It's that time of year where we all feel enormous pressure to make resolutions for personal and professional improvement. Lawyers are no exception! The problem is too often we set the new goals without a real plan of how we're going to avoid reverting to our old habits!

Habits can be a friend or foe. Think of a habit as a pattern of behavior. Successful habits...help us to achieve success...other habits undermine our efforts to achieve.

Here is a great exercise for getting rid of old habits and replacing them with habits designed to help you to more effectively achieve your objectives.

STEP ONE:

List 3 or more habits that are currently holding you back from achieving your goals and describe how these habits negatively impact your life.

EXAMPLE:

Habit: No savings/investments for the future

Impact: Unable to achieve financial and retirement goals

STEP TWO

List successful habits you will choose to adopt in place of the "bad" habits and the benefits of adopting the new habit

EXAMPLE:

Successful New Habit: Begin investing with the help of a financial planner.

Benefits: Debt free, financial freedom, comfy retirement.

STEP THREE

Create a 3 step action plan to jumpstart each new habit. Be specific, pick a start date, a completion date and get started!

EXAMPLE:

Action Plan

1) Find an excellent financial planner

2) Set up s monthly savings and investment plan

3) Create a realistic spending plan and look for ways to trim unnecessary spending.

Start Date: January 7

Completion date: January 17th

Implementing new habits, new patterns of behavior, will take time. Stay committed to the process and you’ll soon achieve your desired results.