When I want to change something on my life, I seldom wait for something else to happen before making the switch, the reason being that if my changes are driven by a burning desire, I don’t want to wait until the next day or the next monday to start. I want to start now.
With that said, I’m about to present my plans for 2011. In the last couple of days so many things have happened that I think it’s appropriate for me to focus on what I want to do next. I’ll call them 2011 plans, but I’ve already started working on them.
The reason why I write this publicly is because I think it helps me to clarify and put into words what I want to do. Some people after watching this ted talk think that sharing their goals publicly is a bad idea. I honestly think that the only thing that matter is what works for you. Sharing goals works for me, and it works for many other people as well, perhaps even for you.
Anyway, I also hope that someone else can get some motivation to make some changes into their lives. Just don’t think that you need to wait for the next year to get started. Do what you can now.
Business
In 2011 my focus will be on my consulting business. First of all, I’m going to upgrade and make sure that I’m always using the best tools for the job that I can find/have. In my profession, that means having a good computer, a big monitor, a nice working space, etc.
I want to clarify a bit what I mean with what I’ve just said. From what I’ve written it may seem that I’m going to spend money on an expensive monitor, buy a comfortable chair and upgrade all my hardware.
In reality, I’m going to have a different approach. First of all, my philosophy is to have the least possible amount of stuff. I also like to have a portable working space, that means that instead of getting an Aeron chair that I can’t afford, I’ll continue to use my dirty cheap office chair that does its wonderful job already. I don’t like owning thing, so I’ll try to own the very best that I can afford of what I really need. I’m going to elaborate on this topic on a future post.
Personal Projects
This new year I’m going to focus extensively on personal projects. I’ve definitely abandoned internet marketing. I was able to make some money with it (at the end of my 90 day experiment I was making around $200/month), but it’s simply not what I want to do. I’ve tried, and I’ve learnt.
So what will I do? Instead of building mini sites, I’m going to build software applications, especially for the iphone/ipad. I have an hard goal on myself to release at least one application per week. For example, I’m currently working on an application for iphone to keep track of all the ideas that I have during the day. After that, I have some other ideas for stuff that I personally need.
Why do I do this? For three reasons. First, I like creating this sort of stuff, I really like it. Second, it helps me to gain real world experience and raise my skills as a programmer, and companies appreciate that. Third, I may make some extra money while releasing these apps, which are always welcome.
Blogging
One thing that I didn’t like about this blog is that in the last year it started to look like a lot of other blogs (list posts, stuff like that), which I didn’t like at all. To fix this, I’ll do my best to be as organic as possible, like if I was writing to myself or to a friend. This is after all what allowed me to grow this website from nothing to tens of thousands of visitors every month.
Not that I care about numbers though, I probably check my analytics stats twice every month. Visitors are not a number here, and I deeply care about everyone who takes the time to read what I have to say. I’m also extremely grateful to all of you.
Personal life
As for my personal life, I’m currently looking for a mini apartment here in Italy. I initially wanted to go to Thailand, but the upcoming season is very hot so it may be appropriate to wait. Additionally, I feel like I have to put some energy into other areas of my life at the moment. We’ll see what happens.
Oh, and I also want to improve my Spanish in the upcoming months! Si usted sabe español me encantaria hablar o chatear contigo a veces de modo que pueda mejorar mi español :)