Let’s Finish 2012 Off Strong

With the year over halfway gone, many might be noticing that their objectives and goals for 2012 haven’t come to fruition yet. The resolutions didn’t pan out, the universe threw curve balls, and here we are — disgruntled with some aspect of our lives. Now we could coast by and wait until late December, then write out our 2013 resolutions. We could hope that while it hasn’t worked in the past, the start of a new year will skyrocket our productivity to unseen heights. But let’s be real. January 1^st isn’t a one-of-a-kind day in which we blow in the cartridge, hit reset and suddenly have a fresh start. In fact, many spend their New Year’s Day on the couch or in bed, recuperating.

Bottom line: the issues and unfinished business you have on December 31^st will still be there January 1^st, and so on. I don’t blame anyone though. It’s easy to put making an effort on hold, leaving your future self to deal with the repercussions of your laziness. I advise you not to do that. In fact, let’s do the opposite of relax. No cruise control mode, no allowing ourselves to take our foot off of the gas — lets bum rush success’ door and attempt to kick it down by the end of the year. I firmly believe that we all can do so by following a few key practices.

Figure out the goals, and relentlessly seek them out. Whether it’s your small or sizable goals, own them. They already belong to you, so all you’re about to do is take what’s yours. There’ll be times when watching TV, getting extra sleep or doing a whole lot of nothing will seem highly enticing. If your mindset will allow you to take a nap over working vigorously on a future goal, that’s a bad sign. Change it. Force yourself to be more persistent. If there’s something you want, that others want too, how can you sleep knowing that they might be awake working? This is fully dependent on you and your own will power, but the only way to kill it for the rest of this year is to go after your desires with the mindset of a bulldozer.

Just keep swimming. For a phrase spoken by an animated fish in a children’s movie, just keep swimming holds tremendously deep meaning. In all likelihood, you’ll face some type of adversity within the next 24 hours. If you’re lucky it’ll be something minor and the day will end up being a fairly routine one. In less fortunate cases, a large bump will appear in the road, throwing a monkey wrench in your plans. These testy times leave us with the options of playing victim or overcoming our obstacle. Miniature catastrophes and things going awry are nothing more than a test of your character. When hardships decide to rear their ugly head, swim right over, under, to the side, or through them.

Make note of who’s in, and who’s in the way. The narrow-minded naysayers who speak discouraging things like, “be realistic” are unwelcome. Avoid spending time around these people at all costs. You need to surround yourself with believers and encouragement. If the people you’re around most of the time aren’t determined go-getters, it could legitimately influence your work ethic. Those who support the efforts and goals that you wish to accomplish for the rest of 2012 are acceptable to spend time with. Anyone else is simply an obstruction.

We have ourselves a good chunk of time to do something with — let’s not waste it. This isn’t just power of positive thinking, envisioning-type encouragement. It’s about actually grabbing what you desire and snatching it into your possession. Wanting things isn’t bad. But sometimes it’s helpful to get aggressive with it. Decide that the rest of 2012 doesn’t know what it has coming. If we all make a firm decision to absolutely destroy everything thrown at us (in a good way) then the sky is the limit. Hell, there is no limit. Don’t waste time, folks. Take today to create a clear, concise plan — then immediately begin your persistent, unstoppable quest to finishing this year in hot pursuit, or in possession of your ambitions.