At this time of the year, most of us are all too aware of the fact that we could have done much better this year in a lot of areas of our lives. This is the time for new resolutions aimed at making the new year a better year, by making ourselves better and more productive people.

Have we been here before? Most of us were right here last year with the same thoughts. This blog post is aimed at helping all of us to do a better job this year with our new resolutions for a better 2010; especially those resolutions aimed at improving your business success.

I grew up in 1940’s and 50’s. My dad was one of the first TV repairmen in the country. He worked six days a week and our phone rang late into the night virtually every night – even on Sundays. I can remember as a child thinking how important my dad was because, after all, people couldn’t be expected to live without TV.

There is no doubt that I learned my work ethic from my dad. He was always doing something productive. He rarely found time for “entertainment”. Instead, he found great joy in doing something with his time that made the world a better place for someone. It might have been a project for himself, but more often that not, when he wasn’t repairing someone’s TV he was working on a project for my mom, a friend, a stranger in need or for my brother or for me.

My dad rarely used entertainment to “escape” from life…he wanted to live life to the fullest by being highly productive with his time. As a result, as he invested his time over the years into many diverse and worthwhile projects, he developed knowledge and skills that were hard to imagine. My dad was very much a man of action and few words.

My mom was cut from the same piece of cloth. When she was in her 90’s she would regularly bake cookies and cakes and hop in her little PT Cruiser to deliver them to people in need and to her good friends.

I am certain that being people of the great depression had something to do with my parents’ strong work ethic. I have observed that very few people I know have developed such habits. Perhaps the “bad times” of old were not so bad after all.

I have also observed this when working with network marketers. I will get flooded with emails and phone calls Monday through Thursday, but come Friday it is like most folks go into hibernation, yet for many Saturday represents 25% to 50% of their available work time.

Let’s face it – we are our own most difficult business resource to manage. This is double jeopardy because we are also our own most valuable business resource. If we fail to wisely manage our most valuable business resource then obviously we will grossly underachieve our true potential.

Over the years I have discovered that when I attempt to set grand and radical resolutions for the new year that all I have done is guarantee my own failure. So, for me, the most effective resolutions are ones that set me up for success – not for failure. To do that I have to set targets that only slightly stretch me. My goals need to make me uncomfortable enough to stretch and grow, but not so miserable that I will give up.

So, let me use one example for your business that you can modify for other purposes, also.

You and I are very much like rubber bands. If we are stretched once or twice we will just snap back to our original relaxed little comfort zone. However, if we are regularly stretched each day we will discover that our comfort zone will change. We will actually become more flexible and therefore we will become much more tolerant of things that previously would have been very unpleasant.

Does anyone enjoy calling on a new business prospect for the first time? Of course not! If we were not where we needed to be with developing our ability to reach out to prospects, what if we thought we had to call 25 new prospects today in order to succeed? Just the thought of that much misery would prevent many of us from even trying.

However, what if I made absolutely certain that for one month that not one business day went by without me reaching out to one new prospect by telephone? Think about it – very carefully. At the end of one month I would have contacted 20 to 25 new people and yet, I would have been uncomfortable for no more than five minutes each day.

What if your second month you committed to calling two new prospects each day? That would be approximately 500 new prospects every year and yet only about 10 minutes of discomfort each business day – right? No – wrong, because long before you got to your second month you would have stretched enough by regularly calling one a day in your first month so that you could easily tolerate the task of calling two or more each day.

Do you want to change your life beyond your wildest imagination? Well, just learn the simple, yet life-altering principle contained in the previous paragraph.

Most of us put off the unpleasant tasks until they stack up and become massive in scope. If we woke up today thinking we must call our entire month’s worth of prospects today because we had procrastinated all month, then we would have set ourselves up for failure. I want to challenge you to make 2010 a year of stretching yourself a little everyday. NEVER procrastinate on the most challenging tasks. Don’t allow them to grow in scope until they are just too unpleasant to deal with.

Attack them a little each day and slay them while they are merely little dragons – not full-blown monsters.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Suppose every dream you have ever had for your business could be achieved by reaching out to only 1500 new people by telephone? That elusive six-figure income could be yours in two years just by reaching out to 3 new prospects each day – five days a week for two years. Even if you never get more comfortable (but you will) we are talking about less than 15 minutes of discomfort a day, five days a week, for a mere two years in order to join the top 1% to 3% income earners in the world.

IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE AND THAT EASY AND YES I AM USING ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM SCREAMING AS LOUD AS I KNOW HOW TO CONVINCE YOU THAT 2010 WILL BE YOUR YEAR OF TRANSFORMATION, IF YOU WILL MERELY STRETCH A LITTLE EVERY BUSINESS DAY.