I can’t believe that the year is over.  What a crazy year it has been too!  Before I share my goals for 2010, I want to review the goals I set for myself in 2009 and see how well I did with each goal.

1. Work out for a minimum of 30 minutes EVERY day.

Well, this goal started out extremely well.  In fact I didn’t miss a day until our first child was born in April.  I had dropped about 10-15 pounds and seemed to be well on my way.  Unfortunately, other things took precedence as I pushed this goal to the side.

Final Grade:  D

Final Thoughts:  It would be and F, but I cannot forget that I did go for a quarter of the year without missing a workout.  If anything, I showed myself that I can do it.  I just need to put my mind to it.

2. Start an online business or businesses.

This goal was more of an aspiration to do something different.  I moved my blog onto this site and monetized it (check out the ads) to hopefully bring in a little bit of cash.  But overall, this goal was a miss.  I learned alot about online businesses through my experience with building this site and studied various outlets and realized it is much harder than I expected to bring in a constant revenue stream.  I am sure if I didn’t have a full plate for the majority of the year and I had more free time, this might be something I could achieve.  But it takes alot of work.  Work that I was unmotivated to do for one reason or another.

Final Grade: D-

Final Thoughts:  Again this is not an outright F because of the fact that I have this site to show for my hard work.  Though I have only brought in less than ten dollars from ad clicks on this site.  Essentially, it is an online business.

3. Surpass my goal to 10k in poker.

Finally, a goal that I achieved outright.  At the turn of last year my online poker bankroll was in the range of 1k.  In fact it was still around 1.5k around June.  That is when I had my first big win.  I won a seat to the World Series of Poker playing the step system on what was basically a freeroll.  I started from step 1, only using frequent player points.  When it was all said and done, I had a bankroll over 12k in June.

I started playing 5 card draw on a more frequent basis after my win and was doing quite well for myself from July to the end of the year.  Unfortunately, some pretty rough stints in multi-table tournaments and other cash games made my bankroll barely increase, if at all.  But then that is when a couple of big breaks came.  I won 2 seats to the PCA for 15k a piece by playing in a couple multi-table tournaments by using a few step 5 tickets I had left over from my WSOP steps attempt from back in June.

Final Grade: A+

Final Thoughts:  I made a substantial amount more than my goal from just June until the end of the year.  It was definitely a good year in poker for me.  I am leaving for the Bahamas soon for the PCA as almost like a celebration of my achievements for the year.

4. Eat healthier.

Sigh,was there ever an attempt at this?  Not really.  I didn’t do much to achieve this goal.  Though I feel I am eating less fast food today than I was this time last year, I still am not eating what I think to be a healthy diet.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is something that I would still like to do.   I just hope that I make a better effort than I did over the past year.

5. Get on a better sleep schedule.

Lol, yeah right!  My poker playing can keep me up quite late some nights, and add in the fact that we have a baby in the house now….this goal seems almost unachievable.  If poker was something I could do more on a full time basis and not have only a few hours to play at night, I could see getting on a better sleep schedule.  I have other goals that are conflicting with this one as I have a full time job that takes all the time in the day and I need to be able to play poker at sometime, that sometime is after the baby is asleep.

Final Grade: F

Final Thoughts:  This is not as important to me as it once was.  I do feel like I am on a pretty decent sleep schedule, just not decent as most would see it.  If some things are able to change in the future, I can assure you I will take a stab at being on a better, more healthy sleep schedule.

Overall

Well, I guess it looks like I failed more than I passed.  I only really achieved one of my goals.  But the goal I did achieve I surpassed with flying colors and am still pleased with myself overall.  I hope that I can achieve my other goals to some extent in the future.  Unfortunately, some things have changed and I need to take priority on other goals.  Come back in the next couple of days, and I will share with you my goals for 2010.

The Goal and The Underlying Motive

One of my New Year’s resolutions for ’09 was to become more active.  I set a goal to workout or do some type of physical activity for at least 30 minutes every day.

Since I have left the life of being a student-athlete in college, I have seen the pounds slowly add up and the bad habits multiply.  It was getting to the point where all I was doing on a daily basis was sitting and eating, no exercise whatsoever.  This goal is my attempt to win back my life and prevent myself from slipping deeper into the hole.

Plan of Attack

When this goal first started at the turn of the year, I told myself that I am not necessarily looking to lose weight.  I am just looking to be healthier.  With this mindset, it is less likely I become discouraged for the lack of weight loss.  Discouragement that could lead to quitting this good habit.

The plan was to use the eliptical machine my wife and I have if the weather was unfavorable or to go for a run outside.  That is of course if I didn’t already have an activity planned for that day such as playing softball or raking the leaves.  Even the slightess activity can become more strenuous if you make it your purpose to workout.

Update

Some days have been tougher than others to keep up with my goal.  In fact, I had to miss one week when Stacy Ann was born.  But I think that was a pretty good reason to put this goal of mine sidelined for a while.

Outside of the week my first child was born and two days around the untimely death of my grandmother that I hadn’t seen in a few years, I have not missed a day.  I am proud to say that I have made it a part of my daily routine.  Though I have to admit it can be a pain at times to set aside 30 minutes I feel I do not have, but it is definitely for the better.

Good thing I had the mindset of just being healthier as compared to trying to shed some pounds.  The first two months I managed to lose zero pounds with some weeks of actually gaining weight!  But the last 4 weeks, I have averaged losing about 2 pounds a week.  I am pleased with that, but what I am more pleased about are the strides I have made in my fitness.

I can already tell that I am more active throughout the day.  Not just while doing my daily 30 minutes, but with every little thing.  My couch-potato-ness is not quite as bad as it once was.

The Future

Now I am not trying to get into olympic-competing shape.  I’m simply hoping to lead a healthier lifestyle.  A lifestyle I can use to lead by example as it relates to my children.  I am just taking the proper steps I need to get to where I want to go.  Where do I want to go?  Weighing in at about 275 at the turn of the year, I would like to get back down to the 200 pound range.  My baseball playing weight, at my best, was 195-205.

Whether it takes me one year or three, one thing is certain.  I am in the right direction.

I have said in the past that I had lost all respect for the show 60 minutes on CBS due to the way they misinformed the public about the legality of online poker.  I even took the time to call the show 50 minutes. However, they recently had a piece on LeBron James that was very inspiring and hit close to home for me in certain ways.

There is no doubt that LeBron James is on top of his game not only on the court, but off it as well.  All of this before he is even 25 years old.

What sets himself apart from the rest though?  Is it that he is stronger? Faster? Smarter?  I believe a vast majority of his success in basketball and now business is due to his frame of mind.  He sums it up well at about the 8 min, 30 sec mark when he says:

You can’t be afraid to fail.  It’s the only way you succeed.  You’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.  You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

This quote might seem obvious to some.  But to really think about it, too many people are afraid to fail.  I have come to the realization that I am one of these people.  But at least I have noticed the problem, and am now attempting to do something about it.

How this relates to me

I am not talking about failing at making the fade-away jumper as the clock approaches zero.  I am more concerned with more of the everyday situations.  I noticed that I never acted upon many of my good ideas.  It was as though I had become a huge procrastinator with things I knew could better my life in one way or another.

Take this website for instance, I have been thinking about making this site for well over a year until I finally decided to put the money down to get the domain name.  What took me so long?  The fear of making a website that would become a failure in my eyes.

What about one of my hobbies, online poker?  I haven’t been playing nearly the number of hours that I once did.  What gives?  Even though I am a proven winner in the game, deep down I think about all of the bad beats I have had and shy away from logging in to play when I have a free minute.  Even when I have a win, I play concerned about the chance of losing some of what I just won.  I honestly should be much further along in poker monetarily than I am today if I just put in the hours.

What I am doing about it

It is really hard for me to think of a way to articulate it, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Nike slogan Just Do It.  Psychologically speaking, people are creatures of habit. My old habit was that of procrastination due to the fear of failure.  I have been slowly breaking away from that old habit as I start new positive habits.

I have come to realize that by taking on a project and failing at it, I am better prepared for the future than I was had I not at least attempted the task.  Eventually the failures will come at a lower frequency as I better myself from previous experiences.

Again using this website as example, if this site goes on to not do as well as I had hoped in terms of the number of people that visit on a regular basis then I will feel comfortable in knowing that I learned a ton in the process.  Just a couple of months ago I could not tell you the slightest thing about HTML coding, WordPress, SEO, and much more.  However today I have this website as a testament to what I have learned while at the same time knowing that I still have plenty to discover.

Are you afraid?

Can you relate to much of what I wrote here?  If so, I urge you to join me in attempting to do something about it.  Do some research.  Visit personal development websites.  Start doing instead of just thinking.  You will be much happier in the long run if you do something about it.

Good luck and just remember that it is alot harder to get started than it is to keep going.  So get started now so you can get the hard part over with already!