Today is an incredibly important day of the year. July 1^st. An opportunity to take stock of the first six months. How has it been so far? Are you accomplishing what you wanted? Are you halfway (or better) towards your goals for the year? Are they still relevant? Do they need updated, tweaked, or even completely scrapped? Did you fail to actually write any down at all?

Today is the day. If you failed to set goals, objectives, etc., today is a great day to put that in the rear-view mirror and set something down for the second-half of 2018. It’s not too late to accomplish something THIS YEAR that could change your life forever.

Or maybe, like Scott Adams, you’re not a goals person at all. How are your systems? Have you been following them? Made necessary adjustments? Are there any you’ve been letting slide? Any new systems put in place this year? How has that been?

Whether you’re a goals person or systems person, today is a great day to review your tool of choice and make tweaks, apply updates, or scrap the whole thing and start over.

It’s all going into the garbage for me.

2018 has been a great year for me in some ways and horrible in others. For the first time since I can’t remember (but I’m confident it was a year that started with a “1”), I had no written goals for 2018.

Seduced by the money and the things it can buy, I have allowed myself to be sidetracked and distracted. I have allowed others to set my priorities and objectives. I freely gave away the first half of 2018 and six months of my life to others. I handed it to them on a silver platter and thanked them for taking it from me.

I’m taking back 2018 starting today. Starting right now.

I just completed my written goals for the second half of 2018. Some of them are very simple and just a matter of pulling a few levers and turning knobs, while others have the potential to change my life forever, once accomplished.

Tomorrow, Monday, July 2^nd, I am going to ask for less money. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not going down a “sell everything and move to the woods” path. There are multiple reasons why I feel this is the right thing to do, with the most vital reason being that it’s an important step in regaining control over my days, weeks, months, and even years. I can’t get the previous six months back, but I can make sure I keep the next six months along with every year that follows.

A lot of people equate money with freedom; the more money one has the more freedom one has. In looking back on the first half of this year, I realized that, for me, the opposite has been true. And for longer than just six months. More money translated into less freedom. I also realized this was a choice I made, no one was forcing it on me.

While asking for less money is a major step in getting back on track, it’s not the most significant.

The most significant step has been making the decision to no longer give my days away, and then taking action to make it happen.

Also, understanding that even if my plans ultimately fail, everything will still be ok. I have that luxury because of my incredible wife, family, and extended family. We support each other in everything we do, and it makes a world of difference. It’s all the safety net I need to take a leap.

Hopefully, you find yourself in a much better position today than you were on January 1^st and may only need to make minor tweaks and updates to your plan/goals/process/systems. I sincerely hope you don’t find yourself in the same position as me – forced to scrap the entire first half of the calendar, grab a blank sheet of paper, and start over again.

But if you do find yourself there, take comfort in the words of Zig Ziglar: “Yesterday ended last night. Today really is a brand-new day.” We can start over and we can reshape this entire year. We can both look back and remember 2018 as the year that didn’t start until July 1^st.

Happy New Year!