The new year is upon us and everywhere you turn people are making resolutions to fix one thing or another with their lives. Lose a few pounds, spend more time with your family, etc.

We all do it. We take the time to identify a few things that we want to change about ourselves. We take the time to do some introspection and pick the things that we most want to change and we resolve to fix them.

We start the new year and we half-heartedly attempt to fix our flaws. We know we need to lose that few extra pounds, so we resolve to eat better. By the end of the week, we are downing a pizza.

So this year, don’t make any resolutions. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

Instead, take out a piece of paper and write down an action plan. Identify the one thing you most want to change this year and write it at the top of the paper.

Have you done it yet? No. Stop what you are doing and get out the piece of paper and do it right now. You will thank me later.

Now that you have your one thing you want to change written on your sheet of paper. I want you to start writing down the actions you need to take to change that one thing. Each step needs to start with an action verb and be as specific as you can make it.

If your goal is to lose weight your list might look like:

1. Throw away all junk and processed food in my pantry. No exceptions.
2. Write out a meal plan for the next week, sticking to organic dark leafy greens, legumes, and high quality meats.
3. Go to the grocery and purchase your groceries for the week sticking to your meal plan.
4. Prep your vegetables, beans, etc for the week. Pre-chop, store, etc to make meal preps as easy as possible.
5. Prepare the next days lunch so you can carry it to work.
6. Set out tomorrows meat in the refrigerator so it is defrosted for dinner.

You get the idea.

Be as specific and as detailed as you can. Then start at step one on the list and do it. Then on to the next step. Before long you will achieve your goal that you have at the top of your action plan.

So this new year, don’t have resolutions, have action plans.