New Year’s resolutions rarely cut it. Here’s why, and how to really change this time.

At the end of every year, millions of people decide to set “resolutions” for themselves to achieve in the new year – typically some sort of behavioral change such as quitting an addiction. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of these resolutions go unfulfilled. So, rather than continue a less-than-successful pattern for another year, let’s take a look at some successful principles for achieving true life change. In the next few sections, we’ll explore why most resolutions fail and discover a more practical approach, learn the determining factor of success and begin painting a detailed picture of a “changed” life, and then learn how to see the change through from start to finish.

One of the biggest reasons most resolutions are not achieved is that they are almost always focused on a behavioral change. Most experts agree that attempts to change behavior are rarely successful – because the underlying conditions causing the behavior are left unchanged. Therefore, the undesired process is extremely difficult to stop because it is simply the result of these larger controlling factors. Even if someone is able to stop a certain behavior for a while, if the underlying conditions stay the same, that person is very likely to relapse.

It’s really quite a simple concept. If your car leaks oil, and you just keep replacing the lost oil, you really aren’t accomplishing anything constructive. The oil will be low again soon enough, and all you’ll be doing will be just wasting oil throughout the process. The reason for this is that the problem you’re trying to fix (the low oil) is the result of an underlying condition (the leak).

These “underlying conditions” or core issues, with regards to life change, can be a number of things and of varying severity. One could be something as simple as a lack of healthy stress management skills – resulting in overeating or substance abuse. Or it could be more severe, like depression or a life of compromised dreams and goals.

Regardless of what the underlying condition may be, success with any sort of “resolution” will always come from making substantial improvements to the quality of one’s life (core issues) and rarely from trying to “force quit” some sort of behavior or addiction (passive results). Real change will come best from asking the question “What do I really want my life to look like?” and then taking responsibility for pursuing the life of fulfillment you desire.

For example, some of the most popular “New Year’s Resolutions” are to lose weight, quit smoking or drinking, and get out of debt. These are all behaviorally-related changes. However, there is almost always a larger core condition resulting in all of these particular behaviors – whether it be poor stress management, inadequate self-worth or esteem, a lack of motivation or self-control, or some other factor.

If someone who is in debt resolves to pay off all his/her bills in the new year but has poor financial management skills, even if they do manage to pay off their bills, they will just end up in debt all over again soon enough. Likewise, if someone who drinks because he/she is depressed manages to quit drinking, it doesn’t accomplish much. That person will still be depressed, and will most likely find another destructive outlet to cope with their issues, or just start drinking again down the road.

And I say “if they manage to pay off their bills” and “manages to quit drinking” because more often than not, people making these resolutions are unable to even achieve them in the first place rather than succeeding and then relapsing.

Rather, it is more constructive and much more effective to focus on the core underlying conditions resulting in the specific things you would normally resolve to change. So, this year, I would challenge you to start by simply begin asking yourself “What do I really want my life to look like?”

In the next section, we’ll explore the factor that will make or break your success and begin painting a picture of the change you want to see in your life.

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This past summer, my friend and I brought our laptops into McDonalds, expecting to get free internet access. Having seen the WiFi sticker on the window, we figured that just like many other restaurants like Panera Bread and Wendy’s, McDonalds offered free internet access as a courtesy to its customers. We were mistaken. Sure, there was WiFi available, but it required a fee as well as authentication through my very much despised AT&T.

According to ComputerWorld, however, that will be changing – and soon. This morning, ComputerWorld released this article stating that McDonald’s has finally decided to offer free wireless internet access at 11,000 of its 14,000 U.S. locations.

In my opinion, McDonald’s will probably profit more having free WiFi than charging for it – and here’s why. First, I have a feeling that not too many people actually paid for their internet, considering I can’t recall ever seeing anyone with a laptop at McDonald’s. Second, I’ve spent entire days at Panera – buying coffee and “munchies” all throughout the day – while sitting around working on my laptop and building up an appetite. By creating an inviting environment that encourages people to stick around, McDonald’s will most likely make a much greater profit on additional food and beverage sales than from charging for internet access that nobody uses.

Are you planning on using the new free WiFi at McDonald’s when it’s available? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment or tweeting about this article below!

Apple has recently banned Chinese iPhone software developer Molinker resulting in the removal of over 1,000 applications from its app store – constituting about 1% of the total applications on the iPhone app store.

The scammy developer offered free downloads to customers in exchange for 5-star reviews, pushing many of the applications into top-rated categories including “Staff Picks.” Most of those who did legitimately download the apps actually gave them 1-star reviews.

From the writeup on Wired.com:

The Chinese developer had, according to some estimates, 1,000-plus applications in the store, most of which were copycat knockoffs of existing applications. When the friend of writers at the iPhoneography photography blog saw these rather poor applications consistently scoring 5-star reviews, they got suspicious. Some investigation showed that Molinker’s applications were getting many top ratings and almost nothing in the 2-to-4-star range. In fact, the only other ratings were often 1-star, and likely the only truthful feedback on the apps’ pages.

Learn more at the story on Wired.com

Or travel prices, at least.

Apparently, Microsoft’s Bing search engine sports a feature to help you choose the most cost-effective dates to book your vacation. It will monitor the rise or fall of travel prices based on your destination(s) and transportation – and let you know whether you should hold off on booking your trip so that prices can fall further or book immediately before prices go back up.

From the Bing website:

“Bing travel offers unique features to help you Know When To Buy™ your airline tickets…With our airfare price predictions, find out if fares are rising or dropping and if you should buy now or wait.”

Obviously, supposing that it was fairly accurate, this is an outstanding idea. After all, who doesn’t want to save money on their travel plans? And while my initial concern would be that the quality might not be so great (given the company behind this), other sources deem it quite reliable:

“…according to a third-party audit of our predictive technology, we’re 74.5% accurate.”

So, perhaps give Bing a shot when you get ready to book your next flight. It can’t hurt to have an opinion…you can always choose not to listen to it if it sounds fishy!

“How do you reset a samsung phone?”
Here’s your answer!

If you want to restore a Samsung phone to its original factory state – whether you want to erase all the data from the phone, restore all the default settings, fix some random glitches, or remove a security code – this procedure works on most Samsung phone models. And, it works both with and without a SIM card.

Simply type in the following: *2767*3855#

The 3855 will show up as dashes…this is normal. Then hit the send button. Your phone will display a warning and then it will reboot. Do not turn your phone off during this time until it has completely booted back up.

Now, your phone has been cleared of your data (or its previous owner’s data) and you are able to sell or begin using it again.

The AT&T Website, ATT.net, has been down this morning until now…sort of. The site now redirects to their “My AT&T Yahoo!” site. Presumably, this means that AT&T accounts are now available.

However, the company will undoubtedly lose sales and positive sentiment (assuming they would have any even if their website did work) while their websites were down.

More updates to come.