, don’t believe in it, or are anti-goals?

We were never taught this in school, so you may not know how. If you don’t believe in it, it’s probably because you’ve tried and failed many times.

Some are anti-goals. Leo Babauta at Zen Habits says he doesn’t set goals anymore. He feels more liberated. He lets his passion guide him.

Is this a growing trend?

Just as there’s countless ways to exercise, and different ways to get to your destination, there’s different ways to live your life. If you don’t want to set goals, that’s up to you. It’s your life.

But I believe you feel stuck or want to achieve more in life, goal setting can benefit you. It’ll give you something to aim for instead of wandering through life. It’ll weed out the not so important goals with the ones that really matter.

I’m a on Team Goal Setting. My 2011 would not be the same if I didn’t have a system to start and finish my goals.

I knew what it had done for me, but I wanted to find other people who are Team Goal Setting. Where could I find them?

I went to HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and posted my question. This is what I wrote.

I’m working on a post on the power of goal setting. There seems to be a movement where people don’t believe in goal setting. However, I believe in it and want to find others who have consistently used goal setting to achieve their personal and professional goals. How long have you been using goal setting? Why do you believe goal setting works? What are some accomplishments you’ve achieved because of goal setting? If I use your story, I’ll be happy to mention a link to your business or product if you’d like.

I got nearly 50 replies! Way more than I expected. It took so long to sort though them. I couldn’t list every single answer, so I’m sharing eighteen of them.

I really enjoyed reading what they were able to accomplish. Goal setting has helped people start their own business, become a CEO, author books, quit their corporate jobs, travel, work for Playboy and more.

After reading their stories, it convinced me goal setting is a powerful tool for life.

If you want advice on how to do it properly, learn from those who’ve done it with success.

Let’s get started.

I’ve always set goals, but I’ve been extremely proactive about my goal setting in the last year since starting my new health and wellness business (while still working full time!!). I quickly learned to set my goals, create actionable next steps and look at everything “5 at a time;” My 5 most important Goals for the year, my 5 most important goals for the quarter, my 5 most important goals for the month and my 5 most important goals for the day. It sounds tedious, but by breaking it down and only picking the 5 MOST important things for the year, quarter, month and day has helped my business grow hugely and kept me on track.

Goal setting is important because it gives you an outline for your overall “painted picture.” My first step was to create my painted picture which I learned from Cameron Herold, author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less, which is basically the vision of your business. Once you have that, it’s important to set goals to push yourself to reach your painted picture. Goal setting is like a map. Without the map, you can’t get to your end destination.

I started a health and wellness business last summer and it has grown exactly into the business I’ve dreamed it would be. It actually grew faster than I was prepared for, but goal setting will allow me to have my dream job in three short years (the original plan was five) and to leave my corporate job. To me, that’s successful goal setting!

Paula Burton, Founder, Urban Girl Wellness

There is a simple formula for success. You have to decide exactly what it is that you want. You set the goal(s), and write it down, post it up where you’ll see it every day.

Then you make the plan – getting help if/when you need it – write it out. Then you work the plan, staying open to opportunity along the way. Then you have to do what it takes to reach the goal, keeping yourself motivated to be able to persevere through the ups and downs.

It’s simple, but not always easy. And most importantly, realizing that you are already successful as soon as you begin to pursue what it is that you really want. It’s not just the achievement that makes a person a success, it’s in the pursuit of their worthy ideal when the success begins.

Wendy Kay, Life Coach

For the last two years, I’ve sat down at the beginning of each year and set 2-3 goals for that year, as well as one goal to achieve over the next five years. I’ve had huge success with it.

But prior to this, for years I would make a list of many goals or “resolutions” I’d like to achieve. It doesn’t work unless you are focused on just a couple goals and they are truly important to you. If you don’t really care about losing 10 lbs, don’t bother including it.

I keep my goals in an excel spreadsheet and at the end of the year rate my success with each one. I try to revisit them quarterly. Since starting this, I’ve achieved each goal, one of which was a life-long dream of starting my own business. I’m sure that 100% is not sustainable, but I’ll take it for now.

Jordan Linville, Founder of Buzzreferrals.com

There are some important elements in setting goals. Here are a few: You cannot control outcomes-only your choices on productivity and direction. You can set measurable goals. It’s good to identify your brand/direction so you can set appropriate goals and have a target to aim at.

Karen H Whiting, Author and speaker

The reason why some people don’t like goals is that they neglect to have a PURPOSE, which is how you benefit, how you grow and transform and become a better person through the accomplishment.

With a strong purpose, the goal-setting and achieving is fulfilling.

Without purpose, goals can be intimidating. People don’t like to fail. If you don’t set a goal, then you don’t risk failure!

We teach that the only failure is a failure to learn. So, with a purpose, the goal gives you DIRECTION. Goals are very important so that you know where you are going and you also know when you have arrived!

I have accomplished many things from setting goals: writing books, teaching, giving lectures, “breaking in” to the corporate world to bring metaphysics to business people, learning skills such as playing the piano, writing proposals which have been accepted at many conferences.

Without goals, I can do a lot of activity and never get anywhere.

Laurel Clark, President, School of Metaphysics

I attribute a large part of my success to goal setting. The majority of the benefit is in setting high, big, lofty goals for one’s self that seem almost impossible.

If I had not written, lofty goals, I would probably be working in a lab as a chemist instead of having started a successful business selling a product of my own invention or had the opportunity to move back to NC to be closer to my family. That is not to say that being a chemist is at all bad, but I feel I have truly accomplished great things in the past 2 years that have taken me off the traditional career path for a PhD Chemist.

Goal setting works for me because it makes me define my dreams and visions for myself. Setting written goals makes me focus on big goals I have for myself, my business, my family etc.

Sharing written goals with other, like-minded people who will support you is also an important piece because it ads an element of accountability. Setting goals and defining your vision makes you a good leader.

Why would anyone follow someone who doesn’t know where they’re going and what they want?

Katie Hughes, PhD, former chemist turned CEO/Founder, Slip-On Dancers: Dance In Your Running Shoes!

Ever since I started setting goals 18 months ago, I decided to resign from my cushy job in banking to pursue my purpose to coach creative professionals and be involved in philanthropy, I’ve lost almost 15 pounds, and wrote my book Sculpt Your Life From Sketch to Masterpiece which was released a few months ago (also available as a kindle ebook on Amazon).

My 3 biggest tips for setting and achieving goals are:

1. Write your goals down and make sure to review your goals at least once every day
2. Create a Plan for Action of major goals along with deadlines for major tasks
3. Find “accountability partners” for support (mentor, friend, Master Mind group of colleagues, spouse or family members)

Alexandra F. Figueredo, Motivation & Success Coach

Goal setting is key for me as it keeps my eyes on the prize and helps me focus on what needs to get done to accomplish my major and intermediate goals.  When you have a small business, it is easy to keep yourself busy and get bogged down with the administrative aspects of running the business. However that work will get done, taxes will be dealt with, 1099s will get filed, the printer will get fixed. The bottom line is that finding and keeping customers is key for our success.  So while I have a To-Do list that I swear by, the tasks that affect my intermediate goals take priority.

Jen Portland, Founder of Excel Rain Man (Excel outsourcing, customization and education)

I believe goal setting should be taught early and implemented at every age level. Having goals helps you:

1. Identify what you want
2. Visualize (key element of success!)
3. Determine what it’ll take to get there
4. Determine what obstacles will need to be overcome
5. Measure success.

Without goals, in my opinion, you simply wander through life without direction.

Through the use of goal setting and visualization, I obtained the relationship of my dreams, a VP position of a profitable and growing legal service and the salary I wanted, have improved relationships with my family, and truly become the woman I want to be.

Life is short, so why not go after everything you desire?

Sara Schoonover VP of Ticket Kick (Get rid of traffic tickets in California)

I don’t think just setting a goal is good enough. You need a plan and you need action. When you have all three of those components, you’re more likely to achieve your goal. Figure out what you want to achieve through whatever methods you need to use. Set challenging yet attainable goals. Create a plan. How will you make sure you achieve the goals? Accountability works for me. I’m in a mastermind group.

I tell people about my goals, even if its just informally. Also, this year, some of my goals have inspired a handful of my friends to create similar goals, which is cool in and of itself. But that means, we’re all kind of unofficially checking in and seeing how the other person is doing. Knowing that someone is going to ask gives you that extra nudge to get things done.

Also helpful for me is writing the goals down in some sort of tracker. For a while, I was using the “Get Clients Now” tracker for business goals. Recently a friend gave me a Zig Ziglar inspired journal that I have to track my top goals in every day. Things like that help me stay focused.

[Through goal setting] I got a job. I traveled more in one year than I ever have before. I attended a slew of concerts, which was really terrific for me, because I’m passionate about music. I made a group of great new friends. I produced my first one-day conference, and I coordinated some of the largest networking events in Los Angeles. It’s pretty exhilarating to look back and think about all of those things.

Alaia Williams, Founder One Organized Business

Hello, I have used goals since I was 19 years old, you see I was convicted of a felony when i was 17 (1992) and was pretty much told I would never amount to anything.

However, by using goals I have been able to graduate with three degrees (no one in my family has a college education), I have been able to travel, my jobs have always been based through goals I wanted to achieve, and I have faced many fears also like skydiving and flying.

Now to top it all, I have opened my first small business and I have just finished a manuscript that I’m looking to have published.

Goal setting gives you a direction to go, a timeline to aim for and a prospective on what you might want your life to look like. The key is to realize that a goal need to be flexible, for example I wanted to have my manuscript completed on the 1st of January 2012, but I hope to have the last edit done actually this week now, its OK to be a little behind.

Lance Dzintars-Member, owner of Zaria & Bella’s a small gift and collectibles shop

I have been using goal setting for the last ten years quite successfully! Goal setting works because it causes us to focus in on what’s important in our lives and to look towards the life we want and who we want to be. We are all perfect just the way we are but we all have limitless potential that just remains untapped if we don’t strive to better ourselves.

Through goal setting I have lost over 90lbs, started a business, finished university and even ran a half-marathon.

Therese Lean, Personal health coach & goal-setting maven

I work with women to help them to launch or expand their business. I can’t imagine them not having goals. If you don’t know where you are going you will waste a tremendous amount of time and get nothing done.

I do find that people make “lists”. Perhaps the people who are against goal setting are thinking that a list is a goal?

I work with my ladies to have them develop lists that move their business forward. Just doing tactic list won’t get them very far. I also work with them to develop a vision statement. This helps them to think big and really have a clear set of goals.

Kathy McShane, http://ladieswholaunch.com/southwestct

I have used goal-setting in virtually everything I’ve done since the age of 14 (I’m now 37). Every major success that is “big” has come
from properly setting goals. Some of these accomplishments are:

Athletics – At age 14, I used goal-setting to accomplish my goal of becoming one of the best tennis players in the country scholastically, attending a major university for tennis, and then becoming an ATP Tour tennis professional with a world ranking.

Executive/Business – I used goal-setting to become and thrive at Playboy Enterprises, and then again when I became the Chief Marketing Officer for one of the largest online marketing companies in the world. I’ve just set a bunch of goals recently now, too, because I just launched my own marketing agency.

Author – It had always been a goal of mine to publish. I used goal-setting to get that done, and even wrote a whole chapter about it in The Greatness Gap.

Goal-setting works, quite simply, because it focuses you and keeps you on track. It also works because I happen to use a bunch of short-term goals, which gives me several benchmarks along the way to my long-term goal.

Mike Sprouse, President & CEO, Sprouse Marketing Group, Author of The Greatness Gap and Marketing Muscle

In the fall of 2008 I decided to pursue my jewelry businesses. I had been making jewelry since I was young, but wanted to take it to the next level. Everyone told me how difficult this was going to be, and reminded me how awful my timing was, since it was the start of the recession, so I knew I would have to be incredibly strategic, and that included mapping out all of my goals. My ultimate goal, to sell stock to stores, I knew wasn’t the easiest thing, so I broke those goals down into smaller, more attainable goals, and within 3 weeks I had 3 stores!

It’s of course grown and grown from there, but the biggest lesson I learned when it came to my goals was to break them down into more digestible morsels, and they were that much more attainable.

I’ve always used goal setting, and I believe it works because it creates focus and helps with visualizing the end result. But, like I said, I believe taking each goal and breaking it down into smaller, more attainable ones.

Liza Jayne, Founder of Liza Jayne Jewelry

I too believe in Goal Setting! I am a Personal Trainer, Club Owner, NLP practitioner etc and this request is right up my alley.

In January many decide to join a gym. But research shows that more than half the people will not make it to swimsuit season. Why? Because their goal was to join a gym, and once they signed up- they met their goal!

The clients I have seen get the best results spend time creating pictures of a new result. They write down their goals and they monitor what they are thinking about. They are the director of their own movie- the trick is to formulate, imagine and practice what this looks and feels like. Then, and not until then (at least long term) will the person take the appropriate actions to get there.

Marc Lebert, Founder of Lebert Fitness

I actually formed a goal group while I was in the corporate world and currently have a Mastermind Group for my current business. I talk about the importance of balance and setting goals with a “balance wheel” technique when I do my public speaking workshops for adults.

I have seen the results [from goal setting]. There is the saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” If you are not clear on what is important, or what it is you need to focus on, it will be very easy to be pulled in many different directions and become totally out of balance.

[What are some accomplishments you've achieved because of goal setting?]
1. I became the author of an award-winning children’s book.
2. I started my own company.
3. I travelled to Africa and went on a safari.
4. I have taken time out to focus on my health and put myself first to keep that balance.
5. Raised fund in my Climb for a Cause . Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro this past summer with the goal of raising $5,895 for Sharing to Learn. I reached 88% of my goal which was $5,185. Although the actual goal itself was not reached, I am happy with the results that occurred.
6. My goal was to “Make a difference, not just a living”. I have raised over $20,000 through the sales of my books to worthy causes. I have had teachers say that “Susanne is a true ambassador of goodwill.”

Susanne Alexander-Heaton, CEO, Motivated by Nature

The longest goal I have set was five years. I became financially free at 33.  I was just three months off my target date. But had I not made, reviewed, adjusted and kept diligent track of that goal there is NO way I would have achieved it.

A goal is just like a road map (or GPS): without your course clearly defined you’ll wander around and maybe never to where you want to be. Alternatively, you can accurately write down your goals thoughtfully, decide how to best reach them, and have an extremely high probability of reaching your goals.

I believe the better you know your target, the easier it will be to hit it. That is why I hone in on the ‘how’ we are planning on reaching our goals. Once we do that, we can then determine a realistic time-frame on achieving them.   Our personal goals are a lot like a business plan for companies: what are you going to do? When? If it doesn’t work out what’s Plan B?

When I consult with people and businesses about goals the biggest regret I hear is, “I wish I had started soon!”

BIG TIPS TO SUCCESS: Write out your TOP 5 goals on the back of a check in past tense; make the check payable to you dated 1 year from now; say those goals out loud five times a day.  Because most of my coaching students goal involve creating wealth, the check should be for five times their current yearly income.

An Accountability Partner: to really bend the nail in wall and make this work say the goals to someone as often as you can. And once you’ve hit your target once, you’ll find it’s a lot easier to hit it again and again and again.   What I have seen recently is because goal setting has falling out of favor some look to a ‘quick fix’ to get then where they want to be. It’s not surprising that were they NEED to be is spending the time wood-shedding their goals. I recommend unplug from everything and everyone daily for just 15 minutes to look deep at where you want to get; how you’re going to get there and what’s stopping  you right now from getting there.

Ya, its work. But so is a life of frustration because you know you’re better than what you’re getting.

Scott A. FladHammer, Personal Real Estate Coaching

Everyone has goals; just some are on purpose, a plan, are written down and have a completion date.

Other people’s goals may or may not include lunch.

I believe goal setting works simply because humans are wired to be goal setters. Watch a baby learn to walk or learn to talk they do it until they get it right because they want something, food, a toy, whatever the goal is at the moment.

Kids are natural goal setters.ask them what they want to be when they grow up and they’ll tell you, in great detail, exactly how they are going to be a firefighting police officer scientist president one day.

Goals allowed me to work with my wife from home in our own business, raise our kids together and amply provide for my family. That was probably my greatest goal and I accomplished the first step 18 years ago.

Everything else I’ve accomplished pales in comparison to the joy of being able to be with my family without being a slave to a corporation.

Goals don’t have to be about curing cancer or going to the moon, they need to be about you creating the life you want.

Michael Bremmer, CEO, Telecom Quotes

Use their stories to help you in 2012

I know many of you have big goals for 2012, and I hope reading their stories have given you some tips to finish those goals! Learn from those who have done it and have gotten results.

Starting is easy. Everyone does that. It’s getting through the rest and finishing that’s the toughest.

Haven’t written down any goals yet? It’s never too late to start.

Your turn!

How are your 2012 goals going so far?

Do you have any advice for others about achieving your goals?

In your experience, what’s the hardest part about goal achieving?

P.S. Want to know how I achieved my goals?

If you want to learn more about a system to help you start and achieve goals, my goal setting course starts soon.

Don’t want to miss out on it? The first class will only be for subscribers to my mailing list. Sign up below and you’ll get some content only for subscribers as well.

Photo by JD Hancock

We love a great underdog story. Who doesn’t? Someone comes from against all odds and defies everything logical.

Many don’t give them hope, but they know something that we don’t.

We read those stories and it inspires us to the bone. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do, I truly believe reading stories of the underdogs gives you that push when you need it.

I love sports and the underdog stories that come out of it. Sports are still the best reality show on television. Hollywood couldn’t write it some of the unbelievable stories.

Last football season, there was Tim Tebow. Though he succeeded and won championships in high school, and college, many experts doubted he could succeed in the NFL. He couldn’t throw. He wasn’t a typical NFL quarterback.

Last season he took a 1-4 Denver team and took them to the playoffs. He was THE story in the NFL last season. Even Tebowing became a worlwide sensation.

Now in the NBA there is someone doing things no one could have imagined. You may not follow the NBA, but his story will definitely inspire you.

Jeremy Lin has taken the NBA by surprise in just one week. He went from sleeping on couches to having NBA players, celebrities, the media all talking about him. His story has truly been that insane. He’s gone from 70,000 to 199,314  Twitter followers in three days.

If you follow sports, then you know he’s the best story to come out of sports this year. If not, you’ll appreciate his story.

He’s the first American born Chinese player in the NBA. As a Chinese-American, I’m so excited for his success, but his story is inspiring for any race.

Before February 4th, he was sleeping on couches. His status as a professional basketball player was up in the air. Now? There’s one word to describe it: Linsanity.

From the beginning

His parents are from Taiwan. In Taiwan, they focus on academics over athletics, but his dad watched some basketball on TV and immediately fell in love with it.

He wanted to come to the US for two reasons: to finish his Ph.D and watch NBA basketball.

His first job in Los Angeles was long and hard so he wanted a way to relieve some stress. Basketball seemed like a great way.

There was one problem. He had never picked up a basketball before! He studied NBA players like he was studying for an exam. He emulated them.

It took years before he was comfortable playing a pickup game.

Later when he had three boys, he taught them the basics. He was their first basketball coach.

In high school, despite being a great player, Jeremy Lin was ridiculed for being Asian. Asians just don’t belong on the basketball court. By his senior year, he won the respect of those same people. Jeremy led his high school to a state championship.

Despite being the best player in California by many publications, he didn’t receive a single Division 1 scholarship offer.

Did race play a factor? He believes so.

Harvard offered him the chance to play, but offered no athletic scholarship. He jumped at the chance to play Division 1 basketball.

He excelled on the court, leading Harvard to new basketball heights. Yet he wasn’t drafted by any NBA team. Harvard just doesn’t produce many NBA players. There have been only four and none since 1954.

Jeremy Lin gets a shot at his dream…kinda

His hometown team, the Golden State Warriors signed him as a free agent in 2010. He barely played and only averaged 2.6 points a game, but cheered loudly by the Asian community every time he played. He was sent to the minor league a few times to work on his game.

It never worked out and he was released just after one season. The Houston Rockets signed him in the preseason this year and then released before the season began.

He was becoming another journeyman NBA basketball player. Two teams in less than two seasons.

He wanted to not just be on a team and sit at the end of the bench, but part of the mix.

He never lost his belief in his abilities.

From couch to savior for the New York Knicks

The Knicks command a lot of attention in New York. It’s the Big Apple! Madison Square Garden is one of the most legendary arenas for basketball.

They’ve tried to put together an championship team since 1973. They have a lineup that looks great on paper. They have two superstars that make a combined $38 million this year, but came into February 4th losing 11 out of 13 games.

Jeremy Lin signed with the Knicks on December 27th. They had injuries and needed someone to be the third string point guard. He played sparingly in a few games, and then sent to the minor leagues again. He was played so well there, they recalled him just after one game.

With the team still struggling, the coach gave him a chance to play serious minutes on February 4th. Why not? They couldn’t be doing worse.

For Jeremy, this was his chance to seize the opportunity. He was playing for his NBA career (explanation later). To everyone’s surprise, he scored 25 points and the team won.

Was this just a fluke? No matter. The coach started him the next game. Then he started the next and the next. How did he do?

25 points, 7 assists and the win
28 points, 8 assists and the win
23 points, 10 assists and the win

This was without their best two players. Jeremy became THE best player on the team and made others play even better.

He was becoming the biggest superstar in a city that has many of them already. He went from a nobody to having the home fans were chanting M-V-P.

The coach said he had never seen anything like it before. That’s what everyone else was saying too.

Jeremy Lin vs Kobe Bryant

Then it was the real test again Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Just two seasons ago they won the NBA championship. The Knicks beat mediocre teams before, but now they were facing one of the best.

All the pressure would definitely get to him, right? Kobe Bryant would show this kid this was all pure luck.

Instead, Jeremy played the best game of his career.

He silenced all the doubters by scoring 38 point with seven assists! They dominated the Lakers 92-85.

Jeremy scored the most points in his first three starts than any other player since the NBA/ABA merger. More than Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Kobe Bryant. Amazing.

His legend was growing by the game.

Linsanity really took off now. NBA players around the league were tweeting about his success. Players looking for a chance like him were inspired by what he had done. The media couldn’t get enough of his story.

Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson said, “The excitement [Lin] has caused in [Madison Square] Garden, man, I hadn’t seen that in a long time.”

Kobe Bryant said after the game, “If you can go back and look, his skill level was probably there from the beginning, but no one ever noticed. It’s a testament to perseverance and hard work. It is a good example to kids everywhere.”

How about the Houston Rockets who signed him but cut him in the preseason? The general manager admitted he made a mistake.

He’s given hope to a team that looked in bad shape. He was giving hope to a city desperate for a basketball hero.

He wasn’t even guaranteed to stick around. After the second game was the deadline to cut him and not have to guarantee the rest of his contract.

In fact, ESPN reported that the team was leaning towards letting him go before his breakout game. They had until Feb 6th to release him without having to pay the remainder of his $788,000 contract. They even were looking for his replacement. That’s why the coach gave him a chance to play. They had to evaluate him. That’s why he was playing for his career.

After his second start, and their third straight win, they guaranteed his contract.

Before he was sleeping on his brother’s couch. You can never be too sure when you’re playing for your contract, but now can afford a place of his own.

An undrafted player cut by two teams in only his second year isn’t supposed to do this. Harvard doesn’t produced NBA stars.

He’s defied all expectations. He probably couldn’t pay for his own meal in New York City if he wanted to.

His teammates talk about how this is the most fun they’ve had.

His jersey sold out in the arena. Television ratings in New York City are up. He’s getting tons of coverage in China and Taiwan, both who are crazy about the NBA.

Thus far, they’ve won six games in a row. His last name Lin, is being made into new words such as Linspirational, Linspiring, Linning, Lincredicble.

It’s a true underdog story that we can all appreciate.

Five lessons you can can learn from Jeremy Lin

• Beyond his stats and the wins, he’s given so many out there hope. Hope that what they’re doing now will mean something in the future. Hope that others will achieve their dreams despite setbacks they have faced.
• He didn’t let setbacks stop himself from working hard and waiting for that opportunity. His success the past week didn’t happen overnight. He excelled at every level through his hard work.
• If he would have listened to those who doubted him, he would have given up his dream at playing basketball.
• Despite the whirlwind media attention, he’s remained so humble after the game. He’s a team player first and foremost.
• Finally, believe in yourself when no one else does.

Your turn

Have you overcome seemingly impossible odds and beat expectations to do something?

What are some great underdog stories you love?

Photo by Geekwhatdesign.com and Kev Gilmour

Think about taking small but consistent action

Did you start this year with big ambitions? Did you set big goals for yourself? This is going to be your year right?

That’s great and I hope you achieve what you are looking for. I just hope you’re not taking the wrong approach.

You may think that your life needs to take massive steps every once in awhile for everything to be better. You try really hard for a month, but don’t see results. You think what you’re doing isn’t working. However that’s the wrong attitude.

It’s the small choices done repeatedly over time that will have the biggest factor in your outcome. 

These small choices result in unnoticeable changes by your or others. Reading ten pages of a business book a day isn’t going to make a big change, right? How about saying no to a can of Coke?

Making small gradual changes goes again the instant result culture we’re accustomed to. Just as we microwave our meals to be ready quickly, we want to lose 20 pounds in just a week, and make thousands of dollars after a month of trying.

Many don’t contribute to their IRA because they’d rather use the money now. Plus it doesn’t seem like it makes much money anyways.

So these small choices don’t offer a huge difference and obvious change so why even bother?

Because one day those small choices are going to lead to massive results.

Take a penny or $3 million?

Darren Hardy, in the Compound Effect, shows how this works.

You are offered two choices. Would you take $3 million in cash right now or a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days? You may have heard this before and know that taking the penny will result in more money in the end. So why is it hard to believe?

Because it takes longer to see the result.

Let’s say you take $3 million in cash. I take the penny. After a seven days I have sixty-four cents. You have $3 million and looking at a new car. Me? I can’t even buy a can of Coke.

After 14 days I have $81.92 while you’re planning a vacation to Hawaii.

After 20 days I have only $5,243. You still have $3 million. We’re still so far apart. I look like the fool.

Then the magic starts to happen. On day twenty-nine, you’ve got $3 million while I have $2.7 million. On day thirty I’ll have $5.4 million. On the final day of the month long wait, I will have exactly $10,737,418.24!

Most people would take the instant $3 million. Even compounding a penny doesn’t seem like it’ll amount to much after thirty-one days.

That’s what Darren Hardy calls the Compound Effect and it can have a huge impact on your life.

It can work for you or against you though.

Does a Coke a day make a difference?

If we both ate the same thing and did the same amount of physical activity, but you drank one can of Coke a day and I didn’t, how would it look after just one year?

You would gain 14.6 pounds in a year. That’s 73 pounds in five years!

Doesn’t seem like much day-to-day right? It’s just a can of Coke.

If I subtracted 140 calories a day (equivalent to a can of Coke) in a year, I’d lose 14.6 pounds. We’d be 29.6 pounds apart in one year! In five years that would be 146 pounds!

Just think about how easy it is to add or subtract just 140 calories a day. That’s not just a can of Coke. That could be a couple Oreo cookies or an extra serving of mashed potatoes. It’s so easy, and we hardly notice in the short term. In the long term, it adds up.

The story of MJ Demarco

MJ Demarco saw a Lamborghini when he was a teenager and it changed everything in his life. The young owner of the car was an inventor. MJ couldn’t sing, act, or play sports, but knew that day he could get rich without fame or physical talent.

From high school through college, he studied successful millionaires to find their secret. He wanted to become young and rich. He didn’t want to be rich by working at a job until he was 65 and then retiring to finally enjoy his money.

After college, MJ had friends who were getting great, but typical jobs. Training to be a manager or selling insurance wasn’t what he envisioned. He didn’t want the safe job. He decided to keep working on starting his own business.

He kept failing and had to take crappy jobs to just pay the bills. He said he even prostituted himself to an older woman to pay for his best friend’s wedding gift.

Meanwhile his friends were getting raises and moving up the corporate ladder. They had their cars and homes and lived the typical post college life.

Just like the penny example, his friends seem so much better off than MJ. He should have taken a safe job right out of college, right?

At 26, he fell into depression. To cope, he escaped into the lives of millionaires by reading their books and other rags-to-riches stories. He drove a limo and would read everything from finance to internet programming while waiting for clients.

That penny kept compounding for him, even though it didn’t seem like it.

He decided to move away from the cold dreary Chicago winters to sunny Phoenix. He had to change his environment. He arrived poor but feeling rich. He was in control of his life.

He created a website based on an unsolved need he encountered when he was a limo driver. He lived in Chicago, but if he needed a limo in New York, where would he go to find it? His website would solve this problem.

He marketed his website like crazy. He got an unexpected offer from a company to design their website. That wasn’t his goal, but he agreed for $400 and did it in a day. In less than 24 hours, he had another call from a company wanting the same thing. This time he did it for $600 and it took him two days.

At that time, $1,000 was like winning the lottery to him.

Do you see the penny start to show some results?

Though he started making money in web design, that was not his main focus. His limo web directory was. He was getting traffic, but needed to turn it into money.

His days were long and hard. 60 hour workweeks were common. While his friends were out partying, he was working at home.

It paid off. His clients were telling him how much their business increased because of him.

In 2000, he sold his company for $1.2 million. After taxes, bad investments, and spending, he had less than $300,000 left.

After the tech bubble burst and his buyers made poor decisions with the direction of the company, he bought his website back at $250,000 just a year after selling it.

The next 18 months, he decided to work harder and make the income more passive. This is when that single penny started to show massive results.

When things started to click for him, he was making $200,000 a month and $100,000 on a BAD month from his website.

He was making millions a year and loving it.

In 2007, he decided to retire and sold his company for $4.5 million to work on other passions.

Can you see how his actions and choices didn’t seem like much at the time? In fact, his life looked horrible. Everyone thought he was crazy. His mom would constantly remind him to get a real job (she once suggested deli manager).

He tried and failed. He read as much as he could. He studied self-made millionaires.

He had no visible positive results for his efforts early on, but he kept taking small steps repeatedly over time that kept moving him towards his goal.

He wrote a great book called, The Millionaire Fastlane that tells his story and teaches others how. I just started to read it, but I know it’s going to be great.

Try and do five things a day

I hope I’ve shown you no matter what you’re trying to achieve, small choices done repeatedly over time have a huge impact on your success. 

It’s hard to have that mindset because we lack patience! We want it now. Who wants to wait months or years for success?

Think about anything you’ve achieved, you’ve probably reached that point through a series of small steps done consistently. It was far from an overnight success.

Jack Canfield suggests doing five things a day towards achieving your goal. Just five things. Can you do just five a day? I believe so. If you can’t, you’re not serious enough about it. Overtime, it adds up.

Remember you’re not going to see visible results for awhile, but that doesn’t mean what you’re doing isn’t working.

Just think of that penny working its magic.

Looking to achieve your goals and change your life?

I’m starting a course soon on goal setting, which teaches you the proper way to set and achieve your goals. Writing down your goals is easy, but seeing it till the end is where most fail. It’s going to feature videos, worksheets, and a forum to connect with like-minded people.

This is for those looking to learn what it’ll really take to achieve your goals. It’s those who want to be in the top 1%. I’ll give you a plan to help you. Stay tuned for it.

Photo by Dermot O’ Halloran

Every blogger starts from the same line. Those who don't quit get rewarded.

In my last post, I talked about ways to grow your blog, but after I hit publish, I realized I left out those who don’t have a blog yet.

When I started blogging, I didn’t know the great benefits that would come out of it. I just knew I wanted to have a blog that mattered.

Today’s post, I’ll cover some of the rewards you can get from blogging. Some I’ve experienced already and others I’ve seen happen.

You might be interested in blogging, but need that last push to get started. You might see bloggers having fun and you want to experience it.

If you were on the fence about blogging, I hope I’ll have you convinced afterwards.

1. You will meet a variety of great people. 

Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gotten to know some awesome people online. Not only do I love what they write and what they’re doing, but I love getting to know them.

When I went to Las Vegas to get married, a blogger I’ve gotten to know, Steve Roy from Ending the Grind was out there at the same time. We set up a time to meet and we literally just walked around the Wynn/Encore casino and talked.

Just last week in Taipei, I met Matthew Hooper, who I met through Twitter one day when I first started and got to know him throughout the year. We just happen to be back visiting Taipei at the same time. Matt, a Canadian, actually lived in Taipei for eight years and met his wife here. Plus he worked with Eleanor at a language school many years ago. Small world!!

I know I’ll meet more in person in the near future.

I’ve read stories of people who’ve attended Blog World or World Domination Summit and finally met long time blogging friends, and made new ones.

You know what I’ve found too? Bloggers are some of the nicest people out there.

If you want to know how to reach out to bloggers, read Adrienne Smith’s post about how to do it.

2. Blogging is a great creative outlet

A blog is like a blank canvas. It’s up to your imagination how you want it to look. It could look like a Jackson Pollack if you wanted it to (not recommended).

When customizing my Standard Theme, I spent countless hours on it. I probably could have spent more if I didn’t stop myself. I enjoyed every creative minute of it.

Writing is obviously a great creative outlet. You take a bunch of ideas and make it into something that evokes an emotion in readers.

People have different ways to unleash their creativity, and right now blogging is my favorite way.

3. It can lead to publishing a book

It does seem like some bloggers would love to publish a book. With a blog, if you’ve built up a huge audience you, that could help in your book proposal. Even if you don’t go the traditional route, you could self publish on the Kindle, which many are doing today.

Pamela Slim has a book called Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur (great book), which started out as a blog by the same name. She didn’t start the blog with the intention of writing a book, but later was approached to write a book on her expertise.

Another blog to book is 1000 Awesome Things, by Neil Patel.

Neil started posting awesome things every weekday, got a book deal, and it turned into a New York Times #1 bestseller.

There is a blog called Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander. He says it’s about “a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like. They are pretty predictable.”

He got a book deal after three months (wow) and it turned into a New York Times bestseller, aptly called Stuff White People Like and now Whiter Shades of Pale.

Jenny Blake, another blog to book blogger (say that five times fast), wrote a guest post on the pros and cons of it. Great for those interested in publishing.

If you’re looking to publish your first book this year, Chris Guillibeau has a guide to teaches you how to write, sell, and publish your book (aff link).

4. It can make you money

A blogger can earn pennies or six figures a month. If you become an authority in your area, you could offer coaching, consulting, sell products, promote products, or have advertising.

Many blogs don’t make that much money, but you can make something from it. It might not be much, but it’s not bad writing on a topic you’re passionate about.

Any topic could eventually lead to earning income. Overheard in New York posts overheard comments and conversations from anonymous New Yorkers. The site earned an estimated $8,100 each month (figure from 2007) and a book was published.

Perez Hitlon started blogging about celebrities and now attracts four million unique visits each day. Ad revenue for the site is estimated at $111,000 a month!

I could keep naming blogs in different areas that make money.

I just want to say that just having a blog doesn’t mean you’ll make money. However, the potential is out there.

5. You can make a difference

The first thing that comes to mind is using your blog as a way to raise money for a charity.

Tim Ferris does it often on his blog.

Last year after the Japan earthquake and tsunami, I saw tweets about a fundraiser organized by Lavonne Ellis. A donation gave you a bunch of products donated by bloggers to help your blog and business grow. Plus you were entered in a drawing for some premium products and services.

I just read they raised $5,385 plus got a matching grant to double the amount! It’s really cool that a bunch of bloggers did that.

It doesn’t just have to be amount money. You can bring attention about issues in your community, nation, or the world. You can make a difference in many ways through your blog.

6. It can give you a voice

A blog lets you be heard. The blog is your platform. You can share whatever you want with your readers. You can share your opinion. You can teach. You can inspire. You can inform.

The important thing is it’s coming from you. You have a voice.

7. You can help people

If you’ve gone through a particular life experience, you can start a blog on that topic to help others going through the same thing.

It could be anything from helping guys pick up girls to surviving depression to growing a garden. The possibilities are endless what you could write that would help people.

8. It could lead to some unexpected opportunities

I remember when I ran a sports blog for two years, I got a surprising e-mail from Sprint to test out their new phone for six months for free. I got unlimited calling, could watch NFL games on it, unlimited ringtones and game downloads. All I had to do was blog about it once and give them feedback. Of course I said yes!

I’ve read bloggers get invited on trips by companies wanting exposure for their products. Some bloggers receive products to review and get to keep.

You could land a movie role. Pat Flynn, through a podcast on his blog, got asked to be a social media consultant on a film. As part of the deal, he asked to be an extra in the movie. They said yes.

Kimberly Snyder spent years learning about better eating for health and beauty. She started a blog on that topic and got picked up by the press. Celebrities found out and hired her. Now she is a highly sought after nutritionist for many of the entertainment industry’s top celebrities and author of the best-selling book, The Beauty Detox Solution.

9. You can be an authority

If you do things right and long enough, you could be an authority in your niche.

• Pat Flynn has become a go to person for online passive income .
• Darren Rowse is an authority on blogging.
• Chris Guillebeau is an authority on nonconformity and travel hacking.
• Brian Kelly is an authority on maximizing travel rewards.
• Chris Ducker is an authority on hiring virtual assistants.
• Matt Fraizer is an authority on being a vegan and an athlete.

You could become an expert on any topic that you can possibly think of. The great thing is you don’t even need to be an expert when you begin blogging. You become one over time.

10. You’ll improve your writing

In order to be a better writer, you should write more.

I hated English class my senior year in high school. I barely read the novels and didn’t like writing essasy. So I never thought I was a good writer.

As I got older, I found an itch to write. However, I didn’t have much confidence in my writing. I didn’t think I sucked, but I knew I wasn’t that great.

Having a blog and writing on a consistent basis gets you to write more. I’ve written so much in the past year and lots of it not worthy of publishing. That’s okay because it still allows me to work on being a better writer.

Learn to Start a Blog the Right Way in 2012

If you’re looking to start a blog this year, a course I’d recommend for any beginning blogger is How to Start a Blog that Matters (affiliate link) by Corbett Barr.

The program is a 90-day step-by-step action plan you can follow to create a blog that matters. It includes 13 weekly lessons, 4 special bonuses and over 8 hours of instructional video.

You could learn by reading all the free information online. However, Corbett has three successful blogs and the course saves you hours and hours by only teaching you the topics that matter.

There’s also a great guarantee for the course. If you go through the course and don’t get the results you want, he’ll personally coach you one-on-one for free. Great offer since he doesn’t do coaching anymore.

Learn more about the course and sign up today.

Sound like fun?

If you’re thinking about starting, or just recently started, I hope I’ve shown some great rewards from blogging. It takes a lot of time, commitment, and hard work if you really want to get massive benefits from it. The ones I mentioned above have spent years to get to where they are.

However they have one thing in common, they were all beginners just like you.

So if they can do it, you can too.

Blogging has been a life changer for me and I’d still blog even if I won the lottery. I’m having that much fun.

I want the same for you. So don’t wait any longer. Get started.

For current bloggers, what are your favorite things about blogging?

Do you have another reason someone should start blogging?

Photo by tableatny

I’m in Taipei, Taiwan now still recovering from jet lag. How do I know I still have jet lag? Every day I wake up around 7:30am wide awake! Back at home, that never happens. I actually enjoy it though. More jet lag for me please.

Taipei is a place close to my heart. I was born in Florida, but shortly after we came back here to live for a couple years. Starting in 2007, I lived here for 1.5 years studying Chinese and just looking to get away from my boring life back at home. I left with here so many unforgettable memories.

I also met a girl, who ended up being my wife.

The last time I came was last year February – April, and this time coming back brought back lots of memories for this blog. Why?

I started this blog, Get Busy Living,  in Taipei.  

It all happened in the second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, in the food court. Unusual I know.

I had the domain for years, but it wasn’t until my time in Taipei that I really got serious about blogging and knew what I wanted to write about.

I’ll explain why the food court played such an important role.

Later, I’ll share how I’ve grown this blog from nothing to how you see it today. I get asked all the time about it, though I still feel I have so much to learn. However, I know I’ve done something right if people are asking.

I hope my experience can help many of you are looking to start a blog, or grow you blog in 2012. At the end, there’s a great new course for those looking for further help.

Started in February 2011

Last year when I came for two months, Eleanor was working four days a week at a bookstore called Page One, in Taipei 101.

It’s the centerpiece of Taipei. It’s a must stop for any tourist visiting Taipei. It’s probably my favorite building in the whole world. Every year it has some pretty cool fireworks on New Year’s Eve (Youtube).

The building is mainly used for office space but there are five floor of shops.

When she came to work, I came with her. I wasn’t going to stay at home. That’s too boring!

So what did I do while she worked? I’d go down to the first floor where the massive food court is located.

I love the food courts in Taipei. They’re nicer and cleaner than your typical American mall food court. There is a huge selection of Asian food with some American imports such as Subway, McDonald’s, and Cold Stone.

It’s pretty comfortable down there with lots of lighting and tables. The food court became my office for those two months.

I’d bring my iPad and wireless keyboard. I’d start at 11am and it’d be quiet except for employees getting ready for the lunch rush.

By 12pm, the place would be buzzing with office workers, tourists, locals, and shoppers all eating. I’d stay there until about 12:30pm, then would go upstairs and read books waiting for Eleanor’s lunch break at 1pm.

Then afterwards, she’d go back to work and I’d stay there until 6pm when she got off of work.

That was my schedule four days a week for nearly two months.

I liked working down there. The noise didn’t bother me. It actually energized me. Every time I’d sit right by the Coldstone, which wasn’t smart cause I’d stare at it all the time, however I preferred the tables in that area.

That’s where I began to immerse myself learning everything I could about blogging and took action. 

Before I know it, it’s almost been a year and I’m writing a post sharing my tips. It didn’t happen overnight. I started in that food court and I continued that same commitment to learning and improving when I came back home.

Why do we want a blog that matters?

I often get emails asking me how I’ve grown my blog. They want more comments. They want to increase their traffic. They want to make an impact. They have something to say and want people to read it.

Isn’t that why we want comments, retweets, Facebook Likes, and more? We want validation that what we’re producing matters. We want to be recognized for what we enjoy doing.

A blog that matters has true fans. Readers who read everything, leave comments, share your posts, buy your products and are with you every step of the way.

If a blog had 1,000 hits, but no one was around leaving comments, sharing the content, or talking with you, would it make a sound? Does it make it a blog that matters? I don’t think so.

Personally, I’d rather have 100 true fans than a 1000 quiet ones.

Maybe you want a blog that matters to:

• Build a business
• Launch a writing career
• Be an authority in your niche
• Make friends around the world
• Start a movement

Do I have a blog that matters? Only you can answer that for me.

What I do know is that in just a year I’ve found a space where I feel comfortable. I’ve attracted a great community (thank you) and like the direction I’m headed in.

Am I still working to be better? Definitely.

However, I can share with you how I’ve grown my blog since day one. These aren’t the only way. It’s just what I’ve done.

How to Build a Blog that Matters

1. Write epic shit

Without this, the rest won’t matter. The rest will be meaningless. So it’s important to put it first.

If you write content that’s ho-hum, middle of the road, and stale on a consistent basis, you’re not going to have a blog that matters. I’m not trying to be harsh. Just realistic since thousands of blogs are started each day.

Corbett Barr, at Thinktraffic.net, wrote awhile back about writing epic shit (read it if you haven’t). Epic shit creates value. It inspires. Those are the posts that leave a lasting impression. They get the most shares and comments. Those are the posts that people still read a year after you’ve written it. It’s the ones that go viral. It puts you on the map.

They are the ones that you spend the most time on. It’s the ones that give you the most reward afterwards.

Not every post we write is going to be one-of-a-kind epic. We still need to keep a high level though and create posts on a mini-epic level.

How can you find out what’s epic? One way is to go to people’s blog and look at their most popular posts. For my blog, you can see it in my sidebar.

Then don’t copy blatantly, but borrow their format. Corbett Barr did a post called 33 Things I Have Never Told You. It was one of his most popular posts. Since then many have borrowed the format and wrote it on their own blog.

I remember a homework assignment when I was a part of a course with Adam Baker (Man vs. Debt) and Corbett. They said to write a post by borrowing a format from someone’s popular posts.

Since my birthday was approaching, I did a post similar to Adam’s life lessons posts. I called mine 34 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 34 Years.

How did it do? 100 retweets, 176 Likes on Facebook, and 115 comments, including my replies.

That post came just five months after I started my blog. Was I excited? You bet I was!

Roundup posts can be popular as well. My roundup post with 40 bloggers is still my second most popular post. To be honest, I’m shocked. It got lots of views and shares when it came out last summer, but to still be sitting at the second spot is surprising.

I forgot how many hours I spent on it, but I know I worked overtime on that post. It paid off.

Lists posts are always recommended. Posts where you teach something so useful are great as well.

Posts talking about your experiences and lessons learned from it can be epic. My most popular post, My $4,739 Weekend and 11 Lessons To Help You, went totally crazy for me. That post was a huge turning point on this blog.

Without great content, you’re not going to have a blog that matters. If you want your blog to grow fast, find ways to write epic content.

It’s what’s going to keep people coming back and bringing in new fans.

2. Have a nice blog design

If you’re single and serious about meeting new guys or girls, take the time to dress right. If you go to a crowded bar wearing the same clothes you wore while pulling weeds, no one is going to think “Hey I really want to get to know this person!” They’re going to think “Bye bye” before you even open your mouth.

Your blog is the same way. If you want new readers to stick around longer than a few seconds, make your blog look nice.

What’s a bad design? Bad color combinations, busy sidebar, too many ads, things not aligned, things flashing, and a bad looking header to name some.

You don’t need a $1000 custom designed blog either. The beauty of WordPress is that there are so many great free looking themes. I spent hours looking at free themes before deciding which one I wanted.

In the end I decided on a free theme by Thrilling Heroics. Loved it.

Even premium themes out of the box look pretty great. I use the Standard Theme now, which I customized, but John Saddington, the creator of the theme uses it without customization and he’s got a blog that matters and now blogs full time.

Make your blog design so that when someone comes to your blog, it doesn’t scare them away. Simple is so much better, especially when you’re just starting.

Think about your favorite blogs. They all probably have a great design now, but I bet when they started, they started with a simple clean theme.

3. Leave comments 

I didn’t say leave comments and get tons of traffic. I never started commenting with the hopes of getting tons of traffic. I still haven’t seen a single comment I left that has done that.

When I started, I left comments to get myself and my blog noticed. I aimed to do it one blogger at a time. But I didn’t ask them to check out my blog in the comment. I left a genuine comment about their post. I left it up to them if they chose to come to my blog.

Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes it happened after my first comment or my tenth.

When no one knows about your blog, leaving comments are a good way to get noticed.

However I prefer quality over quantity. Don’t spam. Five great comments in one day is better than fifty that say “Great post! Enjoyed it!”

It doesn’t have to be long, but make it so they know you’ve read it. You can add to what they wrote, or politely disagree. Sometimes they’ll ask a question at the end of the post to generate comments. Reply to that.

If you truly enjoyed the post, let them know. No blogger gets tired of hearing that.

I know one serial commenter that will remain nameless that used commenting as a way to try and get traffic. You could tell because that person was on every blog it seemed. That person once left a comment on a guest post I did where you could tell 100% he didn’t read the post.

If a post already had thirty comments, this person would reply to the first comment when there was clearly no reason to. Why? To be seen.

When I went to this person’s blog, what did I see? Very little or no comments on their posts. Not many retweets or sharing on posts. All this person cared about was traffic stats and wrote posts showing it. What’s the point of that?

If you want a blog that matters, don’t act in a way that’s going to turn people off.

4. Reply to comments

It’s still one of my favorite things to do. If you’ve left a comment here, you’ve gotten a reply from me.

I like to acknowledge those who left a comment. To me, that person has taken the time to read my post, AND say something about it. I’d hug you if I could.

The plugin ReplyMe makes it easy for them to be notified. They get an e-mail in their inbox and you’re not spamming them.

I think the first place I saw it was Ana’s blog at Traffic Generation Cafe. I thought it was the coolest thing. She’s got a great blog with an engaged community. I’m sure the plugin is a part of it.

If they’ve left a good comment, don’t just fire back a one line standard reply. Personalize it. Continue the conversation. Thank them for their insight. Make them feel like gold for leaving a comment.

Adrienne Smith does a great job of that and now routinely gets 100+ comments each post.

5. Make it easy to share posts

Recently I thanked someone for rewteeting one my posts. She replied by telling me she did because I made it so easy for her to do. That’s the goal!

Don’t make your users hunt for your share buttons. If they can’t find it easily, they just might not share.

I love the Twitter box plugin at the end of my posts. I get asked about that one a lot.

I have a Sharebar on the left side of the post that’s built into the Standard Theme. It follows the user as they read the post.

Make it so simple for readers when they are ready to share with their followers.

6. Show some of your personal side

People not only connect with the content you write, but the person behind the blog. How can they know more about you? Inject a little bit about yourself when it’s relevant.

I’m thankful people seem to like me (or maybe not but they haven’t spoken up) and that’s helped grow my blog I believe.

For example, I talked about the facing fear directly and taking risks out of your comfort zone. My example was my story moving to Taipei to study Chinese, trying to meet new friends, and taking a leap by moving to Sydney for a girl! I used my personal story to make my point.

Amy Clover at Strong Inside and Out recently had a post where she talked about her former life, her OCD, depression, drugs, and her near suicide attempt. However, she’s turned her life around and it has a happy ending. It’s truly a great post with well deserved praise.

She found a way to tell her story, let her readers know more about her, but still focused on her theme of positive and healthy living.

Think about your favorite big blogs out there. I bet you know a little bit about them outside of blogging. You may know a lot more depending on how much they share and how long you’ve been reading. You feel like you could have a cup of coffee or a beer with that blogger.

No doubt it has benefited their blog.

7. Share other people’s content and expect nothing in return

When I first learned how to use Twitter, I read that I should share more than I promote. In other words, I should be retweeting others’ content instead of just saying “Look at mine!” That stuck with me.

When you share someone’s post on Twitter and you have their @name in it, they’ll see it. They’ll appreciate it. They may come look at your blog and return the favor if they see a post that’s worthy of sharing in the future.

You might turn them into a regular reader, a friend, or future business partner. I’ve gotten to know so many people from seeing them retweet my stuff or starting a conversation after seeing me do that for them.

However, don’t share posts expecting they return the favor. Share their post because you really like it.

In the long run, you’ll get back so much more.

8. Build your tribe

Your tribe is like a group of great friends. You not only like their blog, but you like the person behind it.

They’ll be the ones that support you when you need advice. They’ll inspire you. They’ll motivate you.

Your tribe is going to be the one that keep coming back to your blog when you have a new post. They’ll share your content on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. They’ll write a post and link back to your blog. They’ll promote you to their readers.

I value the relationships I’ve built online. It’s beyond just reading their posts. It’s a genuine interest in that person and what they are doing.

How can you build your tribe?

I don’t think it can be forced. It has to develop naturally. Just like relationships offline. Start by reading blogs you enjoy and leaving comments on their post. Send them an email to introduce yourself or thank them for what they do.

Get social on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. If you’re shy, it removes that barrier to starting a conversation.

Slowly, you’ll naturally be drawn to certain people and you’ll start to attract new like-minded people.

If you’re just starting out, don’t expect to get into the inner circle of A-list bloggers. It’s not that they’ll ignore you if you ask for advice, but being on their speed dial, giving you their top advice, or having them constantly share your work is going to be rare. They’ve already got their tribe.

Instead, find someone on the same level as you or just starting. Remember every A-list blogger started just like you and me. In a year or two, your tribe might just be filled with A-list bloggers.

If not, it’ll still be filled with great friends.

9. Always keep learning and improving

The reason I failed in my previous attempts at blogging or anything in fact, was I didn’t have a passion for always learning and improving.

Before, I knew how to get started, and thought that was enough.

In that food court in Taipei, I rediscovered that desire to learn all I could about blogging. This time I would take it seriously. That was key for me. It wasn’t just a fun thing to do on the side.

Those first few months, I read through the archives on blogs such as Copyblogger.com, Problogger.net, Thinktraffic.net, and Smartpassiveincome.com.

I listened to so many podcasts from experienced bloggers on Blogcast FM in my car.

I don’t pretend to know everything about blogging. I still have SO much to learn. I’m always looking to improve. I’m obsessed with it, but in a healthy way.

If you truly want a blog that matters, you have to take it seriously and never stop wanting to get better.

Start a Blog That Matters Today

One person I started to follow when I started blogging was Corbett Barr. I know I’ve mentioned him a few times here, but it’s well deserved. His story is he left the miserable corporate world, went on a sabbatical to Mexico, and decided to start blogging even though he had never blogged before.

Now he has two successful blogs with one more heading that way. He has helped clients launch or grow blogs that attract from 10,000 to 100,000+ visitors per month (including Live Your Legend, Man Vs. Debt, Primer Magazine and The Possibility of Today). He makes a full time living doing this.

He’s been helpful with any questions I’ve had along the way.

He’s taken everything he’s learned in three years and with the same strategies he uses for his one-on-one clients created a new course “How to Start a Blog that Matters”.

Who’s this course for? 

You have no blog, but want to start.

It’s not about just starting a blog (that’s easy), but starting a blog that could be a huge success.

What if you already have a blog?

It’s up to you how you use this course. You could start a whole new blog from scratch or you could keep your existing content and relaunch.

You could start on a new domain, import your content, and redirect your readers to your new blog. That way you won’t lose any traffic.

Or you could stay at your current domain, do a small redesign, create some epic content, and relaunch with a bang by following the course.

Bottom line: It’s a course you’ll want to take if you want a blog that could make a difference and change your life. 

What’s in it? 

It’s a 90 day course take gets you to take action in a structured setting.

Here’s everything you get in the course:

• 13 weekly lessons
• 13 weekly step-by-step action plans
• Over 8 hours of video
• Direct access to ask Corbett questions anytime (awesome)
• A 60-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee (he wants you to be 110% satisfied)
• 4 very special bonuses

In 90 days, you will build a solid foundation for your blog. You’ll save hours and hours of time reading and doing the wrong things. After 90 days, you could be ahead of many bloggers who have been around 6-12 months.

Corbett usually charges $6k-$10K working with clients, and uses the same strategies in this course as he does with them. Until 1/20 Midnight PST, it’s only $77. Then it’ll go back to $97, which is still a great investment. 

Plus the first 100 people to purchase, will be invited to a live “kick off” webinar with Corbett in two weeks. 

I was a member of his last course, The Hustle Project, and enjoyed his teaching style and content. I wouldn’t promote this course if I didn’t believe in what he can deliver.

In a year from now, YOU could have a thriving blog, a business, get paid to write, have friends all over the world, or have tons of true fans thanking you for what you do on your blog.

That would be pretty cool, right?

Click here learn to start a blog that matters

Whew! That was a lot of information! I hope you’ve found it useful.

What else would you add that helps create a blog that matters?

What makes you a fan of your favorite blogs? 

Please share in the comments!

Photo by johnarobb

One thing I’ve wanted to do is give an update of how Photo 365 has done since it was featured as App of the Week.

Before, I didn’t know when was the best time to do it. Now I feel like I have a lot to share after almost five months of it being released.

The success of this app has brought so many benefits. It brought recognition. It brought opportunities for interviews here and here and guests posts like here. It brought a flood of revenue to allow me to start my own business. I had my app featured in an Italian iPhone magazine.

I had someone from a startup contact me during App of the Week about buying my app. I was very skeptical because it came from a generic email. Once I told him of my concern, he revealed the company he was representing. One of the main investors co-founded Google Adsense. That was a wild time, but after exchanging some emails, nothing happened. Still cool to experience!

I’ve enjoyed getting emails from people getting started with their app. I know I’m not an expert, but I know enough to help those get started. It feels great to be able to help others.

It hasn’t been all this easy though. This journey has been a roller coaster.

The first seven months of app development were easy compared to the last five months. I’ve had to face challenges I was NOT prepared for. Nothing warned me about what to expect.

I’ve never worked harder and never had to deal with so much. There have been moments when I’ve thought about shutting it down.

In the end, I still can’t believe my luck. I am very thankful, and still moving forward.

I refuse to let any challenges stop me from making this the best app I can.

I hope my experience will help those who want to know what it’s like to manage an app as a first time app developer.

For the rest, I hope there’s something you can take away from it.

How have sales been?

Might as well start off with the big question. That’s the number one question I get from friends. I wish I could have said “Great! I’m making $500 a day!” but that wasn’t happening.

I knew sales would go down from being App of the Week. Since then I’ve reached a low of $10.50 (explain more about why later).

You can see where the app peaked during App of the Week.

Sales from Aug 8 - Dec 24

After that it started sliding down in the rankings. I quickly got use to seeing over $1,000+ a day in sales and seeing anything less than that was a difficult.

If the feeling of making over $1,000 a day was a drug, I was hooked.

Sales in the middle of Nov – Dec leveled out at about $50 a day. I’ll be honest that I wasn’t happy to see low sales. Thankfully, my wife reminded me to stay positive. Every time I’d tell her the sales, she said “That’s great!” You know what? She’s absolutely right. Friends also reminded me that’s something to be happy about.

Before my app was sold if someone told me I’d be making $50 a day, I would have been very happy. Many apps make far less than that.

So yes I’m happy when I make any money, even the day when I made $10.50, but that bad for other reasons.

E-mail overload 

I started to get a lot of e-mails from Photo 365 users.

I got emails from people who loved the app, some disappointed with it when they realized it didn’t do what they expected, and even got one from a guy who refused to display my app on in iPhone unless I changed my icon.

(Sure, let me get right on that.)

I got lots of emails for suggestions. Users wanted so many things. I guess that’s good because they like the app, but it was difficult to juggle. What should I add to keep people happy?

My idea for the app was to keep it simple. However, I realized there were nice features I didn’t think about.

One way to decide what to add was see how often I’d get asked for a feature. The more I got, the more I listened. Unfortunately, I couldn’t add every single feature users wanted.

A month after the app was released, I was ready to start work on new features with my developers.

Working on the first update

My app cost $1900 to develop. At the time, that was a lot of money to me. It was a risk I was willing to take. They gave me a flat fee instead of charging me by the hour. I believe their price was determined by the number of hours they projected it would take to complete. They told me it would take 1.5 month. Instead it took eight months, but that was okay with me.

With the updates, I’ve been paying my developers by the hour and it’s been more expensive that way. The first update took two months. It felt like six months because I was so eager to add these new features.

I originally worked with them on Elance.com, but then they moved to Odesk.com. I had never used it, but I liked it a little bit better because the system takes screenshots of their computer screen so I can follow their progress.

If they do 40 hours of work a week, which is the maximum I set, it can cost a little over $1000. That’s almost half of what it cost to make the app! They haven’t worked the full 40 hours every week though.

I’ve totalled up all the work from the day I started working on updates until December 31st.

Sept 5 – Dec 31 $9537.80

A huge increase from the original cost to develop it.

Ready, Set, Stop!!

My first update was finally ready on December 5th. I was excited to finally have new features. The main new feature was multiple photos in a day.

When I first had the idea for this app, I thought about just one photo a day. I had no idea that I would get so many emails about wanting to add more than one picture a day. I read the reviews in the App store as well and that was the main thing people wanted.

So I thought this was a feature that needed to be added. I even posted the first mockup of how it would look on the Photo 365 fanpage and got lots of positive responses. This is how the final product looks.

Clicking on a photo would enlarge the picture and look like the first version. I was happy with it.

I released the app and thought everything would be smooth after that. I was wrong.

I forgot exactly how many emails I got, but I got at least three emails that first day from people that day saying they downloaded the update and it erased all their photos!!!

#%!@%!!

When I got the first, I thought it might be isolated, but when I got the others, I knew that it was a problem that needed to be addressed. There may have been more, but they didn’t email me.

I felt really bad. I hated that anyone would lose their photos in the app! If that were me, I’d be so upset too.

The first thing I did was email my developers. I explained what was going on. Tuesday morning they suggested I pull the app from the app store. I didn’t know exactly how to do that. I knew I could completely delete the app, but I didn’t think that was the best move.

So what I did was pause my app. No one would be able to buy it and download the update. It would be invisibile.

That’s the day I only earned $10.50.

They said they found the error and sent me a new version in a couple days.

After less than 24 hours, I decided to un-pause my app. The reasoning was I read I might lose all important rankings. Also, I knew the problem wouldn’t exist for new downloads.

Awhile ago, I remember I owned an app that had an update, but gave a warning message to not download that version.

That’s what I decided to do. I resumed the the app, but with a warning message to those who hadn’t downloaded the update. They could, but should backup all photos first.

I checked my stats to see how many people downloaded the update before I paused it. Remember, I got a few emails about losing photos. I was shocked to see 10,000 users had downloaded the update in the first day!

A few problems out of that many wasn’t the end of the world, but I still wasn’t happy that anyone was losing their photos. I didn’t want more problems as more and more downloaded the update. At the time I had ~ 60,000 users.

I had to wait less than a week for the next version to be ready and approved. When it was ready to be downloaded, I held my breath. Thankfully, it seemed like the bleeding had stopped.

That wasn’t the end of my problems though.

Did I Mess Up a Good Thing?

I started to get feedback about multiple photos and some didn’t love it. In fact they downright hated it. They loved the old way how the photos were displayed. They didn’t like seeing it in thumbnails.

I got enough feedback to wonder if I screwed everything up.

For the first version, people emailed me about wanting to save multiple photos a day.

For the second version, people emailed me about wanting to go back to just one photo a day.

Had I messed up a good thing? Was I not being true to my original vision of the app?

There are those out there who love the new version. They just don’t say as much. I hear mainly from the ones that don’t.

I have to find a way to keep both sides happy. Have to talk with my developers whether or not they can implement my ideas.

Reply to All E-mails. Good or Bad.

Every day I have to answer customer emails, whether they’re happy or angry about it not working right. I also have a customer service forum where people can ask question. I answer questions there as well.

I love the ones that say they love the app, but I get many more with suggestions and problems. It’s definitely my least favorite part of the process, but it’s not something I want to outsource. I feel it’s important that they get an email from me.

Sometimes I turn an unhappy customer into a fan. These are two response I just got after telling me about problems they were having. I get these replies often.

WoW..  I’m completely shocked that you responded in such a timely manner, or at all!  You commitment to providing a quality app is evident!  This will be my favorite app either way.  Thank you(:

I love this app. Sorry for the dee da dee moment. The response time was unbeatable you guys rock I’d buy more apps by your company in a heartbeat if I needed them.

So I do what I can to keep them happy.

Lack of Control

One thing that has bothered me has been a lack of control. Since all the work is outsourced, there’s nothing I can do to fix a problem. All I can do is tell them my developers to fix it. Then I have to make sure it’s fixed right or have them do it again.

This process takes time. I wish problems could be fixed right away and sent to all users.

I have no choice but to outsource the work, but when problems arise, I wish I could do more about them.

There’s great news!

Enough of the challenging parts. Let me share some great news!

I had heard from many developers that Christmas time gets a huge boost. According to USA Today, on Christmas Day this year, 250 million apps were downloaded in the Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market versus 85 million last year.

It makes sense. Lots of new iPhones, iPads and iTunes gift cards.

For myself, I had my increase from ~$50 to ~$80 per day from Dec. 25-28. Not the increase I had imagined. Still happy with the boost.

Then I had a great surprise.

December 29th brought in $431! I was stunned. What happened? I checked and didn’t see my app featured anywhere in the App store.

I checked my Google analytics and saw a spike to my homepage from Photojojo.com, a huge photo project blog and store, with over 405,000 email subscribers. You can see the post Sweet Photo Projects for the New Year.

It’s awesome my app got recognized by them because now I see a handful of apps that are in my same niche now.

I had a feeling sales would increase after January 1st. The reason is the app is perfect to start at the beginning of the year. People get excited by a new year, resolve to take more photos, and want to try a 365 project.

Thanks Photojojo.com!

Overall revenue

You might be curious to know how much I’ve earned overall.

As of January 4th, I’ve earned $48,320.73. I’m close to reaching $50,000 which is a huge milestone!

Thanks to any who had downloaded the app or shared it with someone. It wouldn’t be possible without you.

Here is a breakdown of the top ten countries where sales have come from.

Top Ten in Sales

What’s in store for 2012?

I have lots of ideas for the app in my head. I’m still trying to get it to that level where there’s not much that needs to be done to it. I feel like a plane still on take off, and waiting for the cruising altitude so I can take off my seat belt to relax.

If I had a $1 for every time someone asked about the Android version, I still couldn’t retire, but I’d have enough for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant.

I’d love to have an Android version before the end of 2012. I have to figure out how to get it done. Ideally, I’d like the Apple version to be at a stage where I’m happy with it before going to Android.

I have other ideas that I know could bring in a bunch of revenue. It’s going to take time , money, and hard work to find out how to make it a reality.

The goal is to make Photo 365, the BEST app in its niche before the end of 2012.

Thanks for making it this far

Any advice for the challenging parts? Any question? I’d be happy to answer them.

To learn more about my app, go to Photo 365.

I’ve been know to giveaway free copies of my app on my Facebook fan page. Make sure you join if you want to have a chance for a free promo code.

Great memories this year

Last week, I shared a worksheet to help you do an annual review. Thank you for spreading the word about it. I’m happy to hear many of you are filling it out!

Now it’s my turn to do my annual review. I’ve decided to share all my answers from the same worksheet I gave you. It might encourage you to fill it out, if you’re still on the fence.

It’s helpful for me to celebrate accomplishments, learn why I came up short, reinforce good habits, minimize bad habits, and begin to focus on 2012.

I hope my experiences and lessons will help you.

I’ve written my answers and added some notes to elaborate on some.

10 greatest things that happened in the past year: 

1. Started and finished my iPhone app, Photo 365.
2. Photo 365 got featured as New & Noteworthy, App of the Week, and What’s Hot. Made it to App of the Week in 45+ countries!
3. Started Get Busy Living and have grown it to 5,000+ visitors a month.
4. Formed my own business, Get Busy Living LLC.
5. Got engaged and married in the same year! Elvis was in the building!
6. Got to take epic wedding photos like this. I think I had more fun doing it than Eleanor. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
7. Created my first free ebook, Get a Life That Doesn’t Suck.
8. Designed and sold my first ever Get Busy Living t-shirt. Still looking for a present for you or someone else?
9. Traveled to Bail and stayed at the best resort I’ve ever stayed at thus far.
10. Ran my second half marathon in February and finished right under my goal of 2  hours.

Writing things down made me realize how much I got done this year. I know I could have done more, but it’s a great start.

This is by far the most progress I’ve made since went from crawling to walking.

- My first goal for this year was to start a blog. I started brainstorming on a topic last year, even though I’ve had this domain for two years. I didn’t know the direction I wanted to take this blog. When I finally decided that I love to write about personal development, that’s when I got started. I started with no one reading it, but have built it up to the way it is now. I’m thankful for having a great community, getting to know many of you, and learning from you.

- Because of the income I was earning the first 30 days from my app, my family’s accountant suggested it’s best if I formed an LLC. I decided to name it Get Busy Living LLC. It’s pretty broad so I can do different types of businesses under the name. Forming an LLC was a goal of mine this year, so I’m excited that became a reality.

-The wedding photos were fun. We did them in Taipei. We were blown away by all the comments we got about them. I told Eleanor we should do them every year, but she’s not so sure about that. Like I said, I thought it was pretty fun.

- Eleanor loves Bali. I had never been. So when I went to Taipei in February, we planned to go to Bali. We stayed in Ubud. I was in charge of finding a hotel, which I love doing. I can spend hours researching.

I found a chain called Komaneka. Highly rated on Trip Advisor. They have three properties in Ubud. After debating which one would be the best one, I picked Komaneka at Monkey Forest.

We took a taxi to hotel. We checked in and found out they didn’t have my name!! Oh crap! Did I really book the wrong property??

They called another property to see if I had booked there. I did. My mistake. I booked the Komaneka at Tanggayuda (try saying that last word a few times fast). I was bummed because the reviews for this one were so good.

They had a shuttle that would take us to the other hotel, which was about 20 minutes away.

My mistake turned out to be a great one. This property was perfect. Even better I think than the one at Monkey Forest. It was secluded and so quiet. We had a private villa with a pool overlooking rice fields (pic). The other one was right in the city center. We really got to know the small staff there in just four days and was sad to leave. Eleanor is dying to go back, and when we do, we’ll stay there again.

-I proposed to Eleanor in Bali, so it make the trip more memorable. She wanted an Elvis wedding and I gave her what she wanted. If you’re ever looking for a quick fun wedding, Las Vegas is the way to go.

-I’m happy about the T-shirt because I have wanted to create a T-shirt line for about four years. Next year, I plan on adding more designs. Stay tuned!

I’m most proud of these three accomplishments from last year:

1. Started this blog, Get Busy Living, and still going strong!
2. Started work on my iPhone app and released it for sale eight months later.
3. Forming my own LLC.

Tough to just choose three, but these three I’m most proud of. If at the beginning of the year, you told me I’d have all three by now, I would have started doing fist pumps.

Three best lessons I’ve learned from last year are:

1. Consistency is the key. Instead of starting and stopping, doing something consistently will lead to greater results.
2. Planning, doing, and reviewing my goals really works. This was the first year I’ve done it and no doubt in my mind it’s a huge reason for the changes in my life.
3. Take 100% responsibility for my life.

- The reason the tortoise always beats the hare is because of slow and steady consistency. If you ran a 5 mile race, would you start by running as fast you can? No way because you’d be passed out on the ground real soon! Yet that’s what we often do when we get excited about a goal.

Slow and steady will get you to the finish line first. Life is a marathon and not a sprint.

- Writing and reviewing my goals really helped. Some I didn’t achieve, but that’s my fault. I did achieve many rewarding ones though.

- I used to blame everything around me for my lack of success. I was a miserable person inside. Then I learned to take responsibility for all the choices I make. If I didn’t like something, I had a choice. If I didn’t do anything, that was my choice. No finger pointing. No blaming. The only person to blame is the person we see in the mirror every day.

Three personal developments I’ve made in the past year are:

1. Goal setting
2. Feeding my mind with inspirational or educational books.
3. Changing my attitude about what is possible.

-  I fed my mind with more clean water. I went to the library often this year. I loved learning new things. I noticed I read a lot of book on entrepreneurship and personal development. I’m getting a free Kindle Fire soon, so that should get me to read much more next year.

- I realized I had to believe in myself first. I learned success is possible with enough time, consistency, and hard work. I’ve seen other bloggers and see their success so I know what I want to do isn’t far fetched. We all have access to the same information and resources. It’s just a matter what we do with it and how much we believe in ourselves.

If I could do things again, I would do these three things differently last year: 

1. Have a better morning routine.
2. Take more notes when reading.
3. Exercised more consistently.

- Before this year, my morning routine was to wake up, have breakfast and get on the computer or start watching TV. Multiply that for nearly my whole adult life.

This year I learned our habits over time helps us or brings us down. One habit I wanted to improve was my morning routine.

I was doing well for awhile where I’d wake up, have breakfast, and reading something educational or inspirational before turning on my computer. It was a way to start the day on a positive note instead of checking email and Facebook first thing.

I’ve slipped and know I need to do a better job next year. Old habits are hard to break, but I will break this one.

- I’ve gotten most books from the library, so I couldn’t highlight in it. I took some notes, but should have done it with every book. Next year when I read, I’ll take notes or if I’m reading on my iPad or Kindle, highlight the important points.

- I ran my last half marathon in February. I was in the best shape of my life. Two days later, I left for Taipei. My plan was to give myself a week off and then regularly go to the local gym. That didn’t happen.

I went sometimes. After a month, I was too lazy to go.

After I came back, it was really hard to get back into running. I lost all my fitness, motivation, and momentum from before. Before, I’d run for an hour and feel great. When I tried to run for ten minutes I was tired.

So instead of completely stopping, I should have done some sort of physical activity no less than three times a week.

I’ve been working out regularly the last five weeks doing Crossfit (I’m typing this with four blisters on my hands), and I feel much more productive every day.

Three things I need to do less of in the next year are:

1. Eat sweets
2. Pointless web surfing and know nothing about the Kardashians.
3. Complain

- If I eliminated sweets from my diet completely, I would have lost 20 pounds probably. However, I would have also been banging my head against the wall most of the time. I eat too much and know I need to cut back. It’s hard to say no to sugar. It’s so good! If I have an addiction, it’s sugar for sure. It tastes good, but it makes me feel more sluggish later. More sluggish means less productive.

- Pointless web surfing distracts me and takes away from valuable working time. I need to do better separating the two.

- I’ve done so much better about complaining, but I still catch myself doing it. I’ll complain about being tired or being too full. I’ll complain about being sore. Still complain about the job I don’t particularly like. I complain after I eat two big pieces of cake. It’s too much and I need to do way less of it.

Three things I need to do more of in the next year are: 

1. Be a productivity Jedi. Focus on work in blocks of time. Similar to the Pomdoro technique
2. Act and think more like an entrepreneur
3. Create more

- I know I need to do a better of working when it’s work time. No distractions. No stopping. When it’s time my free time, I can spend more time on Youtube watching videos like this.

I know about the Pomodoro technique, but just knowing about it is not enough. I will make a strong effort to utilize it.

- If I’m going to have make my dream of quitting my job and being self employed, I’m going to have to make more money. That means learning more about entrepreneurship and creating something valuable.

- I get energized when I’m creating. That’s why I can spend hours on designing my t-shirt, customizing my blog, writing and editing a blog post, and other things. I want to do more of that.

Three things I need to stop completely doing in the next year are:

1. Multitasking
2. Driving while texting or checking my iPhone (seriously need to eliminate that for safety reasons)
3. Work at my current job

This was tough because I know some things I should do less of, but I know I won’t completely eliminate. These three things I need to completely stop.

- Trying to multitask makes me less productive actually. I know it’s bad and it needs to stop.

- I used to be really bad about texting and checking my iPhone while driving. Now Eleanor yells at me, as a reminder to not. Nothing is that important to take my eyes off the road. I’ve read the tragic stories of people texting while driving. It needs to stop completely.

- After my app success, people asked me when I was quitting my job. Though I was bringing in over $1k a day for one week, I was hesitant to quit right away. First I wanted to see how sales would be when I wasn’t featured. I knew realistically I wasn’t going to be earning that much money a day for a year.

Since then, sales dropped and now have been sitting at a consistent level the last couple months. I expected that. It’s not enough money  to quit my job. Plus I’m putting back money into it adding new features.

(I’ll write a whole post on a Photo 365 update.)

Though it’s frustrating, I feel like I’m close. I didn’t make it a goal this year to quit my job. I didn’t think it was realistic. It would have been so sweet though.

I know other bloggers, who I’ve become friends with, are working to be fully self employed as well, so I’m hoping we can all make it happen in 2012.

Three reasons I didn’t achieve some goals from this past year are:

1. Lost some momentum starting in August
2. Didn’t focus on projects that would contribute to achieving my goals when I had the free time
3. I underestimated myself

- Before August, I lived like a bachelor since I was still in a long distance relationship. My sink was full of plates and pots. Clothes all over the floor. My house would be lucky if it got cleaned once a week.

That also meant I could do whatever I wanted in my free time, and this year that was blogging and creating income on the side.

Eleanor came over in August for good, so I couldn’t spend ALL day long on the computer. If I did, I’d be sleeping on the couch. Therefore, I needed to be more focused, when I did have the time. I didn’t do a great job of adjusting.

- One goal was to do more guest posting to get more readers and traffic. I should have done more. I promised some friends guests posts, but I didn’t get around to them. I write slow. I edit slow. So it takes more time to create one post. I know it’ll take more practice to improve.

- Because I didn’t know I could do so much in a year, I held back some. Next year, the training wheels are coming off!

Three goals I want to achieve in the next year:

1. Travel more
2. Create more income streams
3. Attend a conference like WDS or Blog World

- The first order of travel is to go on a honeymoon. I know it’s hard to believe, but we haven’t been on a honeymoon yet. We didn’t know where to go and didn’t have time right after the wedding. There’s no deadline, right?

I know somewhere where the water is crystal clear is on the wish list.

Lately, I’ve been learning about travel hacking, so I hope I can put to use what I learn in 2012.

- I need to earn more income to be self employed. Will do that by creating valuable products that will benefit others. I want to expand my T-shirt design as well. Of course I want to have another iPhone app done before the end of 2012.

- I’ve heard nothing but great things about both of these conferences. Being social with lots of people is not my element, so it would be something completely out of my comfort zone. I know the experience will be worth it though.

Smartest decision I made last year:

Taking 100% responsibility for the choices in my life. Deciding to start taking action instead of using hope as a strategy. Putting my head down and really working hard to get to this point.

Biggest risk I took this past year:

Spending $1900 on an iPhone app. Had no idea if I would even make any money from it. Spending that much money was a huge gamble, but one I was willing to take a risk on.

One sentence that sums up this past year:

A year of positive change, but it’s just the beginning of bigger things.

One year from right now, I want to describe my year like this:

It’s been another phenomenal year of growth personally and professionally. I’m excited to be fully self employed with a thriving business. I’m in great shape at my ideal weight of 180 lbs, and my marriage has only gotten better this year. I have traveled to many wonderful places, met many great people, and gained valuable memories I will remember forever.

Now it’s Your Turn

If you’re doing an annual review post and want to add it to the list, please leave a comment with a link to your post.

Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-conformity

Annie Andre at Practical Adventure-ology

(They ones below used the worksheet as a guideline. All fantastic. A must read.)

Caroline Leon at Life is Limitless

Noch at Noch Noch

Alex at Milk the Pigeon

Carrie Smith at Careful Cents

Caleb Wojack at Pocket Changed

Lauren Kimball at Lamiki

Marv and Jo at Intrepid Motion

Tia Sparkles at Your Life Your Way

Amanda Abella at Grad Meets World

Mei at Mei Ying

Thanks to all of you for a great 2011 and hope yours was as great as mine was.

Take a moment to look back

It’s almost the end of the 2011. Where has the time gone? How was it for you?

For me, it’s been quite a year. I started 2011 with no blog, no iPhone app, and no wife. Now I have all three!

Now it’s December and it’s my favorite time of the year because of the holidays. I do wish one night I’d wake up and see snow covering the city, but that’s unlikely to happen in Jacksonville, FL.

It’s also a great month to do a review of your year. Not just sit and think about it, but find a quiet time with a piece of paper and pen.

Why should you do a review of your year? 

You need to know what worked and what didn’t work this year. You need to make sure you’re doing the right things. You need to know where you’re failing. You need to make sure you’re on the right path.

If we don’t know our situation now, we can’t properly set goals for 2012.

Chris Guillebeau does an annual review and begins with these two questions.

• What went well this year?
• What didn’t go well this year?

This is a great place to start. If you need help jogging your memory, take a look at old photos, blog posts, a journal, or anything that will help you remember this past year.

December, not January, is a great month to start planning for 2012. I feel January brings a fresh start. Whatever happened last year is done. The next 12 months are spotless and ready to be filled with whatever we put into it.

If we plan in December, then we can hit the ground running in January, while others take weeks to get started.

Don’t do it like I used to do it. I would think of some resolutions I wanted to make in January. What usually happened? I might do it for a couple weeks or a couple months, but slowly go back to my old ways. By the end of the year, I have completely forgotten what I wanted to change. Then I make those same resolutions the next year. Insanity for sure.

Last year was the first time I had ever done a year in review. Looking back at my 2010 review, I didn’t have many accomplishments, because I started taking action the last few months of the year. Before that my life was the same every day.

When thinking what accomplishments I was most proud of, I could only think of one, which was running my first half marathon in December! I honestly didn’t accomplish anything else worth mentioning.

This year, I’ll have a lot more to write down. I’ll assess what went well, what didn’t, and use that to make 2012 even better.

Doing the year in review shouldn’t be rushed. You should give yourself as long as you need.

Your Year in Review Worksheet

I’ve created a free worksheet that has questions to help you review your year and plan for the next. Download it, print it out and find a quiet time to complete it. Be honest with your answers. These are just for yourself.

If you can’t come up with enough answers, like me last year, then you know you didn’t push yourself enough this year. Let that motivate you for the next.

If you’ve never done a year in review, try it this year. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Don’t just fill this out and put it away in a draw. I encourage you to refer back to it throughout the year. You’re going to need to be reminded.

Download the worksheet now

I really want this to get in as many hands as possible, because I really believe in its effectiveness. Please share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or e-mail it!

Next week, I’ll share my annual review with you.

Finally let me ask:

-What went well for you and what didn’t in 2011?

Photo by MSVG

Why do we want to learn how to be a loser? Because we want to be successful in whatever we do, so we have to learn what not to do.

Find out what the unsuccessful do, and do the opposite! It’s simple, but a great reminder to make sure we’re doing the right things.

You probably know someone who you could learn a lot about what not to do. It would be a wealth of information.

I know someone like that and I’ll share at the end of the post.

Here are some ways to be a loser in life.

1) Wakes up and see how the day goes. Takes things day by day. Doesn’t have goals. Just turns on the computer and decides where to begin.

2) Loves to blame others. Looks outwards for any problems in life. Points fingers. Blames the economy. Blames the weather. Never takes responsibility.

3) Complains a lot. Will talk about their problems with anyone. Never shuts up about them. Does absolutely nothing about changing their situation. Complains about everything.

4) Fears change. Change is bad. Change is evil. Would rather stay safe and boring.

5) Lives someone else’s dream. Finds a career just to please others.

6) Believes being busy means working hard. Doing unimportant things all day long. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Wonders why they are always so busy, but haven’t made any progress on their goals.

7) Close friends all have no motivation in life. All their friends wish for a better life, but never do anything. Lots of time is spent complaining about life.

8 ) Believes life isn’t fair. Nothing goes right. Always feels unlucky. Has never gotten a break. Blames others.

9) Reads only fiction books. Reading is great, but only reads for entertainment.

10) News junkie. It’s news in the morning. News all day on the computer. Night time news shows. Local and national news.

11) Multitasks. Has multiple programs open When working online. Chat, email, Twitter, Facebook, you name it. Believes doing more than one thing at a time gets more done.

12) Has low self esteem. Doubt one’s abilities and talents. Believes they aren’t smart enough.

13) Expects failure. If they expect failure, when it happens, they won’t be as disappointed. Expectations are set low. Quits early and then the pressure is off.

14) Doesn’t say thank you. Takes things in life for granted. Doesn’t focus on the great little things in life. Doesn’t appreciate what others do. Doesn’t understand two words go a long way.

15) Believes what they are told. They believe other’s opinions. They care about what they think. Seeks approval for decisions. If someone says it’s a crazy idea, they believe them.

16) Makes a plan and sticks with it.  Unwilling to waver from plans. Believes plans are set in stone.

17) Waiting for the right time. Putting off it off till next week, month, or next year. Saying now is not the right time. Waiting for the stars and planet to align perfectly to begin. Doesn’t realize there isn’t a perfect time to begin.

18) Using hope as a strategy. Hoping one day life will change. Hoping for miracles. Hoping for a better life. All without doing anything else.

19) Doesn’t write down goals. Have a set of goals floating around in their mind, which soon gets forgotten.

20) Inconsistent. Starts and stops many projects. Kills all momentum.

21) Watches a lot of TV. Nightly routine after work is to sit in front of television eating dinner until it’s time for bed. Weekends are spent catching up on recorded television shows. Aimlessly channel surfs to kill time.

22) Loves playing the victim. Nothing is ever their fault and they let people know that. They want others to feel sorry for them. They have a friends who they always call and complain how shitty their life is.

23) Talks more than they listen. Mouth is always moving. Has to dominate the conversation. Wants to be the center of attention.

24) Think they are entitled to a great life. They expect things to come easily and things to be handed to them on a silver platter. Everyone owes them something.

25) They follow the status quo. They live life like others. Afraid to take risks. They do what others are doing. They don’t want to step out of line and attract attention. They blend in so they won’t be noticed.

26) Doesn’t make the tough decisions. When it’s time, lets other decide. Afraid to decide, so makes no decision. Then complains at the result.

27) Rarely finishes a project or goal. Has so much motivation at the beginning, and starts, but soon quits.

28) Thinks success is just about having a ton of money. Money is the only thing in life. Happiness will come when the money comes.

29) Lives in the past. Wishing life would go back to how it used to be. Thinking they should have, would have, could have. Keeps talking about past successes, since there is nothing to show in the present.

30) Full of excuses. Anything new and exciting is immediately followed by an excuse why it can’t be done.

31) Every year has the same New Year’s resolutions. Always talks about wanting to finally lose weight, make more money, or doing something that they’ve always wanted to do. Sounds like a broken record.

32) Compare themselves to others. Too worried about what others are doing.

33) Looks down on others. Talks down to others. Treats other like dirt, especially in the service industry.

34) Tries to know everything before beginning. Has to know everything in order to not make mistakes. Would rather not learn by doing.

35) Holds onto old grudges. Never forgives.

36) Stops learning. Believes learning ended in school. Has no desire to learn anything new.

37) No sense of humor. Takes everything so seriously. Can’t make fun of themselves. Doesn’t look for the funny in certain situations.

38) Makes small situations into the end of the world. Freaking out about the smallest things. Loves to create conflicts over stupid things.

39) Gossips Talking about the lives of others is their favorite pastime. They scrutinize and analyze others’ lives more than they do their own.

40) Looks for the latest quick fix. They’re looking for the latest diet pill to lose weight. They want to learn how to make thousands of dollars a week working just one hour. They want a lot for just a little.

41) Doing the same thing and expecting different results. You keep trying with the same strategy. Thinking brute force solves anything. They refuse to learn from their mistakes.

42) All talk. Talks about doing things, but never takes actions. Always uses the same excuses for not starting.

43) Focus only on their own happiness. Rarely looks to help others. Doesn’t have the time for others. Would rather put down than lift up.

44) Always think they’re right. Believing they’re always right and will argue until they turn blue. Refuses to say they’re wrong. Their opinion is the only thing that matters. Loves to correct others.

45) Gives up at the first sign of trouble. Easily gives up. Instead of finding a way around the roadblock, they just turn around and go back from where they came from.

46) Puts in just half the effort. Too lazy to really give it a full effort. Thinking what they are doing won’t work so they don’t want to really try.

47) Tries to be average at many things, instead of great at a few. Juggles many projects at one time. Doesn’t focus on making one great and then moving on.

48) Chooses the easy way out in life. When faced with two decision, always goes for the safe decision. Doesn’t want to go through the hardship with the huge reward.

49) Doesn’t smile. They walk around life looking pissed off all the time. They greet anyone for the first time without smiling.

50) Procrastinates. Everything that needs to be done can be done later. Puts off important things to do the unimportant.

Think about one or two people in your life that you analyze. If you’re really bold, you could interview them! If you know them well enough, you could easily come up with the answers.

Find out their daily routines. Find out what they watch on TV. Who do they spend most of their time with? What do they talk about? What do they read? What is their mindset? What is their attitude towards life? How do they treat other people? What do they eat?

When you come up with the answers, don’t do any of those things! Do the opposite and you’ll be better off.

How to Live an Unsuccessful Life

There’s this guy at work that could be a model of how to live an unsuccessful life. He’s 39, single, and looks to continue on this path for awhile.

If you took a notebook, and asked him questions about what he does, what he reads, what his mindset is, what he watches on TV, who he hangs out with, what his routine is, and what he does in his free time, you’d learn what NOT to do if you don’t want to be like him.

He’s worked where I work for long enough that I could answer most of those questions.

He doesn’t believe in saving money. When I asked why, he said, “What if I die tomorrow?” He gets money and spends it.

The money he does make, he buys basic necessities, and then he either gambles on sports or goes to the local poker room. He told me he doesn’t mind losing money. He just likes the atmosphere and the thrill of gambling.

He doesn’t know when to stop gambling too. Recently, he started from $25 and worked his way up to $6,000. A remarkable feat, but he tried to double down, and lost it all. He said if he would have won that last bet, he would have stopped. I highly doubt that.

He reads only fiction books. He has a membership to Netflix and watches a lot of movies. He believes everything happens for a reason. If he was meant to lose $6,000, then that’s what he accepts.

He just bought a small LCD TV with his Playstation 3 hooked up and is happy. This isn’t at his apartment. This is in his car, where he sleeps.

Yep, he sleeps in his car and showers at the gym. He feels like it’s a waste of money to get an apartment because he’s rarely there, his big dog doesn’t like it, or the apartment complex won’t allow dogs. So why waste money on rent?

He works seven days a week all day long, so he makes money. He could live a much better life, but he chooses not to. His priorities are mixed up.

He’s a nice guy, works hard, but I know a lot of what NOT to do from him.

What else can you add to the list of what not to do? 

If you enjoyed this post, and believe it can help others, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

I’d recommend these to any blogger, especially the beginners out there. If you start with these, it will help get more traffic, more comments, more retweets, and build your community.

Remember, you don’t want to have too many plugins running because it will slow down your site. So be picky about what you use.

Here are a list of my most asked about and favorite plugins.

WPSubscribers

This plugin has really helped me increase subscribers to my e-mail list. The reason is because it makes it easy to add sign up options almost anywhere on your blog.

One easy place is in the comments. After the reader has entered their name and email address for a comment, they can just click a box to get your ebook or sign up to your list. So they leave a comment and sign up to your list at the same time. Makes it easier.

Also if you see the end of my posts, there is an opt-in box was added with WpSubscribers. You can add an opt-in box within your posts, at the footer, as a pop-up, or in the sidebar,

That’s just a tip of the features it has. It’s too many to list. If you want to read more and purchase it, visit the website.

(This is an affiliate product, so I’ll make comission if you buy through this link. However, this is a product I use personally and would recommend.)

Tweet@ Anywhere Plus

This is the tweet box you see at the end of every post. If you want more people to share you post, you have to make it so simple for them. Don’t make them search for the retweet button. Show them how easy it is.

You can set up the wording of the tweet to whatever you want. Your readers can edit it as well before tweeting it.

It wasn’t easy to setup the box at first, but I had it setup up in minutes when I found a video made by my friend Adrienne Smith.

This is my most asked about plugin. Install it on your blog today and get more retweets.

Reply Me 

This is probably my personal favorite plugin. If you’ve ever left a comment here, you know how it works. When I reply to your comment, you get an e-mail with your comment and my reply.

The reason I love it is because you know that I replied to your comment. If not, you’ll have no idea if I followed up with a question, or liked a point you made. Doubtful you’ll come looking through an old post to see if I replied to your comment.

I like it when other bloggers use it. I leave a lot of comments on many different blogs and I hardly go back to the post to see if it got a reply. It just takes too much time and I can’t keep track where I did leave a comment.

If you’re looking to build relationships with people, continue the conversation, and let them know you appreciate their comments, this is a great plugin to do that.

Popular Posts

In the right sidebar, you can see a list of my most popular posts. This is a great plugin for first time readers that come to your blog. They’ll naturally want to know what are your popular posts here. Show them and have them stay on your blog longer.

You can set it for popular posts of all time, for the month, or for the week. It gets updated automatically.

Top Commenters

If you’re looking for a way to reward those who comment on your blog, this is a way to give them recognition. In the sidebar, you can see a list of the top commenters for this month. You can set this for all time, the month, or the week. You can show the number of comments or not.

I have it setup to show their gravatar picture, their blog, and how many comments they’ve left. By commenting often, it gets their picture and link featured. You get more comments and they get more exposure and a link back to their blog. It’s a win for both sides.

Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin

This is the plugin you need if you don’t want spam comments. It gets rid of 99% of the spam. After I’ve recommended this to friends, spam comments have cut down drastically.

How it gets rid of spam is when you leave a comment, you have to check a box that proves you are human. If you don’t check it, you can’t leave a comment. So simple but effective!

Sure you’ll get some humans who are paid to spam comment, but it’s so few that it’s not a problem.

For awhile I was using just GASP and not Askimet. Then I suddenly got hit with spam comments. It grew and grew to the point that it got annoying. Since then I’ve turned Askimet back on, it has reduced the amount of spam that gets through tremendously. So GASP + Askimet is a great combo for me.

CommentLuv

Get more comments by rewarding those that leave one with a link to one of their most recent posts.

If you leave a comment here, you can link to your post and that shows up at the end of your comment. Others will see it and if interested by the headline, will click on it (another reason headlines are so important!)

This is a free version, but I believe there is a premium version now. Honestly, I don’t know much about it, but Ana at Traffic Generation Cafe has a write up about it if you’re interested in learning more about the premium version. Adrienne Smith also is using CommentLuv premium and could tell you more about it.

Backup Buddy

In August, I was on cloud nine with my iPhone app, Photo 365, being featured. What most didn’t know was it was also the most stressful time on my blog.

The reason was my blog was getting hacked multiple times a day!! It kept getting redirected to some bogus Russian domain.

I turned to online friend David Wang at ClickWP.com to help me solve the issue. The frustrating part was that it would get fixed, and then hours later it be hacked again. This went on for four days if I remember correctly.

David was awesome in helping me out and staying really patient. He kept trying different things.

Finally on Sunday night, he did something to make my blog more secure from attacks. I prayed it would work because the following day, I was about to have my interview on Smart Passive Income published, and knew I was going to get a flood of traffic! The traffic came and my blog has been safe since then.

One thing he highly recommended, that I didn’t do before, was have constantly make a backup of my blog. I never thought I needed it. What if I lost all my content due to an attack?

He recommended Backup Buddy. It makes a backup of my blog, plugin, widgets, and themes. It’s easy to restore or migrate to a new domain.

It’s a paid plugin but it has given me peace of mind to know everything is safe in case on attack makes me lose everything. It’s worth the investment.

(This is an affiliate product, so I’ll make comission if you buy through my link. However, this is a product I use personally and would recommend.)

W3 Total Cache

Make your blog load faster. Don’t make your readers wait for your blog to load. Highly recommended for blogs of any level.

What’s your favorite plugin?

Would you suggest any new ones for me?