Start 2010 Resolved

by S. Anthony Iannarino on January 1, 2010

Welcome to 2010!

Now that it is here, what are you going to do with it?

Because I am a goal-oriented person, I don’t make a whole lot of resolutions on January 1st. I am making new goals and taking new actions all year long. But I do think this is a perfect time to do a little reflecting and to outline some rules to guide all of your activities and your goals in the coming year. The top two on my list in 2010 are:

Self Discipline

I believe that self discipline is the foundation of all success, regardless of the endeavor. I am a fairly disciplined individual (and all disciplined people wish they were more disciplined), but I am going to use 2010 to increase and improve my personal will and self discipline. Self discipline is about keeping the promises one makes to one’s self. It is the cornerstone of personal and professional development. And it is the one attribute that all other attributes are built upon.

Isn’t self-discipline what “resolved” really means? I am going to spend a lot of time working on and writing about self-discipline in 2010.

Passionate Engagement

One observation I have made over the past couple years is the difference in the performance of those who are passionately engaged in what they are doing and those who dabble. The highest performers aren’t a little more passionate or a little more engaged. The highest performers bring a shockingly higher level of passion and engagement to all of their endeavors. They don’t waste time simply going through the motions. Instead, they bring their whole self to each and every endeavor. They commit to being there, completely absorbed in the activity, whatever it may be.

It’s easy to be passionately engaged sometimes, especially when you are doing something that is new to you. It’s much harder to bring that same passionate engagement to the basic activities that most of us do on auto-pilot and with little thought or engagement.

Those are my two driving rules for 2010? What are yours?