Do you have your New Year’s Resolution yet? Let me guess… it’s either something to do with being more healthy, working on yourself (dating or otherwise), or spending more time with family and friends.

But c’mon. Let’s be realistic here. Most people don’t actually do ANYTHING long term with their resolutions. Did you make a resolution last year and fulfill it? Probably not.

January 1 is the biggest self-deception day of the year. Come Jan 1, 2010, most people should make a resolution to stop making resolutions. Instead, they should be TAKING ACTION.

See, the problem with resolutions are that they’re mostly theoretical. They’re broad ideas. They’re unspecific goals. They’re wishful thinking. But they AREN’T actions. Actions make things happen. That’s why the central theme in my boot camps and training is exactly that: Action.

I started off writing this article envisioning a 15-page thesis breaking down exactly what’s causing the problem, the mental blocks involved, and paragraph after paragraph of theory on the topic. Everything from persistence to self-discipline, to the mechanisms behind willpower and motivation. A quick google search on motivation gives you a glimpse into what I was writing about. But two minutes into the writing process, I stopped and deleted everything. It would have made a great college paper but a horrible post. I don’t really care what synapses fire when I’m motivated. I don’t care if Michael Phelps eats 10,000 calories for breakfast and if that changes his mental motivational structure. All I care about is what directly influences MY bottom line. All I care about is what I can do NOW to directly cause action. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

So given this theme, screw resolutions. Let’s sit down and create an Action Plan.

A Call To Action

An Action Plan is like a resolution that actually materializes into something. It’s different because instead of describing broad ideas and wishful thinking, it creates a step-by-step plan of action to actually ACCOMPLISH said goals. We’re going to break down exactly how to create one. The key to this is that you can’t just read the following steps. Follow along with us each step of the way. I’m serious. I know what you’re thinking: “eh, I’ll just sit back and read the rest of this article and I’ll do the steps tomorrow when I’m not so tired.” Screw that. Most guys don’t get results because most guys don’t do what’s necessary. Most guys are reading this article and not actually doing it. So start doing it. Stop being a lazy fuck. Take out pen and paper now. Let’s begin.

Step 1: Beginning

Take a sheet of paper out or open a new document in whatever program you use.

Step 2: Goals

Create a heading that says “broad goals”. List things like “getting better at game”, “getting out of debt”, etc. List your top 5 in order of importance from highest to lowest.

Step 3: Specify

Now take the number one thing on your list. Since this list is prioritized, this number one thing should be the most important item. Now quantify it with details on exactly what you want. Give it a time constraint as well. Your goals cannot be vague and unspecific or you won’t achieve them. So if your broad goal was to “get better at game”, you’d make it more specific until it said something like: “Lose my virginity by Jan 2011.” Good.

Step 4: 12 Steps

You should now have both a specific goal and a due date. Let’s take “lose your virginity by 1/2011″ as an example. Now I want you to list 12 of the most crucial steps that will allow you to achieve that goal. This will obviously vary from person to person. These 12 steps should be the things that highlight your biggest weaknesses. Do not include things that have little direct relevance to your goal. In this example, your 12 steps might include things like:

• Getting a new wardrobe/Developing a fashion sense
• Conquering Approach Anxiety (AA)
• Learning how to flirt
• Cleaning up mistakes on your approach*
• Developing your lifestyle
• Actively working on your belief system/inner game
• etc.

*Now obviously you could be limited by a limited perspective (e.g., you may not really know a lot of your sticking points), but that’s where coaching comes in. If you’re coming from a dark place (e.g., you’re not a natural and this isn’t coming easy for you), not taking coaching is a bit like being obese your whole life and trying to get to the 2012 Mr. Olympia contest without help. Namely, it’s pretty much impossible. There’s a reason that every synthetic coach out there took training to get good. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

Step 5: Prioritize

Prioritize your 12 steps from most important to least.

Step 6: Actionable Tasks

Take each step and write out 5-10 actionable tasks to accomplish these steps. Keyword being Actionable. They have to be actionable tasks using action verbs. You’ll notice that each task starts with a verb for action. So for “getting a new wardrobe,” (assuming little to no existing fashion sense), we might break that down into the following tasks:

• Bookmark websites GQ Style, kinowear, lookbook.nu (on lookbook.nu, filter posts to men’s fashion only)
• Subscribe to GQ and Details Magazines. ($10-12 each for a year)
• Buy Esquire’s Handbook of Style ($11 bucks)
• Buy supplies and create a LookBook for every season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). A lookbook is a binder full of custom style and fashion ideas to help you shop and create your own sense of style.
• Schedule a trip to go shopping for clothes at least once or twice a month. You don’t have to buy anything, but just browsing the latest fashions will help you develop an eye for fashion and what looks good.
• At least once a week before you go out, set aside 60-90 minutes experimenting with different combinations in front of the mirror. Take pics. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
• Go through your wardrobe and collect all the clothes that are abominations of style. You know what I’m talking about. Those free microsoft and WoW t-shirts. Throw them out.
• Take all the BFD clothing you have and get it tailored so it fits right.
• Stop making fashion mistakes that you know are mistakes (wearing white socks with jeans, wearing cross-trainers/tennis shoes with jeans, etc) — even if no one else notices. YOU notice, and it screws with your inner game.
• Take Training with a professional.
• Use your lookbook to go shopping and put the outfits together until you find a look that you like. Buy that outfit and start wearing it.

Note that these are all actual actionable TASKS and not just random ideas. Your 5-10 tasks have to be things that will directly contribute to the bottom line.

Step 7: Schedule

Now it’s time to take the tasks and schedule them into our lives. Put aside 5 or so hours per week to make this happen. No matter how busy your schedule is, 5 hours a week is do-able. That’s as simple as giving up an hour of sleep each night mon-fri. Find a way to include these 5 hours into your schedule.

Try to space them out to an hour a day or to two hours blocks, three times a week. Try to avoid scheduling a single 5 hour block on sunday night before you fall asleep.

Your action plan will serve as a roadmap to help guide you on what to do next. Use your scheduled blocks of time to start attacking your individual tasks. Ideally you’ll want to attack no more than 3 tasks simultaneously. This will keep you at optimal efficiency. When one task is done, simply move onto the next. I would advise AGAINST trying to attack tasks from multiple sub-steps at the same time. In other words, don’t try to work on inner game, outer game, lifestyle, etc. at the same time. Focus on one thing at a time until you conquer it.

Step 8: Recap & Maintenance

Now you have an actionable list of items to do for each task. So we have:

• 1 main goal
• 12 steps for your goal
• 5-10 tasks for each step

More importantly, we have scheduled time for each one of these steps and we have an action-based game plan on how we’re going to accomplish our goals.

Revisit this action plan at least once a quarter (every 3 months) to revise and make modifications. As you grow and change, your goals and sticking points will shift as well. Stay fluid by continually updating your goals to reflect your current situation. Also use this time to evaluate your progress and take note of both the things you’re doing right and the things that need improvement.

Step 9: Begin

The final step is to start the process. Inertia states that a body at rest will tend to stay at rest until a significant outside force acts on it. That force has to come from YOU. You have to begin this process and never let it stop. Continue to use this method to analyze your desires, setup a game plan, and achieve your goals.

These types of success processes and action-driven principles are the backbone of my Training Philosophy and my Long Term Training Programs. If you’re not getting the kinds of results you want in your dating life, perhaps it’s time to stop doing what you’ve always done and to start taking active steps to get what you want out life.

95% of guys in this community will never achieve their goals. Don’t be a statistic. Think big, Take action, and Live your dreams.

For those of you who are intent on really taking action, I’m temporarily discounting my long term training program if you sign up in January. Don’t miss this chance to turn your life around and massively improve your results with women! Sign up here.

Here’s to an amazing 2010. “The year,” as someone on my facebook stated, “that everything changes.”