Goals for 2011

It seems the hip thing to do at the end of the year is do define some goals for the next year. I’ve done this in the past only to find a major life circumstance threw my goals in a completely different direction. Fortunately, it was always a good thing such as a nicely paying contract gig. It is with some reluctance that I go forward and create goals for 2011. I have a feeling that I’m going to get similarly sidetracked in 2011. Some may say that I should stay focused, but I believe in adapting to your situation.

So let’s dig in:

• Double Traffic to my Websites – It may come as a surprise but the traffic to Lazy Man and Money is just half of my website portfolio. To accomplish this goal, I’ll have to grow quite a bit more than just Lazy Man and Money… I need something a little bigger. Fortunately, I’m looking to launch a new site this year. I will strive to use what I’ve learned in 5 years of blogging to make it a pretty great website covering a wide range of topics beyond personal finance.
• Increase Revenue from my Websites by 50% – This is pretty straightforward. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my books, but I would estimate this as hitting around $4500 a month. That would be a very nice income… unless you live in Silicon Valley as I do.
• Continue to Fight Against MonaVie and other MLM Scams – Just like in my favorite movie, Serenity, sometimes destiny finds you. I never wanted to be get in the business of debunking MLM scams, but I realize how many people are hurt by them… I can’t turn my back on that responsibility. (If anyone wants to help me, please Contact Me or leave a comment. Regular readers are already familiar with my Juice Scam website. They may not know that I also have written about Nerium and iJango. I may even diversify into other scams such as XOWii
• Write an eBook – I’ve had this on my list of goals for years now. It still hasn’t happened. I’m not that far away from releasing one… I just have a case of Perfect is the enemy of good. If people are going to pay me money for a book, I want to make sure that they feel it is a great value.
• Get Healthy – How do I define healthy? I’m going to go with losing 15 pounds and getting to my playing weight of 165 pounds. Since I don’t like to think of health in terms of just weight, I’m going to put up an alternative measure of success of being at 14.5% body fat. (Oh and if you are wondering what I played, it was John Madden Football… and I was awesome at it.)

Stretch goals

I think it is always smart to set some stretch goals. This way if I finally write an eBook, I can’t relax on that accomplishment. I can work a harder and do a little more. In short, my stretch goals are 1.5 times the traffic to my websites, increase revenue 100%, writing four eBooks (after the first one, the rest should go quickly), and getting down to 13% body fat. If I were to make a bet on which one of these I’d most likely hit, I’d go with the eBooks, traffic, and revenue… in that order.

I think all these goals fit the SMARTER goals paradigm, but I think I need to break them down into smaller steps.