Our emotions will make us win or lose with our 2007 new years resolutions.

It is our emotions that are behind every decision, every act of laziness or effort that we do.

So how do you feel about your 2007 resolutions? How do you feel about maintaining them over the long haul? Are you scared or anxious? Are you strongly motivated to win? Are you already feeling guilty about breaking your resolutions even before January's end, with over 11 months yet to go?

Can you stir the passion and commitment to build a lasting new behavior that upholds your resolutions? One of the main emotional battles you will fight with your resolutions is between optimism and pessimism.

Pessimism says that you'll fail, why bother, don't even try, it's too hard, it's unrealistic, it's not worth it, etc.

Optimism says that it is indeed possible, even quite likely, certainly if you apply yourself and focus on the resolution.

Between being doubtful and determined, you probably have a mixture of emotions about winning or failing with your 2007 new years resolutions.

I have found working with clients for 6 years as a Professional Organizer that the most important emotion is one that most people don't have. So perhaps that's why winning with new years resolutions generally fail.

That emotion is what I call Positive Expectation. If you emotionally expect something positive, then that thing has a far greater chance of happening than with any other one factor.

And Positive Expectation comes from 3 key areas:

1. Your past experience.
2. Your confidence in the possibility of the things achievement.
3. Your confidence in the preparation and planning done towards the desired achievement.

If your past is full of failures (as you see them) then your Positive Expectation for future achievements will be low.

If you are not confident in the possibility of the achievement then Positive Expectation will be low. If you have not got much of a plan or done much preparation for the achievement then your Positive Expectation will be low.

So how does knowing all this help you actually achieve your resolutions? Simple: Develop those 3 parts of Positive Expectation.

Find ways to win small achievements, so that your history begins to fill up with more and more achievements.

Learn about how achieving the resolution is possible. Learn about how others achieved it. Learn what it would take to achieve it and develop the confidence that you could do it yourself. And develop a very carefully laid out plan of specific action steps that you can take to achieve the resolution.

Combined together, those three areas will bring all your emotions into the right direction and support you in achieving your resolutions through emotional positive expectation.

I was about to wish you good luck, but you don't need it if you have a confident plan and gradually develop your track record of smaller to larger successes.

2007 New Years Resolutions are important. And they are achievable through managing your emotions. So go get 'em tiger!