Feel the Rhythm, Feel the Rhyme, Come on Guys, it's 2009!

I think it's a cliche of the business world, but apparently for any goal to really take hold, we need to be held accountable to someone beyond ourselves. We need to "take ownership" of our goals, be "fully invested" in them, etc. So with that in mind, here are mine for 2009. Please hold my feet to the fire on these: 1. Be Happier This may seem a general goal, but I've got several sub-goals to help this one along. a. Focus more on other people and less on myself. b. Serve more--the Boy Scout slogan is "Do a Good Turn Daily;" Jesus said "Love thy neighbor as thyself." c. Love myself. d. Eat healthier. More chicken, more veggies, less soda. e. Work out 4 times a week. f. Find the next Twilight and lampoon the heck out of it. g. Get closer to God. h. Scratch the dog every time I see him. 2. Work Harder I work very hard on things I'm passionate about. However, I should work hard on things that deserve hard work. My dad always said "Something worth doing is worth doing well." Now if I can harness that and find something I'm passionate about out there and make money doing it...well...awesome. Any ideas, please forward them along. 3. Smile More Anyone ever notice how Oscar the Grouch is still a happy guy? It's because he smiles, even in his grouchiness. 4. Stress Less That may require leaving certain things that I love: driving, reading, eating, breathing in Salt Lake City, trying, doing, Provo, etc. I think I can do it, though, by keeping better perspective on things. And eating Chocolate is apparently a good stress relief. 5. Hope More Productively It's really easy to have vain hopes and never do anything to guide them along. I've been thinking lately about our new President--and to be honest, I haven't seen organized, political hope on this kind of scale in my lifetime. And it's been refreshing. I realized last night that President Obama, agree or disagree with him, makes me hope; whereas Fox News, agree or disagree with it, makes me only sad and bitter. As a rule, I'd prefer to hope and work towards the better than to sit bitterly by and complain with Sean Hannity yelling at me. Believe me, bitterness is funnier than hopefulness, so this blog might still have a touch of complaint. But I hope if you saw me on the street, at work, with friends, or with family, I'd be more proactive in doing good things and making good things happen. Assuming I don't have to give up breathing or doing in order to stress less, of course... 6. Realize Dreams Maybe I need to sit down and decide which dreams I can realize and which are not really practical/possible. The following are some of my dreams from the past 26 years: 1. Develop Super Powers. 2. Hone those Super Powers. 3. Save a Life/Lives. 4. Learn a new language. I'm thinking French, but Chinese, Arabic, or Urdu could be good. 5. Teach. 6. Get GOOD at the guitar. This will be a step up from being GOOD at Guitar Hero. 7. Write a book. A GOOD book. 8. Visit New Zealand. 9. Impress Scarlett Johansson with my Super Powers. 10. Become an expert in something. A GOOD something. 7. Floss Regularly I usually do, but I need to do this more frequently. I want happy, healthy gums, don't I? Those gingevitis commercials of the late 80s and early 90s really scare me now.