Back in January, I posted my New Year’s Resolutions using the 12 Week Year Challenge (the “12WYC”), which basically reasons that “chunking” your goals into smaller, actionable items gives you a better chance of success in actually completing them.

A few weeks ago, I was amazed to find that several of my co-workers had jumped on the 12WYC bandwagon, and many of them had a copy of the book laying around the office. Apparently, more people read my blog than I thought! I’m still on board with Brian Moran’s philosophies, and I know that many of my readers have had great successes in very little time using his structured techniques. Since I love my readers, you can click on the link below to get yourself a FREE copy of the eBook for yourself. If you are feeling really ambitious, I challenge you to post your goals/resolutions for your next 12 Week Year in our comments section. Enjoy!

Link to Free 12 Week Year eBook by Brian Moran

April 1^st marks the beginning of my next 12 Week Year, which means more Lou! Challenges for you to read while you should be busy at work. Now that Kentucky has been eliminated from the NCAA tournament, its not like you’ve got better blogs to be reading nowadays. But before we jump into my next round Lou! Challenges… let’s take a look back at what happened in the last 12WYC.

As outlined in the January post, my last round of goals included:

Rehab my knee / Get in amazing shape.

I’ve already detailed most of my recovery from my knee arthroscopy in January… but I do admit that I drastically underestimated how long it would take to get back to the basketball court. As far as the goal goes, I followed the doctor’s orders, and did all my physical therapy… so I’ll give myself an “A” for that part. As for the “Get in amazing shape” part… I’ll give it an “incomplete.” I just haven’t had enough time in the gym yet to get there.

Travel

In January, I contemplated several different locations for this 12WYC, but ended up going to Dallas, Miami, Cincinnati, Raleigh, Savannah, and NYC. While this certainly sounds amazing, and while I am not complaining in the least, nearly all the travel ended up being in a 5-week stretch that culminated last weekend. Needless to say, my body is still recovering, and I’m very much looking forward to staying at home for a few weeks. On my goal, I’ll give myself another “A” because I made it to NYC and Savannah, two places I wouldn’t ordinarily head to. (And I had an amazing time in both cities!) (pics at the bottom)

The one downside to traveling is that takes you out of your routine; sticking to a diet or nutrition regimen is nearly impossible without incredible planning and foresight. Hey blog readers- do you have any tips, tools, suggestions, etc. for sticking to your diet and exercise while on a business trip or while on a vacation with friends?

Read 2,000 pages

Having read 41 books in 2009, I figured that 2,000 pages would be a breeze, especially given all the travelling on my calendar…. Oops!

Due to my hectic schedule, I never even picked up several of the books on my list from January: Never Eat Alone– Keith Ferrazzi, Are You There Vodka, It’s Me, Chelsea – Chelsea Handler, The Shack – WP Young, Cure For the Common Life – Max Lucado, Life of Pi – Yann Martel. Interestingly, and very true to form, I continued to purchase books that interest me, so my home queue is now something like 30 unread books. Hope I’m bored this 12WYC.

By my count, I got to around 1,500 pages, including The 4-Hour Body – Timothy Ferriss (Awesome book – more on that in a future post!), Assholes Finish First – Tucker Max, Sports Investing: Profiting from Point Spreads: Finding Value in the Sports Marketplace – Daniel Fabrizio, and Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster.

There was, of course, one other book that I read during this 12WYC… but you guys already know about THAT book.

Seriously… if you are a first timer to the blog, do yourself a favor and read these two posts before going any further. Trust me, it’s a fun read.

http://www.lou-davis.com/2011/02/a-life-worth-documenting/

http://www.lou-davis.com/2011/02/train-wrecks-and-awkward/

Start writing that Book

Anyways… that “other” book certainly got my creative juices flowing again, so it was convenient that one of my own goals was to begin writing my book. Although my counsel tells me that I can’t share much on the blog at this time, I can promise that there will be more in the future to share my side of the story. It is amazing to me how many people have reached out and offered their support/advice/etc. in the past few months in response to that story, which really means a lot. As soon as I can share more, I’ll put it on the blog. Stay tuned.

Challenges & Events

On to the fun part of my goals! Let’s score it another rousing “A” for our hero. Do you have any suggestions for Lou! Challenges in the year to come? Leave a comment below, and we’ll try to make it happen.

Birthday & Agave Fundraiser Dinner

This was one of my favorite moments from the 12WYC. After being forced to reschedule my event due to the Snow-pocalypse here in Atlanta, nearly 40 of my closest friends came out to support an amazing charity, and we raised over $1,100 for the cause while getting some great food over at Agave. If you missed out, you can still donate to the Atlanta chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their website here: http://www.lls.org/#/waystohelp/donate/

Here are some pics from that night, courtesy of Daniel McCaul:

Street Corner Man

As mentioned in the last blog entry, http://www.lou-davis.com/2011/02/copyright-law-and-other-tomfoolery/, AlexThePhotoGuy carried the day in various locations throughout Atlanta. For those who requested, I’m currently uploading more of those videosto YouTube, which should be available tomorrow. Subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking here to stay posted.

Epic Fail Time:

With any set of goals, there will always be the ones that didn’t come to fruition. In my case, these were my “Fail” goals:

• Look at 10 Small Deal Cards (Pushed ahead to the next year.)
• Perform Service. (I don’t count the Fundraiser Dinner here.)
• Songwriting Day/Weekend. (I don’t count the Street Corner Tour here.)
• Photo Shoot Redux. (AlexThePhotoGuy is on back order. Maybe in 12WYC part 2?)

One of the Blog’s many mottos is “A life worth documenting is a life worth living,” In conjunction with that, here are a few more pictures from this 12WYC (Q1’2011):

As for the next round of goals… check back tomorrow! I’ve got plenty in store for the blog this week; get excited!

-Lou!