Dr Stephen Jones  

Are you ready to have the best 2009 ever?  If you are ready for a brilliant new year now is the time to define your goals.  Get ready to start on a fantastic journey where each day you are able to deposit your entire energy into improving by 1 percent.  If you actually practice this habit you can improve by 365 percent in one year.  There is truly no limit to what you can accomplish if you let 2009 become a year when you expect new experiences to transform your life.

Are you ready to put up a new fight to resist negative thoughts that plagued your mind last year?  As Barack Obama says “your destiny will not be written for you but by you.”  The New Year will present many opportunities for you to change old habits.  The best way to make these changes is to believe that the past does not control your present goals.  The year 2009 is time to take the beginning steps in the right direction by writing down the top five goals that you want to accomplish.  Take your eyes off of the things that you did not do last year and focus on the new changes that you will make today.

What is the best way to invest your time during 2009?  Why not make a greater commitment to be an example of excellence to your family and friends.  Find ways to encourage others to chart a new course for their lives.  Frequently reach out to young people who need your advice and support.  You never know when a special niece of nephew can be steered in a better direction because you invested your time to talk to them.  It is rewarding to see how thankful they are to receive a contribution of some of your wisdom.  Sometimes you will only plant a seed into their life that will blossom at a later date.

   Plan to make 2009 a year of new solutions.  Face challenges that act like a pressure cooker in you life head on.  Release all of the pressure by letting go of past thoughts that haunted you about failures in school or in a business venture.  These life experiences are stepping stones on your way to becoming an inspired person.  Put your talents on display by knowing that there is an answer to every problem.  The answer will be a new way of thinking that is consistent with your vision for the New Year.

    If you want to do more during the New Year it’s going to take a greater effort.  You will need to plant more seeds by networking and meeting with new people.  Join a new organization where you can give and receive new advice and develop some trustworthy relationships.  Go for a goal of meeting five new people each month.  Be sure to provide some benefit to them and you’ll be amazed at the new ways that you will also benefit.

     The year 2009 will be a wonderful year if you make it one.  Be bold in the initiatives that you start and finish.  Have a vision that great things will happen each time that you start a new goal.  Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best, “Never! Never! Never! Give Up.” Make the New Year a time to fight for the things that you fervently want to happen.  Expect the accomplishment of your goals to be a shining example of what can be accomplished with diligent work.  Have a prosperous New Year.