Put Your New Year's Resolutions on Autopilot

Most New Year's resolutions crash and burn before the calendar reaches February.  File your flight plan now for the year and place your goals on autopilot for long-term success.  It's easy.  Here are some strategies.

1. Ask your human resources department to deduct a percentage of your income from each paycheck and deposit automatically into a retirement account.  Set it up and forget about it.  When the year ends, bump it up another 1%.  Keep doing this until you reach your maximum allowable altitude.
2. Sign up for a free account at credit.com and mark a specific date on your calendar to check in every thirty days.  These folks will suggest a flight plan for you to follow.  Just follow the plan.  I like it because it's free and every month you can monitor your progress.  All you have to do is make sure you go to the site once a month.  Keep it simple.
3. Lock up your credit cards.  I read a quote this morning about debt.  It read, if you're in a hole, stop digging.  Eliminate all temptations to increase your debt.  If you run out of cash, don't buy anything until your next paycheck.  If you don't carry credit cards in your wallet, you won't use them.

Lao Tzu says, "the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."  I say "you will complete the 1,000 mile journey if you turn on the autopilot button."  Make your New Year's resolutions stick.  Turn on the autopilot now before January 1 and soar like an eagle.