1.Go ahead and pay to join something like AA's Admirals Club.

With it you’ll get assistance with reservations, seat selection and boarding pass issuance; a quite place to wait and work; complimentary snacks and beverages; private bar at most locations, and showers at some. At around $450/yr. for one person, it could be well worth it.

2.Use airport Conference Rooms and Executive Centers.

Saves everything from nerves to time to money. No membership required. Eliminates need for overnight stay, hotel or car rentals.

There are 22 available at O’Hare, for instance.

Executive Centers come equipped with everything you need to conduct business. Call 1-800-237-7971, option 3.

3.Keep all your luggage on wheels, use one carryon, invest in good luggage.

According to US Transportation Dept., about 1 in 200 bags are lost, misdirected or stolen, which is about one person per flight. 87% of this happens at curbside check-in station.

Advantages: don’t have to tip porter; don’t have to arrive as early; if you miss your connection, you can easily rebook yourself; you can easily volunteer to be bumped on a full flight; no wait once you land.

4. Take a book with you.

Better than TV in most hotel rooms, good for waits, also good to hide behind if you get next to someone in plane who annoys you. Leave it behind for another traveler or tear off chapters as you go along and lighten you load.

5. The travel wardrobe.

Many of us have difficulty following through on our resolutions due to factors such as choosing unrealistic goals, not making them challenging enough and/or lacking necessary motivation to stick with them.

The following tips should help put you on right course and assist you in staying committed to your most important goals for 2003.

1. Start with a life vision

If you don’t know what you want your future to look like, how can you decide what areas of your life need to be worked on? Spend some quiet time TODAY reflecting on (and writing down) what is good, bad or incomplete. Then try to “see” your life if all of these areas were addressed and had become satisfactory to you.

2. Get organized

Clear away clutter. Go through paperwork, files, old bills and receipts, closets, drawers and storage containers. Decide what you need and will use and either throw out or give away all rest. Put aside some time each week for this purpose. Focus on one area (or box) at a time until you are finished. Having available file drawer space, trash bags, file folders and pens handy will speed things along. Try not to handle any thing more than once. Make a decision and act on it immediately. After you have cleaned out you can think about your existing systems for management and storage and see if these need reworking or just some fine-tuning. Make sure you use ONE calendar to record everything. Otherwise you will either overbook, miss appointments and events or just waste a lot of time trying to constantly go back, re-do and sort out your schedule.

3.Expand your horizons and make a commitment to learning something new.

Challenging yourself will infuse you with greater energy and sense of purpose. It will help build your self-esteem to realize you are capable of more than you had previously believed. This new learning can also give you additional resources to assist you in your career, personal or love life.

4. Set challenging but realistic resolutions