Don Modekali

Tag: 2014 resolutions

  • 2014 Goals: 83 Percent Failure

    2014 Goals: 83 Percent Failure

    2014-goals-failure

    I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle I make mistakes but learn from every one…Tupac Shakur (Ghetto Gospel)

    June 19th, 2015.  It’s just 195 days remaining to the end of the year.

    Being that we’re halfway through 2014, I figured it was time to take stock of what I have accomplished since January. My reality check will be with regards to the goals I’d sent for myself this year.

    But taking stock, I have to say I have been terrible with achieving goals.  This admission is not supposed to get me off the hook for what is coming. However, it is the truth. I can hardly remember when I last set goals and achieved them.

    Life happens. Things come that distract you along way on your journey to your destination. Goals, oh goals. Why art thou so hard to be achieved?

    At this time, I feel that the year has gone too fast. All the goals that I’d set to achieve now seem way out of reach. This is not to mean that I am just bumming catching up with the latest Game of Thrones episode. No. I am always working…running up and down, doing projects here and there.

    Slowly but steadily, I’ve found myself slipping from  the goals I had hoped to achieve. I still have 195 more days to go. Perhaps I will make them count. But at this time, from the looks of things, it seems like this post is a precursor to an admission of defeat. Being unable to achieve what I had hoped to. And it feels awful, trust me.

    Let’s go through the goals I’d set to achieve, one by one and an overview of where I am in my quest to achieving them.

    My 2014 Goals and How I’m Doing With Them

    Here is a review of the now seemingly-Goliath goals I’d set to achieve this year.

    1. Travel More

    Traveling has always been on my to do list. You must have seen one of those posts where they talk about what people regret on traveltheir death beds. One of them is not traveling when they had a chance.

    The best time to travel is when we are young. I’m 27, not getting any younger. This is the time I need to travel.

    My 2014 traveling goal was to visit different places around Kenya. I had the plans, but work has a funny way of creeping into our plans.  I planned to visit 12 towns (at least one every month) during the year. Apart from this, I planned to visit a yet-to-be-decided country. Somewhere far.

    Reality Check: So far, I’ve only visited one town this year; Mombasa. I was in Mombasa from 18th April to second week of June. It was fun. I loved it. Now, that is what a holiday is supposed to be like.

    Remaining Goals: I am yet to visit 11 more towns and one country.  Anyone with ideas on where to visit? Let me know in the comment section below.

    Percentage completeness: 10%

     

    2. Network More

    The second goal this year was to network more. I set out to build meaningful connections with people that can help me grow. I planned to use social media to reach these people.

    Well, I have made absolutely zero new connections this year. Yes, I’ve met some awesome people online and offline. But these people are not the “mentors” I was looking for. Turns out I suck at making connections online. Guess I should just stick to the old fashioned meet-me-in-a-bar connection.

    For anyone living the laptop lifestyle (you can call it internet lifestyle, travel lifestyle or any other fancy word), we thrive on virtual networking. I’ve made some amazing friends online, mostly through Facebook. I’ve also connected with a number of people in Kenya doing online marketing through my two groups that I admin: Online Entrepreneurs Kenya (For Online Writers) and Team Inbound (For Affiliate Marketers)

    Reality Check: I suck at making friends. Getting mentors is even going to be harder. Naturally, I’m an introvert. Perhaps I should just let the stars take their course in this mentor thing.

    Remaining Goals: Connect with at least 5 mentors

    Percentage completeness: 0%

    3. Work on my online businesses

    online-businessMy online businesses have been keeping me busy for the past six months. This is only natural given that I earn my income from doing online jobs. It has been six months of a roller coaster. I started out with an aim to expand my content marketing business. My initial goal was to sign up at least five high net clients by the end of the year.

    Now, things haven’t gone as planned. I have 4 clients at the moment, but they are not high net worth as I wished. Don’t get it twisted, the clients are good. They pay well. One is a SaaS billing company, one is a MS Dynamics consultant, one a small business consultant and one is an inbound marketing company.

    What I love about working with these clients is that I am slowly taking over their online operations, which means more income along the way. I initially started blogging for them but I’m now involved in running part of their online campaigns. I’m doing their graphics, email marketing, analytics and SEO.

    Feeling pretty good about myself 🙂

    Another goal was to create at least 5 niche sites by the end of the year. At this time, I have only finished creating one niche site, which coincidentally, is the the subject of my Niche Site Case Study

    Reality Check: I have four clients, who are not really high net worth in my definition (i.e. their contracts are worth less than $3000 per month). I can’t complain though. They are paying well. I should however look for at least one high net worth client.

    Remaining Goals: Connect with at least 1 high net worth client. Finish 4 niche sites and make them profitable.

    Percentage completeness: 60%

    4. Learn French

    Oh my…I’ve not done well with my goal to learn French. I started out well, listening to Michael Thomas French lessons. However, along the way, I just fell off track. The biggest mistake I made is removing the audio book from my phone. I should get it back.

    My approach to learning the language is to be able to communicate on the basic level. I do not have not set aside any specific time to listen to the audiobooks. I simply plug on my earphones and listen to some lessons as I’m walking to the bus stop, during lunch breaks and sometimes when I’m in the matatu (bus).

    The lessons are great and I can understand some sentences and even construct some. The biggest let down is that I do not know the spellings of various words or even how to construct written sentences since I’m listening to an audio book. This shouldn’t be a major concern though since I have a huge library of French lessons in PDF files. I believe they will feature somewhere in my learning.

    Reality Check: I started out well. I fell off along the way. It’s time to dust myself and get back on track to achieving this goal

    Remaining Goals: Finish the Micheal Thomas French lessons audio book

    Percentage completeness: 30%

     

    5. Read 12 books

    There is a popular phrase in Kenya that goes something like this; if you want to hide something from a Kenyan, hide it in a book.read-books

    This phrase reflects the poor reading culture we have. In January, my goal was to read at least one book every month. This is very achievable if I can spare at least an  hour every day to read. Heck, I can even devour a book in one sitting over the weekend.

    My first book to read this year was The Art of War by Tsu Tzu. I have the ebook on my phone and to be honest, it was very confusing. What I have is like a review of the book. So, I just got bored of reading the history-like review of the book. Perhaps I got the wrong book? I don’t know. If you’ve read the book, please tell me in the comments whether it’s worth reading.

    With my failure to read The Art of War, I’ve not been able to read any other book over the last six months.

    Reality Check: I need to set a routine for reading. Perhaps late night before going to bed? Or maybe on weekends during the day?

    Remaining Goals: Read 12 books

    Percentage completeness: 2%

     

    6. Martial Arts

    Okay, this painstakingly wraps my goals for 2014. And as has been the trend with the other 5 goals, I have not achieved much. The closets I have gone to implementing this goal is buying some Silat and Muay Thai training DVDs, some of which I have not even watched up to today.

    In case you are interested, I bought the following Muay Thai DVDs from Amazon:

    Mechanics of Thailand’s Muay Thai: Basics Part 1 (2007)

    Muay Thai Part 2 Mechanics of Kicking Knees and Blocking

    Muay Thai vol. 3 Saekson Janjira Mechanics and Drills 

    Learning martial arts has been another epic failure over the last 6 months. What’s my excuse this time? Time. I just don’t have time to study martial arts. I guess the remedy would be to create a definite practice time like I have to with reading books.

    Reality Check: I consider this my worst failure. I have not made any effort to achieve this goal over the past 6 months. Shame on me.

    Remaining Goals: Learn Muay Thai and Silat

    Percentage completeness: 0%

    The Way Forward

    way-forwardThere are 6 more months remaining to the end of the year. I can feel some tings of cold feet setting in on some of the goals. That part of the brain that tells me I cannot do it seems to be getting stronger every day.

    I can only hope that from tomorrow henceforth, I will strive to get back on track  to achieving the goals I’d set. May this blog post be a reminder that I need to commit myself to achieve all the goals I’ve set.

    Have you achieved any of the goals you set out for the year? If so, I’d like to know. Please comment below and let’s connect. I’d be especially interested to know what you do to stay motivated and on track to achieving your goals. Share your insights.

    Until next time amigos, stay winning!

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  • My Goals for 2014

    My Goals for 2014

    2014-goalsIt’s already 10 days in the New Year, but this is the time I am writing this year’s goals. Honestly, I’ve had the goals in my mind. I’ve written them on my diary, informally though. I feel by writing them on this blog, I will be able to be more accountable and committed towards achieving them.

    The thing with goals is that they are damn hard to achieve without discipline. It’s just like when you are looking to quit smoking or any other addictive habit. Over the past years, I have consistently failed to achieve most of the goals I put for myself. Life happens, I get busy, plans get disrupted and in a flash, the year is over again.

    This year, I want to do it differently. I want to achieve the goals I set.

    The Plan

    As I grow older, I think the most important thing I am learning is that simplification triumphs almost everything. For example, you may be in a situation that seems almost impossible to get out. You know, when things are just not working and the universe seems to conspire to make you a slave and block all your efforts at achieving what you want.

    I’ve been there. And over time, the three most important things I’ve come to learn are “stay calm and breathe)-SCAB.

    It almost always works.

    Now, I don’t have a background in psychology or any human behavior rational discipline, but I know my SCAB method works. Now, back to the topic at hand; setting goals.

    I have a couple of goals for 2014 and I have a plan to achieve them. The plan is simple; simplify stuff. There is no need to be complicated.

    With every goal I have, I will simplify it into smaller “tasks” or goals that can be finished within a specific timeline (7 to 14 days). This way, I can mark my progress and stay on track to achieving the goal without feeling overwhelmed by the gargantuan huge end goal.

    I will be reviewing my goals from time to time as I accomplish them or as situations change. This is not just a 2014 goal stunt that I am trying to pull. It’s something that I hope I will be able to follow through my life. Sounds good? Great. Now to the goals

    My 2014 Goals

    And now, here are my goals for 2014.

    1. Travel More

    travel-more

    Yes, I have always loved traveling. One of my favorite people on this planet is Lauren Rains (check her blog at The Mad to Live). She loves the travel lifestyle. The secret to being happy is to find what you love and follow it, regardless of what fears you may have.

    This year, I plan to travel more. First, in my beautiful country Kenya and hopefully, visit a different country. I plan to visit at least 12 towns in Kenya (one per month). Also, At least one of my goals is to visit a faraway country (Thailand, anyone?) by the end of the year.

    2. Network More

    It’s been 3 years since I graduated from university. From the on-start, I knew the Bachelor’s Degree in Economics that I was studying was not going to apply to my career after school. I knew I was study a course that I will not use in future. Now and again, three years on, I find asking myself whether I should have quit school early rather than going through the 4 years of study. That’s a story for another day.

    This year, I am looking to create meaningful connections with people that will help me grow. I will network more and try to form real bonds with mentors or leaders that can help me with insight in business and life. How I’ll do this, I don’t know yet. Using social media perhaps. I just followed one inspiring person from Kenya, Heshan de Silva.

    3. Work on My Online Businesses

    Yes, I work online. I have my own content marketing company (InboundMark.com). This year, I want to take things to the next level. At least, I look towards maintaining some good accounts and increasing my clients. Apart from this, I will work on my passive income sites. I hope to have at least 5 niche sites getting over $500 per month in passive income by the end of the year.

    I also want to build my content marketing business brand, create partnerships with other businesses and simply kick ass with the revenues.

    4. Learn French

    I have always wanted to learn a foreign language. To me, French is an learnfrenchobvious choice because I did some basic lessons more than a decade ago when I was in high school. By the end of the year, I want to be proficient in French (or at least be able to construct meaningful sentences and understand French text and conversations).

    I can always go for professional lessons at our local Alliance Françoise office in Eldoret but given my work schedule, I believe I can do well with a couple of PDFs and audiobooks. One of my friends has given me his Michael Thomas French lessons (costs $146 on Amazon). I will use this, and other PDFs to get the language thing going on.

    5. Read 12 Books

    The last time I read a book to the end was sometime back in 2011. The book was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

    This year, I plan to read more books to completion. And my magic goal number is 12. (one book per month). I will be doing Kindle and PDF books for one main reason: I already have quite a collection of good books in my collection. (4HourWorkWeek, Blue Ocean Strategy, The War of Art, and a couple more.)

    I am yet to decide which books to include in my “to read” list. If you have suggestions, let me know on the comment box.

    Disclaimer: I stole this idea from Spencer Haws from NichePursuits.com

    6. Martial Arts

    When I was in my teens, I had some lessons on Tae-Kwon-do. However, I never go to finish the training though I’m still proficient in some of the basic skills I learned. Now, more than 10 years later, I am getting back to martial arts. I am looking to Muay Thai or Silat…haven’t made up my mind yet.

    I want to study martial arts for the health benefits and fighting skills. I have to find a local instructor over here in Eldoret to teach me martial arts or I will buy some DVDs.

    So, there are my 2014 goals. I hope I will have the discipline to and dedication to get the goals accomplished.

    Are my goals realistic? Do you have any tips that will help me be more productive and be able to achieve these goals? Let me know by commenting below.

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