 Happy New Year! What are you doing to invest in yourself in 2016? Happy 2016 and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. With the new years comes new opportunities to focus on our goals and become a better, faster, stronger version of ourselves. But this kind of improvement doesn't just happen on its own, it requires dedication, commitment and effort. There are a number of reasons why efforts to improve ourselves don't always turn out the way we hope. We often set a goal without building the tools and systems we need to achieve that goal. Willpower can only take us so far. It's better to build tools and systems that will help us focus on our goal and achieve day to day results than it is to just rely on willpower. If our goal is to eat better in 2016, it helps to plan our meals ahead of time, write a shopping list and only buy what's on that shopping list when we get to the store instead of trying to figure out what to buy to eat healthy when we get there. A lot of times, we forget to build a support network around us as we try to achieve our goal. Having a support network of helpful people to hold us accountable will increase our chances of success. Going back to our example of trying to eat healthier in 2016, there are a number of apps we can download straight to our phone that will help us track what we eat and connect us with a community of people with the same goal that can help hold us accountable and increase our chances of success. Occasionally, we just don't stick with our new goal long enough to see results. New habits take time to solidify and we need to give that time to see our results. Also, it's inevitable that we're going to have a setback when it comes to meeting a new goal. Sometime, we're going to eat pizza instead of something healthy and it's important that we accept that and get back on track the next day rather than giving up. The way to improve ourselves is to invest in ourselves. Here are some questions we can ask when we're looking to improve an aspect of our lives. First, are we investing the time it takes to achieve this goal? It takes an average of 55 days to develop a new habit. How much time are we willing to commit to ourselves to develop this new habit? Second, can I invest money wisely to help meet my goal? There are books, products, seminars, and even coaching that we can spend money on when we've exhausted all of the free resources we have available in the quest to meet our goal. Third, are we investing in beneficial relationships to help meet our goals? As we mentioned before, improving ourselves requires a support community. We want to find people with the same goal orientation we have to help us meet our goal and there are tons of communities online if your current support network doesn't meet that need. Also, finding a mentor who's been through the same experience and trying to meet the same goal can help you meet your goal by then telling you about their experience. Finally, are we investing in tools and systems to help us meet our goal? Are there processes and procedures we can use to help propel us further towards our goal without having to rely on willpower? If we can answer these four questions for ourselves and point to how we're spending our time and money wisely, building relationships, and creating tools and systems to help achieve our goals, then we're fully investing in ourselves to grow. If you can take these four steps, then you can make 2016 your year to grow beyond your current capabilities and reap the benefits for years to come. If you've got professional goals that you'd like to meet in 2016, we'd love to help you out with that. We're offering our essential skills for Millennial Leaders Workshop January 16th to 18th, 2016 here in Las Vegas, and we'd love to have you join us. If you can't join us for that, follow us on Facebook and Twitter and join us every Friday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific Time for an interactive leadership discussion on GLAAD. Thanks for watching, everyone. I really appreciate it and remember, the future is out there. Lead the way.