Perhaps single most important thing you can do to be more successful in keeping your resolution and making life changes is this: don't make New Year's resolutions – make New Month resolutions instead.

Let's face it: If you only take stock of where are and where you want to go in life once a year, then you're probably not going to end up where you want to be. If you set goals and start self-improvement efforts only once a year, you'll forget them. You'll lose focus. You'll get distracted by hassles of day-to-day life. You'll get overwhelmed by magnitude of your goals.

Perhaps most importantly, you'll set goals so far in future that they won't be motivating. And that's why it's better to set New Month resolutions instead of New Year's resolutions.

There's nothing wrong with idea of a New Year resolution; after all, people have been making them for over 4,000 years. The problem is that people don't make them often enough.

Imagine how much more people would achieve if end of every month brought about same feelings as New Year's Eve: that renewed commitment to fitness and weight loss, excitement about their goals and their future, that urge to get organized and get focused. The New Year brings about feeling of a "fresh start," and that can have very real effects; for example, research shows that people are more likely to recover from depression if they have that sense of a fresh start.

Perhaps biggest reason to set New Month resolutions is that short-term goals have repeatedly been shown to lead to more motivation, better performance and greater happiness than long-term goals. Consider this sampling of findings…

Let's get started:

Secret#1: You are not your physical body.

The Yogis believe, you know, that real Man is not his body. They know that immortal "I" of which each human being is conscious to a greater or lesser degree, is not body which it merely occupies and uses. They know that body is but as a suit of clothes which Spirit puts on and off from time to time. They know body for what it is, and are not deceived into belief that it is real Man. But while knowing these things, they also know that body is instrument in which, and by which Spirit manifests and works. They know that fleshly covering is necessary for Man's manifestation and growth in this particular stage of his development. They know that body is Temple of Spirit. And they, consequently, believe that care and development of body is as worthy a task as is development of some of higher parts of Man, for with an unhealthy and imperfectly developed physical body, mind cannot function properly, nor can instrument be used to best advantage by its master, Spirit.

Secret#2: You are not your mind.