Perhaps on the first day of the year, for many, it's a good time to get a little organized, or maybe even write down a goal or two. Maybe you're not big on writing down goals. So instead, I want to offer you a few 'action items' that you can implement in your own life that I believe can help improve it.
And I'll be honest with you, there are a lot of things on this list that I have to do for myself. So I hope it's motivation for the both of us. Enjoy and please share:
1) Start a blog. Of course I have to advocate this to start off the list because I like blogging so much. I think it's a great way to share information to like minded individuals. It's also very healthy for yourself because it gets a lot of those thoughts running around inside your head onto paper. You always have the option to write a private blog that only yourself or a few others can read. The cost is free and you don't have to have much tech knowledge. And trust me, you're probably way more interesting to others than you think . Here is a great place to get started: http://www.blogger.com/home. Stay tuned to my own blog for an entire post on how to create one from scratch and to optimize it for the search engines.
2) Read a book. Sounds simple enough but look at your book shelf; does it have a lot of bookmarks with unread chapters? Find a novel that you can read from page one right to the end. Commit to it. Don't open any other books until you finish it. I'd recommend making it fiction. I think a lot of people in the corporate world feel like they can't read fiction because it doesn't make them smarter. You'd be surprised in what a good fiction book can reveal and the learning's it has to offer.
3) Get a passport. You really don't know when you might have to travel outside of your own country. If you don't have a passport, or if yours is expired, then checking this one off your list will give you some piece of mind. What if your company decides to send you on a secret reward trip in a week and you end up stuck because you don't have a passport? Sucks.
A couple things you'll need are:1) A Guarantor to sign your photos and application
2) Professional shot photos of yourself, two (you can get them done at Blacks)
3) The application form which you can complete online. Here's the link to the Canadian passport guide
BTW, if you complete the entire process online, when you walk into the passport office, you get to bypass all the other people who didn't fill out their forms online. Nice!
4) Make it Automatic. If you're a reader of any financial books then you've probably heard of the concept of making things automatic. An example of this concept is a savings account. Instead of waiting for the end of the month and putting aside a few dollars for savings, you can make the process automatic by having your bank withdraw a predetermined amount right out of your pay cheque. This is useful, because one, your forced to do it and two, you hardly notice it. The Government of Canada is pretty smart and they use this exact philosophy when they take income tax right out of your pay cheque. Ouch.
Check out ING who are a great online bank that will automatically take money from your bank account and deposit it into an interest earning savings account (even tax free in Canada).
5) Yournamehere.com Register your own domain name. For example I own www.zaidrasid.com and www.zye.ca. This is actually important as you need to protect and strengthen your own personal brand. Plus you never know when you're going to want your own personal website. Hey you may even become famous one day:)
If your domain name is taken you can always find alternatives. For example you could hyphenate your name like www.zaid-rasid.com. Or you could try a different domain like www.zaidrasid.ca or www.zaidrasid.net. Domains are super cheap these days and you can find one here: http://www.doteasy.com, www.godaddy.com, www.networksolutions.com, and elsewhere. If you sign up for a blog from Blogger you can even buy your domain through them.
6) Get business cards. This one is fun. If you don't have a business there's nothing stopping you from having a business card. Heck, set up your own blog, then print some business cards with the blog url and start handing them out. Now that's marketing a new business! Sites like www.vistaprint.com will send you 250 free ones (though there’s a shipping fee of $5.45 or so). Never hurts to look professional.
7) What's your credit score? This one is super important. Do you know what's on your credit report? Do you know what your score is? If you don't then you should. Your credit report is like a financial report card and a lot of experts believe that this report, or this score, is key to financial success. And it is. A credit report is free. You can get one in Canada from Equifax or Trans Union. Or you can pay a little money and have either company send you a credit report plus your credit score. A credit score is a number that lenders use to determine whether or not they should give you money.
Let's not forget about identity theft and inaccurate charges that could occur on your report. It's always a possibility and it's definitely worth the few minutes to investigate that ever important credit report. Do it.
8) How's your health? For men I think this is more important. Get a physical from your doctor. If you don't have a doctor then that's the first thing you need to take care of. Find a friend or a co-worker who could recommend a good doctor. I know in Toronto they are hard to find, but they are out there. Next, book yourself a physical. Your health is more important than anything else on this list. Head off any potential medical problems that may hinder an active, fun year.
Also recommended: make an appointment with a dentist to get your teeth cleaned if you haven’t done so in the last six months. You may also want to call for an eye exam if you haven’t had one in the last four years. (Make sure you get a second opinion if any of the above tries to talk you into any costly procedure.)
9) Lookin Good. I'm not on expert on losing weight or gaining muscle, but I learned recently of a good way to set a goal. Instead of attaching a result to your goal (like losing 10lbs or gaining 5 lbs of muscle), alter your goal by making a commitment (like going to the gym 3x a week). The latter goal is a lot easier to implement and isn't results based. And of course, the results from going to the gym three times a week is going to be better appearance!!! You sexy stud.
10) Broaden your scope. Subscribe to a newspaper or magazine. Find a topic that is new to you or that you don't know too much about. It could be fashion, culture, politics, science, or technology. Rather than choosing the most popular magazine, select one that offers the most in-depth and interesting coverage, like Wired for technology or Foreign Affairs for politics or Mental Floss for general culture or New Scientist (which last month had a handy article on how to win at rock paper scissors) for science. If you don't want to subscribe, just head over to your local book store and pick one up.
So there you have it. A pretty simple list if you think about. And most of the items shouldn't take too long.
If you have any questions about the above please leave a comment.
What's something that you could add to the list?
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