The best New Years resolution I ever made and the only one I ever kept was to never make another New Years resolution.

I am dismayed by the number of people who doggedly, stubbornly make their resolutions every year often the same ones they made the year before. Within weeks, or even days, these resolutions fall by the wayside, trampled into the dust by existing habits and ways of thinking and acting.

Predictably, this perceived failure to execute becomes a blunt instrument for self-flagellation, evidence of a lack of commitment, general bad-personhood, and overall unworthiness.

Talk about setting yourself up for failure!

Establishing new habits is hard. Evidence suggests that it takes at least three weeks thats a full 21 days! of consistent action to create a new habit; eliminating an old habit is even more difficult. And most of us make resolutions based on what we believe we should do (or should not do), rather than what we really want to do (or not do). Furthermore, we state our resolutions in fuzzy terms: Eat less. Exercise more. Be more organized. While these are certainly virtuous and valuable objectives, there is no way to measure your achievement. Whats less? Whats more?

The start of a new year is an obvious choice for self-evaluation, setting goals, and making plans. By applying a little creativity and thought, we can set ourselves up for accomplishment and achievement instead of disappointment and discouragement.

First, take a few moments to frame your thoughts as desires and goals. You dont really want to eat less and exercise more; you want to look and feel better and live a healthy, active life. You dont really want to be more organized; you want to navigate easily through your daily tasks. When you use positive, active terms to describe your desired outcome, you advance along the path to success. Contrast this to how you feel when you tell yourself youre an over-indulgent couch potato living amidst clutter!

Once you have your aspirations stated in words that excite you instead of depressing you, youre ready to describe how your achievements will look and feel, and what specific steps you will take to get there. For instance, you may choose to take a vegetarian cooking class to learn ways of including vegetarian meals into your weekly menu; you might finally break down and get the puppy your kids have been clamoring for so you can take daily walks with the puppy and the kids; you might consult with a professional organizer to create systems that work for you instead of making you feel straitjacketed with rules and regulations.

The challenge I offer you, then, is to throw out all your old New Years resolutions and craft exciting, positive lifestyle goals with clearly defined, creative, and fun steps to a measurable result.

Now there are more overweight people in American than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means youve met your New Years resolution. Jay Leno, American writer, actor, and humorist.

Grace Judson

Grace Judson is the founder of and driving force behind Svaha Concepts. As a professional coach, she's dedicated to helping her clients improve the quality of their lives and achieve their full personal and professional potential ? and full personal and professional satisfaction!

In the course of her corporate career, she has worked in organizations as small as five people ? and as large as 200,000. She has managed departments, participated in corporate strategic and tactical initiatives as part of Senior Staff, and supported businesses and customers as a consultant. In short, with over 25 years in the corporate world, she has a broad and deep understanding of the challenges faced by workers in today?s knowledge economy.

With her strong strategic and tactical background, she specializes in helping individual clients recover from burnout, identify their goals (some of which may have been lost in the hustle of success) and create challenging yet realistic plans for achieving those goals. Executives receive assistance in developing their skills in leadership, collaboration, creativity, and communication. Corporate clients seek Grace's knowledge management expertise and advice in pro-actively managing the "brain drain" resulting from the retirement exodus of the Baby Boomer generation. She works one-to-one and in groups to help experienced executives impart their experience and wisdom to the upcoming leaders within the organization, while simultaneously helping the apprentices develop their leadership skills and decision-making abilities.

Modeling the life balance that she helps her clients attain, Grace spends time volunteering her business expertise at Shakti Rising (a women's recovery center headquartered in San Diego, where she also serves on the Board of Directors), being a lap for her cats, cooking for herself and friends, and staying active in fiber arts. A spinner, weaver, and knitter, she confesses to being a "fiberholic," and teaches knitting in several local yarn shops. She also admits somewhat sheepishly (no pun intended!) to having held the "Fastest Knitter in America" title in 2002, and appeared on Good Morning America that October to compete for the world title.