Revving Up Resolutions

Happy New Year! It's time to start over. Display and use the brand new calendars and journals with inspirational messages. Fill them up completely. Listen to music and read a few good books. Decide on the places you want to go and people to visit with, write to or call-then do all of them. Especially if you work in a home office several times a week, schedule time to be outdoors for a few minutes each day, and spend longer time on weekends. Most of all, keep all health-related goals. They are more important than anything else, and they will pay off down the road a million times over.

OK, that was everyday life. What about working life? Every year, separate from performance reviews, it's a good idea for all workers to take stock of performance, training goals, dream work projects, equipment they need or taking another step to where they want to be professionally. Sometimes it's a combination of all these.

Where then, to begin? Always start with a written list. (It's very valuable to list accomplishments for the year. It encourages you and lets you know strengths and weaknesses.) Be careful of overloading it, or "To Dream the Impossible Dream" will be playing constantly in your head. One year, 20 items were on my resolutions list. Another year, I narrowed it to seven, but I didn't accomplish much then either. Now I only list three specific and measurable goals, and make time for them each day. Sometimes, even three items need their own separate pages for brainstorming and planning, checking off each item when completed.

But life happens….Having to skip a day doesn't mean failure; it just means you redouble efforts the following days. And even though it can be very difficult at times, keeping a positive attitude accomplishes a lot. It's always important to be happy about what has already been accomplished. Don't give up. As a boss always reminded me: "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly."