New year’s resolutions.  It’s that time of year to start making them - and for some people, time to start breaking them.  Here’s one resolution you should make and keep: Stop being the biggest obstacle in your life.  Go out and get what you want.

I’m not talking about material things - that new plasma TV or that shiny bauble you saw in the store window.  I’m talking about taking the bull by the horns and making a plan to achieve your goals for the year.  It could a plan to earn a coveted corner office.  It could be sitting down and finally writing that business plan to start your own company.  It could be finally hiring that trainer to help you lose 20 pounds - whatever.  Pick a goal - any goal - and make a plan to achieve it.

Sometimes the hardest part of a task is getting started.  Usually, once you’ve started, the rest of the work seems all downhill.  Getting started is hard, sure, but I hate it when folks tell me they can’t do something because of <insert excuse here>.  Yes, you can.

can –auxiliary verb

1. to be able to; have the ability, power, or skill to
2. to know how to
3. to have the power or means to

You can achieve your goal, but that’s only if you make a plan and execute it.  Will you stick it out?

A good friend of mine has been wanting to make the leap from working for someone else in a job that bores her silly to working for herself full time doing something she’s passionate about.  Every time she tells me why she “can’t” make that leap, I come back with suggestions on how she can succeed. I know she can do this; she’s one smart cookie and is driven by success.

I never tell her it will be easy.  In fact, it won’t be easy.  If making that leap were easy, everyone would be doing it.  Success takes planning, hard work, and prayer, too. The point is she is more than capable of achieving her goal, and so are you. The question is “how bad do you want it?” Enough to start? Enough to see it through?

People and life will present us with enough challenges and obstacles that we’ll either defeat or let defeat us.  Don’t make more obstacles for yourself.  In 2009, resolve to overcome your own objections as to why you “can’t” accomplish your dreams.

Because really - you can.