11 Actionable Tips to for Creating the Life You Want in 2016
The cold surrounded me and the faint smell of sulphur engulfed me as I walked through the streets. The constant pop of the fireworks a reminder that another year has passed by, that somehow something new is on the way.
No matter how we realise that it’s just one day running into the next, a new year represents a new beginning for many of us.
A reset.
A chance to wipe the slate clean and move forward with renewed vigor.
New goals. (Even if they may be the same ones you didn’t accomplish last year)
Or even a new life in some ways.
Here are eleven simple ways I’ve found that could help you to make 2016 a bit more successful than the year gone by.
Call it a small checklist.
You‘ll find some points here that, should you choose to implement them, you just might make a change in your life and the life of others.
The more of these you put in place, the more success you’re going to attract to you.
Speaking of Success, let’s get clear on what success is. It’s not the fancy car and the big house, and the bling bling, or the scantily clad models.
It could be. But that may not be your version of success.
Jim Rohn said it best, and I’m paraphrasing here;
“If a man’s dream is to live in a log cabin away from the hustle and bustle and go fishing every day, and he’s able to achieve that, then I’d say he’s a smashing success”.
Short version?
Do YOU.
Figure out what YOU want in life and what your version of success is.
That is what’s important.
“There is only one success — to be able to spend your life in your own way.” ~Christopher Morley
Anyhoo, back to the list.
As you go through each point, I think it’s more or less self-explanatory. Either way I’ll add my two cents and follow it up with some possible resources that can help you to solidify that point in your life.
Ok. As I’m not one for fluff, let’s get to it.
Here’s what you can do to be a person of Success.
1. Add Value
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. ~Albert Einstein
Riddle yourself this, are you adding value to people’s lives? Are you adding value to society?
Every day when you wake up think of how you’re going to make someone else’s life better. Is it through a service that you provide, or maybe through information that you share with your followers.
Figure out what talents you have that can make other people’s lives better.
For me I’m trying to bring value to the world by sharing information just like you’re reading right now so that I can help you to feel empowered and confident and live the kind of life that you want.
Build something that other people will value enough to pay for. You’re not just creating a job for yourself; you’re crafting a legacy. ~Chris Guillebeau
2. Make Positive Connections
Think you can go it alone with everything that you do? Think again.
Figure out the people who can help you reach and achieve your goals.
I’m not saying to go brown nosing now; nobody likes people like that.
Go out and meet people in your industry or niche and then be that person who connects others. Building relationships will quickly become the way that you grow your career or business.
Building relationships is, and will always be worth more than just about anything else that you learn in your life. I’d recommend that you check out Keith Ferrazzi’s book Never Eat Alone.
You’d also do yourself a favour picking up Dale Carnegie’s classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Pick up both of these books and it will change the way of how you look at your relationships and you’ll immediately start seeing changes in your life that weren’t there before.
The next step is to find a mentor, someone who is, where you want to be. Someone who is willing to coach you and advise you as you take your steps along your journey in life.
The next group that you should find is your mastermind group. A group of individuals who have similar goals as you, and who are willing to push you to succeed, and to pick you up when you’re down. Napoleon Hill preaches this in Think and Grow Rich, and Jim Rohn knew that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ~Jim Rohn
Are all of these successful leaders wrong? Probably not. They knew the power of relationships.
Start building your network now, go out and find awesome people with similar interests and get to know them. Make their lives better and they will do the same for you.
3. Master Your Mind and Your Relationships
Master the thoughts that occupy your mind.
The strangest secret is that we become what we think about, most of the time. ~Earl Nightingale
Get rid of the negative thoughts that pollute your mind.
Think that you’re fat?
Think that you can’t write a book, fly a plane, surf, run a marathon?
If you keep telling yourself these things, it’s exactly what you can expect to bite you in the ass. A big old piece of nothing and negativity.
If you can change the way you think, just a little bit, it will make a huge difference in your life. Start being most positive.
Be more of the “glass half full” type of person.
Seriously, start pumping positive and motivating information into your mind every day.
Read books, listen to audios.
Heck, if you want more positive vibes in your life sign up for my project HERE.
Secondly,
and keeping with the get rid of negativity topic.
Master your relationships and the people that you interact with.
I touched on this briefly earlier when I said you should surround yourself with positive people. Do this and you’re on the right track.
The hard part though is getting rid of the crabs in your life.
(Tsk…get your mind out of the gutter)
I’m talking about the people in your life who are there to share their daily dose of negativity and spew their vile mindset of scarcity, greed and self-sabotage.
Why do we call them crabs?
Have you ever seen crabs in a bucket? If you have, you’d have noticed that none of them ever actually make it out, even though there is nothing that’s holding them back from climbing right out of the bucket.
Except for the other friendly crabs in the bucket.
You see everyone is climbing on top of each other, thinking only of themselves and because of this as one gets close to the top another grabs him by his little crab legs and drags him back down.
These are exactly the type of people who you don’t want ruining your day and bringing negativity into your life.
Can’t totally get rid of them? (i.e. Family and life long friends)
Then cut back your time with them considerably.
Hey, I have these same types of people in my life as well. (If you’re a friend of mine and you’re reading this and you somehow think it’s you then you might be right and you need to get your ‘ish together ;-)
I have friends who can find all ways to complain about the weather, their job, their life, or maybe even that someone didn’t say Good Morning to them. These little things keep them back from living their life as they rather blame everyone else (and their mama) than take responsibility for their life and happiness.
Don’t let this be you and don’t let these people into your world.
Which brings us to….
4. Manage your Time and Energy Relentlessly
Let’s make this one simple. Time is the only finite resource that you have. No matter how much money you make, you don’t get an ounce more time. It’s simply your most important asset.
The problem with time is that we waste it and then on top of that we allow other people to waste what’s left with random B.S.
Let’s put some simple rules in front of you:
a. If you don’t manage your time, others will manage it for you.
b. Learn the Art of Saying “NO” more often.
c. Be careful of people trying to extract value. These are normally people who just want to take, take, take and they simply don’t “get it”. They don’t get that they need to add value to the world.
d. Become a person of abundance. Become a value adder/value creator.
e. Don’t let people suck your energy and your time. When you’re chasing your dream and trying to make things happen, everyone else is going to want you to click a link or watch a video or buy this or buy that.
Ask yourself, Is this serving me or my business?
I’ll make it simple for you. Probably not.
I’m telling you this because it’s a big thing that I’ve struggled with all the time. It’s not easy working full time and also running your own business. When you’re doing that you have even less time, and you need to manage that bad boy like a scuba diver managing her air.
It’s simple. Spend your time creating.
Making awesome shit that brings value to the world (see #1).
Do this and you’re on the way.
5. Create To Do Lists
I won’t bore you too much here as I think there is enough information on to-do lists to last the next 100 years. You can find more than enough if you Google it.
Here’s what you I suggest you do, though:
a. Make the hardest thing on your list your #1 priority.
That hardest thing many times is the most important thing on your list. Knock it out first and not only is it done but it makes the rest of your list easier to tackle.
b. 95/5 rule (5% critical and 95% Trivial) or even the 80/20 Rule.
I don’t care how you break it down. The point is your business and life is run off of the small and most important things. Using the Pareto principle, we know that 80% of our results come from only 20% of the tasks that we do in our business. Make yourself more efficient and tackle the things that are moving you and your business forward.
Then…
c. Outsource the rest.
That’s right, the other 80% that’s not moving your business or life forward. Outsource that stuff. Let someone else do it.
If you’re in business, become an 80/20 entrepreneur.
The point is to figure out what isn’t serving you and get rid of it.
Hate editing videos in your business? Find someone who loves to do it and pay them to do it.
Hate mowing your lawn? Hire the local kid to do it for you.
Figure out what matters and what doesn’t. Figure out how much your time is worth.
Then do the stuff that makes you come alive.
6. Energy
By now you’ve gotten rid of your negative thoughts and the negative people and now you’re able to better manage your energy without doing crap that you hate, and not listening to the energy draining vampires who’re trying to suck you dry as they spew their negative B.S. on you.
Here are some simple tips:
a. Be positive and enthusiastic about life. People are attracted to this. You’ll feel more confident and have more energy.
b. Some people are negative to the point where you feel physically drained and exhausted just being in their presence. You don’t want to be around these people, and you definitely don’t want them on your team. (See the second part of #3)
c. Be passionate about what you do. What you’re doing should be your purpose in your life. Go after it.
d. Portray hope to the market. Show people that you’re excited about life and what you’re doing.
Look some of these may not seem that easy.
I’ll be straight with you, they’re not.
There was a time when I “parked”. (I love that term from Les Brown.)
I’ve always wanted to use it, and it comes in handy here.
A few years ago I had an 11-year relationship go to crap, my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and I was moving to a new country, all more or less at the same time.
Ten months later I was burying my mother.
Business, as much as I tried to make it seem otherwise, was the last thing on my mind.
I parked.
Everything shut down. Hell, I even forgot to renew my own personal website domain. (Not so good when you have an online business)
For months, no matter what I tried to do I just couldn’t get moving again.
I had no energy, and I was depressed and starting to become negative.
I’m telling you this because you may well be feeling the same way right now.
You’re parked and need a little boost to get going again.
It’s all good.
First just recognize where you are today.
Then follow everything you’ve read so far and rediscover your passion.
Take that first step.
7. Have a Mission and a Vision
Find focus in what you’re going after. Figure out your goals and what it is you’re really aiming for with your life and your business.
Start dreaming again.
Decide what you want to do and accomplish in this world and make it your mission.
Maybe you want to eradicate cancer. Or bring clean water to those who need it.
All of that is great, but you don’t reach those goals unless it’s a part of what you’re moving towards every day and a part of this big dream that’s in the back of your mind.
You also need to not be afraid to say NO to anything that does not fit your vision.
I’ll give you an example.
I spent a great four years in the Network Marketing industry.
After I “parked” I knew this was just not what I wanted to do any longer and not how I wanted to build my business.
Since I have a huge network in the industry, I always have people hitting me up asking me if I want to join the latest and greatest business so that I can make a Gazillion Billion dollars.
I’m quite polite with it because I know how tough the industry can be. The point is though that it simply does not fit my vision any longer, so I have no problem just saying “No thanks.”
I suggest you do the same.
Don’t waste your time being “nice” and wasting your time and other people’s time, doing stuff that you know does not serve your purpose and your vision.
I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. ~George Burns
8. Care
This one is simple. Just give a shit.
Just show up and give a damn and you’ll be way ahead of the competition.
Care about the work that you’re doing and the people that you’re doing it for.
Care about the people who work with you or for you.
Care for your family, your friends, even the people you meet on the street.
This is what the world needs more of. People like you and me who give just a little bit of a shit.
Just enough to make a difference in the world.
9. Never Stop Learning
If you want to be successful, you’ll have to commit to learning until the day you drop dead, and that finite time that we talked about earlier has come to its inevitable end.
Commit to your craft
It’s not that hard to become an expert in your industry. It’s not hard to take your life and your business to another level.
Read five books on just about any topic and you’ll be ahead of around 98% of everyone else in your industry.
Why?
Because people just aren’t willing to do the work.
They aren’t willing to miss an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” to read and learn something that will move their life or business forward.
They’re not willing to NOT surf Facebook and miss dancing cats when they’re on their morning commute and instead learn a new way to market their business or learn a new life skill.
Not you though, you should listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks.
Read as many books as you can. Be a student. Be Humble. Learn all you can and never stop.
Be sure that when you’re learning you’re not only learning about your craft but also learning about yourself.
What your strengths are, your weaknesses and what the things are that bring out the best in you.
Have no clue?
Go read Strengths Finder 2.0 and it will help you figure out those pesky internal questions that you have.
10. Gratitude
This is probably one of the smallest changes that you can make in your day to day life that will bring some of the biggest results.
Being thankful and showing gratitude has an amazing effect on all that you’ll do. You’ll feel like an entirely new person as you realize that life is better that most of us think it is.
Start a small gratitude log, and every day write down all the good things that happened that you were grateful for. There’s nothing like realizing that the brilliant sunset that you experienced earlier actually made your day.
Or the stranger who held the door for you, flashed their brilliant smile and made you feel that not everyone in the world is an asshole.
These are the small things that make life better.
Be thankful for them.
I’m thankful if you’re reading this and even more so if it’s helpful to you.
I realize that everything here might not be new, and it sure as hell isn’t rocket science.
However, I’ve found that sometimes we just need the right things to reach us at the right time.
This might well be your time.
And to finish it all off…
11. Take Action
Start.
Don’t give a damn whether it’s perfect.
Just get started on your goals.
If you have an idea…
Get started.
Do something.
Just don’t sit around and procrastinate and miss out on all that you have to unleash on the world.
I’m telling you this because, embarrassingly, I’ve been parked many times.
So I’m not just some teacher standing above you, wagging my finger at your five-year-old self.
I’m the dude next to you struggling from time to time with things in my life as well.
I started. So can you.
Let’s do it!
In this poem, Ralph Waldo Emerson defines success as well as anyone can:
I wish you every success.
P.S. If you’ve made it this far and enjoyed this piece inspired you somehow, it would be super cool and appreciated if you recommended this post (just punch that ❤ button) so other people can check it out.
A version of this article first appeared on my blog.
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