A lot of people try to avoid making New Year’s resolutions. “I won’t follow through,” they say, or “A good idea is a good idea anytime, I should not only think about it on December 31st.” All true, perhaps, but not really enough of a reason to ignore thinking about the future.

For many of us, it helps to have a time set aside to really think about what we are going to do as we go forward. If your company has a strategic planning process, that is a great time to think about the business needs, but what are YOU going to do in the future? What will you do differently at work? How will you support those strategic goals you have just outlined? Where do you want to be at this time next year? If you are not thinking about these things on December 31st, that’s fine, but when ARE you thinking about them?

And looking beyond just coming up with resolutions, remember, you need to think about HOW you are going to make them happen.

As 2015 came to a close I heard some good thoughts from business leaders and friends about what they want to do during the next year:

“I’m going to get better about telling people things they don’t want to hear, so they know what’s really happening and I won’t be hiding the truth from them.”

“Next year I’ll take all of my vacation days.”

“Last year I was pretty disorganized; next year I will be better, and I’ve already started planning.”

“What I’ve got going is good; I am just going to maintain it next year.”

“I’m finally going to get in shape.”

Try to keep them specific (the “get in shape” one isn’t really good in that regard), try to keep them achievable, try to keep them relevant. Most of all, try to keep them.