As we enter the New Year, I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the things I wish to accomplish over the course of the next year. There are many things that I would like to do, now let’s see if I can actually do them!
Here’s a list of things that I hope to accomplish in 2009:
- Attend at least 3 WordCamps across the United States
- Develop a theme that works with WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress
- Build a company around my upcoming WordPress theme project
- Personally meet guys like Chris Pearson, Justin Tadlock, Jeff Chandler, Jeremy Wright
- Gather a team of Chicago WordPressers to participate in the Chicago Breast Cancer 3-Day
- Spend more time blogging about my business experiences, WordPress tips, etc
- Limit the amount of times that I redesign my site to less than 4 times this year
- Get one of my themes into the list of available themes for free WordPress.com users
So there it is… probably a very ambitious list, but hey, it’s only a list of things that I hope I can accomplish. Now, it’s your turn… what are some things (personal or business) that you wish to accomplish this year?
Feel free to leave a comment and share!
Some great goals you have there, you can see mine at my blog http://www.improvingtheweb.com — basically, creating lots and lots of wordpress plugins is nr 1
I think my goal for 2009 is shared by many others: make it to 2010.
I like those goals, Brian! I really like the one about creating a theme for WP.com users – that would be awesome!
Not sure about #7 though, I like it when you suddenly redesign…we never know what’s going to happen, yet they always turn out great.
Maybe instead of redesigning so much, you could “re-visit” some past themes?
all bloggers presenting their goals for new year. though feel myself for setting up goals, i will be developing myself in css, php for improving my site.
good lucks to everyone~
We’d love to have you attend WordCamp Miami!
Here’s to a great 2009! Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks for the inspiration. I’ve posted my goals for ‘09 here. In summation, I need to:
Blog more.
Crossover from theme modifier to theme designer.
Grow my freelance business.
Great to see you addressing bbPress and, especially, BuddyPress, which I believe will have a big impact in 2009.
Happy New Year!
Hey Brian
Great set of goals, I am sure you will accomplish them!
My 2009 goal is simple – TAKE ACTION!! Quit reading, studying, downloading the latest special report, signing up for newsletters, buying internet marketing products!!
I will TAKE ACTION and implement all of the great information I have already learned.
I tend to overload myself with both work (professional and personal) and school and as a result, most of my personal projects languish and my schoolwork suffers. Thus, in 2009, I think I would like to accomplish more by attempting less. I hate to ignore any interesting ideas, but there just isn’t enough time in a day, week, month, year, or lifetime to do everything I would like to do.
One specific thing I would like to accomplish is to improve my content-management platform, PageDrive, to such a level that I can consider a public release. It started several years ago as several different projects running at different sites, but over time I have been bringing the smaller projects together into the larger project and continuing development with multiple sites in mind, but only sporadically. I want to make PageDrive a top priority in 2009.
I would also like to finish and release at least two WordPress themes I have been working on and if it seems worthwhile, a WordPress plugin I made in answer to my own question about running multiple themes at a single site (http://www.revolutiontwo.com/support/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=810). I made my first WordPress theme from scratch (the source code was not based on another theme) while my second WordPress theme is currently a child theme of Revolution Real Estate, but I think I am going to rework my second theme into a full theme based on my first one before releasing it. Neither of them is likely to be nearly as pretty as your designs, but if I finish and release first versions, I can then consider visual updates or even additional prettier themes. And while I am not crazy about the GPL and the zealotry that often goes along with it, I will probably release both WordPress themes and the WordPress plugin both free of charge and under the GPL.
That already sounds like a lot to do, but I also want to release several new Flash games and either launch or reinvigorate at least a few Web sites in 2009. I have more unfinished games sitting around on my hard drives than I can remember. I need to dig some of them out, update them to ActionScript 3, finish them, and release them. If I can make good progress on PageDrive, my WordPress themes, or both, how well I can realize my Web site aspirations will come down to how much content I can generate and otherwise obtain for my sites.
Hmm . . . I am not off to a very good start with attempting less.
Brian, we’ll definitely have to meet up some time. If you’re ever in Georgia, you’ll have to look me up. One of my goals for the new year is to meet other WordPress users offline.
I’m also hoping to participate in the Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day in October.
Business: Learn more. Do more. Try to keep up with each cool thing Brian comes up with
Personal: This is the year we start officially homeschooling our son, so I get to figure out how to add full time Teacher to full time Mom, Wife, and Business Owner. Probably a bad time to mention my other goal of only working on said business 8 hours per day, right?
Happy 2009 everyone!
Someone is looking rather ambitious in 2009 … wish I could say the same thing. I really just have 3 goals for the year. They are not ground breaking and I do elaborate on these a little in a recent blog post … but here they are in a simplistic list.
1. Improve My Health
2. Become More Environmentally Aware
3. Make Or Break My Website: Will I continue to blog ?
Good Luck with yours Brian ! Especially with
Get one of my themes into the list of available themes for free WordPress.com users
Anything we can do to help with this one?
Personal biz goal for 2009…to empower more direct sellers & influence others to support direct sellers when making purchasing decisions.
Hey Brian!! Just wanted to send you a note regarding how cool it is with the stuff you do to give back to others and to the community in general (like your really cool WordPress themes that you provide free of charge on your website). I don’t live in Chicago, but if I did I would be quick to volunteer for your team regarding the Chicago Breast Cancer 3-Day.
I always enjoy your blogs and I love your themes. Thanks again!!!
-James
Good luck with those goals Brian. I want to continue learning how to work with coding themes. The profit from my little custom design gig, goes to purchasing and distributing rice to people form Nicaragua who live in my neighborhood. Last year we called the program “A thousand pounds of rice”, which we exceeded. This year we’re calling the program “A ton of rice”.
Happy New Year to you and the others who comment on your blog.
My Goals for 2009?
)….
- translating more of your GPL themes into Dutch and sending Revolutiontwo.com more traffic.
- Writing a Book (Secret project
Take action so I am off now…
oh, and loose some weight, well… loose 40 pounds to set a higher Goal!
Great goals dude! LOL@ “limiting redesigns to 4 times a year”. That’s an addiction of yours?
Looking forward to your themes in 09.
Cheers!
Jay
Mine would be Launching Wordpress Themes Membership club Project. Would be fun though.
Looking to give wide range of wordpress themes for beloved wordpress users, and the community. Lets hope for the best.
This is a great idea Brian, inviting the community to share their goals! I love your goals for ‘09! Lots of Starbucks for sure!!
My goal is to work with a minimum of 150 individuals by December 31, 2009 and help them create and live by design, ironically enough.
I applaud everyone who has written their goals down and had the courage to actually go public with them! Most people don’t succeed at their goals because they don’t write them down. A few tips for those aspiring to achieve their personal and professional goals in 2009:
1. Make your goals measurable. In other words, saying I will create more WP themes in ‘09 isn’t specific enough. The goal needs a number (e.g., time, distance, frequency, etc.). Writing down I will complete 5 new WP themes by “x” date is measurable.
2. Make sure your goals are desirable. This seems obvious enough, but it isn’t enough to simply ‘want’ to accomplish a goal. It must be a burning desire. It is the fuel that enables you to overcome any barriers that inevitably pop up–particularly if it’s a big goal. Know ‘WHY’ you’re going after the goal you’ve set up. The bigger the goal, the bigger the ‘why.’ Think of the ‘why’ as fuel–it ties into your purpose.
3. The goal has to be “I” centered. This also seems obvious, but too often, we think we’re engaging in a goal that is our goal, when in reality, it’s someone else’s.
4. Is your goal behavioral? What that means is the goal must include specific behaviors–actions–that you will do to accomplish your goals. It’s not enough to ‘know’ what you need to do; it has to be written down. In other words, is your goal observable? If for example, you said you wanted to write a new WP theme, could someone walking by your office see you working on your goal and videotape it?
5. Lastly, the goal has to be realistic. This is where most people skid off the road. They have great, inspiring goals, but they end up not being realistic. One of the ways to be sure if your goal is realistic or not, is to follow the steps outlined in this post. Additionally, it’s also important to take a really, really good look at your goals and step back and ask “can I really accomplish this? How do I know?” How do you know? Have you accomplished something similar before–do you have a history of achieving similar goals? Do you need to learn something before you can work on the main part of the goal?
Everything above is all about making your goals specific. The more specific you can be, the higher the probability you will achieve your goals (statistically speaking) and be successful. Don’t forget to create balance in your life. Take care of your health (without which, you won’t likely be accomplishing to many of your goals), your spirit, your family, friends, etc. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun! Just because achieving our goals takes time and energy doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. The more fun you can build into accomplishing your goals, the more energy and joy you’ll experience in the process. And the less stressed you’ll be.
I hope this is helpful. Much success to everyone and a very, very Happy New!
Just a follow-up to my post above: To members of Revolution, I would be happy to provide a 50% discount on all personal coaching services, if that would be helpful. Just drop me a line or give me a call:
http://livewellbydesign.org/contact-us/
Cheers and best to everyone.
Andy
Er… I have the same goal as I have each year and it’s my twit at the moment. Brian – I like your list!
Happy New Year, Brian!
Success and good luck in new year!
Alex from Russia.
Thank you for sharing your goals, Brian. I’ve been inspired by your story from the beginning, and my aim is to emulate your journey from punching the clock to self-employment. The difference is that you kept moving in that direction and I have still be circling around the want to. It seems that I don’t have time to learn css/xhtml/php or time to develop and institute a plan–I don’t think you had the time either. Yet, you did it. My resolution is to let go of the bank and get going. It will mean that some folks aren’t happy with me and some folks will call me irresponsible or silly or deluded. I’m just about tired of caring about what “some folks” think. There will always be plenty of critics and naysayers. My life is up to me and I will be the one to answer to the giver of life for my actions.
Brian, just wanted to drop by and say that I’m using your CodeBlue theme on a lot of my sites and it’s very close to being the perfect theme for me.
Is there going to be a free release of the Streamline theme ever?
Thanks a bunch for this great theme,
Dan
P.S. See the theme of yours here http://danielmcgonagle.name
In the 2009 I’d like to work in the WordPress world and to meet Brian Gardner, Justin Tadlock and Matt Mullenweg… but I think it’s not possible!
This year I have mother of all resolutions for 2009 because I am going to setup a SEO firm which involves a lot of resources, money and manpower. I have never planned somethign which I couldn’t do so I hope that I can do this now.
Brian,
wishing you much success with your list. reading an excellent book “write it down” and when you do that as you have here, your wishes will soon be realities and desired goals achieved.
Patricia
pve design
Yeah, #7 will be a tough one for me, considering in the next few weeks I’ll be ditching the holiday theme I have now. Only time will tell…
Wesley, nice set of goals you have there, guess I have more to add if I want to keep up with you!
Ditto.
I love the idea of complementary designs for complementary projects.