How are those big new plans you’ve decided for yourself working out for you so far? Still on the right path? Great. Losing some motivation? Oh no. Already quit? That’s not good.

Getting started is the easy part. We’ve started so many times to achieve goals or form a new habit. The hardest part is finishing what we’ve started. At the end of the year, are you going to be better off than you are now or getting ready to make the same New Year’s resolutions?

Here are ten ways to make sure you stick to your big goals for the year.

1. Don’t call them resolutions

A friend of mine posted on her Facebook that she has been doing really bad with her New Year’s resolution of cursing. In fact, she felt like she was cursing more than normal. I replied that she should have made a resolution to curse more, then she wouldn’t be cursing at all.

That’s how resolutions usually turn out. Whatever we set out to do, the opposite will happen, which is not the result we’re aiming for.

I stopped making resolutions a long time ago. Before I would make them and quit after a month like the 99%. I’m not a fan of the word anymore cause of how we treat resolutions. We treat them like crap. When I now hear people making resolutions, I view it as a feeble attempt making a change in their life.

A resolution is a decision to do something. That’s it. It’s just an idea in your mind to want to make a change. It sounds so weak. I wish we could all just decide to do something, and we’d do it forever. It doesn’t work that way though. We face challenges. We lose motivation. We give up.

So instead of calling them resolutions, call them goals and treat them as more than just a decision. There needs to be a plan of action and a way to ensure you don’t give up after the first month.

2. Accountability

One ways to stick with your goals is to make them public. When you tell others about what you intend to do, it puts pressure on you to keep working at it.

You could also find an accountability partner to check up on your progress once a week or bi-weekly. Do it over coffee, over Skype, the phone, or email. You could be each other’s accountability partner, which would be even better. Just go over what went well that week and what didn’t. Then state what you will achieve for that next week.

What’s the punishment for not doing it? You both could come up with a punishment or just knowing that you didn’t accomplish what you said you could can be punishment enough.

3. Put your money where your mouth is

Aren’t the two biggest motivating factors in life money and sex? I could be wrong, but both definitely make people do crazy things.

One way to make sure you follow through with your goals is to put some money on the line.

There are a couple ways you could do it.

Let’s say you have a goal of running four days a week for a minimum of thirty minutes each time. Set aside an amount of money that if you lost it, it wouldn’t be cool. Everyone has a different amount. Someone might not care about losing $50 bucks, while others will hate it.

Give someone you can trust (important) your money. Let’s say you give them $300. Set a time frame. Maybe you want to run for twelve weeks. So every week that you complete your goal, that trusted person will give you $25 back ($300/12 weeks = $25 each week). If you run less than four times (no excuses allowed) that person keeps $25. Then the next week you start over and it’ll end with you getting $25 or your friend keeping $25.

Most likely you’re going to have to be accountable to yourself. If you missed a day, sure you can lie and say you did it, but what’s the point in that? The whole point of putting money where your mouth is to get you to take action.

You can do this for anything goal or habit. Set a time frame, guidelines, and an amount of money.

Do it with a friend you trust! This is so important. If you don’t, your friend is going to spend the money you gave them and say they’ll pay you back as soon as they can, which means kiss it goodbye.

Also make sure you do it with a friend who’s going to support you and not try and try to sabotage your progress just so he/she can collect money. If all your friends are like that, then you need to find new friends.

Another way to do it is to give your friend a lump sum of money if you don’t do what you say you will do by a certain date. For example, if you don’t finish the first outline of your book by June 1st, you’ll give your friend $300. Be accountable for it by letting others know the plan.

Continue Reading…

How was this year for you?

Are you thinking, “Where has this year gone?” I think we all say that every year around this time.

I hope it’s been a great year for you! If it hasn’t been the best, then don’t worry. You can start today to make sure 2013 is your best year yet by doing your annual review.

Last year I wrote a post to help you do an annual review, and it was one of my most popular posts.

At the end of this post, I’ll share with you the worksheet so you can do yours.

Why should you do an annual review? 

Doing an annual review is like going to the doctor, optometrist, or dentist. I go to find out if everything is okay and stop any problems before they get out of control.

An annual review can do the same for you.

You need to know what worked and what didn’t work this year. You need to make sure you’re doing more the right things.  You also need to figure out what held you back or slowed you down, so can do less of that or find a way to improve.

Don’t like the results you got this year? Do an annual review to find out what thoughts, behaviors and actions were holding you back.

Ask yourself

• 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, your Instagram feed, Facebook status updates, or anything that will help you remember this past year.

Think about what successes you had. It could be small or big. It’s very easy to forget about those, but it’s important to remember the wins so we can see how much we’ve grown this year.

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. Don’t rush through it. These questions will really make you think. Be honest with your answers. These are just for yourself.

Don’t have too many accomplishments to write down? Then next year make sure you consciously do more. It could be because you’re in your comfort zone too much. Find areas in your life you want to improve and set goals that’ll make you happy if you achieved it.

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

Don’t just fill this out and put it away. I encourage you to put it in a place where you can access it and refer back to it throughout the year. Because you need to remember the parts of your life you said you needed to eliminate or improve.

Download the worksheet now (right click to save)

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, Pinterest, or e-mail it to someone.

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

Finally let me ask:

-How was your 2012? 

-What went well for you and what didn’t in 2012?

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.

Continue Reading…

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? 

Continue Reading…

First, thank you to everyone who read my last post, left a comment, sent me an email, and/or shared it!

I loved reading how it inspired people. I got so many emails from people telling me their story and goals.

It’s been life changing up till the time of my last post. Little did I know, life was going to surprise again me three days after that post.

I published the $4,739 iPhone app week post on a Monday. The next afternoon around 4:30pm, I get an email that said this:

My name is (name removed), and I am writing on behalf of the App Store Marketing Team to request art assets for a potential upcoming promotional opportunity on the App Store.

The team here is excited about Photo 365 – Remember Your Year One Photo at a Time, but we want to be clear that we cannot make any guarantees about promotion on the App Store.  These art assets are necessary for our Design team to have on-hand should App Store featuring for your app be selected by our staff.

For consideration, we would need to receive your artwork no later than 9am PST on Wednesday, August 24th.

I realize this is a extremely short turnaround, but if you are able to accommodate us, please email all artwork to…

Oh….my….goodness. Oh…my….goodness. Oh my goodness!!

Continue Reading…

(If you’re looking how to develop and outsource and app, check out my course App Academy)

Let me explain how I got there…

(Be sure to read part 2: Life as App of the Week and Earnings Report)

This weekend has been on the craziest weekends of my life.

Since Thursday night, every morning has felt like Christmas. I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t wait to get up.

Seven months ago, I knew I had a great idea and I wanted to make money from it but didn’t realize how much money I would make.

It seems my idea and hard work paid off in ways I could not imagine. I’ll explain soon.

Back in the Old Days

For years I have tried to make money online. I have tried PPC, making niche sites and starting blogs. I dreamt of making money online, however, after a few months each of those ventures ended with me quitting.

I got frustrated I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted to see. I had doubts if I could really do it. I lost interest.

I hated my job and constantly thought of what else I could do. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I kept coming back to the idea of doing something online.

Last October 2010, I had my breaking point after a horrible night at my miserable job. For the past five years, I’ve wanted to do something I loved instead of working in the family restaurant business. I hated it so much. I hated what I had done with my life. Instead of doing something about it, I just thought about it and watched lots of television to forget about it.

In the car ride home that night, I felt upset at myself. For too long I hoped for a better life but that’s where I made my mistake. I was hoping and not doing.

That night I came home and wrote a note to myself to stop living like this. I needed to start finding what I wanted to do with my life. I needed to do that every day until I did. No more complaining. No more excuses.

I taped that note to my bathroom mirror and above my desk where I could be reminded it of it every day.

Continue Reading…