And just like that, it’s 2011… This is going my year.  Actually, I’ve been saying that for the past five or six years.  I’m not sure if I’m being optimistic or just delusional.  Either way, there has to be some value in starting the New Year with a positive attitude, right?

Truthfully, the cynic in me thinks that New Year’s is completely overrated.  I mean, think about it.  What are we really celebrating?  Unless you’re a member of Willard Scott’s 100 Year-Old Birthday Club, making it through one more year and witnessing another ‘calendar change’ really isn’t that big of a deal.  It’s not like we’re celebrating some great accomplishment.  Essentially it’s just another excuse for staying out all night and partying.  And I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to accept that it’s ok to ring in the New Year a couple hours before midnight!

So what is the ‘practical purpose’ of celebrating a new year?  I think for most of us, New Year’s Day represents a fresh start, a ‘clean slate’.  Although today is just like any other Tuesday, the first week of a new year is symbolic for starting over again and getting our priorities back on track.  Whether your goal is to lose weight, save money, or quit drinking Diet Mountain Dew for breakfast, this week most of us will focus on rediscovering the discipline that drifted away after last year’s ‘newness’ wore off.

Or maybe by now you’ve already given up on making New Year’s resolutions.  I suppose it’s probably fair to say that you’re in good company.  After all, most surveys confirm that the majority of people’s resolutions don’t last more than a few weeks.

But what if you decided to make just one?  How you choose to apply it to your life is up to you.

Here’s my challenge to you in 2011… Find three things that you’ve “always done that way,” and do them differently this year.

That’s it.  Sounds pretty simple, right?  But how many times have you or someone you know responded to a situation with the stubborn words “but that’s how we’ve always done it”?  Or maybe they’ve pushed back a little harder and said “it’s amazing that we’ve survived all these years doing it like that”.  And I guess some years surviving is all we can hope for.  But wouldn’t you rather thrive than just survive?  You see, each new year we can always count on one thing… everything changes.  Whether or not you choose to adapt with the changing world around you is up to you.

Now I agree, you can’t and shouldn’t make wholesale changes throughout your entire operation.  But I’d imagine there are a few things that you could consider changing and improving this year.  In fact it’s interesting that almost every manager, when asked how things are going, replies with the comment “we can always do better”.  You see, in order to make that a true statement, something that you’re doing right now would have to change.  Whether you’re struggling with your people’s performance or your cost of production, what you’re currently doing isn’t working as well as it could.

Ultimately, you can choose to do nothing differently and hope that 2011 is gentle with you.  Or, you can acknowledge that what “you’ve always done that way” could be done better.  Remember that quote by Albert Einstein?  He said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

This year, instead of accepting that you might be crazy, how about you work on finding a better way?!