Top 10 for 2012 - make it your best year ever
Posted by Patrick Sweeney on Mon, Jan 02, 2012
Every year I give my top 10 predictions for the RFID industry. I'm at about a 78% historical accuracy rate -with a couple of the predictions really going either way. My bad predictions have cost me everything from a shaved head, to a nice chunk of change. However, this year I'm taking a different approach - I'm reflecting on my experience through an incredibly blessed and varied lifetime - from years in Olympic training to lessons learned through four start-ups to priceless gems from my immigrant grandmother who cleaned people's houses in Boston for a living. All influence this year's top ten list of ways you can make 2012 your best year ever on this planet.
My top ten list to make 2012 your best year on planet earth:
1. Scare yourself at least once a quarter - physically, emotionally, anything just get a real feeling of adrenaline rush when you're done.
2. Stop every day to tell someone what you are thankful for - your family, your co-workers, a stranger. No matter how bad a day is you can always find something to be thankful for.
3. Appreciate beauty everyday - in anything; the mountains, a puddle, a snowflake, an animal, etc
4. Do something 3-4 times a week to break a sweat - even if it's walking around your building a few times, or climbing stairs instead of an elevator. A sound body makes a sound mind - TJ
5. Use your God-given talents to change the world - can be in a big way or a small way but it can't be about you. Create some jobs, buy a kid a pair of skates, invent the next iPhone, stop to change someone's tire. The more it's tough on you the better it probably is, the more anonymous the better too.
6. Try a new skill once a quarter. Knitting, telemark skiing, coding FB apps, playing guitar, flying, make a nixie tube clock, anything new. Combine with #1 for a double whammy.
7. Be more honest every week - especially with your children
8. Never, ever, succumb to momentum. It's easy to not do something, or do the same something because it' always been done that way. Or to say you'll do something extraordinary when the kids get to college, or you retire. Don't wait and don't succumb to momentum; it's a guarantee of mediocrity.
9. Make a list of your goals for your life and make sure you can measure them. Working against them will make you much happier. Measuring them will let you know you've succeeded.
10. Live by the Golden Rule and Love your neighbor as you love yourself. (Full disclosure: I'm still working on this one - I've got the Irish alzheimers; I forget everything but a grudge)
If 2011 really seems to have flown by, it's probably because you are doing the same thing over and over again and you have no memories that stand out in your mind. If you do something, scary, new, exciting, challenging every month you'll have a mindful (and FB timeline full) of memories that will have you saying "what a great year 2012 was I thought the excitement was never going to end!"