Ten Questions To Base the Rest of My Life On

The new year has come and our resolutions are already going stale. There are a few reasons New Years Resolutions don't work (read why here) and people resist change. But, surely there is something we can do to help us focus on what will make a difference in the year ahead.

Instead of making a dramatic announcement that you will never again, or will always from now on...anything, try to think focus instead of ways you have held yourself back from making true change, and what are the simplest things you can do to make a difference that lasts.

The following 10 questions were designed to help you really define and pinpoint what those things are. Get a notepad, a journal, or a scrap of paper, a comfortable place to sit, and write your answers to these 10 key questions. Jot down the first response that comes to your mind. Do you see anything surprising? Next, answer again, this time thinking about each question, challenging yourself to go deep, be brutally honest, and open to what you will discover.

1. What is my single greatest strength?
2. What are three decisions causing me the greatest stress?
3. What is overwhelming me?
4. What impossible roadblock has me stuck?
5. The three things I would do in my lifetime are?
6. What should I resign from or drop out of?
7. What can I postpone?
8. What things on my to-do list can someone else do and 80% as well as me?
9. What are the elephants in my schedule?
10. What are three things I could do in the next 90 days that will make a 50% difference in my life or schedule?

Now, what would be the first and smallest thing you can do about each one of your answers today, this week, or this month? It might be to make a phone call or email, in fact that one small action will probably set into motion a chain of events in your thinking, your planning, and your actions that will begin to change your life in ways that really matter, and that really last.

Adapted from Temperament Case Studies, Phyllis J. Arno, PhD