All of us have tasks and goals in business and our personal life. One question that you must ask yourself is what makes you different and how will you develop your skills to stand out. Doing the same thing as last year might just not be enough this year.

It might be good to take on a new challenge, or learn a new skill. Maybe try a new strategy at work, anything that will make you more unique. I just read the book by Gary Kasparov – How life imitates chess, the book reveals strategic ways of thinking that always give a person the edge, whether it is in life or in chess. The book helped me realize that we need to try new things to develop ourselves and make a difference.

Take time to look into what you are doing and why, if you are doing things in a certain way and it works for you it’s great, but it can also lead to disaster. Even if it works now it might not be the correct way or there might be better ways of accomplishing certain tasks.

It is important to try and step out of our comfort zone as often as possible. By doing things the same way as before we develop bad habits and we stay with the things we know and are comfortable with, instead of looking for better ways. Make sure that you are learning new things, even if it is doing your normal daily tasks in a different way.

By having this attitude and sticking to it, you will be prepared for this year no matter what curve balls life can throw at you. By doing things differently you will find that some things might work and others not, but that is how you will gain experience and go through this year with an edge and being one step ahead in 2010.

The rest of the articles that will be posted this week will all be about doing new things to have the edge this year.