As you start on another round of New Year’s resolutions, are you just setting yourself up for failure?

Happy New Year!

As you look back on all the things you left undone in 2011, are you ready to start on another round of New Year's resolutions? Have you lined up all the goals and promises that you are sure this time you are going to keep?

And are you setting yourself up for failure?

I have a couple of problems with New Year's resolutions. The first is that they are, well, just a little too obvious. Having a single headline date to mark the beginning of a changed habit or lifestyle makes it seem, to me at least, much too challenging. My personal approach is to start my resolution in December (not much use to you now, I know, but there's always next time) so by that first day of January, whatever I've resolved to do is starting to feel a little more familiar and not a major and unwelcome shock to the system.

My second problem with New Year's resolutions is that if you make too many of them, it all becomes rather overwhelming. This, of course, then makes the temptation to be fair and ditch all of them rather than choose which ones to hold onto, somewhat irresistible. In vowing to achieve everything, one invariably fails to achieve anything.

My solution to the problem of the resolution? Just pick one.

Rather than writing an ambitious to-do list of things you plan to achieve this year, identify a single goal and put all your effort and concentration into achieving just that one. With the power of focus, you are far more likely to succeed in making that one thing work.

There is a saying ‘if you chase two rabbits, both will escape' which illustrates perfectly what happens when we try to over-achieve and go in different directions at the same time.

By focusing on one thing, you can better plan your time and reorder your priorities. Because breaking the curse of New Year's resolutions will require you to make the time to achieve your goal; not an easy thing to do when the pressures of everyday life start to pile on as the year goes by.

So, if you are going to make a resolution this month, be SMART about it. We are all familiar with setting SMART goals – making them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.

While that approach works with some success for goal setting, to actually achieve your objective it's also really important to have clarity about the purpose of your resolution. Not just what you want to achieve but what you intend to accomplish by doing so; how it will make you feel and what it will contribute to your overall life goals.

Remember, also, that your New Year's resolution is for the year, and pace yourself. Break down your resolution into manageable steps that you can take over a daily, weekly or monthly period and set some milestones against each step. Set up a tracking system before you get started and use it to monitor how you are doing.

To minimise the chances of tossing your New Year's resolution into the bin of unrealised dreams, pick a resolution that you can have fun achieving. If you are the kind of person who needs to have others along for the ride, find someone with a similar goal to help keep you motivated.

It might sound obvious but try and pick a resolution that you really want to make happen. If you don't have genuine buy-in and commitment to your resolution - and find a way of injecting some fun into the process - it won't take much to knock you off track.

Bear in mind that we humans are wired to do things only when there's a pay-off of some kind, so think about what works for you and give yourself a small reward at key milestones or a big reward when the goal is accomplished.

Hold yourself accountable to your resolution by writing it down and then telling everyone you know about it, from your best friend to random strangers. Naming it will propel you towards claiming it. Besides, nothing focuses the mind more than the relentless questioning by those around you on how far you've progressed with your resolution.

If you're going to go to all this trouble for one resolution, make it worthwhile by going for a big one. Yes, it needs to be attainable (we're being SMART, remember) but it also needs to be audacious enough to get you out of bed and get your adrenaline going.

So, as you focus on your one resolution for 2012, think big. Aim for the big dream, the one that you've successfully put off until now; that big hairy goal that's been sitting there patiently waiting to be realised. But aim to do it in such a way that you're set up to succeed and not to fail.

Or, as Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground."

Author of 'Everyday Heroes – Learning from the Careers of Successful Black Professionals'. Available online from www.everyday-heroes.co.uk and on order through booksellers. ISBN 978-0-9569175-0-8