2010: Your Best Year Yet. The Director's Cut. For The Truly Dedicated, Only.

1. Nobody can go back and start a new beginning but anyone can start today and make a new ending.  Maria Robinson.
2. 2009 was pretty damn amazing and yet you know you haven’t released anywhere near your full potential yet. You absolutely know you haven’t! So, that’s going to be your 2010 ‘thing’. Full Potential. Full On. Finally.
3. Because you don’t need New Year Resolutions; you simply don’t need to hang around for some ceremony. They are simply a nice trigger. Pencil, paper…start writing. What do you want? No really, really want?
4. When you have decided: get on with it. A decision is not a decision until you have taken an action.
5. 2010 is your real breakthrough year. Breaking through the conditioning which is holding you back. Some of it from high-school, some of it from college, some of it from parents. Crappy feed-back from a crappy manager at some stage, perhaps. What the heck?! There is a level of freedom which is deeper that just a long-weekend surfing in fantastic waters. A level of freedom which is greater than just the sun on you back.  Even than having 10,000 dollars free and easy to spend. To attain that freedom requires some risk and fear. And some people-heaven forbid-not liking you for what you are trying to do. Are you up for it? Clearly:  because the journey is as much if not more than the destination.
6. It’ll be the year of your book. It may or may not be published; it may or may not be a best-seller.  But you are going to write your heart out: what’s your mission, your manifesto, your passion? People don’t get it: the publication isn’t the thing (when you run a marathon, do people say: did you win?). No:  it’s the clear,  current and insistent expression of you; writing will clarify it, determine it and action it. 60,000 words or so about why you are on the planet. That’ll give you focus. Sound a lot? Not enough, actually, when you get going: rain or shine; early or late; one coffee when you start and the second when you finish your 1500 words a day to make the world a better place. Here’s your complete tool-kit: strategy; tactics.
7. It’s the year when you finally get it: it’s down to you. Does that frighten you? Or release you?  Sure school wasn’t bad, the degree helped. And m a y b e you will do an MBA. But you know what, deep down? Success doesn’t correlate that strongly with educational qualifications. Nor even with good ol’ IQ. It does with realising: ‘it’s down to me’. Make it happen. Don’t wait for politicians (ha-ha, as if you would), the lottery (what: are you serious?) or that recruitment consultant to ring you back (whatever bulls*it he gave you about your cool CV). Don’t wait for ‘an improving economy’, until you have a bigger study, you’ve moved out to the country, moved back into the city, sorted this relationship….. Things aren’t perfect: Life needs a bit of Wabi Sabi (…’one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete’-Leonard Koren) to make it truly complete. Immerse yourself in Professionalism101.
8. You’re going to breakthrough on your wellness. You are going to make sure you have so much energy you see sun-rise every morning, that you walk almost everywhere, lifts are for wimps and a cluster of ten press-ups is simply something you do while waiting for the copy machine to dispense its sheets.  Your sheer presence is enough to bring a meeting to its senses, a presentation to rush to action and any bar-tender, anywhere in the world, to serve you immediately.
9. 2010 will continue to be tough. Very tough in some parts of the world. Very, very tough in some markets. But you can be tougher.
10. Play Heroes by David Bowie. Louder.
11. Now Back in the USSR by The Beatles. How's that air guitar?
12. Fun and contribution are going to be integral to you new 2010 version Life. Fun as in what’s the point if you are not having fun? You’ll restart your band or join the Latin American dance class (hey they need more men…and have you seen some of the girls who attend…) or clean up your touring bicycle. You’ll be so outrageous101 in 2010. And contribution as in how can I help the growth of others? There are some good people in your team: a bit of coaching would do wonders…And you’re going to have more impact on saving the planet than a dozen Copenhagen conferences by never ever purchasing a bottle of still water. Unless you’re in a certain part of the world where it really is necessary for your health. Like Paris.
13. Never mistake activity for achievement. John Wooden.
14. It’s the year where you will gain real wealth. Soft wealth that is: great relationships, time to travel, health, feeling valued, walking by the shore, holding hands with the one you love, waking up without an alarm, trying water-colours without feeling you have to get it right, time with the kids…. Anyone can get their hands on the hard stuff (money). But when they do, they only want it for the soft stuff, so why not short-circuit the process?
15. After all:
16. What is success? To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people And the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics And endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by A healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed Easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson
17. You’ll learn how to cope with Entropy, Uncertainty and Strange Attractors.
18. It’s the year where you stop talking, any form of procrastination and get on with it . You’ll set up a mission control centre which puts 24’s CTU to shame. Jack and even Tony would be proud of you. Charts, plans, notebooks, high-lighters, arrows, goals and TTD (things to do)….And you are going to start today. Oh boy, are you going to have fun. And watch them wonder what happened.
19. Who wills, can. Who tries, does. Who loves, lives. Anne McCaffrey
20. Nobody’s going to mess with you anymore. If it needs a reading of a great book on assertiveness from the library, so be it. But you’re going home on time. You’re going to get meetings back on track. Life’s too short otherwise.
21. It’ll be the year you strip down: a new lean, mean and  focused you with a quest for simplicity whilst avoiding the simplistic. It’s all in the Instant Brilliant Travel Kit.
22. The mechanics on time management can finally be ditched because you are in such Zen-like state that what needs to get done. Well, it just does get done.
23. It’s the year when you decide the measures. You stop worrying about what others think. So the car is pretty awful for a year or two while you get your business going and the neighbours are making comments. So? 
24. Seriously, so?
25. The Moleskine will never leave your side as you are bubbling with great ideas…
26. A year from now you’ll wish you had started today. Karen Lamb.
27. Oh and there’s no way you’re going to lose this list. Is there? The refrigerator would be good place to put it: use the kids magnetic letters (N, O and W would be good choices). Taped to the back of your Iphone, too. And just for good measure one on the dash-board of your truck and one attached to the handle of your gym-bag.
28. The potential Planet Earth offers for Earthlings is extraordinary. They just have to leave the daily bubble.
29. The air is good.
30. We’re sorted. We’re ready. Bring it on.