How Are Those Resolutions Working Out for You?

As I wrote in a post, Leadership Lessons from Yoga, a few weeks ago, I've been a regular at my local studio since last October. On January 2, I realized that if I wanted to get a space for my mat in class, I needed to get there earlier. The studio was packed to the walls. It stayed that way for every class until a couple of days ago when things started thinning out. Last night, January 13, there was plenty of room.

My guess is that there's an algorithm that correlates the extra space at yoga with the annual new year's resolution attrition rate.

You know how it goes. "This year, I'm going to..." Fill in the blank with the change you know you need to make. I know more and more people who have sworn off new year's resolutions. It's easy to understand why. When you make a resolution, you're making a promise to yourself. In the absence of any support system or process change, those promises to yourself can be hard to keep. And breaking a promise to yourself feels really awful. It's easier and less painful to just not make the promise.

Yesterday, I spoke with 350 people who joined in a conference call on Charting Your Course for 2011 with a Life GPS®. My goal was to share a process for mapping out your goals and actions in a way that is realistic and achievable. In my own life and in working with leaders over the last 10 years, I've learned that the success rate for big promises made without a process of ongoing support and follow through is pretty low. As the late, great coach John Wooden once said, "When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur... Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens and when it happens, it lasts."

That's why I'm creating an opportunity to join me in creating and following through on your own Life GPS® this year. You can read all about the offer here. I hope you'll take a few minutes to do so.

May big things occur for you this year.