In December 2015 I spent a week thinking about what I did in 2015 in order to set new year’s resolutions for 2016. Firstly, I looked at my resolutions for 2015 and realised that I did none of the things I resolved to do. So for 2016 I decided to not set resolutions. I will have a NOT TO DO LIST for 2016. All the things that I will stop doing.

Here goes:

I will stop fantasizing about making a $1 million dollars. Instead I will go make an actual $1000 dollars.

I will stop staying in the dark about my financials. I will complete my financials for the past 5 years and I will do and review my financials on a weekly basis. Very monday!

I will stop procrastinating. Instead, I will be honest with myself. If I am tired I will rest. If I don’t want to do something I won’t do it. If I want to do something, I will do it.

I will stop looking for approval and validation from people in general. I will only validate business ideas from prospective customers.

I will stop expecting myself to accomplish something in a day that should actually take me a week, and something that should take me a month in a week, and something that should take me a year in a month (I think you get the picture). And I will not let myself off the hook to complete something in a week that should have taken me a day, etc.

I will give everything enough resources (time, energy, mindset, skills (and money) to succeed. As little as possible but as much as necessary.

I will stop putting off difficult conversations. I will tackle them upfront and head on.

I will stop saying “yes” to things I do not want. I will say “no” upfront. I will stop feeling like I need an excuse to say “no”. I will simply tell people the truth, “That is not a priority for me”, “that is not important enough for me to allocate my resources to”, “I do not enjoy doing those kind of things and I don’t spend my time doing things I don’t enjoy”, “that is none of my business and I don’t want to get involved – I mind my business”

I will have a spending strategy on a monthly basis that is further broken down into weeks.

I will choose a few matrix that I will track financially, physically, etc.

I will stop being afraid to work on challenging projects.

I will stop trying to do everything myself (because it’s cheaper). Being cheap is bad! Instead I will make sure that everything gets done. I will take responsibility for my life.

I will stop trying to build multiple businesses simultaneously and focus on the few that will make the most impact. I will validate my businesses before investing time and money in them.

I will not take on any bad debt with the exception of a bakkie and a house. Bad debt is debt that takes money out of your bank account. Good debt puts money in your bank account

I will get out of my bad debt by 31 December 2016.

I will have a routine, a schedule that I will follow to get things done. I will systematize and automate (as far as possible) the important activities.

I will stop doing the important things last. I will do the important things first.

For the next 12 months I will stop consuming new content and instead implement what I have learned from the content that I have consumed thus far. I will only consume content as a reference to what I want to get done. The rest of the content that I will consume will be for enjoyment and entertainment.

I will stop being afraid to fail more and being afraid to hear “no”. I will work to get past “no” instead getting a “yes” per se.

I will stop being afraid to go see my bank manager.

I will stop being lazy and I will exercise regularly.

I will stop visiting people that don’t visit me. I will stop calling people that don’t call me.

I will stop doing favours. And I will stop accepting favours. Unless it’s for and from my very small circle of amazing friends and family.

I will ask myself “how” more than “why”.

I will stop having multiple tabs open in my browser and only have the tabs open that I need.

I will stop doing things I hate.

I will stop doubting myself. Instead, I will not get married to any idea or business model. I will keep improving, maximizing and optimizing until I find what works best for ME and what I LIKE and what I WANT!

I will set a due date for my targets and goals.

I will define the outcome that I want before I start anything important. I will define what success means before I start a project. And then I will break it down into small goals and define what success means for each of those smaller goals.

I will push myself beyond my current limitations. However, I will not over work myself. Life is too short. There is nothing wrong with being tired, at which point I will rest but there is everything wrong with giving up on the important goal I have set. Beware of the dip. Have the courage to quit before you start by recognising that you cannot or do not want to make it through the dip for this particular thing. But once you start, do not quit while you are in the DIP.

Realise that most (not all) of the things that you want to DO and BE cost nothing but effort.

I will not share information with people in the hopes of impressing them. I will share with the objective of helping and teaching them.

I will not share information with people that are negatively competitive with me but only with people that are collaborative with me.

That’s it for now.

I might add a few more but these are the ones I thought would have the biggest impact on my life based on the challenges I had during 2015.