“I like flying by the seat of my pants” He said to me when I asked him if he did an annual review. “I do not like to plan, I prefer to let things just go as they go and I hope for the best.”

I told him “hope is a great thing, but it’s not a great strategy.

Imagine if you wanted the perfect garden but you didn’t want to buy the right seeds, water the flowers appropriately and spend time getting rid of the weeds.

You would not have the perfect garden. Instead, you can expect the grass to be greener on the other side because your neighbor is taking the time to plan, to water, to cut the weeds.

If you fail to plan, you are essentially planning to fail.”

He looked at me and said that the reason that I am successful is because I am “lucky”, It has nothing to do with planning.

I agreed with him, I said that I believe that I was lucky enough to know that I must plan for the future and have the courage to share a vision that I want to bring to reality.

Success is not something that you just find somewhere. It’s like love, you must create it with intent, you must nurture it to fruition.

To me success is about setting a goal, a measurable goal, a specific goal, an actionable and attainable goal, a realistic goal that I am inspired and motivated to achieve. Then I need to set a time that I will have that goal completed by and I need to make sure that I am accountable to another person that I respect.

Success is very personal. Success to me is very different than success to you. If you define your level of success by what other people have, you will never be fulfilled. You need to dream up your own dreams and make them a reality. It all begins with planning. Having a written plan that you review regularly.

Yes, I have my 2017 vision board ready and I already sent it to the people who will hold me accountable. If you want to see it, let me know and i’ll send it to you.

Here are three easy steps to prepare for 2017

1. Confidence: Reflect upon your accomplishments in the past year, look at each month and see what you did and what you are proud of. Write them down and pat yourself on the back. You deserve to recognize and celebrate your accomplishments. If miss this step, you will not have the confidence to set more goals.
2. Clarity: Identify all the areas of improvement, write down all your current problems. All your desires and wishes. Write it all down so that you can see on paper what you really want in the coming year. Once you have a full list of everything you want to improve, fix and create. It’s time to decide which one thing, is the most important thing in each area of your life. Business, Family, Personal and Community. If you have too many priorities, you don’t have any priorities.
3. Activation: Create a list of outcomes along with actionable items that you will execute on in the coming year. Share those outcomes and action items with a friend. Make sure that the actions you commit to taking align with your top values and that you have a strong reason for wanting to accomplish those goals. The “Why” will fuel you into action.

Now that you wrote it all down and shared it with a friend, you are ready to take on the new year and make your dreams a reality.

Joe Apfelbaum

Ajax Union

PS: Last year I did 1000 selfies with 1000 people, check out my top selfies, are you in one? Do you want to do a selfie with me in 2017?

PPS: I am really excited about my accomplishments in 2016, Here are 10 that I committed and executed on.

1. Interviewed 52 CEO’s for CEOMojo.com
2. Filmed and published 52 Episodes fo GrowTime.TV
3. Posted 200 Mojovational Street Talks on Facebook
4. Took over 1000 selfies with 1000 people.
5. Got Lasik, Perfect Vision
6. Next level health, lost another 10 lbs (80 total)
7. Had my 5th Child!
8. Finished 3rd draft of my book.
9. Sent a weekly email to you each sunday. (This is the last one of 2016)
10. Built a next level business culture, lived up to the amazing vision. Right people in the right seats. Our digital marketing business is better than ever.

I am super excited about 2017, I am ready! Let’s do this together!!!

Thank you for being in my life.

Happy New Year!