New Year's Resolutions Don't Work!
By Tommy Newberry, Guest Columnist

How many people do you know make New Year's resolutions?

Statistics reveal that virtually all resolutions fall apart before January comes to an end. After working with thousands of clients since 1991, I know this is true. New Year's resolutions do not work, but real goals do!

There are scores of reasons why goals work. They help you stay focused and avoid current fads and distractions that we are all bombarded with daily. When you have precisely defined, written goals, they act like a rudder on a ship to keep you on course. Goals help us to make wise decisions. After all, when you know your destination, it is a lot easier to get directions on how to get there.

With long-range goals you are less susceptible to the frustration of short-term set backs. Goals also help build confidence. As you set and achieve goals, you find that you believe in yourself and your potential grows. As a result, you take on more challenging projects.

Think of goal setting as mental fitness. Like physical exercise, the more you push yourself with demanding goals, the stronger and more self-assured you become. You develop the mental toughness possessed by high achievers in all fields. With clear goals, you pull the future into the present and alert your mind to detect the people and the methods to bring it into reality. And the more irresistible your goals, the more quickly this happens.

My business partner, Steve Cesari puts it this way, "Little goals and little visions attract little people and little resources. Huge goals and huge visions attract huge people and huge resources."

When I lead our intensive workshops, I often invoke the command, "Think huge!" I constantly remind clients that activating their full potential requires huge thinking. As a huge thinker, your approach to goal setting is a bit unconventional because you deliberately establish goals that you do not yet know how to achieve. Not only does this feel awkward and defy common sense, it also sets you up for possible failure and even embarrassment. But you do it anyway because you know that the very act of writing down and setting passion-filled goals unlocks your creative powers. This singular act kicks off a chain reaction of serendipitous experiences that never would have occurred in the presence of a weak, impotent New Year's resolution.

This approach to setting goals gives you a distinct advantage. When you write down huge goals for your life, you activate the "law of attraction" and draw to yourself, like a strong magnet, the talent, skills, innovation and other resources necessary to accomplish your huge goal. Whatever you need to make the goal a reality flows into your life and often in the most unexpected ways.

By setting huge goals, you begin to make a difference. Your influence and responsibility grow as does your opportunity for impacting others in a positive and permanent way. You learn that there are no unimaginative people, only people with small, dull goals.

Think about your business goals. Are they huge? If so, what makes them huge? Are you going to make a huge difference with your clients and what ripple effects will this cause in your career? What sort of impact are you having on your industry, in your specialty and within your company? Remember the size of your thinking determines the size of your result. Do you want the new year to be your best ever? If you do, THINK HUGE!

Tommy Newberry is founder of The 1% Club, Inc. and is one of the nation's leading authorities on peak performance and personal effectiveness.