There is still time to give a gift that can change everything in the coming days, weeks and throughout the new year.

The gift? A fresh start. A new beginning.

Give it to everyone with whom you interact — family, colleagues, team members, clients and customers. Extend it even to those from whom you expect to receive little or nothing in return.

And give it to yourself.

Forget the past — successes and failures, hits and misses, promises broken and opportunities missed. The preconceived notions and expectations that come with past experience inevitably inhibit our ability to take full advantage of a clean slate.

A fresh start cones with clearer vision. A new beginning fosters the capacity to dream.

This is, at least in part, why we celebrate the turn of the calendar and the promise of a new year.

The best beginnings come with renewed emotional energy and uncluttered perspective. There is no quicker way to adjust the course of relationship or enterprise.

Want the benefits of a clean slate to last longer than your average resolution? Try this:

  • Forget about making a case for or justifying decisions, actions and plans of the past.
  • Begin with your most noble aspirations.
  • Define success by the degree to which actions align with these aspirations.

Resolved to make the new year more productive on every front? Work with these basics and the slate will stay relatively uncluttered.

What would you add to this list?