Welcome to this month's edition of my e-column focusing on Perfecting Connecting®. Each month I hope to inspire, motivate and encourage you to strengthen the connections in your life. My message includes strategies, inspirational stories, recommended reading and action steps for you to take that will help you begin your journey to perfecting your connecting. If you find this article helpful, please forward it to people in your network.

Sarah Michel © 2008

  Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Did you start off the New Year with any resolutions? If so, can you even remember what they were seven weeks later? It feels so good on New Year's Day to state them out loud, but when it comes time to do something about our new resolution, it's not so much fun any more.

I recently read Dan and Chip Heath's column (authors of the best-selling book Made to Stick) in Fast Company magazine about the importance of making goals, not setting resolutions. The authors really struck a cord with me as to why my resolutions never stick. They suggest it's because when I fail to change my environment - both mental and physical - I don't change my behavior, thus making it difficult to achieve my resolutions.

Yet, when I visualize myself actually behaving the way I want, and really see exactly where I will be and what will be going on around me, I tend to meet my goals. For example, I have discovered that I write really well on airplanes. Most of these articles you read (and this one) are created while I'm flying at 40,000 feet. Before I boarded this plane, I visualized that I would take out my laptop soon after takeoff and write this article, one that my editor has been asking me for the last two months! The fact that I didn't fly anywhere the month of January may explain why you haven't heard from me in a while.

Studies have shown time after time how important your environment is to determine the success of the behavior you're seeking. If you want to lose weight but you keep your refrigerator and pantry stocked with high-calorie foods, you're setting yourself up for failure. 

An important ingredient for me turning my resolutions into realities is having a small network of trusted colleagues who hold me accountable. For the past three years I've met once every eight weeks for half-a-day with five other professional speakers and authors who live in Colorado. Every January we share our annual business goals and then each time we get together we report on our progress. It becomes very difficult to blow-off your goals when you have to face other professionals who are not about to let you off the hook so easily.

Before you cast-off the resolutions you made with good intentions seven weeks ago, consider turning them into actual goals by trying these action steps to get you moving in the right direction:

Perfecting Connecting Action Steps:

1.  Harness the power of visualization If you can visualize it, you can achieve it.  Manipulate your environment so that you set yourself up for success.  See it, feel it, touch it!

2.  Actions speak louder than words. As the Heath brothers say, resolutions feel good to say but goals with some actions behind them feel good to achieve.

3. Find an accountability partner or group. Seek out colleagues who you respect and like, and who would be willing to hold you accountable to your actions and inspire you to grow. As your kindergarten teacher taught you, use the buddy system!

Okay, my plane is making its final approach to landing... here's to success!