Happy New Year Rhinos! I hope you have all enjoyed time with family and friends.  Maybe you took a trip or got a well deserved rest! I am writing to you from sunny Key West! Sunny and 80 degrees today. A great place to take time to think about the past year, and more importantly, plan for this year. Key West is an amazing town. I bought a home here a few years ago and it has remained my place to take a break from the world, to reconnect and refocus.

The Rhino Ghosts of Key West are part of what makes it a magical place. So many Rhinos have called Key West their home at some point in their lives, and they all leave their mark on this little island. Key West has been the home to President Harry Truman, writers like Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, musicians like Jimmy Buffet and even Madonna owned a home there. Billionaires, millionaires and some of the worlds most creative entrepreneurs, like my buddy Pat Croce, call Key West home. It is the most diverse four square miles on the planet. Which is one reason I am drawn there. Rhinos respect all different cultures, dreams, and people. They understand that by allowing other Rhinos to live their dream, it doesn't take anything away from their dream!

Being here helps me see through the limits of society or the limits of where I spend the most time. Key West is home to people that have lived an impossible dream; people that have tried and failed and people that have tried and succeeded. It reminds me that despite great adversity, you can achieve your dreams. Others before you have done it and others will continue to do it!

On this trip I was doing a 5 mile morning run with my daughter Ivy and we took the path that runs by the historic Key West cemetery. People of all races and religions are buried in this hodge podge above ground cemetery. Passing by tombstones of people that lived 100 years and people that lived only 20 years, it helps put life into perspective. What if tomorrow was your last day? Would you be happy? Would you feel you accomplished all that you could? Would you feel you lived the best life you could live?

I think most people would answer, "no." Maybe 2009 wasn't a great year for you. Maybe there were things you would like to change about yourself, your family, your career, your finances, and your hobbies. Well, DID YOU? If not, what are you waiting for? It's a brand new year, it's time to hit the reset button and create the life of your dreams! Nobody will create it for you. You can't just think about it--you need to ACT! The things you didn't like in 2009 will just continue to play out in 2010 if you don't change your path today.

Take time TODAY to Change Your Path!

I don't want you to make some silly New Year's Resolution that isn't important to you and that isn't consistent with your self-image. I want you to think about the things that really bothered you in 2009 and I want you to take steps to change them. Make sure they are ideas you are passionate about and make sure you believe you can accomplish them.

Here are a few examples you can use to plan your 2010 to be your best year ever:

More Family Time: Put it in your calendar now! Map out a day during the week for family dinner and let nothing else fill that spot. You are booked on that day at that time.

Better Health: Stop watching TV at night before you go to bed! Turn the TV off, get to sleep 30 minutes sooner and wake up 30 minutes earlier in the morning. Run on a treadmill, do a weight workout, do a workout video or go to the gym every morning when you roll out of bed! Do this before you do anything else everyday!

Better Career/Better Pay: Set you career goals for the next 3-6-9-12 months. If you work for someone else, share your goals and the goals for the company with your boss. Let your boss know you want to do more and earn more when you deliver on your goals! If you want to make more money in 2010, provide more and better service then you did in 2009! If you are your own boss, then you need to clear the distractions and put your eye on the big goals for 2010. Focus on your biggest goals and visions for yourself and make it the top priority.

New Hobbies: How many times in 2009 did you say you were going to start a new hobby or get back into an old hobby? It could be running, tennis, music, or collecting. Whatever it is... the key is to commit to your new hobby now! If you want to play tennis, sign up for lessons today. Whatever the hobby, get involved with a team, a group, lessons something that keeps you involved.

New Friends: Did some of your friends drive you nuts in 2009? Were they lazy, did they let you down, were they a bad influence in your life? Well time to pick your top 10! Remember you are the average of the 10 people you spend the most time with. Maybe you should create some open spaces for new friends and ditch the cows in your life!

2010 is totally up to you. On New Years Day, 2011, you could be looking back happy, proud and excited about your incredible past year... or you could be like the majority of people and look back on a year that wasn't much different then other years. A year where events and people impacted you instead of a year where you made an impact on the world!

As I finish this New Years letter, I am on a giant catamaran sailing back into Key West Harbor after a sunset snorkel, (yes even my little 2 year-old, Rhino Grady, got out in the ocean and loved it). As I look at Key West, I can see the magnificent hotel built by Flagler. He was an amazing Rhino! He built a railroad from Miami to Key West even though everyone told him he was crazy! Every cow in the Florida thought he was a nut, but he completed his dream and today there are roads, hotels, a college and even towns named after him! What is thought of crazy by current society may be seen as genius by future generations. Flagler put his entire empire on the line to make his railroad a reality even during the Great Depression!

They say if you took America and shook it up, all the biggest nuts would fall to Key West. I think it's actually where all the Rhinos go to live their dreams!

Happy New Year, Rhinos. Now get out there and create YOUR 2010!

Charge!
Dave