Happy new year’s everybody! 2010 is finally upon us, and I hope that you’ve had a wonderful celebration over the holidays.

Most people choose to make resolutions around this time of the year… But me, I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions. Why is that? Well, I firmly believe that if something is important enough to be done, then there shouldn’t be any reason for you to wait until the new year to start working on it. If the end result is worth it, then it’s worth doing it RIGHT NOW.

But with that said, I do take the time to reflect upon the year that just passed and what the future has in store for me. I’ve never been great with thinking ahead for the long term (meaning 5 to 10 years ahead), but I am pretty great with short-term stuff. Instead of making resolutions, I make sure to set my GOALS for what I want to accomplish this year based on what I’ve accomplished the year before, and what I’m on pace to accomplish now.

Besides, goals are definitely a lot more concrete than resolutions. I don’t know about you, but resolutions to me seem temporary — like you’re constantly fighting off to not do something you want to do. To me, goals move towards a positive end. I don’t know, maybe that’s just semantics, but it plays a huge part in my mind.

So what’s my goals for 2010? Aside from the financial goals, my really big thing is to achieve a better work-life balance. 2009 saw me working crazy hours in a day to get the business running up to speed. I basically was doing what I had to do to get the business up on its two feet as quickly as possible, and when you’re a one-man team juggling a lot of hats, it all starts to get a little dodgy at one point. This year, my goal is to work hard but play even harder.

Business-wise though, I’m planning a lot of moves that will expand my client base and keep on providing an excellent service that my existing clients will be amazed with. I have big things planned for 2010, and I’m super excited to watch as these things unfold.

Once again, happy new year everybody!

“When fatigue has got you by the balls, remember that if you really didn’t believe you’d succeed then you wouldn’t have tried at all.”

Nearly two years ago, I set a “goal” for myself that I was going to be in a career which allowed me to work anywhere I wanted to be (though anything is better than nothing, I put “goal” in quotation marks because I believe that a true goal has a timeline and not the simple wishy-washy “I will” statement that I had).

Fast forward nearly two years later, I’m where I said I would be. Pretty much. The actual goals changed a little bit, but the foundations are there — I’m self-employed in a career that I enjoy and gives me the freedom of not having to report to an office 8.5 hours a day. Yay.

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-work. As a matter of fact, if I’m enjoying what I’m doing I find that the hours go by without me noticing it. I can get wrapped up in work and barely have to come up above water for air. But to be able to provide massive value for my clients without needing me to report to the office at a certain time of the day for a certain number of hours every month… Now, THAT’S rewarding.)

The Dip

It hasn’t exactly been an easy journey. Long, lonely nights into the wee-hours of the morning were a daily occurence — working on websites, tweaking copy, implementing link-building campaigns, learning anything and everything I can to improve my services… And anybody who has experienced diving head first into starting their own business can definitely attest to adhering to strict cash flow requirements.

It was definitely tough, and there were definitely times that it was taking a severe toll on myself. The journey certainly hasn’t been easy, but I’ll be lying if I said that it wasn’t rewarding. I had to constantly use strength I didn’t think I had in order to make it through the dip.

But my eyes were definitely kept on the prize. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in my opinion that’s the toughest part of any endeavor — constantly being able to remind yourself of what you’re doing it for, and an unwavering determination to do what it takes to achieve it. Never let your distractions be the main focus — it’s so easy to get caught up in side activities because it’s fun. But if that’s all you preoccupy your time with, you’ll be kicking yourself in the ass later — wondering where the time went and why you’ve been running in place for the past six months.

Lucky Me?

I know a lot of people think that I’m lucky to be in such a position. Although there’s a little luck involved, I really believe that luck has little to do with it. After all, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” In other words, you’re responsible for creating your own luck. I really do believe that we’re in total control of our destiny.

But yeah. For the most part, I’m ecstatic to have achieved my goals for 2009. I’m wrapping everything up, and in approximately 60 hours I’m going to be arriving back to the motherlands for a great winter getaway. It’s exactly what those long, long hours have been for.

Like I said, goals change. While you initially thought you’d be content with going from Point A to Point B, soon you’ll realize that it’s Point E that you really want to get to. And best believe that when you get to Point E, you’ll want to reach Point H. No matter what the milestone, I believe that celebrating every time you reach one is so important for survival.

That’s exactly why I think my 2010 is going to be even more amazing than my 2009. This calls for a Steven Gerrard pat-self-on-the-back moment:

I might not get to update this until I return from vacation, so until then: merry Christmas and happy new year, ladies and gentlemen

More on delayed gratification:

I’ve had CarloFeliciano.com for almost 2 years now, but all I really had on there was a brochure website advertising copywriting services. I haven’t been taking copywriting clients for ages now since I’ve completely moved on to other ventures, but I just didn’t get around to taking the site down and putting something new up there.

Well, a month or two ago the hosting company that I was originally using suspended my site because I haven’t paid yet. So I decided that now was the right time to put up a new site and start from the beginning again. Which brings us to right now.

What’s going to be under here? To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea.

I considered using it to be my personal blog, but I realized that business contacts will come across this site if they Google my name — and I’m not really comfortable with them finding out all the skeletons I have in my closet Besides, I already have a personal blog that nobody really knows about, and those are where the REAL thoughts of a madman reside.

At the same time, I don’t want to be 100% business, 100% of the time. That’s just boring, and personally I won’t have the energy to keep updating it. Yes, I think about business about 85% of the time, and I’m (laid back) with my mind on my money and my money on my mind. But knowing myself, I just wouldn’t be able to sustain regularly writing about work like my buddy Dave does at Davadrian.com (I’m linking with the hopes that you get the pingback.. Oh I’m a sly devil) does; I’m not really that smart, and I have enough writing to do for the business’ blog.

So I decided to make this site a midpoint of both. I might post about work-related stuff in here every now and then, but at the same time there will be casual stuff going on here. Pictures, thoughts, opinions, whatever. Wanna talk sports? I’ll openly bash the Boston Celtics here. Wanna talk politics? Sorry, but I’m keeping it rated-PG around here — the rated-R stuff, well, that’s saved for Twitter. If you can find it

The theme? Well, for some reason I’m really a huge fan of minimalist designs. Maybe one of these days I’ll find a snazzier template, but for now? This will do.

So that’s all. I’ll see you when I see you. Peas and carrots.