New Year’s resolutions come fast and furious this time of year, but in 2009, I’m keeping it simple. Sure, if I could lose weight and get in shape, it would be great, but I’m resolving to make my bed every day and put my purse in the same place when I come in the house. My motivations: to make my bedroom look better and avoid the mad search for my purse every time I leave the house.

As I started thinking about my resolutions and motivations, I began pondering motivation in general. What motivates me at work? Of course, money plays a role, but doing a good job is a motivating factor as well. And then there’s my family, a major reason I work in the first place. I want to do well for them too.

So as we enter a new year, I invite you to share your own motivations in the comments below. And if you’re not sure what your work-related motivations are, these articles can help you sort it out. Happy new year!

• “What Motivates You?”
• “Work Values Checklist”
• “Don't Just Tell Employers You’re Motivated -- Show Them”
• "Take Time to Think About Work"

Look back at any person’s successful journey and you’ll see it’s not the result of one particular thing.

Look closely and you’ll see it’s a result of a domino effect of an intricate woven web of iterative thoughts, actions, results, people, etc., that synergized and helped contribute to their particular successful achievement.

It’s damn near impossible to go back and sort it all out, to see the entire process because it’s not linear but comprehensive and holistic. There are too many parts affecting one another, spiraling out into different possibilities, bumping into other results, synergizing etc. It’s not the result of doing A -> B -> C.

But what we do find that there is a consistency of great advice that was applied, which domino effected down the road and led to harmonious synergies that enabled one to achieve their goals.

This brings us to an important point in that you MUST contemplate the future benefits from “domino effecting” advice and the possible synergies that arise. Failure to do so is the reason why most people don’t apply any great advice because their view is so short term. It’s too narrow.

For example, saving 10% of your income every month is a rule we’ve all heard, yet we know many don’t apply it. Saving 10% every month may not seem like a lot in the short term but if you expand your view long term, you see there are many domino effect benefits that ensue.

It adds up quickly over the years, accrues interest, and you can use it as the capital you need to fund a business idea you might come across. Many entrepreneurs have used the savings they accumulated to build successful business that yielded 100,000 times more than their initial capital, simply because they instilled the habit of saving and had that in the bank to use when the opportunity presented itself.

Moreover, savings helps you avoid using credit cards and paying interest in the event you run into a financial emergency.

It also helps your mental health by freeing you from worry, knowing that there is a cushion you can fall back on. It evokes self discipline, forces you to budget, and pay attention to detail, traits that can help you in all areas of life.

Only when you begin to see the long term benefits that domino effect and the possible synergies that might occur, do you see the awesome power of the advice at hand and go on to implement it.

If you think about it, everything you to do today forms the basis of what you do tomorrow. One small change could ripple effect and cause huge changes down the road.

Best your changes are guided by the best self improvement advice, thereby cultivating the greatest positive domino effect and greatest possible synergies that might occur.

But don’t get too wrapped up in predicting the possible benefits and synergies that will happen because it’s way too complex and there are way too many possibilities to contemplate.

Instead, just apply the best advice you can and let go and be pleasantly surprised at how it all turns out down the road and when it happens, trace back your journey and you’ll see the domino effect and the synergy happening firsthand.

This is another reason why I urge people to read autobiographies because it allows you to see this whole picture, to see the domino effect and the synergies that happen. When you do, you begin to appreciate self improvement advice that much more and you have a greater desire to actually apply it in your life.

This ability to domino effect and see possible synergies down the road goes hand in hand with cultivating the ability to see the big picture, to have patience, and to engage in long term thinking, all of which begins to reinforce one other in a great cycle that strengthens both sides as time goes on.

For example, had I not read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich when I was a child, my first book would never have been written. People would never have clearly understood what the Hidden Secret was and never would’ve been able to benefit enormously from it. Not only that, had I not instilled the habit of writing down my ideas when they struck, who knows if I would’ve been able to discover the Hidden Secret in the first place. Moreover, had I not read all those books on self improvement and goal achievement, maybe I never would’ve been able to connect all that information to discover the Hidden Secret as well.

Looking back, there were so many factors and habits that contributed to not only writing that book, but creating this site and never in my wildest dreams would I have envisioned the domino effect and the great synergies that happened as a result of reading all those books, writing, capturing inspiration when it happened, brainstorming, etc.

I’m sure everyone has their own story of this as well and I urge you to stop, reflect and look back to see what those constant “seeds” you planted were, the ones that domino effected and resulted in the great synergies that have positively affected you in your life right now.

It’s a great feeling to see how what you did earlier in life helped you in so many ways right now, especially when you never saw it coming.

And the best thing about that is you begin wonder what will happen in the future when you start applying new kinds of advice today.

But it’s way too complex and there are way too many possibilities that can happen to predict exactly what that will be.

All you’ll know is that you will be glad you implemented the advice NOW.

And you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results of the domino effect and the synergies that happen as a result later on down the road.

Today is Festivus, a holiday made popular by the ’90s sitcom “Seinfeld” that includes, among other festivities, an airing of grievances. I’m an equal-opportunity celebrator, so here are some of my grievances about work in general:

• Cubicles: There’s no privacy, which means taking your cell phone to some quiet corner of the office if you need to discuss sensitive information -- or maybe not, based on some of the conversations I’ve overheard over the years. I literally have had dreams of having an office with a door.
  


• Bad Coffee: I am not a morning person, so my java jolt is a necessary daily evil. But I need to buy it on the way in, because I’m not really down with office coffee.
  


• Unplowed Parking Lots: Here in the Northeast, we’re reeling from a massive ice storm and two snowstorms in a row, so this is on my mind. I’ve almost taken a header just walking out to my car on many a snowy day.
  


• Unproductive Meetings: I think most meetings are unnecessary, and even the necessary ones could be streamlined.
  


• Climate Control? I’ve yet to work in an office that was a perfect temperature. Artic air conditioners in the summer mean long sleeves despite the weather, and too much heat in the winter calls for dressing in layers.

What are your top five gripes about office life? Leave a comment below. And on a lighter note: Happy Festivus, happy Hanukkah and merry Christmas to all. For many of us, the holidays mean time out of the office and with family, and that’s nothing to complain about.

It’s a classic stumbling block most people face especially at the beginning of their journey. They’re enthusiastic, pumped up, gung ho, put some plans into action to achieve their goals – and they fall flat on their face when it comes to the results that ensue.

What happens after this is crucial.

Most people carry over their emotions and attach them to the initial results of their journey and as we all know, those initial results aren’t pretty. The outcome is – “Oh woe is me, I’m an utter failure, a total loser”, etc., and they then go on a downward spiral that’s hard to climb out of, afraid to take action out of fear of what the results will be if they try again.

It’s easy to go down this path when you’re emotionally attached to your results because let’s face it, the results aren’t going to be that great initially and the emotions that come out of that are predominately fear and worry.

The first thing to realize is this:

It can’t be right the first time.

It just can’t.

It’s LUDICROUS to think that you can get it right form the get go.

NOBODY EVER DOES.

But it’s ok. It’s expected to be like that the first time.

And even if it does look like someone got it the first time, dig deeper into the past and you’ll see that it wasn’t perfect before at all the first time and that they corrected it along the way.

The second thing in regards to that is to step back and look at the big picture. What you’ll find when you look back on any journey you’ve taken to achieve a goal is that the journey looks like a long plateau where nothing gets done but you suddenly find yourself at the end of the plateau, able to climb to the next level. As you go along and make progress, the plateaus get shorter and shorter as you develop momentum and you go on to higher and higher levels faster and faster.

If you’re too zeroed in on the results in front of you, it’s easy to miss this big picture and stop at the beginning of the first long plateau.

Realize that it’s all simply a part of the process.

Three, realize that the more unattached you are, the more “mechanical” your actions become and the more mechanical they are, the more objective you can become with regard to analyzing the results of those actions.

If your actions are mechanical, it’s easy to DO things. It’s EASY to take action and look for feedback, and then correct accordingly and then take MORE action.

If you’re emotionally attached, you fear to take action because you think – “What if it doesn’t work again like when I tried it the first time or it’s not perfect enough for me to implement yet”, etc. You hesitate to take action and you get stuck in the phantom zone where nothing ever gets done.

DETACH yourself, make your actions mechanical, be objective and act like a scientist – become CURIOUS as to what the results will be.

Imagine if Edison was emotionally attached to the results of trying to invent the light bulb. He never would’ve made it by the third try.

10,000 tries can only be done if you have a mechanical and objective outlook on the results that ensue when you put your plans into action.

Fear and worry tend to manifest if you’re emotionally tied to the results, especially in the beginning because the results aren’t going to be pretty.

But realize that it’s ok that things don’t turn out good in the beginning.

Realize that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Then, see things in the big picture. Remember the plateau analogy. Don’t just quit on the first long plateau.

Become like a scientist. Have fun! Experiment. See what works and what doesn’t.

And just build on what does.

Emotions are great when used to drive you forward along the journey.

Not so great when you mix them up with the results of your efforts.

Detach your emotions from your results. Be mechanical. Analyze the results for feedback and correction. And take action once again.

And you’ll find those plateaus getting shorter and shorter and the results you want coming faster and faster.