Here's the Problem with New Year's Resolutions

According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, of the people who typically make New Year's Resolutions, 64% are successful in maintaining those resolutions beyond one month. How's it going for YOU? To increase your odds of achieving what you want this year, I'd like to suggest elevating your perspective to define an overall Vision for 2015. It's important to have a compelling vision, for you personally as well as for your business or organization. That way, when life and work demands pull you in multiple directions, you keep perspective.

Here are four steps to define your 2015 Vision:

1. Get Prepared for a Fresh Start in 2015
Consider any setbacks or disappointments from last year that you need to let go of in order to begin anew. Can you forgive yourself, and forgive any other people who may have been involved? Bringing old resentments into the new year can stop you from spotting new opportunities because your lens is being clouded by your previous experiences. You can learn from the past without letting it hold you back from trying again or keeping you mired in fear or doubt.

2. Get (Re)connected to Your WHY 
What core mission or purpose inspires you? What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning and keep striving for another day? Revealing your true intentions can make it easier to choose between competing ideas, requests or tasks. Typically, when you choose to act according to your intentions, you feel more at ease and less conflicted. It’s because you are being authentic by honoring your deepest desires and priorities.

3. Get Honest About Your Patterns 
Sometimes we can hold ourselves back from realizing our vision; sometimes this happens when we encounter new situations that take us out of our comfort zone. We end up doing the exact opposite of what we intend to do. These behaviors, and/or habits are blind spots because you're not always aware of them and/or fully aware of the impact they can have on fulfilling your intentions. What attitudes, behaviors, and/or habits could get in your way of fulfilling your intentions?  

4. Get Clear on What You Want 
As you look back at the close of 2015, what will be your most memorable achievements? What will you have felt and experienced, and with whom? What key milestones will have helped you achieve your vision? You might consider doing some creative visualization to imagine your life as it will be when you have fulfilled your intentions in 2015.

What’s important is to define and articulate your vision so that you are declaring that this is what you want to achieve. Then, perhaps you can relax a bit, and as Deepak Chopra says: “Let the Universe handle all the details.”

NEW PODCAST: Goal Setting Tips for Leaders in 2015

Happy New Year! Hope that 2015 is off to a great start for you. To help you hit the ground running, I'm excited to share this podcast from my recent appearance on the Gfem Talk Show.

In my lively chat with show host Femi, I shared some tips and insights on how to connect your 2015 goals with your larger WHY and true intentions. We also discussed how best to communicate your vision and true intentions with the important people in your world -- personal and professional -- in an effort to avoid mis-communication and conflict throughout the year.

Tune into the podcast and let me know what you learned. Also, feel free to share what are your 2015 intentions -- comment below or tweet me on Twitter -- so we can keep each other on track!

Check Out Lifestyle Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with GFEM RADIO on BlogTalkRadio

Focus on Your Vision in 2015 - Get Started on Jan 8

What would it mean to focus like a laser on your vision for 2015? How much more would you accomplish with that level of attention and motivation?

The New Year is the PERFECT time for you to evaluate your priorities and refresh your game plan – for your business and your life. Now is the time to define your vision for 2015 so you can be less overwhelmed by life's distractions, and less likely to quit when obstacles come your way.

In my upcoming Breakout Session on Thursday, January 8, I'll be sharing some easy ideas to help you get started! It’s based on my eBook Focus on Your Vision: A Positive, Practical Approach to Achieve Your Biggest Dreams – a simple process to help you evaluate your priorities and manifest even your wildest dreams.

As a preview, my Four Steps to Focus on Your Vision for 2015 are:
1. Clear Your Lens
2. Reveal Your True Intentions
3. Watch Out for Blind Spots
4. Envision Your Future Results

This Breakout Session is for leaders who are ready to take action to turn 2014 setbacks into 2015 opportunities. Let me help you overcome your limiting beliefs and renew your enthusiasm for business, relationships and life! Let's take the limits off your ideas and put the apostrophe back in impossible ... that's right, affirm it: 'I'm possible in 2015!' 

I look forward to speaking with you on Thursday, January 8 at 1 pm ET - register HERE! 

Bring on the Goal Setting: January 29 CRAVE Chat

I'm really excited to kick off 2013 with the upcoming CRAVE Chat: Bring on the Goal Setting! on Tuesday, January 29 at 6:30 PM.

I love the focus of our event -- it dares you to bring on the visioning time (a look forward) and also the reflection time (a look backward) so you can manifest your wildest dreams in 2013.

To kickoff your brainstorming process before the event, I thought I'd share some thought-provoking questions here to get your juices flowing and wheels turning!

Looking Back: Reflecting

• What 2012 accomplishments make you the most proud personally?
• What 2012 accomplishments make you the most proud professionally?
• Which 2012 accomplishment(s) would you most like to boost, expand, increase, or build upon in 2013?

Looking Forward: Visioning

• What values are most important to you that will help shape your 2013 experiences and goals? 
• What personal accomplishment would most excite and inspire you if you were to achieve it?
• What professional accomplishment would most energize and motivate you if you were to achieve it?

If you're able to join us in NYC on January 29, I look forward to hearing your responses. And, if you can't join us LIVE, feel free to tweet me your thoughts and/or share your feedback in the Comments section below.

And, if you want even MORE help setting your 2013 intentions, I'm offering 3 BONUS gifts to anyone who buys my Focus on Your Vision book (only $2.99 download!) before February 1 -- including the How to Make Your 2013 Resolutions Stick workbook. Check out this site for more details.

Look out 2013, we're going to BRING IT!

Keep a Photo Journal to Reduce Your Stress

Did you know that journaling can help reduce stress? Studies have shown that journal writing has led to reduced anxiety, worry and depression.

Yet, sometimes even words aren't enough to fully express your emotions, thoughts -- let alone to fully document your goals or vision. Like they say ... a picture is worth 1,000 words!

Wouldn't it be great to have a site that allowed you to photo journal your goals and start your vision board?

I'm so excited to let you know about a NEW photo journal and vision board tool created by ShutterCal!

ShutterCal is an online, calendar-based daily photo journal (and vision board!).

As a coach, I think it's really important to keep track of your goals, intentions, and life vision -- for your own accountability and to get support from your network of champions and advisers.

Let's say you've set a goal in the next 30 days to lose 10 pounds, or to get physically active at least 4 days per week, or to meet 15 new people to expand your network, or to do ANYTHING that's important to you!

You can use your photo-a-day journal to track your goals in a creative and FUN way. It just means taking a moment each day to:

• STOP
• BREATHE
• NOTICE SOMETHING
• TAKE A PHOTO

ShutterCal will keep your photo journal / vision board organized. The ShutterCal community will keep you inspired with comments and feedback. And, through your daily photos, you will watch your story unfold into something truly amazing!

Deepak Chopra says: "Whatever you pay attention to will grow more important in your life." Use ShutterCal to pay attention to something you care about -- and create a visual timeline of your best moments!

Check out the site and let me know in the comments area below what you think -- and share your link when you sign up so I can watch your story unfold!

PS -- since the ShutterCal team and I are all LEAN Startup Weekend graduates, I'm able to offer you a 5% discount on their digital membership and a 10% discount on their print membership!!

What Are Your 2011 Intentions?

Happy New Year! To welcome you into 2011, I've created a CinchCast (mini podcast) of this post in addition to the article about setting intentions below. It includes an excerpt from my NEW eBook, Focus on Your Vision: A Positive, Practical Approach to Achieve Your Biggest Dreams. Let me know if you like this mixed media approach!

Do you know what it means to have 20/10 vision? It means being able to see things clearly at 20-feet, that other people can only see while standing 10-feet away. It’s literally like having a bird’s eye view of the world.


What would it mean for you to have 20/10 vision in your life? Can you think of how much more you could accomplish with this level of attention and motivation in 2011?

You might be wondering how it’s possible, especially since we’re living in a New Normal. You may feel like you’re running full speed ahead, at 90 mph, 24/7. I often feel like the circus performer who spins plates on those long poles.

But, a New Year is a New Beginning! And, you know I believe you can develop a POSITIVE, PRACTICAL and STRATEGIC mindset to achieve your biggest dreams and feel more fulfilled.

Focusing on your vision will help increase your confidence, so you'll be able to meet your current challenges; plus you’ll learn to anticipate and sidestep new roadblocks that might pop up throughout the year. One way to approach a level of 20/10 focus is by revealing your key intentions for 2011.

The word intention can be defined as: “an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result ”. Basically, it’s making a mental choice to act or behave in a certain way, with the hope that you will achieve a desired result. A first step towards revealing and setting your intentions is getting to know yourself better. This may seem easy at face value; but sometimes we’re not always honest with ourselves about what we really want. It’s important to truly contemplate your intentions because they can help motivate you when you encounter challenges or roadblocks.

So, let's start by reflecting back on 2010, and think of 3-5 things you’re most proud that you accomplished:

• What accomplishments made you most proud personally?
• What accomplishments made you most proud professionally?

Now, based on those accomplishments, consider what intentions (or actions, results) would most inspire you to keep moving forward in 2011?

Revealing your intentions can make it easier to choose between competing decisions, requests from others and/or tasks to complete. For example, if you were to have an intention of maintaining a healthy body weight for 2011, it might help you choose healthier food options while grocery shopping or eating out.


Ideally, it’s best when you can choose in favor of your intentions. Typically, when you choose to act according to your intentions, you feel more at ease and less conflicted. It’s because you are being authentic by honoring your true desires and priorities.

Feel free to comment here, or tweet me your thoughts on Twitter; just search for @Coach_Colette.

Here's looking forward to a happy, healthy, intentional New Year!

Coach Colette Goes Global in 2010

Last January, I took inspiration from social media guru Chris Brogan, and followed his suggestion to refine and refocus my key goals and intentions for the year into 3 Words. Of course, I've just now realized that I didn't share with you my 3 Words for 2010. They are KIND (to myself and others), GLOBAL (partnerships and relationships) and JOY (in experiences and encounters).

You can trust that I have been focusing on those words - using the same affirmation strategy as last year, a daily task reminder that appears in my Outlook - which brings me to the point of this article: Going GLOBAL. The thing I'm (still) learning about consistently setting intentions and making affirmations is that you never know exactly how the results will appear. Yes, even the coach can have a "Duh!" moment or two! :)

My first GLOBAL result was working this spring with a fantastic consulting associate from Paris who helped design training materials and activities for one of our Change Management client engagements. The next GLOBAL result was connecting with a dynamic UK-based training firm to explore new business opportunities.

My next GLOBAL connection came early summer via an introduction by a colleague to Enrique Mesones, the founder of Smart Connections, a global executive search, strategy consulting and venture firm. Nearly 10,000 elite executives from top-tier universities around the globe have registered for the Smart Global Network -- a free, membership-only networking environment to view the hottest business projects around the globe, attain business funding, and receive optimal executive education. As a result of my intentions, affirmations (and yes, expertise) I'm now an Executive Coach with the Smart Global Network!

My next GLOBAL activity is one that brings me great pride as it's a chance for me to continue my work with my "rowdy" librarians! In September, I'll be facilitating leadership and advocacy training in Brussels as part of the Global Libraries Initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I'm still learning exactly what it will involve; and will share more info as things progress. I'll also aim to blog and tweet as much as I can while I'm on the road.

I'm excited by all of these things that have happened in 2010. They are wonderful yet unexpected connections ... and so I will keep making affirmations around my 3 Words for 2010, and aim to let go of figuring out "how" things will manifest.

What are your thoughts? Do you have examples to share of when unexpected (positive) things "appeared" in your life? If you make affirmations, how do you "let go" of the results? Comment here or tweet me on Twitter!

New Year, New Focus, New Stress?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you had wonderful holiday celebrations.

You can't turn around anywhere these days without seeing (or hearing) an ad about New Year's resolutions. Recognizing that it sometimes can be hard to settle back into "reality" after a holiday break, I wanted to take a bit of the pressure OFF as you begin to refine your focus for the new year.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for reflecting back to plan ahead (like described in the last post). By the way, if you haven't already, I'd suggest you take a look at MyGoals.com as a resource for your goal-setting (you can get online reminders) for your action items.

I just don't want you to become overwhelmed by the magnitude of your resolutions. I did a Google search on "Stress & Resolutions" and came across some great tips on HealthyMinds.org. They include not taking on too much and congratulating yourself when you achieve something (a personal favorite because it's so easy to forget and move on to the next thing).

This year, we'll be talking more about stress and the impact on your professional success. After all, how can you Discover Your Competent Advantage TM if you're too stressed to take the first step?! Keep an eye out for more information on our NEW stress management program.

Also, be sure you've signed up for our newsletter so you can get the dial-in numbers for the Work & Money tele-series to negotiate a better 2007 Bonus on January 17 and January 23 at 8:00 PM EST.