Your life is the exact result of the decisions that you make.  The conditions that you are experiencing right now are the “receipt” for the choices that you’ve made in the past weeks, months, and years that have led up to this moment.

Case in point, the decisions you make right now will tell the story of how the rest of your life will play out… The only challenge is that most people opt-out of their ability to make impactful decisions.  They forfeit their power to live the life that they want because they simply don’t know how to make decisions that stick.

With this new year coming up, this is the perfect time to use proven tools to help get you where you want to be in 2011 and beyond.  Here are four key components for making New Years Resolutions that will change your life forever.

Rule #1 Run it for 30 days then reevaluate

The biggest mistake that people make when they want to make a change in their life is ignoring our basic human nature.  We set ourselves up for failure as soon as we get started because we don’t take a moment to understand how we truly operate.  As far as “time” goes for humans, we work on three basic long-term calendars: there’s 30 days, 90 days, and then there’s FOREVER.

We literally cannot function accurately beyond the 90 day mark (and in most instances beyond 30).  This is simply because there are too many unknown environmental factors that will inherently change as time goes on.

You can be rolling along right on schedule with your goals, and then out-of-nowhere something happens that changes the way you “thought” you were going to do things.  All of a sudden you have to change positions at your job, or a new technology is invented that alters your plans, or a pregnancy happens, or you’re invited to travel out of the country for business, or your car breaks down… etc, etc, etc.

Conditions change SO MUCH faster these days as well, and it would be foolish of us to not chunk things into 30-day missions, get the feedback we need, and then move forward to the next level. Why do you think most businesses operate in quarters (3-month cycles)? Even the seasons change on that schedule, with each month being distinctly different from the next.  Give yourself the biggest guarantee ever, and map out your plan for the next 30 days, get some results, and the reevaluate for the next 30.

Rule #2 Write It Down!

So simple, yet so profound.  It’s so simple that it’s often overlooked.  Writing a goal down is LITERALLY taking an action in the direction of making the thing happen.  And the most empowering part is you don’t need any other assistance to take this first step in achievement.

Mark Victor Hansen, the man who started in debt to the tune of millions, and went on to sell more books than any person in history said, “By recording your goals and dreams on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.”  That’s advice from a person that you’d be unwise to ignore, and a hint to the power of putting your goal down on paper.

Rule #3 Move Right Away

In science there are two laws of energy that you need to understand to make significant change happen.  One is called Potential Energy, and the other is called Kinetic Energy.

Potential Energy is the energy stored in a body or system due to its position in an energy field.  Potential energy is just that, POTENTIAL. It’s energy that’s at rest or stored away.  Potential energy continues to remain unutilized or it can be transformed into Kinetic energy, which is the Energy of Motion.

As soon as you take an action on something, you instantly shift potential energy to kinetic energy.  Newton’s first law is that an object in motion tends to stay in motion.  Don’t sabotage yourself and wait to make that first move!  Take action right away on the first steps that will lead you to your goal.  This creates unstoppable momentum, and it’s the energy that will power you through challenges along the way.

Rule #4 Results in Reverse

You need to take action, but you need to do it with structure.  Write down the end result you want to have in your life, and then backtrack the possible steps you need to take to arrive at that goal.

For example, if you wanted to go back to school and earn a new certificate this year, write down “I have a new degree in _______” (as the end result) and then back track to the present moment where you are sitting in your chair and scripting out your vision.  One step back from the end result might be “Take my final exam” or “Buy my new outfit for graduation”.  Continue to work your way back to the nearest action steps you can apply right now, which would look like, “Research degree plans in my area” or “Fill out online applications to get into my program.”

This process is EXTREMELY powerful, and it really puts you right in the driver’s seat. It helps you to chunk things down into actionable steps to get you some immediate results.

Please share your most important New Years Resolution below in the comments section.  Another bonus method for ensuring your results, is to share it with other people to let your mind know that YOU MEAN BUSINESS!