It may still be a couple of months away, but I’m already thinking about the New Year.  As we know, many go into the first day of January with a laundry list of resolutions that they’re determined to make and keep.  Yet, so many of those resolutions are lost to the habitual patterns of real life…

The same can be said about our entrepreneurial aspirations.  We all want our companies to run like a finely tuned machine. But, it’s easy to lose steam when there are so many “things” vying for our time and energy.  When it comes down to it, reading that book or attending that seminar and coming home motivated—these are the easy parts. Maintaining the energy long enough to really create change—well, that is much harder. It takes a level of determination and, yes, discipline, that most companies and their CEOs find hard to maintain.

As the newness and excitement of a goal/initiative wears off, companies and their CEOs often find themselves pretty much back where they started, with one notable exception. Now, instead of committing readily to the CEO’s change leadership, employees are likely to sit back skeptically and wait to see if the motivation from the top will last. After all, isn’t this just the flavor-of-the-month management strategy? Isn’t this likely to be another out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new exercise in futility? “Give it a few weeks,” experience has told many of these employees, “and it’ll go away.” The boss will be done with it and “on to something else.”

So how do we follow through with goals that we set personally and professionally?  Set ourselves up for success.  An article  published by Fast Company gave five ways on how to not give up and be successful with whatever initiatives you set – see if applying these can help you mentally prepare yourself to succeed:

• Be honest about what you want
• Understand the sacrifice involved in achieving it
• Be prepared for the success that will come if you follow through
• Give yourself deadlines
• Incentivize yourself – hold yourself accountable

Ultimately it takes a great deal of discipline to accomplish what others too easily walk away from.