How to Write Your New Years Manifesto
MANIFESTO
: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.
Another year is coming to an end. You have to ask yourself how your year went. As far as I see you can only have 2 options. 2010 was either the best year ever or the worst year ever.
If it was the best year ever, great! I love it! Let’s make 2011 an even better year!
If 2010 was the worst year then it should be easy to have a better year in 2010. We’re going to write our Manifestos for 2011.
Our manifesto is going to outline our goals, dreams, hopes, and fears and is going to develop a plan of attack to make our goals a reality.
The first step is to get out your word processor or a notebook so we can write everything down. If this is to work it must be written down.
If you don’t write it down you will forget about it in 15 minutes. We’re going to have it in writing so we can refer to it daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly so we can see the clear progression we have made.
Next let’s determine what our goals are for the year. Take a little while to brainstorm and write everything down. What is it that has been constantly on your mind this year but you weren’t able to fully make it a reality?
Maybe you want to…
Start your own business…
Get into great shape…
Get better with beautiful women…
Become a more confident person…
Worry less (ideally none!)…
Travel more…
Have a 300 lb bench, 400 lb squat, and 500 lb deadlift…
Do 10 pullups…
Make more $$$…
Get out of debt…
Start a jazz fusion band…
Be a more confident, bold, and determined person…
Now that you have taken some time to determine your goals for the year let’s start writing our manifesto. We’ll call this MANIFESTO 2011.
You can write your goals any way you want, it is as simple as saying “my goals are…” but I think the best way to write your goals is to write them as-if you have already achieved them. For instance…
My goals for 2011 are…
I am making more money than I ever thought possible.
I am completely free of debt.
etc..
We’re going to be referring back to our Manifestos frequently. The subtle change of saying “I AM” instead of “I want” will work wonders. The mind is a powerful tool and if the mind believes it who’s to say the mind won’t achieve it.
Now that we have written our goals let’s draw up our plan of attack. In this section you will write “my plan of attack for starting my own business is as follows…“.
Deep down in your heart you know exactly what you need to do to start your own business, or lose weight, or become a better person. You don’t need me to tell you the details.
Do that for all of your goals. I kept mine to 5 broad goals, but you can and should do it for as many goals as you have.
Next we will write our conclusion. We will write our conclusion a little differently. We are going to pretend we’re on the eve of the next year and we’re thinking back about what we accomplished in the previous year.
We are going to write something like “2011 was the best year of my life. I accomplished my goals of getting into shape, starting my own business, and getting out of debt. I accomplished these goals by following this plan of attack… It was a great year and I can’t wait to make the next year even better“. Make it as detailed as possible.
Now print out your Manifesto and keep it somewhere that you can read it every day at first, then every week to every month as you begin to realize your goals. Don’t let anyone else read it.
This is intensely personal and for your eyes only. But if someone does read it never be ashamed of it. This is how you want to live and it’s how you will live.
The idea for the Manifesto sounds corny but so what. Living your life on other peoples terms is way cornier.
The start and end of a year is just an arbitrary number but it is a good way to measure progress. No need to wait until January 1st to get started, start NOW! Whatever day it is.
Each passing moment is a chance to turn it all around.