“A goal without a plan is dream” Anonymous

The beginning of a new year brings shades of optimism for a different, better future. Around the world calls for personal change in the form of New Year Resolutions will be heard.

More often or not most, if not all of us, desire improvement, dream of change, and set goals without fully appreciating what it takes. Seldom do we consider planning as part of our thinking when it comes to change let alone New Year resolutions.

Did you know that about 40 percent to 45 percent of Americans make resolutions each New Year, says John Norcross, distinguished professor of clinical psychology at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania? But, according to Norcross’s research, less than half of the pledges pan out.

If you are of the practice of making resolutions, what is your record of success? Further, what factor or factors do you attribute to your success limited or otherwise?

More often or not, the number one reason a resolution fails is due to the lack of a plan. Winston Churchill said, "He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” I actual like author Harvey Mackay’s statement, "Failures don't plan to fail; they fail to plan." In either case, you get the point.

What have you planned or resolved to change, improve, or accomplish in the New Year?

For me, the top of the list includes enjoying this present calling, this present work, and those that I co-labor with. I am not sure that the past six to seven months have been rewarding, fun if you will.

Part of what makes work fun are the emotions, perceptions, and motivations that inherently come from "doing" the work along with those "in" the work.

Our work environment, culture is so heavily dependent upon people. Each of us brings emotion, perception, and motivation to our work that collectively creates the workplace environment.

Too often we allow circumstances, events to dictate our emotions, perceptions, and motivations. Similarly we too often react, respond to those factors that are outside our control creating at worse or adding at best to stress and a sense of panic.

What intrigues me is that we have a plan – a plan for this work – a good plan. In fact, a plan that has been recognized as comprehensive, well-conceived, and well beyond what others are doing. We even have the means to measure the progress and effect of our plan.

Therefore, we shouldn’t succumb to the tyranny of the urgent.

This New Year we must resolve to think different. This different thinking must lead to proactive, preventive, and provisionary behavior.

It should be evident that we do not have the capacity to stay in a mindset that causes us to react, response, and receive whatever "cards are dealt" for much longer – the tyranny of the urgent.

Back to our work and work culture - we must intentionally choose to use our emotions, perceptions, and motivations to move others and ourselves forward.

These deliberate choices involve seeking to understand before being understood.

These choices require putting others before self as well as work before self.

These choices require asking more questions than giving answers.

These choices require recognizing, celebrating, and delighting in the accomplishments and achievements of others.

These choices require a sense of self-sacrifice, a sense of servant hood, and a sense of unselfishness in all we do. We cannot in the least be interested in who gets the credit.

If we are successful in transforming our work and our work culture by these deliberate choices we will have created an environment that truly is positioned to use our emotions, perceptions, and motivations to produce the results we desire and expect.

I ask in these first days of the New Year that each of us examine authentically our thinking and behavior through the lenses of choices we must make to ensure that our resolutions do in fact become a reality.

The failure to implement our plan with fidelity will ultimately result in failure.

The only way we will be successful is to choose to implement, choose to monitor, choose to adjust, choose to correct, choose to reflect, and yes, choose to plan intentionally.

The first step is to actually and authentically implement the plan.

By the by, where we have realized improvement and breakthrough results, we find the plan implemented with fidelity.

We just have to increase consistency, constancy to be ubiquitous in our implementation. We can and we will – it is really a matter of choice!