How Are Your Resolutions Coming? Or Do You Have a "Word of the Year" Guiding Your New Year's Direction?

The beginning of a new year often presents a fresh start and is an ideal time to develop new habits, attack new goals and "be better" or "do better" in whatever areas of life have been challenging. Yet, for many of us, motivation and momentum starts to wane a bit after a few weeks. Life gets in the way, distractions arise, your annual battle with bronchitis comes back with a vengeance or you move on to whatever might be bigger and better at that moment.

Research tells us 92% of new year's resolutions fail. There are a number of reasons resolutions fail, including overly ambitious targets, vague details and peer pressure, but the fact remains that resolutions are rarely successful in driving change.

What if we tried something different for this calendar year?

I've heard more and more people moving away from new year's resolutions; instead, we're setting a theme by picking one word to summarize who we want to be, what we want to accomplish and our overall desire for directing our actions in 2017.

It won't really matter what word you choose as long as it resonates with you and your vision for the new year. How do you want to feel? What goals do you want to accomplish at work, at home, in the community and for yourself? What are your dreams and big, hairy, audacious goals? What successes would make you proudest?

For 2017, I have chosen "uplevel" as my word of the year. According to the Urban Dictionary, uplevel means "to transform and grow in an area previously stagnant." This covers everything from my network connections to the service I provide clients, how present I am when hanging out with friends to how organized I keep my home and how proactive I am in my Lung Cancer Initiative volunteering to my dedication for working out at least once per week at LifeTime Fitness. It's an all-encompassing goal!

If you create new year's resolutions, how successful are you each year? Alternatively, have you considered replacing your new year's resolutions with a word for your new year? If you chose a word for this year, what is your for 2017?

Build a Solid Foundation for Your Greater Productivity

For many people, getting organized tops the list of new year's resolutions. All around us, there are people talking about what works for them and experts sharing tips to help. It can be very easy to say "I'll do that" or "That would be great for me" to all the ideas you hear; however, in my experience, trying too many things at once leads to failure and will discourage future efforts.

Instead, think about achieving your goals like eating an elephant. How would you eat an elephant? I have always heard the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, which is the same way I look at attacking any project... Bit by bit by bit.

Attempt any productivity and organization tidbits one at a time, not all at once, and develop habits slowly so they really stick. Adopting new ways of doing things and making changes can be difficult, but it is much easier when undertaking smaller chunks instead of an overhaul all at once.

Once you've mastered one change, it is a much better time to move on to the next change than seeking to make multiple changes at the same time. Plus, each of those changes is rarely as challenging in reality as we envision it will be in our minds.

Which element of your productivity practices or workflow processes do you want to change first? Have you tried to improve previously and struggled due to attempting too many changes at once? I'd love to hear your experiences!