After the confetti settles, I have to admit, I love January. For me, the New Year dawns with crispness in the air and hope burning brightly in my heart. I can smell the chance to do better and to reach once more for that pinnacle of success I see in my dreams.

I am filled with positive expectation and the opportunity for future achievements to replace past frustrations, disappointments, and mistakes.

Do you have the same feelings?

With the New Year, your dreams and aspirations provide that external force that pushes you out of the sluggishness of the past and into an agile, producer’s mindset required by the laser speed of business in the new millennium.

The producer’s mindset that will make you great in 2008 involves:

1. Knowing where to start on your task list every morning.
2. Closing out your day before you leave work.
3. Planning projects in detail so you don’t miss deadlines.
4. Learning to make conversations productive.
5. Structuring meetings so stuff gets done.
6. Keeping important details from slipping through the cracks.
7. Finding time for self-development.

Take a deep breath and use these seven things as a checklist to help you hang on as you experience the wild ride the New Year promises to be.

For articles and tips on the producer’s mindset as well as my most recent newsletter, go to karlabrandau.com. And remember: Choose to be Great in 2008!