We are mere days away from the start of 2018. For many of us this week, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, is the time we spend staring into a crystal ball and contemplating all that we wish 2018 to bring us.

For some, the time is spent in meticulous planning and making decisions, while for others, who avoid the planning process, it is simply wishful thinking.

As we look back to this time last year, we often do so with a tinge of sadness as we realize that neither the plans nor the wishful thinking have come to fruition, we are still where we were and not where we want to be, and our only accomplishment has been to grow a year older.

New Year, New Method

So, this year let’s do things a little bit differently. Let’s begin with the most essential habit you will need to incorporate if you want 2018 to be different from 2017: The Habit of Making Decisions.

Always remember, it is this habit that has brought you to where you are today and will determine you to where you will be tomorrow. Regardless of our state of happiness, sense of fulfilment and joie de vivre, the decisions we have made have skilfully guided us to our present destination and, because of those decisions, we are precisely where we have chosen to be. Ouch!

As you know, nothing happens until we make a decision, until then, all of our dreams, goals and aspirations amount to nothing more than the proverbial pie-in-the-sky. And even when you chose to not make a decision, you have made a decision. Think about that for moment…

You see, making decisions is the starting point for everything. I recently had a conversation with a young client who shared with me his dream of opening his own business, explaining that as soon as he has enough money he will open the business.

I told him he didn’t need any money to start his business and he looked at me like I was the village idiot. I explained the reason he didn’t need any money to start the business was because he hadn’t actually yet made a decision to start the business.

You see the moment he makes the decision to start the business is the precise moment that he needs to get serious about acquiring the resources he needs to begin his business because; until that moment it’s not an endeavour, it is a fantasy.

Starting Point

When we make a decision, it is the starting point in acquiring the energy and focus we need to get to a result. It always comes before setting goals because the goals we set are for the sole purpose of bringing into reality the decisions we have made. This means, without making a decision, goals are like the ones we set a year ago and have still not yet begun.

The Habit of Making Decisions forces us to get serious about what we going to do.

Think of the last time you were gazing at a menu in a restaurant. Nothing happened, no food arrived until you made a decision. At that point some action was taken and, voilà, food showed up at your table.

All of us have excelled at the art of decision-making. Inaction, inertia and the seeming inability to bring change into our lives is the direct result of decisions we have made that have kept us chained to the very spot we wish to escape from.

Better Than Resolutions

For reasons far too many to mention, I have never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions. There is however one resolution I would urge you to pledge for 2018: Make The Habit of Making Decisions an integral part of your life and to resolve, right now, to decide everything you want to do, be or have will happen in 2018.

And now that you’ve made that decision, you must stop at nothing to make it happen.

Happy New Year and may all your decisions become your reality.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.