So what is it for you? Start saving, lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, get organized... We've all said those famous words: "This year, I'm really going to (fill in your own broken resolution here)."

If your resolution success has been spotty, you aren't alone. According to a recent study, 91 percent of those who make resolutions don't keep them. About 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians' most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment. I suggest that we just walk that borrowed farm equipment back - we'd lose weight, be unable to smoke, our finances would be a non-issue, and our physical fitness would improve immediately! Anyone for a brisk jaunt?

As a life coach, I am in the business of helping people get what they want. I am a former Factory Kawasaki Jet Ski Team Rider and hold a 12 year world record. I discovered a system for setting goals and achieving them. As a result of my extensive training and personal experience, I also learned that every person has the ability to achieve exactly what they want.

Here's the clincher: The first and foundational step is choice. After a choice is made based on what you want from the heart, a plan, discipline and commitment will lead to your desired outcome.

The traditional belief that the New Year is the ideal time to make changes in our lives forces many people to make decisions based on what they think they should do, rather than what they want. This process sets them up for disappointment and a lack of progress.

It is my belief that if you "be" who you are and do what you love, you will have what you want. Choice, then, is the key element, when it comes from the heart. It has the ability to awaken motivation which will ultimately carry you through when momentum is lacking.

"91 percent of those who make resolutions don't keep them."

This heart choice, when based on your values, has a powerful impact on your ability to succeed. When operating from the heart, our individual purpose leads us and we are not driven by should's, have to's, or ought to's, that weigh heavy on the mind.

You have to know what you want before you can design a way to get it. Ask yourself powerful questions: "What do I want?," "What is important about this to me?," "What will having this give me?"

Language creates action. As you begin to define your values and allow those values to focus your purpose, you become very clear about your choices.The plan is designed with your detailed outcome in mind. It identifies and outlines the steps that you must take to advance. It sets up a structure that will include safeguards protecting the outcome from distractions and obstacles that could potentially deter you from achieving success.

Disciplines and commitment are the tools you use to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Disciplines are the daily actions that you do to make progress toward your desired outcome. Commitment is staying focused in the midst of distraction and sticking to those disciplines even when you don't feel like it. When you look at the clarity that has been invited by your choice and engaged by your action, you have a benefit that reaches into your future because you can use this process to do it again! What's beneficial about resolutions is the clarity that results in action. The great news is that you don't need to wait a year to discover how magnificent you are at setting goals and seeing your desired outcomes unfold before your eyes. You are at choice right now.