As we start to throw ourselves into the new year, there's still time before you get overwhelmed by the daily flood to make some resolutions that will accelerate your success in 2008. In his Unleash Your Potential e-zine, consultant Kevin Eikenberry says the secret to setting such goals is a two-step process:

• Reflection: You must capitalize on your past experience, to avoid making the same mistake twice. You need to spend some time reflecting on what worked -- and what didn't work -- in the last year. "Doing this reflection successfully though is about more than collecting lessons; it is also about growing from those lessons. Effective reflection leads to an outcome -- an intention for applying those lessons in the future, which leads to the second step," he writes.



• Projection: You must look forward, deciding what you want to achieve in the future. He calls that developing "expected success" and says when we plan from a perspective of expected success we plan more thoroughly, which increases the odds we'll succeed.

Too often, people take only one of those steps at this time of the year. But the two must be linked for success. Ask yourself questions about the past year and about the coming year. Figure out how to use the lessons of the past to achieve your goals for 2008.

Sales consultant Colleen Francis says if there is one overriding secret to her success it's her constant dissatisfaction with everything she does. If you get too happy with your results, you stagnate.

One thing you might try to improve on in 2008 is to increase your access to the high-level decision makers in the organizations you do business with -- or want to do business with. In her Engage Selling newsletter, she suggests making a commitment to secure referrals from your current contacts, through other networking, or through e-mail cold calls.

She suggests you might also try to improve your handling of angry customers. The steps to follow:

• Never argue: If you get trapped into an emotionally heated argument, you lose your two greatest assets -- your role as a professional and the advantage of a calm attitude.



• Put your ego aside: Do you want to be right, or do you want to be successful?



• Listen: When handling a customer complaint, listening is far more important than talking. Whether you think you're right or wrong, the customer is entitled to their opinions. Listen to what is being said, process it, reflect on it, and then use it to improve.



• Adapt to their personality style: Get a feel for what kind of person you're dealing with and adapt to that approach.



• Commit to improve: Don't leave the customer unsure of where they stand. Always let the customer know that you appreciate their opinions and suggestions, and that you will be taking concrete steps to improve. You can even go so far as to ask whether they want you to check in with them in a few weeks.

In thinking about the year -- and years -- ahead, it's important to think not just about success but significance. In Leader's Edge Newsletter, Mary Key of the Institute For Corporate Productivity notes that many high achievers come to think that success is hollow unless it ultimately creates significance in their lives and the lives of others.

She points to four different types of legacies: Physical legacies, such as erecting a building that carries your name; intellectual legacies, such as writing a book; emotional or social legacies, such as improving the quality of life for employees through friendly work practices or instituting better environmental processes; and spiritual legacies, such as living your values every day or leaving the world a better place.

Think about those four areas, and where -- and how -- you might leave your legacy.

Joel Bruckenstein reviews technology for Morningstar.com with financial advisors in mind, but his picks for the best recent technology often applies to others in small offices that are reaching out to diverse clients. Here's some of what he liked last year that you might like to try this year:

• Fujitsu LifeBook T4215, which has now been upgraded to the Fujitsu Lifebook T4220, a convertible Tablet PC that can be used either as a traditional laptop or tablet PC. He adds that in the past he found Lenovo's ThinkPad X61 to be noteworthy as well.



• ZoneAlarm Secure Wireless Router Z100G.



• Toshiba Portable External hard Drive.



• SMARSH, which handles e-mail and compliance issues for financial firms.

• Keep an accomplishments file this year, either paper-based or on computer, to have on hand for the end of the year if you need to tell your boss or clients of your achievements.
  (Source: Dumb Little Man blog)



• Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Editor Sean Silverthorne says to watch for opportunities in the coming year for eco-business. As private and public entities respond to this element of social responsibility, many new service provider opportunities will explode.
  (Source: Bnet.com)



• Entrepreneur columnist Geoff Williams warns you to stay away from the following businesses, which face extinction in the next 10 years: record stores in an era of downloaded music; camera film manufacturing in a digital era; gay bars as gays and lesbians gain greater acceptance in society; newspapers, which will gravitate to the Internet; pay phones in a cellular age; used bookstores as the Internet opens up other possibilities for readers; telemarketing as do-not-call lists become entrenched; and coin-operated arcades in a Nintendo time.
  (Source: Entrepreneur.com)



• Hot tech trend: If you don't know what a mashup is yet, you will this year. These Web applications mix together data from different sources into a new moneymaking tool. An example might be to mix together cartographic data from Google Maps with real estate listings from Craigslist to get a new Web service that provides location information to those listings.
  (Source: Inc.com and Gartner.com)



• Career Columnist Penelope Trunk says we can look ahead to the end of workplace-only friends, as people's networks are filled with close friends who do not distinguish between work/family/play, and the end of office life, as people work from home, their friends' home, the cottage or beach.
  (Source: Brazen Careerist blog)

First of all, keep it limited to one or two goals -- don't lose focus with too many. Then spread the word to as many people as you can. Obviously some resolutions have to be kept quiet for competitive reasons, but letting other people know can create the peer pressure you need to succeed. Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith has executives apologize to people for past behaviour and then tell those colleagues of the commitment to change -- so even something you might think you should keep private, like a commitment to listen better to staff this year, might be broadcast widely.

Spend some time thinking about what kind of person you will be at the end of the year if you succeed. That helps to fuel the desire to change, and also helps to define better what you need to do. If necessary, tie another reward to the achievement -- a gift you will give yourself for following through on the resolution.

Chunk the goal down, into mini-goals if possible: What you want to have achieved each quarter, for example. Then mark down a few steps you can take in the next two weeks to propel yourself towards your goal, and others that you would phase in over the following two weeks. Put them on your To-do list.

Go to your Outlook -- or its equivalent -- and put in reminders for the rest of the year that will come up at, say, monthly intervals. They would read: "How am I doing with my resolution to do X, and what should I do in the next two weeks and the two weeks after that to push further/get back on track?"

Then work at it.

Over the holidays we had a chance to take a look at A Whole New Mind, an intriguing book by Daniel Pink, and sit in on a MarketingProfs.com webinar featuring marketing guru Seth Godin. Both authors presented ideas that make you stop and think about trends that may make a critical difference in your marketing and business strategies in 2008.

We thought it might be fun to invite you to consider 12 of these trends and let us know which ones you feel will have the greatest impact on your organization in the months ahead. To comment, please visit our 5-minute online survey at:

We will let you know how Watercooler subscribers rated the trends in our next issue at the end of the month. In the meantime, all the best for a great 2008!