It didn’t quite happen last year, and the year before that didn’t work so well, but this year, it’s going to be different! This is the year that you are finally going to stick to those New Year’s resolutions. How, you ask? By following a few simple tips:

Don’t go overboard. One reason why so many people aren’t able to keep their resolutions is because they simply have too many of them. When you’ve got more than one or two, by the time the year gets into gear on January 2^nd, it’s easy to lose track of what you were trying to change. Make a list of the resolutions that you had in mind, and pick the two that you’d most like to see happen. Two resolutions are much easier to achieve than ten!

Write it down. After you’ve selected one or two resolutions to focus on, write your resolutions down in places where you’re likely to see them – the refrigerator, the mirror in your bathroom, your computer, etc. This simple reinforcement will remind you that you’ve committed yourself to making a change.

Be specific. Resolutions that are vague are inherently hard to stick to. When you can’t visualize exactly what you want to do, it’s hard to know when you’ve done it. Goals such as “I want to lose weight,” “I want to exercise more,” and “I want to read more books” are harder to visualize than goals like “I want to lose fifteen pounds,” “I want to go the gym three days a week,” and “I want to read two books a month.” By making your resolutions specific, you can much more easily picture what it is that you want to achieve, and you can measure your progress toward your goals.

Set a timeline. Take a look at your calendar for 2012. Make notes on your calendar of how much of your resolution you’d like to have accomplished by the end of each month of the year. As the months go by, you can monitor your progress and see how well you’re sticking to your schedule. You’ll likely need to make adjustments as the year proceeds, as life tends to happen and schedules shift. Even so, having a loose, adjustable schedule is better than having none at all.

Don’t give up. Even if your resolution doesn’t stick right away and you don’t find yourself transformed by January 7, stick with it. Most experts say that a new habit takes between a four to six weeks to develop, so give your resolution time to get integrated into your life.

The New Year is full of possibilities, and you CAN make this year’s resolutions happen, with a little planning, determination and commitment.

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Joshua Zerkel, CPO® is a the founder of Custom Living Solutions, a San Francisco-based productivity and organizing consulting firm, specializing in helping busy people save time, space and money by getting organized at home and at work. For more FREE organizing ideas, visit www.customlivingsolutions.com or call 415-830-6345.

© 2009 Joshua Zerkel and Custom Living Solutions. All Rights Reserved.

Between 2008 and 2011, global pop phenomenon Lady Gaga has created an impressive empire - three bestselling albums, nearly a dozen hit singles, and two of the highest-grossing tours of the past couple of years. On top of that, she's created a line of headphones for the popular Beats brand, is a creative director at Polaroid, a spokesperson for MAC's Viva Glam line, performs advocacy work, and more. And regardless of the length of her task list, she does it all while refusing to wear pants!

You don't have to be a fan be impressed by the sheer amount of output this young woman has achieved. How does Lady Gaga get through this seemingly endless task list, what are some of her productivity secrets, and how can you apply them to your everyday work and life?

Motivation. In any given interview, Lady Gaga always says that she has relentless drive to create. Without a driving force, it can be hard for anyone to stay productive and in action. To feel purposeful, busy people need a reason to do the things we do - for her, it's her fans and a dedication to her craft. For you, it may be a love for the work you do or the desire to stay on top of your projects. Reminding ourselves why we do what we do is essential to keeping us energized and on track, no matter the length of our task list. Make a practice to remind yourself what your own motivation is and your productivity will get a regular boost.

Delegation. Although she's know for her "interesting" sense of fashion, it's not actually Lady Gaga herself who creates much of her clothing - her multi-person Haus of Gaga is the creative force behind many of her famous (and infamous) fashions and hairstyles. It would be impossible, regardless of her motivation, for Lady Gaga to get through her certainly voluminous task lists herself. If you're a busy professional with too many tasks on your task list, you can't possibly accomplish them all - no matter how many time management tips you read. One key productivity and time management technique is learning how to effectively delegate so you can offload items from your task list. When you delegate tasks, you can still be in control of your output, but you personally let go of doing each and every task yourself.

Tools. Regardless of our time management techniques or skills, we all need the right frameworks and tools to stay productive. One of the ways that Lady Gaga was able to record her latest album while simultaneously touring the world was she had a custom bus created that housed an entire recording studio. This bus would drive behind her main tour bus, and after each show ended, she'd board the recording bus and create songs for several hours each night. Of course, you probably don't need a custom bus following you around, but for whatever task or project you're trying to accomplish, make sure you have all the tools you need close at hand, and you're likely to get more done.

Quality of work. In a recent interview, "Now that you have everybody watching, Gaga, you'd better be f***ing great." Especially for business owners, the quality of the work we produce can be a big determining factor in the success of our projects. In my work with clients, I've noticed that busy people tend to get more done when they always keep a close eye on not just the quantity of the work they produce, but also the quality. In our rush to get through our task lists, it can be easy to focus on either getting things done perfectly, or just scraping by. Now, unless you're a global celebrity and have all eyes on you, shooting for perfection probably isn't a needed goal. Rather, create benchmarks for what a great experience - for you or a client - would be, and work towards that.

Clearly, Lady Gaga's career success has depended in large part on her organizational skills and time management. What lessons can you adopt to help you get through your task lists so you can complete your projects?

I labored this Labor Day on my business plan; this work was fueled by fashion and feeds my soul.

But is it normal?

For insights I turned to the latest edition of a 20-year old career book, Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurence G. Boldt.

What did I learn?

Who needs normal when you can have you? Are you ready to create a life “where what you do matches who you are at the deepest levels”? 

I also discovered stuff that I know that I don’t want to hear: no one said it would be easy. And the stuff that motivates me: if you stay on course, you will achieve the elusive balance, wholeness and meaning that you seek in life.

I walked away confidant that the soul needs feeding too. That which we cannot see matters and guess what, if it cannot be counted it might count more than we ever imagined! At my deepest levels. I know that but then I get all “schizoid” when I find myself being the good business woman working on a detailed financial plan (as if anything ever goes as planned). I try to count the intangibles. I strive to be rational in an irrational world. I strive too much when I might fare better if I would let go.

So what did I commit to?

Embracing the mystery – it’s time to simply accept the mystery that is unfolding while still giving the “devil is in the details” its due.

Appreciating the paradoxes – here’s one that I just realized: I seek to become a business owner as a way to move from focusing on myself as an individual to embracing myself as part of a community.

Reminding myself of simple truths – it is time to live life to the maxim and guided by this maxim:

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

– T.S. Eliot

Notes from an intern and aspiring Fearless fem:

Last week I had the honor of hearing two incredible speakers share their stories and inspirations at an event brought to campus by NetDay Silicon Valley.

First I must acknowledge the unbelievable talent we up here in the Bay Area. It really hit me just how fortunate I am to have fallen into such a mecca of innovation and excitement about the future! The climate we currently inhabit thrives on precisely the collaboration, new ideas, and risks that startups and entrepreneurs require. And the possibilities to connect with people doing amazing things are endless!

Edith Yeung, founder of the BizTechDay entrepreneur conference (biztechday.com) and host of the SF Entrepreneur Meetup (sfentrepreneur.com), started off the evening with her personal anecdotes about leaving the safe environment of business for a riskier but more satisfying career. She recounted the time she broke down in tears after waiting over an hour in commute traffic for a job that just wasn't worth it:

"If the rest of my life is stuck in traffic for a business I don't believe in, shame on me," she said.

Carlos Emilio Goméz, a young Spanish brain at Google, also spoke about taking risks, listening to your intuition, and taking the alternative route. Most poignant to me was what Carlos explained to be his ultimate reason for taking his current job at Google: If he looked 4 years into the future on one path, he knew exactly where he would be. It was good. If he looked 4 years down the Google road, he didn't know where he would be. But guess what - that meant no limits and no boundaries on his growth.

The theme to the event was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and it wasn't until this point that I realized this question was not to make us reminisce about what our dreams were when we were 6 in order to make us feel bad about our failures to become astronauts and ballerinas. It was about shaping our dreams now. 

You see, we never stop growing unless we let ourselves. Edith declared that only when you reach a certain point, and you get too comfortable, do you then inhibit your ability to grow. So guess what? You can still ask yourself this question everyday. You can still ask your friends and colleagues this question. Since when did it switch from the optimistic "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "What the heck can you do with that degree?" to "When are you going to retire?"

And who decided the subjective age of "grown-up" anyway? I say keep growing, and keeping creating and recreating your dreams for when you grow up, because you've really got nothing to lose. The only reason you don't have another ridiculous vision of becoming the next big Hollywood director is because you didn't think you were still allowed to have that vision.

Edith ended by quoting a personal favorite Frost piece of mine, "The Road Not Taken," which I hope you will find just as inspiring:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

To be an entrepreneur, to take the road less traveled, or even to have the guts to go out and start something on your own and leave behind the trail - that to me is true Fearlessness. I have such a great respect for the people who still have dreams for what they want to be when they grow up, and I for one will continue to mold my own.

Most of us keep waiting for the Big Epiphany. You know what I mean. We want to wake up one day and finally have the Big Idea that will bust it all loose. An idea for a business, a book, or our life’s work.  

In the meantime, we’re impatient, frustrated and feel like we’re biding time. Nothing is happening. Or maybe something IS happening.  

Check out Steven Johnson’s TED talk, “Where Good Ideas Come From” to see how Epiphanies happen http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html