How To Get More Work With Less Effort.

Can you really get more work with less effort?  The simple answer is yes.  That is the whole point of the focused approach.  When you get really good at one thing, that one thing will bring you all of the work you want.  In fact it will bring you work that you don't expect.

Since last September, my wife has been a background actress.  In some ways you can say I am now too.  The difference is most of her income is money from acting where mine isn't.  Acting would be like a third or fourth place after marketing, training and writing.

The funny thing about it is that I get about half the work that she does with zero effort.  She works very hard at it and is much better than I am.  Speaking on stage is acting, but acting is way harder than speaking on stage.  On stage when I give presentations, I don't care where the camera is and the audience is always there.

Last week we saw two events that are worth discussing in this blog.  First we went to Long Beach to work on a TV show where people from the audience get to speak on TV and give their opinion on camera.  Half of the people were background actors filling in.  It is a way for non-union actors to get some speaking practice on camera.

On Set & In Wardrobe

Most of the regular patrons and background actors were very normal and talked about the product as if two friends were asking each other for advice.  One couple, turned up the acting and really went all out to pick it apart.  The whole room stopped and stared.  The interviewer jumped up and walked out of the room, talked to the director and the interviews were abruptly ended.

Just prior to that we went to Burbank California to meet some casting directors.  There we witnessed another exchange I thought would be worth understanding.  I already posted this on Facebook because I thought it was so important as a lesson in business and life.

A woman in her mid twenties with tattoos all the way down her arms, commonly called gang sleeve's, and those tribal ear hole enlargers, which she called "ear plugs", was asking for more roles as a conservative parent, office worker, lawyer or detective.  Roles my wife gets regularly, and since we aren't parents, she always wonders why they pick her to be a parent.

The woman went on to explain how she has a great wardrobe of "conservative" clothes and has "tricks" to hide her tattoos and ear plugs.  She spent another couple of minutes trying to convince the casting directors to use her more for those roles.

Politely the first casting director said that there are thousands of people that want those jobs and it is easier to pick the ones that don't have tattoos and ear plugs because there is less of a chance the director will send them home and be mad at the casting director.

The woman argued for another couple of minutes.

A second casting director responded, "With all of the shows that allow tattoos and ear plugs why don't you just submit for those?  Looking around the room, you are the only one here that fits that role. "

The woman didn't know.  It is possible that the woman was "conservative" and the ink and ear plugs were just bad choices.  More likely, the ink and ear plugs were a reflection of her real personality.  She looked very comfortable with them, and arguing about them.  My advice would be, don't argue with your boss before they hire you, but that isn't the point here.

Both of the casting directors basically said the same thing.  You will get more work with less effort if you just be the best "you" that you can be.  That is true in any field of work.  If you are in the wrong line of work, the best "you" will eventually find a way to move on to where you belong, or someone will recognize your talent and take you there.

My wife also began to understand that as an 18 year veteran of elementary school classrooms, she is the "look" that Hollywood likes to use as a parent and she is great with kids making her the perfect TV "parent".  She also has an MBA and Real Estate License with a great business wardrobe.  When she gets to the set to be a lawyer or detective, wardrobe is always happy and never has to find her clothes and dress her up.  It makes everyone's job easy when she just takes roles as herself.

Last November, I was standing with Jerome Hamilton, so I asked what I could do to move up the food chain.  He said 'Brother, you just keep doing what you are doing.  Look around at the rest of the background, you'll get there faster than you think."  15 minutes later he was right.  I got an upgrade.

Don't get caught up worrying about getting ahead the way other people get ahead.  Look in the mirror and be the best that you can be, enjoy your life as you and things will happen.

Makers Mark Rips a Page From Walmat Playbook

Makers Mark Bourbon ripped a page out of the Walmart playbook and is getting a reduced alcohol content.  So What?

Since the beginning of modern commerce or as we call it,  business, being able to deliver a product for a lower price and in higher volumes has been the path to wealth and success.  Some brands have avoided this trap and been able to command a premium on their name and the quality of their reputation.

In business, you have a choice to market to the masses who will accept a little less so they can spend less if it "feels the same".  You also have a choice to market to dedicated fans.  Many say that loyalty is dead.  If you believe that show up at any In-N-Out Burger at 12:00 noon and see if you can get lunch in under five minutes.

I have never bought a McDonalds shirt, but I own three In-N-Out T-shirts that I paid for.  I'd have more if they gave them away.  Loyalty isn't dead, businesses just lowered the standards to reach more wallets.

Wal-Mart was a case study while I was attending college and getting a business degree because of it’s ability to negotiate a slightly different product and give the appearance of delivering it at a lower price.  T-shirts were a little narrower at Wal-Mart than Macy’s even though they had the same label.  Today that is standard practice with companies like Costco and Outlet Mall locations.

Consumers have embraced this trend, and are actually the reason why all of this is happening.  Outlet Malls are filled with stores which are simply offering lower quality goods with similar styles as their named partners.  One of my favorites, Brooks Brothers is where I first figured it out.  I looked at a jacket while wearing some Brooks Brothers slacks, and the texture didn’t match.

The sales lady sheepishly explained that the jackets in the factory stores are marked “compare at” because they really are a different jacket of a “similar” weave, made in a completely different country.

At the time my wife laughed, and said that all of the branded stores in the Outlet Mall did the same thing.  Now I only go to the outlet malls to buy Crocs and Fleece Pullovers.  As far as the rest goes, I want the real deal.

A while back Breyer’s was purchased by Unilever.  Unilever quietly switched Breyer’s from “Ice Cream” to “Frozen Dairy Dessert”.    It looks like Maker’s Mark Bourbon is going to do something similar.  Recently Rob Samuels, the COO of Beam Inc that owns Makers Mark sent out a message saying they can’t make enough to meet demand, so they are going to reduce the alcohol from 45% to 42%.  

What is 3% more water among friends?  With a brand like Makers Mark, there are a couple of other options that just about all of us understand.  First they could reduce the money they spend marketing Maker’s Mark to help reduce demand or they could increase the price to reduce demand.  In either case the company can increase profits without degrading the product.

Even though I don't really drink Maker's Mark, I ran to the store and grabbed my last two bottles of the real Maker’s Mark before it is gone.  I guess it was like trying to buy the last of the real Levi's a decade or so ago.  

Bill Samuels Jr. posted a note on the Maker’s website saying that he wanted to post directly instead of Rob (The COO).  His note asks readers to reserve judgement until they try the new bourbon.

What do you think?  It is clear they aren’t going to market the product less, so should they raise the price or lower the alcohol content?

Are You Setting Goals? Is It Working For You?

Goal Setting is something that every self help book and coach that I have read recommends.  I am no different as a coach and a marketing trainer, and yet I see people fail to reach goals all the time.  If goal setting works so well, how come so few people set goals, or keep up with them?  And among those that do, how come so many report that they aren't achieving any of their goals?

Who are the people that seem to get everything done and accomplish all of their goals?  What is the big secret?  

While talking with several clients over that past month, one stood out.  He had a different attitude and his business, or rather the business he manages accomplished something they had never done before.  They put a car together and built a team to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.  I stopped by because they said I had to see what the car looked like after the event.

In the game of life, we are always looking to win, and in this case, the goal was not to win the 24 hour race, it was to merely finish.  Finishing was the goal and what the team called a win.  They did it.  If you get a chance, go see the car at TruSpeed.  If not click the picture so see the timeline on Facebook. 

Next year, maybe set the goal to place, but for this year finishing was a cause for a big celebration. 

So how did they do something that other teams couldn't do.  Much more experienced teams didn't finish the race, and yet these guys did.  They admit they finished with a little luck since the only thing holding the engine in the car as it crossed the finish line was one transmission bolt.  The engine mounts were gone and what is normally a rock solid motor shook like a scared dog.

Tyler (the team GM) and I talked about the accomplishment.  It took a year of planning broken down into little daily goals that led to the race.  One foot in front of the other each day until race day.  Like all of us, Tyler had some challenges keeping the entire team moving forward.  To begin with racing a 24 hour race is not a cheap endeavor, you have to raise money, find sponsors, build a car, find drivers and get all of that stuff from the west coast where they work to the east coast for the race.

Just like any goal that gets accomplished, Tyler broke it down into bite sized pieces, so at the end of each day, they could say they did something.  At the end of each week they did something bigger.  At the end of the month they did something even bigger.  At the end of the year, they watched their car cross the finish line at Daytona, never mind the condition.

You can achieve any goal big or small by doing the same thing and keeping one foot moving in front of the other.  If you want to set a big goal, set it, but then break it down into realistic daily and weekly goals.  Instead of making a daily goal to "get a major sponsor", break it down.  Expect that it will take 300 calls to get a major sponsor.  Knowing you need that commitment 2 months before the race, your goal is 30 calls a month for 10 months. 

If you make a daily goal to make just 3 calls each day, you will hit 300 well in advance of the 2 month deadline.  Better yet, when you get that sponsor well ahead of the deadline you get the satisfaction of lining through the goal as done.  You also have a reason for a small celebration.  Never forget to celebrate success even if it is just a milkshake or smoothie.

Goals work, the trick is to make them realistic, and to make sure the goals you set are truly important to you.  Setting goals you don't really want to accomplish is just an exercise in frustration, and a mental note to self that you don't reach your goals.  Setting goals that aren't realistic like "learn to fly by flapping my arms" isn't any better.  Either way you tell yourself that you can't do it and you are a failure.  Successful people set goals they can achieve, and the more blood, sweat and tears required, the bigger the satisfaction and celebration.

If you set goals that are very big then you have to break them down into smaller achievable tasks.  Do that for a year, and my bet is you have your best year ever.

Are You Your Biggest Road Block?

When I meet successful people and then later talk to people who want to be successful, there is one major difference that jumps out every time.  Simply put, the people that want to be successful are their own road block.

The argument is always the same. Those who want to be successful, have a list of reasons of why they aren't the success they want to be.  It is really an amazing phenomenon.  When Og Mandino wrote "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he covered it.  When "The Secret" came out, it hit this issue head on.  Napolean Hill talked about it in his series "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Laws of Success".

So if so many people that study success so clearly see the problem, why do people still fight it?  Why do they argue when they ask for advice?

The sad truth is that somewhere in their life, someone convinced them that something was true.  If you aren't seeing the success that you want in your life, maybe you fit in this group and don't understand it or don't yet see it.  You might even see this in other people without realizing that you have the same issues in your mind.

Be Good To Yourself.

Somewhere in your past someone might have convinced you that you wouldn't ever make it.  Maybe someone told you something like "You'll never amount to much" or "With grades like that you'll just be a janitor".  These words at a young age become seeds that grow in our minds.  When success is getting close, we make excuses to make sure we live up the the expectations set by others.

Here is the key, stop trying to live up to their expectations, and live up to yours.  In Og Mandino's follow up to "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he wrote 10 vows  that he believed people should live by in order to be successful.

Recently I said that success was a simple two step process.  First was to define your own success, and second was to get there.  The process is easy, the execution is what separates the successful from the rest.

The first vow in the second part of "The Greatest Salesman In The World" was to never belittle yourself.  In simple terms, never say anything bad about you to yourself.  Never do it.  When you do, you just add water and food to the seeds that someone else planted.  Never look in the mirror and say "I am fat", or "I am stupid" or "I am lazy".

A guy asked me one day about why I was so "driven".  Yes I work alot by most people's standards, but I have fun in all of my work, so to me it isn't really work.  I answered with a question.  I asked him why he wasn't.  His reply said it all for both of us.  He said "I am just lazy I guess."  After a moment of silence, he said "That's it isn't it?"

He waited for me to reply.  Eventually, I said "If you believe that is the problem, then yes, that is the problem."

He realized that the only thing that separated us was our beliefs in ourselves.  If you believe that you are lazy because someone told you that you were, you will become lazy.  If you don't believe them and work to prove them wrong, you will.

It is funny how many times I talk with people who can name a person they want to be like, and in the same sentence say they want to hang out with a group of people.  When I ask them if their ideal person or role model hangs out in that group the answer is always "no".

TV shows us people living "the life" and not working.  What they don't show is the hundreds or thousands of hours of work that they put into becoming the best at what they did.  Malcolm Gladwell did an excellent piece of research when he wrote "Outliers".  He not only covered the importance of being the best at what you do, he found the alignment of the stars that allowed certain people to catapult way out of the norm.

Being the best is half of the equation, being in the right place at the right time and seeing the potential in the future is the rest.  Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates couldn't have become what they did five years earlier or five years later.  Their drive to excellence would have made them a big success, but only the right timing allowed them to create Apple and Microsoft when they did.  In fact, if Bill Gates was just a week later in his meeting with IBM, we might not have ever seen the PC as we know it today.

As you move to make 2013 your best year ever, look at yourself in a positive light.  Take the negative words out of your vocabulary and bury them in the yard.  Don't be fat, be a plump 200 pounds working to 175.  Don't complain about your skin, be the person spending a few minutes each day getting better skin every day.

Start listening to how you think about yourself when you get dressed, look in the mirror, comb your hair and go out into the world.  Stop the negative thoughts, focus on the positive thoughts and you will see a change just around the corner.

Go out and make 2013 your best year ever with a little positive thinking about the most important person in your world, YOU.

When you start making progress, never look back because your feet start to go where you look.  Look forward, keep both feet moving forward, and you life can only go forward.

Life is a Beach, keep it fun!

Oh yeah, have fun doing it too.

How to Be A Success? Start At The Beginning

Success is a funny thing, we all talk about success, successful people, successful projects and successful businesses, yet we all define it a little differently don’t we.  Ask any three people to define success, and you will probably get three different answers.  This month, Inc. Magazine’s cover proclaims there are “11 Rules for Success”.

I probably have a different perception and therefore definition of success than you do.  Because I realize we are all unique, I usually suggest three different books to help people decide what their definition is.  When I am hired as a business coach, or if my company is hired as a marketing agency, our first mission is to understand what our customers call successful.  I overlooked this thought process in my first book and am now re-writing the book because of it.

In business, “more business” isn’t truly successful except maybe to financial “analysts” on Wall Street who have never run a business.  Each business and business owner will define success differently.  The IRS simply defines it as more profitable, which isn't a bad start, but how profitable is successful to you?

As a person, you can’t be something you can’t clearly define for yourself.  Therefore it is important for you to have your own clear definition of success.  Only then can you be “successful” in the eyes of the most important person in your life, you.

Success can even have different breakdowns in your life.  For example, you can have family success, financial success and athletic success.  For me athletic success might be an 8 minute mile.  You might want to run a 5 minute mile.  Maybe success is skiing at Northstar 110 days in one year.

We might both say financial success is being a millionaire or a billionaire.  What then defines a millionaire?  Is it one million in assets?  Gary Keller, a founding partner in the Keller Williams Real Estate empire, defines a millionaire as a person making a million dollars per year in income.  He is a little vague on net or gross, but he defines it as income.  So must a billionaire have a billion in income?

Success is like a puzzle, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together just right to complete the picture.  Each of us has a unique picture of success.

Defining success isn't easy.

In the 1930’s, Napolean Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, had one of the first “Success Academies” in the United States and likely the world.  He taught a program based on his intimidatingly thick book, the Laws of Success in 16 Lessons.  The book is 1600 plus pages of wisdom.   I highly recommend it if you want to build a business that you can one day call “successful”.

Mr. Hill used the Rockefellers, Fords, Bells and Edisons as the examples of success.  His definition focused on the being the biggest in whatever field you chose.  Many people don’t equate success this way and have a hard time reading 1600 pages and remembering all of the lessons.  Since we can’t all be the richest man in the world, and might not even want to, many people who read the book only end with a view of success they don’t want.

Is The Greatest Salesman a Success?

A little later, a guy named Og Mandino wrote a series of short and easy to read books, with the most famous being “The Greatest Salesman In The World”.  He narrowed the rules of success down from 16 to just 10, and published a book of just under 150 pages.  A size just about anyone would be able to read.  

Mr. Manadino’s approach is along the lines of a fable.  A story about how the greatest salesman came to be and how we can all be great at something.  The greatest salesman teaches us that success isn’t necessarily money and things.  Something that many people believe today.  

The Humanetics Approach

Another great series of books that are little known for some reason are by Richard Wetherhill. Mr. Wetherhill was the founder of a business and wrote books for his employees to help them and his business succeed.  Today those employees own the business and give away the books at alphapub.com.  

Humanetics is the name Mr. Wetherhill gave to his approach to life and success.  Tower of Babel is probably the best book to start with in this series.  Since the books are all free, short and easy reads, I recommend them all.  If you don’t have a tablet, here is a way to save $100.  Buy the tablet, and download all the books for free.

In fact, the “Laws of Success in 16 Lessons” is also available as a free download if you do some digging.

So Now What is Success?

At the end of the day Success really is a two step process.  First you must define it, so you’ll know it for yourself when you get there.  Second you have to get there.

All of these books and articles offer some great ideas on how to get there, but until you know where you are going, getting there is nearly impossible.  Columbus was a success because he proved the earth was round, not because he missed his goal of sailing west to India.  Finding an entirely new continent was simply a bonus for being right.

Success starts at the beginning because that is where you define it.  

Simple Design aka The KISS Principle For Business

When I first entered the military in 1984, we got beat in the head with the KISS principle.   While I am sure you know that KISS means “Keep It Simple Sir”, I wonder if you have applied it to your business, your marketing and your life.  

Successful products offer a simple solution to a problem in our life. If the solution isn't easier than the product, the solution simply doesn't sell.  The same is true for businesses of all kinds. For some reason though, the entrepreneurial curse makes us feel like we must do everything.  The secret is to do everything in the background.  One of my early mentors said “list everything you do, down to the last wire and charge for it, show your customers where the money went.”  I did that for a while and it didn’t help at all.  In fact it just took up a bunch of my time and cluttered up my brain.

Instant Results, Limited Efforts

Let’s take the iPhone for instance, and even now the Windows phone with "Tiles".  They each do one job very well.  The job of these “phones” is to help you “stay connected”.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  All of the magic that keeps you connected is in the phone and the service.   Instant results, limited effort.

Yes, you have the choice to buy games and other apps, but the phone comes ready for you to connect.  Connect to friends, connect to customers, connect to the internet, connect to email and connect with text.  And all of this is easier than doing the same things on that little flip phone you used to have or you wouldn't have bought it now would you?

Windows Tiles for Windows phones and the Microsoft Surface is a hit because it takes one step out of the process.  Tiles  show you a picture of your world without you doing anything.  The flaw (Mr. Balmer are you listening) is that the purpose of a desktop pc or even a laptop isn’t the same as a phone.  Staying connected isn’t why I have a PC, it is why I have a phone and a tablet.  

SImply put, Tiles on a work PC don't work, because I need my PC to do work.

Single Purpose Wins.

Maybe a better example is the new NEST thermostat.  This is a very simple device that packs a lot of brain power in a small package.  It is All you have to do is turn it up or down to set the temperature you like.  It learns and eventually you do nothing.  No more programming schedules that leave you in the cold on those winter holiday mornings because it is Tuesday and you should have gone to work.  No more cooling the house while you are on summer vacation because you forgot to reprogram the thermostat.

The elegance of the design of the NEST is that on the outside, there is very little interaction, and on the inside is a massive amount of logic.  If you want to be the super nerd and watch your energy usage on the fly, the NEST will let you do that, but like all new toys, the novelty will wear off and the only time you’ll even remember you have a NEST is when a visitor says “What’s that?”.

The easier the interface is for the customer, the more likely they are to play along and also pay.  We can’t be experts in everything, and nobody really wants too.  Business is no different.  The easier you can make the connection to the customer, and the more “magic” you can take care of in the back ground, the happier your customer will be.  

As customers we all say we want to know what it going on.  The truth is, we just want to know the progress and know when we get what ever it is we bought.  Think about it.  If you file bankruptcy, do you care about every form, court date or filing unless you have to go to court?  No, you just want to know that the creditors will stop calling, and the nightmare is closer to an end right?  When you buy a car, 99% of us never have a clue what the engine looks like.  Why?  Manufacturers have covered it with a big piece of plastic to make it look nice.

I have a new voice activated GPS.  While it is pretty smart, it is no Siri.  I have four portable GPS devices sitting in my garage.  The one in my truck is simply the easiest to use.  It has XM traffic so it does magic while I just listen to music and drive.  I don’t care about the magic or how it works.  I could use my iPhone with Siri, but quite frankly, her new maps and navigation don't compare (Apple map guys are you listening?).  KISS doesn't mean make the product simple, it means make the inputs to and from the customer simple.

What is your "Secret Sauce"?

It is funny how many times a new client will ask me how we do it.  SEO clearly isn't that easy or everyone would do it.  

I just respond, “We don’t sell the secret sauce” and yet my book is right here for sale.  The big picture of what we do is all right here for under $20.  The difference is followup.  When you pay me, you will be reminded to simplify at every corner.  Your marketing is never put on the back burner and as you simplify your business, income will go up, relative costs will go down and so will your stress level.

What is your Secret Sauce?  Can you do it better and cheaper than you customer can do it for themselves?

If you still have that entrepreneurial urge to go out and do more, I can’t do a thing about it right now.  I took up Chump Car Racing, paddle boarding and bought a new bike.  What will you do?

2013 New Year, New Opportunity And A New Life Resolution

I want to start by wishing you a fantastic 2013.  I hope you make it great!

In 2013, I expect to have a very different year than I did in 2012.  Why? Because when I look back at most of my life it has been a long slow road of the same ol, same ol.  Each year was pretty much like the last.  There were a couple of major events, but no major changes.  In 2012, things changed.  I made goals that I achieved, like losing 30 pounds without drugs, surgery or major caffeine doses. 

Until 2012, my life wasn't like that though.  When I left home to join the military, I went from my mother telling me what to do to my drill sergeant telling me what to do.  As I got promoted and finished schools, I slowly migrated away from being told what do to, but no major leaps or risks were taken.  I followed the safe path.

When I became a pilot in the Air Force Reserves, it was a transition from one form of military life to another.  No major change, still the safe path.  When I retired from the Air Force Reserves, I was flying for American Airlines, still no major change. No real risk, no real rewards, just the safe path.

I have had the opportunity to build several businesses, sell a couple and then waste all the money building a business I should have avoided.   At the end of the day though, the reality has always been that I had my fallback “job” in the Air Force Reserves, or as a Pilot with American.  The flying has been fantastic, but the job didn’t live up the promises that were made to me and my family when I took the job.  It was just a safe path.

It has been difficult for me to say why the airline industry has frustrated me until this holiday season.  I realize that I let the Airline Industry make a promise to me and to my wife about our future and then do nothing to help me achieve what they promised.  My frustration has been with the fact that they made the offer and promise, and I got stuck with the responsibility for it.  To make matters worse, I wasn’t given any avenue to improve my situation.  Maybe this is what a mouse feels like on his little cage wheel, running no where.   

My wife had accepted a similar promise when she became a teacher.  Between the two of us it was a pretty boring life of work vacation and more work.  There had to be more, but we didn’t have a reason to go get more for the first ten or so years.  We moved into comfortable town, the most dangerous place you can be.  Each pay cut or increase in work requirements that was handed to us was accepted without a fight.   We just adjusted and moved on.

In 2009 my wife was diagnosed with cancer, a form that is only treatable by surgical removal.  If they miss any of it, she moves on without me.  Our comfort was shattered in a matter of minutes.  We found out on a Friday, she was in surgery by Monday.  48 hours isn’t much time to talk about anything.  Given that we had been married 14 years  you would think we had already said it all.  We realized we hadn’t said anything.  I lost the business I was running and all the money I put into it from the last two companies I built.

The diagnosis in 2009 led to several changes in our lives.  One of those changes was a commitment to live differently, no more same ol same ol.  We wouldn’t be our parents taking the “safe” route and accepting what we were given any longer.

At the end of 2010, we looked back and it was the same ol, same ol.

At the end of 2011, we looked back and it was the same ol, same ol.

In 2012, we didn’t give up and we didn’t crawl back to our comfort zone, and finally it wasn't the same ol, same ol.

As we reach the end of 2012, I can say that we made a couple of leaps of faith and so far both have worked out very nicely.  A major change in our lives happened, and a couple of pretty big minor ones too.  As we move into 2013, we are looking at making more major changes, since 2012 worked out so well.  I can also say that my wife has been cleared with no new cancer, she is officially “in remission”. 

As you go forward into 2013, look forward with the dreams you once lost, and don’t look back at the fear of what “might” happen. Commit to making a major change and doing whatever it takes to do it.  Stop watching the bad news on TV and spend that time fulfilling at least one of your dreams.

Next year I want to hear about it.  Please don’t post your goals here.  You can post your name so I will know to look for you next year here.  Don’t tell the world what you are going to do, go do it, and tell us what you did next year.  

In fact, a better idea, write down your one or two resolutions, put them in an envelope, seal them, have someone sign and date the envelope.  Celebrate next year as you open the envelope and share your success.  More fun needed?  Make it a bet with the other person, and have them do the same.   Encourage each other during the year and look forward to both of you achieving new success.

Happy New Year.