Dear Friends, BLOG Readers, Past Participants, Loyal book readers and critics,

I would like to wish one and all a very successful, fulfilling and happy 2009!

Another whole year has passed like the blink of an eye and another new year begins. It is that time of the year where I do a very important ritual-exercise and I would like to share it with you and encourage you to do the same

I believe that at the beginning of a new year, it is important to audit the year that has just passed. Time to reflect and write down all the key accomplishments you have made, the important lessons you have learned and improvements you have made to yourself. I’ve always loved to listen to the old christmas song ‘So, this is Christmas- by John lennon’ where the lyrics go ‘So this is christmas, now what have you done? Another year over, a new one’s just begun…’

Ever since I was 15, I have been keeping a SUCCESS JOURNAL, where I write down all my achievements and insights for every year that has passed in my life. My philosophy is that if life is worth living, it is worth recording. This allows me to look back at my life for the last 19 years, year by year to see how I have grown and what I have achieved so far. Success is a process of continuously moving towards the goals you have set for in your life. So, if you do not keep a record of how you are progressing each year, then how do you measure your success?

At the same time, keeping this success journal is a way how to motivate myself myself to keep going further. That’s right! Yours truly Adam Khoo also gets demoralized once in a while, so I need to motivate myself by reading all my past achievements and read all the letters of appreciation that people have sent to me.

I invite you to do the same thing! I invite you to share in this BLOG (through ‘comments’), what you have learned, achieved, improved in for 2008! Maybe I can start the ball rolling by sharing what is in my own 2008 Success Journal. In 2008, I am proud to have done the following:
1) Wrote ‘Nurturing the Winner & Genius in Your Child’ that hit #5 of the National Best-Seller’s list
2) Conferred the NUS Business School Eminent Alumni Award
3) Successfully Launched the First Millionaire Business Academy(MBA) Programme
4) Wrote the book ‘Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses’
5) Wrote the book ‘Profit from the Panic’ where all royalties will be donated to charity
6) Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group Sales Revenue Hits Over $20 million & Employees surpass 100 people DESPITE the financial crisis!
7) Received the Toastmasters International Communications & 21st Century (leadership) Award
8) Officially Opened one of the largest training offices and venues in Jakarta
9) Successfully ran the first ‘I Am Gifted’ program for students in Hong Kong
10) Successfully ran the first ‘ I Am Gifted’ program for students in Bangkok
11) Featured in Young Parents magazine, Executive Magazine and the New Paper
12) My group of companies trained in total over 55,000 students, parents, teachers, entrepreneurs and working professionals in 6 countries
13) Brought my family to Korea for a great holiday
14) Put on 10 kg so I look just right (I was too skinny before)
15) Brought my children to the zoo 6 times, swimming every month, science centre > 3x, playground countless times. Helped teach my kids how to read, count, add & subtract (my wife did most of the work though)
16) Read 65 new books (including ‘Snowball’-Warren Buffett’s autobiography which is damn thick)
17) Came up with a perfect plan on Effective Study Techniques for my upcoming Outdoor Camp in Singapore and Indonesia

The next step, is to set specific, measurable goals with deadlines attached to them for the New Year. I am not talking about New Years Resolutions, but GOALS! Let me tell you why New Years Resolutions never seem to work. First, they are too vague, general and non-committal. For example a resolution like, ‘be a better person’ will not work. To make it a powerful goal, t could be stated like, ‘Do one good deed a week for a stranger’, ‘ pay sincere compliments to the people around me’ or ‘stop complaining and criticizing’.

The other reason resolutions do not work is because people only write them down and look at them once. The next time they look at it (if they ever do) is one year later! In the meantime, they get so distracted and sidetracked by all the day to day demands of life that their resolutions are always shelved aside! For goals to work, you must
1) Write them down on a big piece of poster
2) Stick it up all over your home, work area, computer desktop
3 Make a public commitment by putting it up on your BLOG, facebook or telling your friends about it
4) Reading it out aloud EVERY MORNING when you wake up
5) Reflect upon them EVERY NIGHT before you sleep
You have to develop this as a HABIT just as you would brushing your teeth or bathing everyday (I hope you brush your teeth ; ) )

THIS is what it takes to ever achieve the goals you have set. So again, I invite you to share your goals in my blog. I will start the ball rolling my committing and declaring MY GOALS. So, if I don’t achieve them by end 2009, you can write in and laugh at me! (that will be MY motivation). Here are my 2009 Goals:
1) Launch new book ‘Secrets of Successful Teens’ by April 2009
2) Launch new book ‘ Secrets of Learning Geniuses’ by Sept 2009
3) Launch second edition of ‘Secrets of Self Made Millionaires’ by March 2009
4) Launch second edition of ‘Secrets of Millionaire Investors’ by March 2009
5) Invest in 3 more rental properties to take advantage of the crisis by Dec 2009
6) Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group to reach out to and train more than 70,000 in 7 countries (about 40% increase over 2008) by Dec 2009
7) Start the third ‘Adam Khoo Learning Centre‘ in I Am Gifted!™ school holiday programme June 2009
8) Launch the ‘I Am Gifted’ program in Amsterdam, Holland by Oct 2009
9) Bring my family on a great vacation Aug 2009
10) Read 65 new books on self-improvement
11) Spend as much time as I can teaching my children how to improve their reading, writing, Math and 21st century skills a d build up their self-confidence
12) Write ‘Secrets of REal Estate Millionaires’ by teaming up with the top real estate investors in Singapore

So, those are my goals for 2009! I hope I have inspired and challenged you to do the same!