It’s the first full week of this amazing New Year. While your potential to make this your best year yet is endless, how’s your motivation?

We begin the New Year with the best of intentions. It’s a clean slate, the ultimate Monday and the perfect opportunity to start strong and aim high.

Unfortunately, that fierce determination you had when the Times Square New Year’s Ball dropped may already be waning…if you don’t have a plan.

In order to change what wasn’t working for you last year, it’s crucial to first find out why it wasn’t working. Did you over promise, take on something before you fully considered what it would take to achieve or accomplish that goal? Did you lack the support, discipline, tools or information you needed to create a strategy for success?

First of all, give yourself full credit for wanting to improve what’s not working for you. Think of how many people you may know who stay the same, year after year because they either don’t assess how their lives are going or fail to challenge themselves to create something better.

You have. That’s why you’re reading this and that’s also one of the most important steps to creating lasting change.

So what do you do now?

Let’s start with the most immediate area of your life that you want to improve upon. Is it your weight, your energy, level o f fitness, financial success, relationships, how you handle your stress or your health?

Once you’ve decided which area needs your attention, take a look at how you’ve handled that area in the past. Did you neglect it entirely? Did you lack the information you needed to move forward?

For example, since weight loss traditionally ranks high on many people’s New Years Resolution list, how did it go last year? Are you at the same weight or have you gained weight?

If so, now take a look at why? Was it your portions, your choices, your habits? Did you fail to plan healthy meals and snacks? Did you succumb to binge, mindless, social or emotional eating? Did you neglect to identify a deeply personal “why” which serves as rocket fuel to keep you motivated when your motivation begins to wane?

Now, instead of being disappointed with what you didn’t accomplish, this year, set yourself up for success with a plan that works exclusively for you starting with just one task…

Take on that one nagging habit, behavior or obstacle that seems to be holding you back from creating the body or health you want…then build from there.

You’ll be amazed at how great you feel when you take on something and overcome that one obstacle that’s prevented you from having the confidence, the energy, the health, the relationships and/or the financial success you deserve. And, by starting with just ONE challenge, your attention to that one thing will laser focus your attention to it and ensure its success. It’s also a great way to build confidence to take on the next challenge, and the next, and the next…

So what ONE challenge are you taking on right now and showing who’s boss? I’d love to know, comment and share!