More of This…

Alright so I am not a big “New Year’s Res­o­lu­tion” guy, but I thought I might take a moment to write about my thoughts for 2009.

In 2009 I plan to do more:

• Goof­ing Around With My Fam­ily - This is really impor­tant to me.  I have the most awe­some fam­ily in the world.  It is easy to get wrapped up in the stress of every­day life and to for­get to just have fun and play.  You only live once, and life moves too quickly not to enjoy it.  I hope to fill next year with more care­free days, smiles, and last­ing memories.
• Play­ing / Writ­ing / Record­ing Music — It has been a few years since I have com­pleted the com­po­si­tion of an orig­i­nal song — some­thing that I used to do fre­quently.  I would love to be able to write and record one song per month, which would pro­vide enough for a new album of mate­r­ial by the end of 2009.  I have count­less riffs and chord pro­gres­sions sit­ting incom­plete.  I would like 2009 to be the year that these noodlings make their way into some fin­ished songs.
• Blog­ging — While 2008 was a solid year for me in terms of con­tent, I would like to have more con­sis­tency in 2009.  I hope to add con­tent more reg­u­larly and evenly — tak­ing time to plan out more posts in advance.  I also need to get back into tak­ing time to read and com­ment on some of my favorite blogs by oth­ers.  Addi­tion­ally, I hope to get the pod­cast back in full swing in 2009 and to add more orig­i­nal video con­tent too.
• Speak­ing — I enjoy pub­lic speak­ing.  It is some­thing that I want to become excep­tional at doing, and thus I need to do more of it.  I hope to be able to speak to an audi­ence at least once per month in 2009.  I already have a few engage­ments lined up, and I am look­ing for­ward to secur­ing some more.  If you are in need of a speaker for an upcom­ing event, let me know.   I love to chat about mar­ket­ing, blog­ging, social net­work­ing, lead­er­ship, and other var­i­ous and sundry topics.
• Read­ing — I love to read.  I see clear value in doing it.  It is some­thing that is impor­tant, yet not urgent.  I read less last year than in years prior.  I want to make it a point to read a lit­tle every day in 2009.  I have a long list of books that I would like to read, and a longer list of books I want to re-read.  It is some­thing that I sim­ply have to “make time” to do as it will never make its way to the top of the urgent list.
• Exer­cis­ing — I have a metab­o­lism that is off the charts, allow­ing me to still appear to be in rel­a­tively good shape in spite of my lack of effort.  How­ever, the sad truth is that I need to get in bet­ter shape.  I did not get enough exer­cise in 2008, and I know it.  Like read­ing, exer­cise is some­thing that is easy to put off, but way too impor­tant not to do reg­u­larly.   I have already started a mod­est daily rou­tine of crunches, car­dio, and weight train­ing.  Now I just need to stick with it.

• Giv­ing — I want to make the world a bet­ter place through my actions.  Through my involve­ment in phil­an­thropic and com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions I hope to be able to be a cat­a­lyst for pos­i­tive change in 2009.  While 2008 was a good year for giv­ing, I know I can do bet­ter.  Mak­ing that hap­pen will be largely about focus­ing on impor­tant tasks while elim­i­nat­ing the unimportant.

So there you have it.  I have high hopes that 2009 is going to be an amaz­ing year.  Now its time to make it so.

What are you going to do more of in 2009?