Choices are not sustainable for the long term, but when they become a decision to do life a different way, a huge shift takes place! These decisions create habits that become ingrained patterns of behavior, and as Tony Robbins says, “decisions shape your destiny.” What decisions have you made that have shaped your destiny?  What course are you headed on?  If you continue to do life the way you do life, where will you end up?  What is your trajectory?

If you made a New Year’s resolution, excellent!  Don’t feel bad about me saying that resolutions are crap.  Just make sure your resolution does not end up as only a choice that the masses also make, but rather a decision inspired by something greater than you. If it is not, it will fade and fail. What are the daily habits and actions that are driven by decisions you have made?  If these decisions have sucked, thus creating bad habits and patterns, how will you focus on changing the pattern (decision), not just the action (choice)?  Only when that happens will you truely accomplish a resolution.

Now that the concept is clear, here are 13 practical action steps to apply today. These steps, when acted upon will change your habits, patterns and ultimately decisions, as well as tactically arrive to your legacy.

• Evaluate what choices and decisions you have made and where they have taken you in life.  Where will they continue to take you?  What will happen if you continue down this path?  What will your story be?  Write it down.
• You must decide to do life differently-until you do this, habits will not change.  What do you decide today will either exit or enter your life.  Write it down.
• Why this decision is bigger than you, and how will it positively impact the world and those you care about? Write it down.
• Set your Destination and vision: your life in the present, assuming you have arrived to your destination. Write it down. Here is an example of M & E Painting’s Vision. It was written in 2013, as if it was 2016.  Today I reflect on that vision being accomplished.
• Make and document a step-by-step action plan for getting where you’re going. Map out each step you need to take to get from your current condition to your vision, much like you would guidelines on how to travel from your house to the grocery store.
• As Grant Cardone says, “you will understate your goal by 10, and will underestimate the work required to accomplish it by 10”.  Set your goal 10x as big, and plan to work 10x as hard to hit it.
• Turn the action required into a promise to someone you deeply care about.
• Make sure your “actual” accountability partner is willing to keep you to this commitment by naming them. It’s not necessary for this person to be the one to whom you made the commitment. Holding you accountable is exactly what a true accountability partner will do. They will literally, figuratively, or both smack you in the face if you don’t DO what you said you would do when you said you would.
• Get to work doing what’s important now. Right now! What is the most important thing you can do at the beginning of each day that will step-by-step slowly take you to your destination. DO NOT make a to do list, as these remind you of all the pieces of the elephant you are about to eat. Instead, schedule the task (piece) in your calendar and do it first thing in the morning. Now, schedule the next task (your next “what’s important now”).
• Rinse and repeat. Keep eating that elephant.
• Expect your actions to be incredibly imperfect. Work on it. Remember that an object in motion will continue to stay in motion unless another force stops it. Avoid being or allowing others to be the force that prevents your movement and action.
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• Do not measure daily.  Rather measure over longer time periods such as months, quarters and years.  People overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in three years.
• Find, subscribe to, follow, or connect with a source of inspiration and encouragement such as a blog, video series, book, event, and people.

These are facts supported by human behavior and motivation, not my opinion. I know with absolute certainty this is true because I have made dozens of resolutions (choices) that have faded, and I have decided to changed patterns in my own life (decisions) that have shaped my destiny. None of my decisions happened on December 31/January 1 of any year. Remember this: