Wow, this year has flown by!  I mean, really… and I look back over it and I always do this – I think if I’m working the same challenges I did this time last year.

If there is one single piece of advice that I could give you to make 2010 even better than 2009, it would be to feverishly journal everything you do.  I mean how can you – with the mind we have – keep tabs on how your life is going if you don’t grade it as you go and review it.  We’re we taught that in school?

And if not in school, certainly that’s the way the teacher keep tabs on us throughout the year.  The reason why is because it works.

So take this time in these next few days and buy yourself a nice journal for the new year.  I use composition books because I can carry those around and leave them for my kids when I move along.  Make it a fun thing.  I write something every night.

And don’t forget to look back on what you’ve written.  See what makes you tick.  You’d be surprised!  Fine tune your results into a wonderful life.

Have you ever journaled?  What did it give you?

I’ve heard my whole life that this time of year is most famous for depression.  Haven’t you heard that Christmastime is when most suicides occur?  I think a lot of it has to do with our culture that rewards people who can give more financially, such as gifts.  And when we don’t have a lot to give loved ones, couple with the fact that we’re drowning in debt, it’s little wonder our self-talk is not very edifying.

The majority of us are trapped in a routine we have become satisfied with.  We wait for some magical day when things will be all better and we will again make enough money to pay for the lifestyle we feel we deserve.  When we get a glimpse that we really don’t make enough, such as around Christmastime, coupled with the fact that we’re probably not near family, our thought process becomes downright poisoning.

We tell ourselves that it appears we can’t really breakthrough the level we have habitually been stuck at.  When we do this, we take very little action to improve our situation.  What we do day to day produces little and that feeds into our lack of belief in the whole process.

Can you see how that is a downward spiral?

What you may not realize is that you’re even in a downward spiral, or that your situation is mentally poisoning you.  I can speak from experience that it is a slippery slope once that spiral starts.

And if I told you right now what the solution was, if you are really stuck in your situation and feel a lifeline would be really good right about now – you would probably laugh at me, or scoff, or say as my oldest son used to say when I told him great things in life, “been there, done that, doesn’t work for me.”  I actually thought he was regurgitating a friends’ words, but it may have come from his heart.

So why would you laugh?  I really think there are several things at work here.  One, we all want a magical fix, that would be immediate and would require little effort on our part.  Sort of like a pill.  So culture has screwed us up in that regard, because even though many fixes are quick, some things do require effort.  And you probably have a hard time even cleaning off your desk at this point.

Few admit that they’re in a crisis mode, where really, they’re just doing all they can to keep their head above water.  They are putting out fires and planning a life is the furthest thing from their minds.  Figuring out how to pay the property taxes is more critical than creating a wonderful fulfilling life.  You want it, but your mind keeps telling you that if you leave what you’re doing now, it may get worse.

What if I told you that you can break free and that I know you already have the potential to do this?

You do!  And I’m going to help you get free from this downward spiral.  This will work during any season, at any time, you simply need to do the work I’m going to give you.   But I know you won’t do this unless you have a good reason to; you know you’re up against the wall.  So before I reveal anything, I want to have the certainty that you will follow through.  This is going to require a notebook to measure some things we discuss, so in my next post, you’re going to learn what it takes to break free and I’ll show you how you can do it for your life.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/naplesdave and on my free emails.

As much as I’d want to, I don’t know enough about programming for a new Debian Linux server and consequently PHP and MySQL as I’d like to. It may sound all Greek to you, but it is the next step in a project that I’m working on that I have a lot of faith in. And it’s not that I’ve been far from Linux servers. I’ve been around them the past 17 years. But I never had to learn some of the programming languages in order to make a living.

To learn that now on a project that may or may not be a winner isn’t a good use of my time. I have the project written up, know exactly what I want it to do, know what coding it will take to make that work, but don’t know how to write that code. You’ve probably been in this situation more that you realize.

For example, someone introduces you to a good business opportunity but you feel you don’t have the skill-set to pull it off, or to do it justice. I’ve found that 9 times out of 10 the person introducing the business opportunity just doesn’t know how to explain it well enough to set your mind at ease and so you give up. You are thinking you will have to learn this new “code” when in fact you can delegate that part to someone else.

Take for example having to find recruits for your new venture. You probably think that you have to read up on how to do that and then go out cold turkey and get those new soldiers. If fact, all ventures I’m familiar with want the newbies to sit in the back of the cart and watch the masters at work at least for a few months. Unfortunately because many eager beavers get the proverbial cart before the horse, people get burned out on these new ventures and anyone pitching them.

So, I’m heading on over to a few cool websites where I can get programming help. One is rentacoder.com and another is guru.com. There are more like rentafreelance.com and elance.com. All do the same thing. Sort of like an eBay for coders where they bid on the job. And you get to see who has the highest ranking and best remarks, just like on eBay.

And that’s the way it’s done. I’ll have an update real soon.

I’ve got to wipe the cobwebs off of this site and get ready for the new year. Today the UPS guy delivered to my door the new book by Gary Vaynerchuk called “Crush It.” My dog, Ginger, went bananas when the guy walked up, but I love how a lot of the UPS guys leave the dog a little treat.

Well, Gary’s book is hot. I’ve read the first chapter already. My son, Dennis, snagged a signed copy of the book via Twitter, and I read that. I was following Gary on Twitter as well and was one of the first 200 people to Tweet a link about LinkedIn’s new Twitter tie-in. A few days later I got a direct message asking for my home address. That is sweet!

I’m writing tonight, just before Survivor: Samoa Islands starts. I’ve got this old Sabre PC with Debian Linux loaded on it and writing to you in Google Chrome for Linux (beta.) I’ve got this old thing up on the formal dining table because I’m working on another “project.” This one needs some marketing finesse, so I’m best following Gary and Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin’s blog. I need all the help I can get.

But I think I’m going to go a little further and possibly do something I never do and that is write about how the project is coming along. There are a ton of things I can’t tell you about it until it’s up and working, but you will learn a lot by following along.

We’re into brainstorming, my wife and I, and this time we got four neighbors and sat down at the kitchen table not far from me here and went for about three hours non-stop of just dumping all sorts of ideas. It was exciting and I just love to be a part of those sessions. Makes you feel alive!

We have another session coming up next week, but let me tell you that brainstorming is real easy to do. Get together a group of your friends who maybe want an addition stream of income and start writing down ideas and discussing them. I was shocked at how many connections we had sitting at that table. One participant was one person away from the lady who put together the Secret! Another had a sister who has a six figure income from writing Santa letters!

If you want to get ahead, you’ll mastermind and brainstorm. Just do it.

OK, as far as changes here, I am going to move my site from the /blog to the main index. Yes, I know I’ll screw up all the pages in Google for a few hours, but thank goodness for redirection (using Apache htaccess.)

And finally, I rewrote the opening page to NetDominate and have not had one bite. I know the site does not have the exposure I need in order to make a decision about changes, but maybe you can give it a gander and comment below. I would appreciate it.

I also did a second chance, just in case someone started to sign up but then backed out (you can make that happen with PayPal buttons – i.e. start to buy and then click cancel), and you can read that page here. I’m thinking a lot of those “testimonials” need to be on the main page, but you let me know if you agree.

Take care and we’ll talk soon and let me know your thoughts on the above.

Dave