It is a new year with new opportunities and new challenges. According to Forbes magazine, over 40% of Americans prepare a New Year’s Resolutions list. Self-improvement (48%) is the top category for resolutions; weight (38%), money (34%), and relationships (31%) round out the top four “Resolution Types.” Age seems to play a huge role in the success rate of achieving your New Year’s Resolution. 39% of the people in their twenties achieve their resolution, while only 14% of people over fifty do so.

25% of the people who take the time to write-up their New Year’s Resolution, only last one week, before going back to their old ways. That number jumps to 34% by the end of one month. The Statistic Brain Research Institute found that only 8% are successful in achieving their resolutions; now that is a depressing number. Is there a better way to approach having a more successful year? I think so; it doesn’t take much to improve on a 92% failure rate.

Instead of approaching the New Year with just a Resolution list, maybe you should “also” give some consideration to approaching the New Year with a new system for addressing each day. Here is an acrostic for the system based on the word POWER:

P – Pride in Your Work
O – Outstanding Effort
W – Winning Attitude
E – Ethical Behavior
R – Respecting Others

If you incorporate these five values into the way you approach any task, problem, challenge or goal … you will greatly enhance your chances for succeeding. Your past doesn’t have to decide your future. You have the choice and the opportunity to start anew and there is no better time to do that, than right now. So, instead of fretting over not accomplishing one of your New Year’s Resolutions, pay more attention to how you address, approach, and attack each day.

May I also suggest while you are attacking your day, do the little things first, because they can add up to BIG results. Professor, author and leadership expert, Dr. David Schwartz once said, “The person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. Every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments.” But my favorite quote on this subject was made by Pastor Robert H. Schuller who said, “Inch by inch, it's a cinch.”

Think of little things you can change, tweak, adjust, do or do without that will help you. Doing big things requires a great deal of discipline, while doing little things requires much less. Why set yourself up for failure at the end, when you can set yourself up for success from the beginning?

If you want to have BIG RESULTS at the end of this year, concentrate on the little incremental changes that will eventually have a profound and positive impact on your life and business. Doing the Little Things - Makes Big Things Happen.

AND always remember: It takes P.O.W.E.R. to be successful.