NEW YORK--Pardon the cliché, but if I had a dollar for every person who tells me they’re no longer making New Year’s resolutions because they break them by mid-January, I’d be writing this from my villa in Tuscany. To this life coach, that attitude reeks of self-fulfilling prophecy.

That’s not to say resolutions have to be your thing. Not everyone finds them helpful. However, if the idea of creating them intrigues you even a teeny bit and you're not making them because you feel you're setting yourself up for failure, consider a new approach. Instead of the usual focus on where you've failed or what's missing from your life, get out a notepad and try this:

• Write down what you did "right" in 2007. To keep it from being daunting, assess yourself in categories like this: work, relationships, creativity, spirit, intellect, body, finances. There are no rules on length. Be as concise or as lengthy as you'd like.

• When that is finished to your satisfaction, take a look at where you scored "high" marks. Think of a way to reward yourself and then become clear in your mind about how to maintain/sustain that part of your life.

• In areas where you scored "less than high" marks, try to zero in on what you can do to improve those areas. Keep in mind that a rut in one area, such as work, might be best tackled by building out something in another area and letting that have a ripple effect. Sometimes it's not about having a better resume, but about becoming a more well-rounded or passionate person. We don't like to think others sense that in us, but they do.

• At this point you can either take what you've learned and be ever mindful of it as you live your life in 2008. Or, if you're more into concrete goals, chip away at your assessments and create some nicely worded resolutions. Make them inspirational to you. For instance, you can resolve to “Keep my home neat” and that might engage you. Or, you can say, “Consistently feel like my home rises up and welcomes me when I walk in” and be really jazzed by that. Own those goals, baby.
  

Some final thoughts to ponder on this front:

• Sometimes you must think BIG PICTURE. For example, you can starve yourself or beat your body to a pulp on a Stairmaster for two weeks. Or you can simply resolve to eat better and exercise more. For life.
•  Sometimes you must NOT think BIG PICTURE. What's scarier, setting a goal to write an epic novel that hits No. 1 on the bestseller list? Or resolving to write three pages a day? Duh. Keep it real and manageable.
• Finally, you can't go wrong if you write one overarching resolution to live well and to have a passionate and purposeful 2008. In the words of Maya Angelou, “Live life consciously, and it will be good to you. It will give you experiences you could never have imagined.”
  

Happy New Year.