Don’t Read This If You Want To Have a Great New Year

(Our blog articles are archived articles from our weekly newsletter which is about 6-months ahead. Usually this is irrelevant, however this particular article was written for the New Year's season so it may seem a bit out of place but the information is still great! -Editor)

By Action Coach Dave Beam

Brad Sugars, founder and CEO of ActionCOACH, talks about people who live a Xerox life.  Xerox is the brand that is associated with copy machines.  What Brad means is that you could photocopy the experiences of many people for one year, and that will be the experience for each and every year – the same, the same, the same, over and over.  Call it a rut, which is just a grave with the ends knocked out!

In just four days, the ball will drop in Times Square, confetti will fly, and a New Year will begin.  Do you intend for 2010 to be a copy of 2009?  Are you ready to climb out of the rut?  My friend, you have within you the ability to create, choose, and experience amazing positive change this year.  That is truly life, growing and changing!  Mere existence and status quo is living in a prison of your own attitudes and thoughts.  The natural course of life without intention is deterioration and decay.  If you do nothing, you will coast downhill.   My challenge for you is to step up to the plate and create an amazing year.  Drop the excuses, get out of denial, and allow yourself to transform your wispy dreams into tangible projects this year.

Steven Covey in his classic Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says that to achieve success you must begin with the end in mind.  What do you want your story to be on January 1, 2011?  Create that picture and that story, and put it into words.  Write it down.  Translate it into a list of specific, clear outcomes.  Once you define where you are going, choose the actions you will choose to take to get there.  One day, one step, diligently applied will take you to your destination. New habits; A new direction; Decide today that the same old, same old IS old and is going in the garbage can.  Find someone to celebrate your plan with that will encourage you and help keep you on track. 

This is so much more than the typical anemic “New Year’s Resolution.”  This is a commitment to fundamental change, one step at a time, one habit at a time, one action at a time.  So what if you create this great outcome and plan, and slip along the way.  The slip is not a failure, it just is something to learn from.  It is an opportunity to affirm your resolve.  Much of the satisfaction of this journey is the personal growth and learning along the way.  The experience has as much value as the destination.