I’m sure you’re all thinking, moaning and groaning, please not another blog about New Year’s Resolutions. I owe it to my thousands of followers (uh hum) to offer my bit of untraditional wisdom on the subject. Did you ever realize nothing happens overnight? The phenomenon of an “overnight success” is just that. When you look at someone like Michael Jackson and the success he achieved, many forget he was rehearsing, practicing, recording, and performing when most of us his age were outside playing kickball. Disney stars like Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears or Christina Aguilera are all examples of this, young stars who have been working it since an extremely young age.

Success comes from a series of consistent and focused small steps towards a goal or overall idea of an outcome. Yes, “focused on a feeling” can be just as important as zeroing in on a specific target for those of us who can’t seem to figure life out.  My own evolution as a personal assistant started at a young age of taking care of my own family and home. My mother died when I was 12 and because my father was a working musician, he was often away touring. There were times when I was in charge of paying the housekeeper, organizing our home and paying all the bills from the signed checks and credit cards my dad entrusted to me. I had to develop small systems of organization to do this “job” while keeping up with school, homework while still having a teenage life. I had a friend whose parents toured and soon this became a side job for me to do so for their family too.

My overall goal then was to have flexibility, good pay, work in anything but a corporate environment and I had come to expect a certain level of excitement from the life I led as a musicians daughter (let’s just say party planning was another skill I learned early). While I didn’t “plan” to be here and had explored other avenues, I eventually excelled at what came as second nature to me and “officially” became a personal assistant and organizational expert. I did this by taking small steps of doing this career in an abbreviated version since I was a pre-teen.

The point to this you say? Often we are very clear on what we don’t want, but not what we want. If you are stuck and tired of your job or want to do anything different, don’t wait for a perfect opportunity or million dollar idea. Start small. Make small changes towards the life you feel is more ideal for you each month or every two months even. This is so much more important and lasting than a list of extreme changes you intend to make this year.  Write out your baby step strategy, commit to it, and see where it leads.