Every year, many people, before or after the ball drops and the fireworks end, make several “New Year’s resolutions”. Usually, people carry over unresolved items from the prior year. Others come up with a list that is so unattainable that it practically guarantees they will not be achieved. If you are not involved in Cancer research or the health-care field what are the odds that you will cure Cancer? If you are not an astronaut, forget about walking on the moon as well.

Another mistake people make is having plans that do not personally affect them or others. It’s more like a “wish list”, and for others it’s a “look good” list.

1. Goals: As mentioned above, create goals that are realistic and attainable, however, do not pick goals that you are guaranteed of attaining either. If you know you are getting a promotion this month, then do not have that as a goal. Make sure you write your goals down and tell someone what they are. We all need someone to help hold us accountable. This is important: write down 6 month, 2 year and 5 year goals, as explained in the article, Attitude of Heaven: Taoist method of planning & attaining goals, then review those goals monthly and make any revisions that are necessary.
2. Community: Make friends with or join groups of like minded people. Let’s say you want to lose weight, it is going to be much easier to do so with a group of people who also want to lose weight. Even better, make sure you know people who are already their “ideal” weight. Want to quit smoking, have friends that already quit and those that never smoked. The flip side of this coin is that you also need to distance yourself from those people that do not reflect your goals, or the new you that you are creating/enhancing.
3. Activities: Actively participate in things that are going to help your goals/mission. Avoid things that are just going to take up your time, waste your energy and distract you from your mission and goals.
4. Discipline/Honesty: Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying that “the early bird gets the worm”. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is not being willing to change. Often times people complain that they just do not have enough time to exercise, how do I find time to cook, meditate, go for walks etc…. After hearing this, ask them (or yourself), did you watch TV today, what time did you wake up etc…? Consider that the average American under 65 watches an average of 5 hours of TV every day, if your over 65 its closer to 7 hours per day (Cross-Platform Report). Imagine how much extra time you would have if you cut back to 4 hours per day. How about waking up 30 minutes earlier? Now you have an extra 1.5 hours in your day, and that is after only adjusting TV viewing and the time you wake up.
5. Be honest with yourself. We all know if we need to lose weight, drink too much, are eating too much, not as healthy as we could be etc… Perhaps, resolve to not buy larger sizes, if those clothes are getting tight, time to put down the remote and do some internal exercise. Stop going to those fast food and chain restaurants, not only will your health improve, you will also save money.
6. Invest in loss: Lao Tzu stated that in order to gain we must first be willing to lose. You will make mistakes, you will forget, the important thing is that you keep going. We have all heard that the best thing to do after falling off the horse….is to get back on it. So what if you have been trying to do something for the last few years and have not done it yet. Thomas Edison failed between 700-10,000 times (depending on who you ask) before finding the correct method for the light bulb. When asked he said, I did not fail, I simply found “X” number of ways it will not work.

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