Whether you plan to quit smoking, eat healthier, lose weight, or like me just simply keen to get going again on the next exciting part of the Moving East journey — the trick to resolutions, they say, is making a list, and checking it twice. So here's the Moving East Guide to making successful New Year Resolutions.

Start by writing down your goals for the year ahead - whether it's on a post-it note, making an electronic note on your mobile phone or an entry in that moleskin journal you got for Christmas, writing things down is one of the best ways to begin to get on down the road to improvement.

Planning to tackle a resolution head-on? Don't! Instead chip away at a goal for best results. It'll also ensure you won't drop it like yesterday's diet when the going gets tough. When compiling a New Year to-do list, it's a lot easier if you break your resolution down into parts.

• If you're looking for new partnerships, start writing down contacts you can use for networking. Have a good think about who you've worked with in your past. Investigate training or other opportunities to make new contacts. By the way, have you booked your ticket for the Skills Academy Industry Conference in Salford yet?
• Taking on too much and needing to lose something? Take the more sensible route by writing down alternatives, be they ways of working or healthier alternatives to the box of Quality Street. Now, add to that a minimum 5-minute walk everyday away from your place of work, and you'll be well on your way to achieving your goals.
• A time-tested way for quitting something is to simply keep a record of each time you indulge. Whether it's cigarettes or an addiction to emails - count the number of cigarettes/emails you have/delete each day. Can you eliminate at least one from your daily habit? If you can do one - how about two the next day?

Easing into a resolution is a sure way of keeping it. And who knows? Once you become good at it you may not even have to wait until the New Year to make some more. I've heard it said that September is a better time to make resolutions anyway, as opposed to this time of year when it's still dark in the mornings, winds are blowing, and we're struggling back to the office desk.

By September we'll be in our new backstage training centre  in Purfleet, but next at Moving East were looking forward to marking National Apprenticeship Week in February. I'll tell you more about our 'A Team' of local apprentices that are planning that in a week or so.