Don Modekali

Tag: new year resolutions

  • My Goals for 2015

    My Goals for 2015

    “Life passes most people by while they are still making grand plans for it.” – Quote from the movie Blow (2001)

    2015-goals

    January is almost over and I just realized I haven’t written anything this year. First off, cheers to the New Year. I’m glad you made it. May your year be much successful than 2014 was.

    Today, I wanted to lay down my 2015 goals.

    I remember writing my 2014 goals just like it was yesterday. Funny how time flies.

    Now, looking back at the goals I set last year, I don’t know whether to make an excuse or be sad for not accomplishing them. I out rightly said it in the last sentence, I DIDN’T ACCOMPLISH MY 2014 GOALS.

    I have no excuse for not accomplishing the goals. Time flies, things happened and I just lost track. Anyway, here is a recap of my 2014 goals and how I fared:

    Build 10 Niche Sites– Fail (I only built 2 niche sites. One got hit by the Penguin update and has been totally neglected from my activities)

    Read 12 Books– Too bad. I never even finished one book. I once had gotten immersed into the Art of War by San Tzu because it came installed on my HTC Desire. But I think the book disappointed me. Reading it felt like I was reading a college research paper. Maybe it’s the version I got or something…but with all the praise I’ve had about the book, I wasn’t impressed. I may try to read it again this year.

    Networking – This started out well. I networked with a couple of Kenyan internet entrepreneurs at the beginning of 2014. We used to have Skype meeting and Google Hangouts but then, the networking never really took off. I guess everyone was busy with their own projects. I however still consider myself friend with some of them, like Walter Akolo (check his blog here: FreelancerKenya.com)

    Learn Martial Arts– I did all the ground work needed to get started with martial arts. This mean having a training time table, getting the necessary instructional videos, etc. But somewhere along the way, I just lost track. You see, training martial arts after a long day at work is not something that goes well with me. Most of the times, I arrived home too tired to even cook, so how could I even train?

    Don Modekali in Arusha
    You can’t say you’ve been to Arusha, Tanzania if you don’t take a photo at the Monument!

    Travel the world– I did travel to Mombasa in May, 2014.  I know that is not what I meant by “travel the world’, but that was the best experience I had in a long time. I stayed a whooping one and a half months in Mombasa and had the best days of my life.

    Coming to traveling to different countries, I only managed to go to Tanzania. This was during the Christmas holidays. I was in Tanzania (TZ) for 11 days. Nice trip and got to learn the power of CouchCurfing. If you plan to travel to a different country on a budget, try CouchSurfing.

    Check some pics on my Instagram.

    Build My Content Marketing Business– Yes, my goal was to build the content marketing business. Needless to say, I did not achieve much on this front too. I remained with the same clients and had trouble outsourcing some of the tasks that needed to be done. Also, being busy with my own projects let me neglect much of the content marketing client acquisition that was to be done.

    Overall, I failed to reach my 2014 goals. I may have tried some goals, even started some, but along the way, I just failed to commit to them entirely and this made me not achieve them.

    My 2015 Goals

    2015 is here and it’s time for some brand new goals. 😀

    For me, my 2015 goals will simply be a continuation of the goals that I didn’t achieve in 2014. The goals I set last year are still relevant to my personal and business life and so it only makes sense that they should be part of my goals.

    So, in a nutshell, these are my goals for 2015:

    1. Travel More (Last year, I visited Tanzania. This year, I’m looking to go to Zambia or Malawi)

    2. Newtwork More (This year, I’m building my online business network. Gotta get serious with this thing.)

    3. Work on My Online Business (I need a plan on this)

    4. Learn French (I got all the resources I need. I just need to be committed to learning)

    5. Read 12 Books (I don’t know how I’m going to start this)

    6. Learn Martial Arts (Long shot, I guess. But it still made it to the list of goals).

    Apart from the above, I have a few more goals I would like to achieve. Perhaps creating additional goals, especially on the business side of things, is just creating distractions like Bill Murphy from Forever Jobless says here. However, I know success requires people to go against the grain. If I plan and execute, I believe I will be able to achieve most of the goals.

    So, here are the additional goals I have for 2015:

    • Launch a course on Udemy
    • Create a PPL (pay per lead) business
    • Build Rank Heat to a client SEO services provider
    • Start saving for a rainy day
    • Launch an Ecommerce store
    • Build one authority website
    • Start a subscription based business

    There we go, my goals for 2015.

    I hope this time I will not lose track along the way and fail.

    What are you hoping to achieve in 2015? I’d live to read your posts. Leave a link on the comment section below.

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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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