I have a confession to make. I didn’t make any New Year’s resoultions this year. Not one. Why? I don’t think they work. Not in that form anyway. Most of the resolutions I have ever heard have been wishes with little substance. I used to make them. I have since quit.

Goals are a different animal all together. Setting a goal is making a plan. Setting goals involves making sure that the plan has steps and ways to identify progress. Goals have a beginning and an end and are measurable. They may stretch you in ways you have never been stretched and lead you further than you expected to go, but you planned on getting there in the first place.

I sat down before 2010 ended and thought about what I wanted to accomplish in 2011. There are quite a few things on this list. Some left over from last year, but not too many. I have my eyes set on accomplishing some big things this year. Big to me, anyway.

I will share three of these goals with you today. The first involves my blog.

Goal 1 – I will work on developing my personal brand (as Gary Vaynerchuk calls it in Crush It) To do this, I will blog 2-3 times per week for 2011 and devote myself to learning how, through social media, to be a contributing voice in the conversations that are already taking place.

Goal 2 – I will finish writing the manuscript for my book My Three Foot Teacher and self publish it through Create Space. (This is a book about the lessons my two year old son has taught me about God.)

Goal 3 – Run the Memorial Marathon in Oklahoma City on May 1. I ran the half marathon last year and will complete the full thing in May. I have no time goal, per se, but will run the majority of it. Finishing is the goal.

Each one of the three listed above are measurable. I can make notes of my progress every day and then look back and see how far I have come. As I stated in my last post, I intend to give this year my very best. There is much to be done. I am eager to see these goals above accomplished, as well as the others I have not shared.

What goals do you have for 2011? What needs to be done that only you can do? Forget the resolutions. Make a goal. Make a plan. Get it done. Give it your best. Let’s see where we end up at the year’s end.

The best is yet to come. I love this Frank Sinatra tune. Love it. Not so much for the love song aspect. No. I like it because it is a good mantra for life. The best is yet to come. Yeah. Things may be good now, but that doesn’t mean that can’t get better. Or, things suck now, but the best is definitely yet to come. For 2011, that is the way it’s gonna be.

I have been thinking back across 2010 and the years before it. I am not where I want to be right now. I have come a long way, yes. But, I am not where I want to end up. Why is that? I have some thoughts on the subject, but the one overriding thought is this: I haven’t given my best effort.

Why is this post titled Is This My Best? This is the lens I am looking through for 2011 and beyond. I have decided I don’t have to be the best in the world at anything. That is not a realistic goal. The world is too big and there are many many talented people out there. It just ain’t happening.

I can, however, be the best I can be at any given endevor. If I chose the most important areas of my life and committed to be the best I can be at them, what will it do? It will leave me with no excuses. It will leave me with very few regrets. I will have done what I can with what I have. If I succeed, awesome. If I fail, so be it. I will have done my best and I will choose to do something different. I will succeed much more than I fail. A mediocre life is not an acceptable choice.

I choose to be the best I can be, so the best is yet to come.

For the past couple of months I have not posted to my blog with much regularity. It is not because I have stopped blogging. Much the contrary. I have been blogging on a different site. http://www.ibelieveinchristmas.com. I will return to making regular Thinking Willis posts when the New Year rolls around, but for now I am working hard promoting my book, I Believe: A Christmas Story, in that other platform. If you have the chance please check the site out. I would love to have you stop by and would love to hear what you think on the subjects I present.

For those of you who have kept up with this blog. I appreciate you more than you know. I look forward to the future and to the good that is to come. Have a Merry Christmas. See you on this blog when the New Year rolls around…and at http://www.ibelieveinchristmas.com until then!

Piles. All around. That seems to be the way my office ends up. I would like to be able to smile and say that it was my filing system (and that I knew what was in each pile). Sadly this is not the case. Most of the stuff that is in the piles I don’t need. Some of it is stuff I want to look at later (whenever that is). The smaller portion of it is actually important, but because it is buried it often gets overlooked.

Life is a lot like this too. We get so much stuff going on. So many things we are committed (or used) to doing. Most of it is stuff that is not beneficial. Some of it could be, but we need time to work on it. The smaller portion is what really matters. There are many days that the important stuff gets lost in all of the noise.

Stephen Covey said it this way, “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” Do I really need all the piles I have in my office? No. I can say the same thing about some of the stuff going on in life as well. How many times do I bury the important things and keep the stuff that doesn’t matter up where it doesn’t belong?

Yesterday we were driving across town. My wife was sitting beside me and our 2 year old son was in the back seat enjoying himself. I looked in the rearview and told him I loved him. He very boisterously answered, “I love you daddy!” I love being this boy’s dad. It is one of the coolest things one earth.

We didn’t know if we would ever get to this stage of our lives. Five years ago I was diagnosed with stage 2 testicular cancer. After the tumor was removed and 20 chemo session later, we didn’t know if it would ever be possible to conceive. The doctors gave us some hope, but told us that it might take several years before it happened. Fortunately for us several years only took 2. The day we found out that we were going to have a baby was one of the happiest days of my life.

I know one of the reasons that I love being a dad is because I have perspective. My son is a blessing. Truthfully, all children are a blessing. Unfortunately not everyone views life this way. I remember this every day. I get to share life with this little guy. I get to love him and hug him and he tells me he loves me. So, when he throws fits I am thankful…frustrated too…but thankful all the while.

Have you taken time lately to be thankful for the little ones you have been entrusted with? Take time today. This being a dad thing is one of the best things going.